How to automate contact enrichment in your CRM using Findymail

If you’re tired of staring at half-complete contact records in your CRM, you’re not alone. Sales and marketing teams waste hours (or days) hunting for missing info—job titles, emails, LinkedIn links, company details—when they should be closing deals. Let’s be real: manual updates never scale, and most “automatic enrichment” promises fall flat.

This guide is for anyone who wants to stop babysitting their CRM and actually trust the data inside. I’ll walk you through how to automate contact enrichment with Findymail, a tool that’s surprisingly straightforward (and not loaded with empty hype). You'll get a practical, honest playbook—no magic wands, just what actually works.

Why Automate Contact Enrichment (and What Not to Expect)

Let’s get this out of the way: automating enrichment isn’t a “set it and forget it” fantasy. No tool catches everything, and you’ll hit the occasional dead end. But if you do it right, you’ll:

  • Cut out repetitive, boring manual data entry
  • Give sales and marketing teams cleaner data to work with
  • Avoid the classic “who the heck is this?” problem when following up

The catch? You still need a bit of setup and the occasional sanity check. Automation isn’t magic—it’s just faster, less painful grunt work.

What You’ll Need Before You Start

Enrichment works best when you have a few basics set up:

  • A CRM you actually use. (Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.)
  • Access to Findymail (sign up for a trial if you’re just testing)
  • A workflow tool (like Zapier, Make, or n8n) — optional, but it makes life easier for ongoing syncs
  • API keys for both Findymail and your CRM (if you’re planning automation)

If you’re missing any of these, go get them now. Don’t try to duct-tape this together with spreadsheets—trust me, it gets ugly fast.

Step 1: Get Your Contact Data Ready

Before you throw tech at the problem, do a quick sweep of your contacts:

  • Identify what’s missing. Are you short on emails, phone numbers, company info, or job titles?
  • Check for duplicates or junk. No sense enriching “Test Contact 123.”
  • Export your contacts (if your CRM doesn’t let you update live). You’ll usually want a CSV with fields like name, company, LinkedIn URL, etc.

Pro tip: The more starting info you have (like domain or LinkedIn), the better enrichment will work. Garbage in, garbage out.

Step 2: Set Up Your Findymail Account

If you haven’t already, sign up for Findymail. The setup is pretty painless:

  1. Create an account on Findymail.
  2. Locate your API key in the dashboard. You’ll need this for automation later.
  3. Review your credit limits. Most enrichment tools charge per lookup. Don’t get caught off guard by usage limits.

What works: Findymail is pretty upfront about what it can (and can’t) enrich. Don’t expect miracles if you’re only feeding in first names and company names—give it LinkedIn URLs or domains when you can.

Step 3: Choose Your Enrichment Flow

You’ve got a couple of main options, depending on your appetite for tinkering:

Option A: Manual Batch Enrichment (Quick and Dirty)

  • Export your CRM contacts to CSV.
  • Upload the CSV in Findymail’s dashboard.
  • Map the columns so Findymail knows what’s what (e.g., “company domain” or “LinkedIn URL”).
  • Let it run. Download the enriched results.
  • Import the new data back into your CRM.

Good for: One-off cleanups, or if you’re not ready for automation.

Limitations: Not real-time. You’ll need to repeat this every time you want fresh data.

Option B: Automated Enrichment (The Real Deal)

If you want updates to happen in the background, connect Findymail directly to your CRM using a workflow tool:

Using Zapier (or Similar):

  1. Set up a Zap: Trigger on “new contact added” (or “contact updated”) in your CRM.
  2. Add an action: Send the contact info to Findymail’s API for enrichment.
  3. Update the CRM record: Take the enriched data and push it back into your CRM.

Most workflow tools follow the same pattern. The nitty-gritty will vary, but here’s the gist:

  • Trigger: Something happens in your CRM (new contact, updated record, etc.)
  • Action: Findymail enriches the contact.
  • Update: The CRM gets filled in with any new info found.

What’s great: This can run in the background, all day. No more batch exports.

What’s annoying: You’ll need to handle API keys and field mapping. Not rocket science, but not “one-click” either.

Step 4: Map Your Fields (and Watch for Gotchas)

Enrichment only works if your CRM and Findymail “speak the same language.” Here’s how to avoid headaches:

  • Match up field names: Make sure “Work Email” in Findymail maps to the right spot in your CRM.
  • Don’t blindly overwrite data: If your CRM already has a field, don’t nuke it unless you’re sure Findymail’s data is better.
  • Handle empty values: Sometimes Findymail can’t find what you want. Set up your workflow to leave blanks alone, not overwrite them with “null” or “N/A.”

Pro tip: Test on a handful of contacts first. Don’t run this on your whole database until you’re sure the mapping works.

Step 5: Monitor, Sanity Check, and Adjust

Automation isn’t foolproof. Here’s what to keep an eye on:

  • Spot check enriched contacts. Did the right titles and emails get added? Anything look weird?
  • Watch your API usage. If you’re on a paid plan, runaway Zaps can burn through credits fast.
  • Review errors or failed lookups. Some contacts just won’t enrich—don’t obsess over 100% completion.
  • Schedule regular reviews. Even the best enrichment can go stale as people change jobs. Set reminders to rerun enrichment every few months.

What Actually Works (and What Doesn’t)

What works well: - Enriching with LinkedIn URLs or company domains as inputs - Batch updating when you’ve got a backlog of half-baked contacts - Automating new contact enrichment as they’re added

What doesn’t: - Expecting 100% fill rates (nobody can do this) - Feeding in just first/last names and hoping for miracles - Setting and forgetting—data always needs a human check now and then

Ignore the hype: No enrichment tool is perfect. They all miss some data, especially for niche roles or small companies. But if you set up a tight workflow, you’ll save hours and get way more reliable info than slogging through LinkedIn by hand.

Pro Tips for Smoother Enrichment

  • Start small. Test with a few records, then scale up.
  • Document your field mappings. Saves headaches when you revisit this in six months.
  • Combine with other sources if needed. No shame in running a second tool for truly critical contacts.
  • Don’t chase perfection. Good enough is often good enough.

Keep It Simple, Iterate as You Go

Automating contact enrichment isn’t glamorous, but it gets results. Start with a small, testable process—manual or automated—and see what works for your team. If something breaks, tweak it. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of “not a total mess.”

Remember, the goal isn’t to have the fanciest workflow—it’s to have clean, useful data you can actually trust. The rest is just noise.