Sales Strategy

Use waterfall lead enrichment to get 55% more valid emails

Mihaela Cicvaric
LAST UPDATED
July 29, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.

What’s the first thing we need to start an efficient and fruitful campaign?

You said it, to enrich our lead database by gathering as much info as possible.

Enriching your leads helps you:

✔️ ensure your email reaches their inboxes so they can reply and boost your business growth

✔️ understand their needs and pain points so you can personalize your outreach for more replies

In the article we are going to present and analyze the two most popular enrichment types:

  1. Lead enrichment is gathering data about your leads, such as their email, photo, description, experience, company info, etc.
  2. Waterfall lead enrichment is a method for enriching leads that use multiple vendors as data sources instead of one.

Carry on reading to know the differences and how to implement them using lemlist’s Email Finder and Verifier!

Lead Enrichment: One-click hack to get 80%+ valid emails

If you want to open new business opportunities with cold emails, you should:

→ send them to valid email addresses to ensure they reach your target audience

→ personalize their content to encourage your prospects to reply & book a meeting with you

But, the first step to accomplishing those is to collect your leads’ emails and basic data.

Without leads’ valid data, you’ll end up with generic cold emails that get no responses and slow down your sales. And if you collect outdated information such as unverified emails, you’ll hurt your domain reputation, lowering your email deliverability.

So, how do you get your leads' up-to-date data to boost replies without spending hours on manual research?

In this article, we’ll show you how to use lead enrichment to collect your leads’ data and find the contacts that convert in one click to get 40-55% more valid emails!

Why should you enrich your leads?

Here’s an example of how lead enrichment can help you get more replies:

Imagine you are a salesperson reaching out to prospects to sell a SaaS product that streamlines project management.

Without lead enrichment, your cold emails may look something like this:

This email appears very generic, and non-personalized, and won’t catch prospects’ attention or get replies.

On the other hand, you can boost your email personalization for more replies with custom variables. To use custom variables, you can get your leads’ quality data from LinkedIn, aka use lead enrichment:

  • name: Alex
  • job title: project manager
  • company name: Fixus
  • industry: tech
  • accomplishments: recognized for successfully implementing a new project management system

Then, your emails can look like this:

In the second example, gathering Alex's information helped you personalize your message and connect with him more meaningfully. By referencing his recent achievements and acknowledging his expertise in project management, you demonstrate a genuine interest in his work.

This approach significantly increases the chances of getting a positive reply and booking a meeting with you!

How does waterfall lead enrichment work?

The first step to becoming successful at outreach is finding leads’ valid emails & key details, such as position, company, industry, etc.

Lead enrichment can help you gather your leads’ valid emails and basic information, so you can reach their inboxes with a personalized approach that pushes engagement.

But which enrichment method is used by the best growth teams in the world? How to find convertible contacts without technical knowledge and spending hours on manual research?

After testing enrichment on 600+ leads, we discovered that the waterfall enrichment method gives

→ the most emails

→ with the highest quality

→ in the shortest amount of time

Why should you use waterfall lead enrichment?

Waterfall lead enrichment guarantees to maxmize your lead coverage.

For example, if Vendor A cannot find your leads’ email, you go to Vendor B. If still, nothing is found, you switch to Vendor C, etc.

This way of collecting leads’ data ensures you get the most accurate leads’ information and maximize enrichment coverage.

A visual showing 3 email finders leading to 3 different results: no email found, risky email found, and valid email found.

But, manually performing this method often requires:

→ subscribing & navigating through multiple tools

→ hiring technical profiles that cost you roughly $50k per year

→ spending hours on additional email verification

Luckily, we know a hack that makes this technology available for everyone in just one click and ensures you find contacts that convert ⬇️

How to perform waterfall lead enrichment in one click

To ensure you find the right outreach contacts without spending too much time or having technical knowledge, we’ve built a waterfall enrichment directly in lemlist.

After testing out many enrichment tools, we combined top third-party solutions in Email Finder and Verifier. This is the equivalent of asking 6 different providers for leads’ information, instead of one, without leaving a single interface.

If the lemlist tool finds duplicated leads’ data it will ensure to keep the value from the vendor with the highest quality score and reputation. In case of duplicated emails, you will get only the valid ones, keeping your domain reputation protected.

Here’s how to use Email Finder and Verifier to get 40-55% more valid emails:

[ ]  log into your lemlist account, or start your free trial

You'll get free credits so that you can use lemlist's Email Finder and Verifier on each plan, even during the free trial!

[ ]  search for your leads on LinkedIn

[ ]  enrich & import your leads directly to your campaign with 1 Chrome extension

… and get over 80%+ valid emails and leads' clean information, ready to boost your outreach results 🎉

P.S. Once you gather your leads’ accurate data, you can use lemlist’s AI sequence generator to create a custom multichannel campaign that gets replies, in < 1 min!

