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Sending cold emails without a well-researched B2B prospect list is like fishing in a waterbody without fish. You try to be patient, but it makes you feel lost and frustrated. And, of course, you’ll be nowhere near your goal!
Many assume that B2B prospect list building requires targeting more customers, making it a guessing game. However, let us tell you that’s not the case at all!
Instead, building a business-to-business prospect list involves using several strategies to zero in on the right audience.
Whether you’re seeking your first big client or planning to enhance conversations, we’ll share all the tips and tricks for high-quality B2B list building.
The first step of building a B2B prospect list is identifying the target customers. For this, you must understand the benefits of your business product/service and which businesses require it the most.
The ideal customer profile (ICP) includes a detailed description/profile of the type of individuals or businesses your business offering will benefit.
With a well-defined ICP, you can focus on the key target individuals and companies most likely to convert into paying customers. Create the ICP considering the following factors.
Industry
Identify which industries your business offering is most relevant to. For instance, marketing automation software is for e-commerce, finance, and technology industries. Target retail, healthcare, and finance industries for a SaaS tool.
Company Size
Assess which companies are worth pursuing for the business prospect list: startups, small businesses, mid-sized businesses, or large corporations.
Geographical Location
Do you want to target local, regional, national, or international businesses?
If your business offerings are limited to specific locations, consider which regions your offering can impact the most and your prospect’s location.
Job Role
In each targeted company, identify the decision-maker based on the business offering. It’s generally best to connect with executives and leaders for the greatest influence. They have the most power over investment decisions.
You can also consider other key players, including chief executive officers (CEOs), chief financial officers (CFOs), chief marketing officers (CMOs), IT managers, and directors of operations.
Consider the direct users of your business offering, as they’ll have some power in the overall decision as well.
Challenges
Consider the primary challenges of your business prospect list and jot down how your offering can address them.
Budget
While building prospecting lists, consider your target audience’s budget. Refine the B2B list-building strategies accordingly.
A useful way to identify well-defined prospecting lists is to use industry reports from market research tools.
For instance, LinkedIn’s Sales Navigator helps zero in on prospects based on industry, company size, and job title. You can also check real-time information about prospects and connect with them on the platform.
ZoomInfo is another prospecting tool that provides detailed information on the company's industry, size, revenue, and employee contact and designation.
On the other hand, Crunchbase shows you the rapidly growing business to help you target a business prospect list with an increasing budget.
For further clarity in identifying the target prospecting list, analyze the existing customer profile. Identify patterns in local businesses. Trace the same characteristics in prospects to find the best fit. This will ensure your targeted organizations are more likely to convert into customers.
After identifying your target B2B prospect list, gather their email addresses to build a cold email list.
However, you can’t forward emails to lots of wrong or invalid email addresses out of the blue. Otherwise, the bulk of the email will not get delivered.
This affects the email deliverability rate and ruins your email reputation. Your email domain might be affected and marked as spam, reducing the effectiveness of your outreach campaigns. To be considered good, you must have an email deliverability rate of at least over 89% source.
So, your next job in prospection B2B listing is to verify the cold email list. Let’s learn different strategies for it here.
Email verification tools are a must-have for cold email list verification. They help check whether an email domain exists and if it's connected to active inboxes and highlight typos.
Here are the top email verification tools to consider during B2B list building:
Hunter.io: You can find professional email addresses using their “Email Finder” tool and verify email address validity using the “Email Verifier” tool.
NeverBounce: This B2B list-building tool helps in bulk email verification, keeps your cold email list updated, and eliminates all invalid emails.
ZeroBounce: Another effective email verification tool for your B2B list building that offers real-time insights by indicating which are the temporary email addresses and ones connected to catch-all domains.
After finding some inactive or incorrect emails in your cold email list, you might not be able to track the actual email address for a particular contact.
In such situations, check the company email patterns. Most companies use this standard format: firstname.lastname@company.com or designationname@company.com. Based on the pattern, you can guess the correct email addresses.
If required, check out tools like VoilaNorbert to recognize company email patterns and check their accuracy.
Check for generic emails in your cold email list, such as info@companyname.com, support@companyname.com, or customercare@companyname.com. These aren’t the emails of any decision-maker. So, eliminate them from the list.
Only keep personalized email addresses such as firstname@companyname.com, firstname_lastname@companyname.com, or designationname@companyname.com. There’s a higher chance of getting responses for your cold email outreach from such emails.
If your cold email list is huge or when it grows, never verify them manually. Instead, save time by using bulk verification tools, such as NeverBounce.
Here, you can upload a long, cold email list. The tool offers a detailed report against every email address, including their validity status and whether any of them is potentially risky.
On the other hand, you must manually validate emails of high-value prospects. For this, assess whether the company website and domain name match. Find the individual on LinkedIn and check the email address again.
Even after verifying email addresses, they can become inactive if employees change their companies, get a promotion, or restructure teams. So, regularly verify the emails using tools and update your prospection B2B listing.
