If you’re running outbound sales or marketing, you know a dirty lead list is a waste of time and money. More bad emails = more bounces, spam complaints, and hours spent chasing ghosts. If you’re using Evaboot to scrape and clean LinkedIn lead lists, you’ve already got a leg up—but let’s talk about what actually works to get those lists squeaky clean and ready for real conversations.
This guide is for B2B pros who want practical steps, not sales pitches. If you’re tired of “growth hacks” and just want your leads to actually reply, read on.
Why Clean Lead Lists Matter (and What’s at Stake)
- Bad data wastes time. Every dud email or duplicate means fewer real prospects.
- Deliverability tanks. Spam traps and high bounce rates hurt your sender reputation, sometimes for months.
- Personalization falls flat. Wrong job titles or outdated info make your outreach look lazy.
- It’s not just about volume. A smaller, cleaner list usually outperforms a bloated one.
So yes, the extra cleaning step is worth it—even if you’re using tools that promise “verified” leads. Let’s dig into the real steps.
Step 1: Start With the Right Source
Evaboot works best when you feed it a well-targeted LinkedIn Sales Navigator search. Garbage in, garbage out, as the saying goes.
What works: - Build focused searches (think: specific industries, job titles, company sizes). - Use Boolean filters to weed out irrelevant roles (“NOT intern” or “NOT assistant” can go a long way). - Save your search criteria for consistency—don’t reinvent the wheel each time.
What to ignore: - Huge, vague searches (“VP” in “United States”) just bring noise. - Relying on default filters and hoping the tool will sort it out later.
Pro tip: If your search returns 2,000+ results, it’s probably too broad. Tighten it up before exporting.
Step 2: Export With Evaboot (But Don’t Trust Any Tool Blindly)
Evaboot will scrape your Sales Navigator results and do some first-pass cleaning—removing obvious duplicates, formatting names, and grabbing emails where possible.
What works: - Let Evaboot do its initial enrichment—grab job titles, company names, emails, and LinkedIn URLs. - Export your list as a CSV or directly to your CRM, but keep a backup copy.
What doesn’t: - Assuming that “verified” means perfect. No email finder is foolproof, and some “verified” emails still bounce. - Skipping manual review entirely.
Pro tip: Always check the “Status” or “Confidence” columns Evaboot provides. Low-confidence emails need extra scrutiny.
Step 3: Remove Obvious Junk and Duplicates
Even after using Evaboot, you’ll want to run a basic hygiene check yourself.
Quick cleaning steps:
- Dedupe based on email and LinkedIn URL. If someone’s in your list twice, pick the entry with the most complete info.
- Filter out generic or role-based emails (info@, sales@, contact@). These almost never convert and can hurt deliverability.
- Spot incomplete records. Anyone missing a first name, company name, or job title is likely not worth your time.
Tools that help:
- Excel/Google Sheets: Use “Remove Duplicates” and filters.
- Free online deduplication tools (for CSVs).
What to ignore: Any list where 10-20% of records are incomplete. Don’t try to “fix” these—just cut them.
Step 4: Verify Emails—Again
Evaboot does some email verification, but it’s not perfect. Always run a second pass with a dedicated verifier, especially if you care about your sender reputation.
Recommended tools:
- NeverBounce
- ZeroBounce
- Hunter.io (for smaller lists)
What to look for:
- Remove “invalid” and “unknown” emails. “Accept all” domains can be risky—keep them only if you’re desperate.
- If your bounce rate is higher than 2-3% after verification, something’s wrong. Go back and check your original source.
Pro tip: Most CRMs or email tools will flag bounces after the fact, but by then, the damage is done. Clean before you send.
Step 5: Standardize Key Fields
Messy data makes personalization impossible. Standardize these fields before you upload anywhere:
- First Name: Proper case (not all caps or all lower).
- Company Name: Remove “Inc.,” “LLC,” or weird punctuation unless needed.
- Job Title: Decide on your own naming conventions (“VP of Sales” vs. “Vice President, Sales”).
- Country/Location: Use two-letter country codes if your CRM likes them, or full country names if not.
How to do it:
- Use Excel formulas (like
PROPER()for names). - Set up find-and-replace for common company suffixes.
- Don’t overthink it—your goal is to get the basics right so your emails don’t look like spam.
Step 6: Enrich for Personalization (Optional, but Powerful)
If you want to go beyond “Hi {First Name},” consider enriching your leads with extra data:
- Recent LinkedIn activity: Shows they’re active (Evaboot can grab some of this).
- Company size, funding, tech stack: Useful for segmentation.
- Mutual connections: Can be a solid opener in cold outreach.
But: Don’t go overboard. If you’re spending more time enriching than actually reaching out, you’ve lost the plot. Pick 1-2 fields that will help you stand out, and move on.
Step 7: Tag and Segment Before Importing
Don’t just dump your cleaned list into your CRM or outreach tool. Segment it first.
- By persona: e.g., “SaaS CEOs,” “VPs of Marketing.”
- By campaign: So you know who’s getting what message.
- By source or date: Helps you track which lists perform best later.
Pro tip: A little segmentation up front will save you headaches down the road. You can always merge lists, but splitting them later is a pain.
What to Ignore: Overhyped “Data Cleaning” Add-ons
You’ll see a lot of tools and plugins promising “AI-driven enrichment” or “instant 10x list cleaning.” Most are just wrappers for basic filtering and verification. Don’t pay extra unless you’re cleaning massive lists at enterprise scale.
Stick to solid, well-reviewed tools, and do the human checks yourself. No tool will understand your ideal customer profile as well as you do.
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
You don’t need to make this a big project every time. Once you’ve got a cleaning workflow, it should take minutes, not hours. Here’s what matters:
- Start with focused, high-quality data.
- Use Evaboot for the heavy lifting, but spot-check and verify.
- Remove junk, standardize, and segment.
- Don’t get hung up chasing “perfect” data—you just want it good enough that your emails land, get read, and get replies.
The best lead lists aren’t the biggest—they’re the ones that get you real conversations. Clean, send, learn, tweak, repeat. That’s how you win.
Ready to send fewer, better emails? Get to it.