Key takeaways

If you want to get replies from your prospects and boost revenue, you need their correct information.

Lead enrichment can help you gather your leads’ contact and personal information, so you can reach their inboxes with a personalized approach that pushes engagement.

Waterfall data enrichment is growth hackers best kept secret and the most accurate method of enriching your leads' data.

By scanning your leads' information with multiple high-quality third parties, lemlist’s Email Finder and Verifier helps you

✔️ find the most and the best available data for each lead

✔️ automatically debounce emails to protect your domain reputation

✔️ enjoy a seamless UX without the need to navigate through multiple tools

→ Test our Email Finder and Verifier for free and get 80%+ valid emails

Mihaela Cicvaric
Content Marketing Manager @ lempire | Sharing everything you need to get replies to your cold emails
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G2 Rating
Price
Best for
Standout feature
Con
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/mo
$75/mo
$2,999/mo
Large, distributed sales teams
AI evaluation precision, gamified KPIs
Lack of tracking system
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Sales operations and finance teams
Powerful configurability
Limited training resources and complex to navigate
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Mid-market and enterprise businesses
Comprehensive incentive management
Potentially high cost and steep learning curve
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$15/user/mo
$40/user/mo
Enterprise: custom price
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Complex sales structures and businesses of all sizes
Steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Collaborative teams
Connected planning
Complexity and steep learning curve
4.6
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with complex sales structures
Complex incentive compensation management (ICM) with high efficiency and accuracy
Complexity for smaller teams and potentially high costs
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies who want to automate commission calculations and payouts
Simplicity and ease of use
Lack of features like redirection
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
$30/user/mo
$35/user/mo
Custom: upon request
Businesses that need a comprehensive and user-friendly sales compensation management software
Ease of use and adoption
Lack of ability to configure the product based on user needs
4.8
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with modern sales culture and businesses who want real-time insights
A built-in dispute management and real-time visibility
Users say it works slowly, customer support is slow
4.9
star
star
star
star
star
$30/user/mo
$50/user/mo
Smaller sales teams
Powerful automation
Lesser user base and average user interface
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Not publicly available
Companies with scalable needs
Automated Commission Calculations
Lack of filtering by date, no mobile app
ERP vs. CRM
ERP
CRM
Summary
Backbone of a business's internal operations.
Backbone of customer-centric interactions and operations.
Goal
To centralize and streamline core business processes in a company.
To increase customer experience, satisfaction and loyalty, and boost sales.
Focus
Internal operations and processes across departments (finance, accounting, inventory, supply chain, HR, and sales).
All interactions with leads and customers.
Manages
Internal business data like financial data, inventory levels, production details, supply chain, HR info.
All customer data like contact info, purchase history, communication history, customer preferences and more.
Users
Finance, accounting, operations, supply chain, and HR departments.
Customer-facing teams like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Benefits
Streamlines operations, improves data accuracy, enhances decision-making, boosts collaboration, increases productivity.
Improves customer relationships, increases sales, strengthens customer service, personalizes marketing campaigns, provides insights.
Price
$150 per user per year on average.
$10 to $30 per user per month on average.
PRM Tool
Rating
Feature
Pro
Con
Mobile App
Integrations
Free Plan
Pricing
4.65
star
star
star
star
star-half
Org-wide alignment
User-friendly layout and database
Suboptimal as a personal CRM
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-check
Team: $20/month
Business: $45/month
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Social Media Integration
Easy contact data collection
No marketing/sales features
square-check
Lack of tracking system
square-xmark
7-day trial
$12/month
4.75
star
star
star
star
star-half
Block Functions
High customization capability
Not a dedicated CRM
square-check
Limited
square-check
Plus: €7.50/month
Business: €14/month
N/A
Open-source
Open-source flexibility
Requires extensive manual input
square-xmark
Limited
square-check
Self-hosted
$9/month or
$90/year
3.1
star
star
star
Simple iOS app
Ideal for non-tech-savvy users
iPhone only
square-check
iOS only
Limited
square-xmark
1-month trial
$1.49/month or
$14.99/month
3.6
star
star
star
star-half
Smart Contact Management
Feature-rich and flexible
Reported bugs
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
7-day trial
Premium: $13.99/month
Teams: $17.99/month
4.4
star
star
star
star
star-half
Customizable Interface
Customizable for teamwork
Pricey for personal use
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
Standard: $24/member
Premium: $39/member