Your next step in B2B list building is to perform in-depth research on your prospects. This will help you personalize the cold email outreach strategies much better. Thus, it’ll enhance your chance of getting a response from your B2B prospect list.
Let’s know the best strategies for this:
To build your prospecting lists, research all the company websites. Learn the following details about them:
Company Basics
Know how many employees work in the company and the business structure. Check their mission and vision to ensure your values match. Study the business product or service to align with their needs.
Recent Updates
Check for any recent distinguished developments or milestones, including new offerings, leadership changes, or mergers.
Go through their recent press releases, blog posts, and case studies to learn about their challenges and initiatives. Craft a pitch to address the issues and make it appear more attractive to them.
Industry Trends
Stay updated about industry trends, ensure a relevant and timely outreach strategy, and create the right prospecting lists. For instance, if the target industry is mostly focusing on sustainability, make your outreach campaigns more about supporting eco-friendly steps.
One of the most valuable information sources for researching your B2B prospecting lists is LinkedIn. Most professionals post updates, articles, and other content regarding business insights.
Visit the prospect’s LinkedIn profile and collect data on their role, responsibilities, and recent posts. You get to learn the prospection B2B listing’s current focus and interests.
Note their latest connections, skills, career trajectory, and engagement in industry-relevant content. This also offers you an idea of which topics concern them the most.
You can personalize your cold emails accordingly for your potential B2B prospect list and resonate with them better.
Google Alerts shared information about the latest company news, events, and mentions. With the alerts, you can connect with the company when a relevant incident occurs.
For instance, if a company shares updates about a partnership or product launch, you can make the cold email more relevant using that. It also shows that you’re aware of the company’s latest achievements and challenges.
So, set up Google Alerts for the companies and decision-makers you want to target.
Another essential part of researching prospects for B2B list building is to learn their potential challenges. For instance, investigate if they expanded their operations. Then, they’re probably struggling with efficiency or scalability.
Modify the outreach strategy to ensure a robust B2B list building corresponding to their struggles and preferences.
An essential part of the prospection of B2B listing involves knowing the company’s competitors and their market position. This offers detailed information about their challenges, pain points, and areas of improvement.
You can also leverage tools like SimilarWeb to research competitors and identify relevant trends that affect your target audience.
This helps you craft emails on how your business product/services can help them get an edge. It gives them a robust reason for considering your offerings.
In your B2B prospect list, not everyone is equal. So, if you treat them the same through your cold email outreach, it won’t work out. So, it’s best to segment your business prospect list to personalize your messaging accordingly. It’ll enhance your chances of getting responses.
Let’s check the different ways you can segment your business prospect list:
Every industry has different challenges, market trends, and priorities, so they need unique solutions. So, this is the easiest way to segment your prospecting lists.
Tailor your message according to each industry’s unique features to show your expertise and understanding of specific and complex needs.
For instance, your cold email outreach for a healthcare facility must mention patient privacy and compliance. However, a prospection B2B listing in retail must involve efficient operations and customer experience.
Next, segment companies for prospection B2B listing according to the scale and scope. Smaller businesses have different budgets, needs, and decision-making approaches than larger ones. So, ensure the approach and message are tailored accordingly.
For instance, small businesses seek cost-effective and easily implementable solutions. So, focus on time-saving, quick deployment, and affordable solutions.
Larger corporations need complex solutions and have long sales cycles, so highlight scalable solutions with great security.
This segmentation is essential as different job roles and titles have different priorities. Tailor the message depending on who you contact and their needs.
For instance, CEOs and C-level executives are focused on better ROI and strategies. Mid-level managers require operational efficiency and departmental needs. Marketing managers are interested in campaign performance and lead generation.
Next, segment the business prospect list based on the buyer’s journey. According to the different stages, segment your prospection B2B listing. Again, add some personalization in the outreach messages regarding this.
For instance, some businesses might be just seeking solutions. You can offer them educational content. Others have made up their mind to buy a solution soon. You’ll gain more by offering free demos and sharing case study links.
While conducting cold email outreach for prospection B2B listing, you’ll notice different prospects have engaged differently with your cold emails.
Prospects that opened your emails or visited the website are more likely to follow up. Prospects that ignore your email need more nurturing to create interest.
So, track the engagement regarding emails, website visits, and social media interactions and segment wisely.
The success of cold email outreach strategies majorly depends on your business prospect list. A well-curated and targeted B2B prospect list maximizes engagement and chances of prospect conversion into customers.
Without proper prospecting lists, it’s nearly impossible to get results from outreach strategies – whether you’re a seasoned big corporation or a startup with no experience.
With essential steps of identifying target prospects, verifying their emails, researching prospects, and segmenting them, you’ll set yourself up for success.
Lastly, prioritize quality over quantity, and you’ll boost the chances of converting cold leads into valued warm opportunities in no time!
