evaluating b2b lead list building tools

Your best email finder tool for marketing and sales teams

Email finder tools are an important segment of b2b data solutions and have many benefits like their quick and easy accessibility, and fairly simplified interfaces that you can navigate through and download data in bulk. Many provide free trials so you can test them out before you buy. They integrate with most CRM systems. It’s a quick way to get started with email marketing campaigns, and it avoids the task of building a list yourself through content marketing.

Which email finder tools stand out among the top performers?

These tools are known by different names like email list builders, prospect list building tools, data enrichment tools, and sales intelligence tools. But they perform largely the same functions, with differences in features available, accuracy levels and pricing.

Solutions and tools like Zoominfo, Lusha, D&B Hoovers, Cognism, and Uplead are some of the best email list builders that help companies carry out sales prospecting and lead generation. They work as software tools that have a large database of millions of email addresses and direct dials, that you can download from.

An evaluation of list builder tools

But the question is that can email finder tools give you highly qualified and targeted leads for your email and advertising campaigns? The main factors that need to be evaluated are accuracy and pricing. When a marketer or salesperson evaluates their campaign’s requirements against the budget available, it comes down to Accuracy versus Pricing. So let’s get an in-depth look into these factors.

According to reviews, the 2 main complaints many users have had with email list builders is the high cost and lack of complete accuracy, which is incorrect emails and phone numbers. With many software tools, their data is not as accurate as they claim it to be.

Why are email finder tools low on accuracy?

The problem with email list builders is that stored data gets stale on a weekly basis as contacts switch jobs. Although databases are refreshed, it is only the popular subsets of the database that are refreshed monthly or quarterly or yearly. The entire database cannot be refreshed periodically due to the large sizes of databases. Real-time refresh of stored databases is impossible to automate. Moreover, many niche industries are not even available on many online databases.

The result is you end up paying for inaccurate leads, then you may go on to pay more and refresh the stale leads. With many email finder tools, credits are not carried over to the next month. With inaccurate contact details in your email campaigns, you end up with lots of bounced emails, contacts unsubscribing to your lists, and overall low open rates. This damages your brand value.

The best email finder tools based on Pricing

Some email list builders like Lusha, Up Lead, Lead 411, Seamless.AI, Hunter, Swordfish, Lead IQ, and Rocket Reach have revealed their pricing plans on their website. They have around 3 to 4 pricing plans and are usually based on a freemium model. The customer is billed annually. But ZoomInfo is priced the highest compared to other data platforms. ZoomInfo’s pricing starts at around $14k per year and requires a contract.

Many work on a credit system, where one credit is used up each time you export a contact’s information. In some cases their pricing is not completely transparent and contracts are auto-renewed. Companies like D&B Hoovers, Cognism, Slintel, Sales Intel, Clearbit, and Sisense have not revealed their pricing, but a free trial is available.

The most common downsides of email finder tools

But the most common downsides of using email list builders is firstly, the inability to have all the features you need within a single tool. In that case, you may end up juggling between 2 or more tools, which leads to more time and money spent. Therefore it’s important to make sure you have all the features you need by using a trial version first. Lastly, since data is shared between users, you and your competitors end up having very similar data. There is a lack of exclusivity.

Also, some list building tools still charge for inaccurate and unverified email addresses or phone numbers which is wasted money and time down the drain. Despite tall accuracy claims, you end up with bounced emails on your marketing campaigns. This is because data gets stale and needs to be updated often. Most platforms have a fixed refresh schedule like 30 or 90 days, leading to a lot of stale data.

Therefore you need to start by narrowing down what is the most important need for your marketing campaign and evaluating that against your budget.

Custom data research is the best of email finder tools packaged into one solution

The solution to the problem of low quality leads, requires a very unique approach, that doesn’t rely on storing databases at all. Here databases need to be custom built from the ground up for each client’s email or advertising campaign. This is a process of data research done by a team of data experts who use a combination of automation and manual verification to source and refresh databases, in real time.

That’s how you get 100% accurate leads with Ascentrik. We don’t store databases but build them from scratch for each client. We provide replacements for contact data that turns stale from a person having left the job. We provide single and double opt-ins for consent based email marketing, to ensure all the leads on your list have opted in to receive your email. Our lists are exclusive and fully GDPR compliant, as per UK and US data privacy standards. Our data gives you higher ROI and complete value for money as it is 100% accurate. Ascentrik also has very flexible pricing options. We charge based on the specific contact and company details you need. We charge separately for consent based single and double opt-ins.

Like with email finder tools, Ascentrik’s data is also secured with authentication and encryption, and is fully GDPR compliant. We also integrate with CRM/ERP solutions such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, Hubspot, Marketo to name a few. Ascentrik also provides market intelligence and automated workflows that help you in marketing and business development. We give you intelligence on competitors’ keywords and social media engagement.

When it comes to customisation, scalability, integration, ease of deployment, and administration, Ascentrik does just as well. One point worth noting with email finder tools is that needing to be logged into the tool 24/7 turns out to be an issue for users, so some tools have come up with a Chrome extension to resolve this issue. Since Ascentrik is not a tool, you don’t need to be logged into it at all. Our team at Ascentrik handles the data sourcing and verification and then plugs it directly into your CRM, while always maintaining a transparent communication channel with your company’s management team.

Another important factor that users look for is technical support. Ascentrik’s team works on a full time basis as an extension to your own team. We have developed very efficient communication methods to provide full support to our clients’ teams right through their email campaigns, and not just during data delivery.

This critical evaluation of the various email list building tools in the market brings us to the conclusion that custom built databases are the most effective. They are not built for the masses but as per individual needs. Custom sourced, bespoke databases are not built by bots that scrape online directories, they are curated as per the client’s industry and job roles of interest, therefore you are able to target the right decision makers. You will be freed from the problem of bounced emails, and also have added market intelligence to quicken your sales cycle.

Want to know more about Ascentrik’s Email list building services?   Click here

Or sign up for a free consultation! Give us a few details about the industry you are targeting and volume of data, and we’ll guide you through obtaining a customised database, tailored perfectly to fit your campaign’s goals.

Ascentrik Research outperforms the best email finder tools

As a data research outsourcing team, Ascentrik helps marketing teams drive targeted campaigns and generate more leads. We also help sales teams find the right accounts to target, and provide full contact information on these accounts.

Our biggest offering to marketers and sales teams is a complete 360° data research. We source your email list, verify existing contacts in your CRM, provide you with market and competitor intelligence and even manage campaigns on your CRM, all under GDPR Compliance norms. Most of all, we have been catering to companies across the globe for the past 12 years, with a focus on the UK and US. We are efficient in multiple languages, industries and domains.

Conclusion:

We make sure to solve all the drawbacks with data downloaded from email finder tools and sales intelligence tools.

You will rarely find all the features you need in a single software tool. There will be tools that do not allow multi-user capabilities, while some tools do not work with Linkedin, some that lack API support, issues with the chrome extension or the filter option, credits being deducted for even outdated or incorrect email addresses, or just inaccuracy of contact details.

This is why a research team carrying out customised email list building, is the answer.

Outsourcing to a Data Research Team versus Email Finder tools and Sales Intelligence Tools

Outsourcing to a Data Research Team versus Email Finder tools and Sales Intelligence Tools

Outsourcing to a Data Research Team versus Email Finder tools and Sales Intelligence ToolsAs a data research outsourcing team, Ascentrik helps marketing teams drive targeted campaigns and generate more leads. We also help sales teams find the right accounts to target,...

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