4.7
star
star
star
star
star-half
Integrated Calling
Integrated Calling
Too sales-oriented & pricey
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
Startup: $59/user/month
Professional: $329/user/month
4.8
star
star
star
star
star
Business Card Scanning
Business Card Scanning
Mobile only
square-check
Limited
square-check
$9.99/month
4.45
star
star
star
star
star-half
160+ app integrations
Comprehensive integrations
No free app version
square-check
Rich
square-xmark
14-day trial
$29.90/month or
$24.90/month (billed annually)
Capterra Rating
Free Trial
Free Plan
Starting Price (excluding the free plan)
Maximum Price (for the most expensive plan)
Best for
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-check
€15/month/seat billed annually
€792/month/3 seats billed annually + €45/month for each extra seat
Versatility and free plan
4.2
star
star
star
star
square-check
30-day
square-xmark
But it offers reduced price to authorised nonprofit organisations
€25/user/month
€500/user/month billed annually (includes Einstein AI)
Best overall operational CRM
4.3
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-xmark
square-check
Limited to 3 users
Comprehensive incentive management
€52/user/month billed annually
Small-medium businesses and automation
4.5
star
star
star
star
star-half
square-check
14-day
square-xmark
€14/seat/month billed annually
€99/seat/month billed annually
Sales teams and ease of use
4.1
star
star
star
star
square-xmark
square-check
Limited 10 users
$9.99/user/month billed annually
$64.99/user/month billed annually
Free plan for very small teams up to 10
CRM goal
Increase the sales conversion rate for qualified leads from marketing automation campaigns by 10% in the next 6 months.
SMART Breakdown
1. Specific: It targets a specific area (conversion rate) for a defined segment (qualified leads from marketing automation).
2. Measurable: The desired increase (10%) is a clear metric, and the timeframe (6 months) allows for progress tracking.
3. Achievable: A 10% increase is possible based on historical data and potential improvements.
4. Relevant: Boosting sales from marketing efforts aligns with overall business objectives.
5. Time-bound: The 6-month timeframe creates urgency and a clear target date.
Actions
Step 1: Refine lead qualification criteria to ensure high-quality leads are nurtured through marketing automation.
Step 2: Personalize marketing automation campaigns based on lead demographics, interests, and behavior.
Step 3: Develop targeted landing pages with clear calls to action for qualified leads.
Step 4: Implement lead scoring to prioritize high-potential leads for sales follow-up.
Step 5: Track and analyze campaign performance to identify areas for optimization.
Outcomes
Increased sales and revenue
Improved marketing automation ROI
Marketing and sales alignment
Data-driven marketing optimization
Table
CDP Software
CRM Software
Approach
Data-centric
Customer-centric
Focus
Interactions across various channels and touchpoints, both online and offline.
Sales, marketing, and customer service interactions.
Functionality
Automatically collects, organizes, tags, and makes data available in real-time.
Helps businesses track customer interactions, sales pipelines, prospects, and service requests.
Goals
Personalized customer experiences across all channels.
Better customer relationships, streamlined processes, and improved profitability.
Benefits
Data integration, management, and accessibility, allowing for detailed analysis and segmentation.
Better communication within teams and with customers by organizing information about customer interactions and history.
Data Handling
Handles both identified and anonymous data, stitches together various data points.
Deals primarily with identified customer data.
Use Cases
Personalized marketing campaigns, targeted advertising, content customization across multiple channels.
Managing campaigns and leads, enhancing customer service, providing better customer support, increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Examples
Insider, Bloomreach, Salesforce Marketing Cloud CDP
HubSpot, Salesforce Sales Cloud Lightning Professional, and Zoho CRM
CRM
Free plan
Best feature
Best for
Con
1. HubSpot CRM
square-check
Sales automation
Sales teams
Up to 1,000 contacts
2. Insightly
square-check
Custom fields
Basic needs
Not enough info about the free plan
3. Agile CRM
square-check
Deal and sales pipeline tracking
Small teams
Up to 10 users
4. Zoho CRM
square-check
Lead and contact management
Businesses of all sizes
Limited to 3 users
5. ClickUp
square-check
Unlimited tasks and unlimited members
Personal use
Up to 100MB storage
6. EngageBay
square-check
Live chat
Small and midsize enterprises
Up to 1,000 branded emails per month
7. Bitrix24
square-check
Unlimited users and 5 scrum teams
Big teams
Up to 5GB of cloud storage
8. FreshSales
square-check
Easy to use and simple setup
Beginners
Up to 3 users
9. Mailchimp
square-check
Very beginner friendly
Marketing teams
Send up to 500 branded emails per month
Type of Affiliate Marketing
Unattached
Related
Involved
Format
Paid advertising
Social media or YouTube channels
Dedicated website or blog
Focus
Quick income
Your niche
Your audience
Engagement with your audience
square-xmark
square-check
square-check
square-check
square-check
Very close connection with your audience
Pro
Little effort
Higher credibility thanks to your niche
Long-lasting and scalable
Con
Paid ads cost a lot
Potential for bias since you don’t use the thing you promote
Require time, effort, and dedication

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