How to automate customer data enrichment in Segment using third party tools

If you’re sick of staring at half-baked customer profiles in your analytics, you’re not alone. Most companies dump a bunch of raw data into their warehouse, but it’s not that useful until you fill in the blanks—like job titles, company info, or even something as basic as a real name. This guide is for folks who run Segment and want to actually do something with all that data by automating enrichment with third-party tools (think Clearbit, People Data Labs, etc.), without turning it into a six-month project.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty: what works, what’s overhyped, and how to stitch it all together without losing your mind—or your data.

Why Automate Customer Data Enrichment in the First Place?

Here’s the deal: raw event data from your site or app is almost always missing context. You get user IDs, emails, maybe an IP address. That’s… not enough. Enrichment fills in the gaps:

  • Better segmentation: “High-value lead” means nothing if you don’t know the company size or the person’s role.
  • Personalization: You can’t personalize much if all you have is user123@email.com.
  • Sales enablement: Your sales team shouldn’t have to Google every new signup.

Manual enrichment is a slog. It doesn’t scale. Automating it means you can actually trust your data and spend time acting on it, not cleaning it.

Step 1: Clarify What You Actually Need to Enrich

Don’t buy into the hype that you need every possible data point. More isn’t always better—it just clutters things up and makes GDPR compliance a headache.

Before anything else: - Make a list of must-have fields. (e.g., full name, company, job title, industry) - Decide how fresh the data needs to be. (Do you care if a company changed industries last week?) - Figure out if you need enrichment on all users or just a segment (like leads, not every newsletter subscriber).

Pro tip: Talk to the people who actually use the data—sales, marketing, product. They’ll tell you what matters and what’s just noise.

Step 2: Pick the Right Third-Party Enrichment Tool

There are a lot of enrichment vendors out there, and frankly, they’re not all great. Some are expensive and slow, some are sketchy with privacy, and some just don’t have good data. Here’s the real talk:

Popular options: - Clearbit: Easy integration with Segment, decent coverage for B2B, price can add up fast. - People Data Labs: Good for bulk enrichment, can be cheaper, but API is a bit rough. - FullContact: Focuses more on B2C, has decent social data. - ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha: More sales-focused, but pricier and sometimes overkill for basic enrichment.

How to choose: - Test with a real data sample. Most vendors offer a free trial or demo credits. Upload 100 emails and see what you get back. - Check for Segment integrations. Native connectors > custom scripts, always. - Ask about update frequency and privacy practices. If they’re cagey, move on.

What to ignore: Don’t get distracted by “AI enrichment” or “360-degree views.” You want accuracy, not buzzwords.

Step 3: Connect Segment to Your Enrichment Vendor

Here’s where things can get weird, depending on your tech stack and vendor choice. But generally, you’ve got three main options:

Option A: Use a Native Segment Destination or Source

If your enrichment tool is in the Segment catalog, life’s easy.

To set it up: 1. In the Segment UI, go to Connections > Destinations. 2. Search for your enrichment tool (e.g., Clearbit Reveal). 3. Follow the setup wizard—usually, it’s just an API key and a few field mappings. 4. Enable the integration.

Pros: - Minimal setup. - Data syncs automatically. - Supported by both Segment and the vendor.

Cons: - You’re limited to what the official integration supports. - Custom fields or workflows may not be possible.

Option B: Use Segment Functions

Segment Functions let you run custom code as data flows through. This is perfect if there’s no official integration.

Example: - Write a Segment Function that listens for identify or track events. - The function calls the enrichment API (e.g., Clearbit’s person API) with the user’s email. - It merges the enrichment response into the event payload.

How to do it: 1. In Segment, go to Functions and create a new Destination Function. 2. Write Node.js code to call your vendor’s API. 3. Map the enriched fields into traits or properties. 4. Deploy and test.

Pros: - Full control. - Can enrich only the events you care about.

Cons: - You have to write and maintain code. - Watch out for rate limits and API failures—don’t block your event pipeline.

Option C: Enrich in Your Data Warehouse

If you push all your Segment data to a warehouse (BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.), you can run enrichment there as a batch job.

How it works: - Export raw events to your warehouse using Segment’s warehouse sync. - On a schedule (daily/hourly), run a script that queries new users and sends their emails to the enrichment API. - Write the enriched data back to a new table or update existing records.

Pros: - No impact on live event flow. - Good for large volumes.

Cons: - Data isn’t enriched in real time. - More moving parts—ETL tools, scripts, API credentials all need wrangling.

What to ignore: Avoid enrichment plugins that work only in the browser—they’re usually unreliable and can leak API keys.

Step 4: Map and Store the Enriched Data Properly

This step gets ignored way too often, and it bites people later. Decide where the enriched data should live and how you’ll use it.

  • For traits about users (job title, company), store them as traits on Segment identify events.
  • For company-wide data, you might want to use a group call instead.
  • Make sure your downstream tools (CRM, analytics, email platforms) can read these fields.

Naming matters: Use clear, consistent field names (job_title not jobTitle or jt). Document them somewhere your team can actually find.

Pro tip: Don’t overwrite fields blindly. Store timestamps for when enrichment happened—data gets stale fast.

Step 5: Monitor, Maintain, and Tweak

Automating enrichment isn’t “set it and forget it.” APIs break, vendors update schemas, and people’s jobs change.

  • Set alerts for failed enrichment calls or API quota issues.
  • Review enrichment coverage regularly. Are you getting value? Or just burning API credits on junk signups?
  • Check for privacy red flags. Some enrichment data can get you in hot water with GDPR or CCPA if you’re not careful.

What to ignore: Don’t obsess over perfect coverage. 80% is usually more than enough—chasing the last 20% is expensive and rarely worth it.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

  • Enriching too often: Don’t enrich every event. Stick to key user milestones (signup, upgrade, etc.).
  • Ignoring consent: Make sure you’re allowed to enrich data under your privacy policy.
  • Data bloat: Pulling in too many fields slows down everything and makes reporting painful.
  • API overages: Always set usage caps, or at least alerts, so you don’t get surprised by a huge bill.

Real-World Example Workflow

Let’s say you want to enrich new signups with Clearbit and push enriched data to both your CRM and analytics tools:

  1. User signs up (Segment identify event sent).
  2. Segment Function triggers, calls Clearbit with the email, gets company and role.
  3. The enriched fields are merged into the user traits.
  4. These traits flow through Segment to your CRM (e.g., Salesforce) and analytics (e.g., Amplitude).
  5. If enrichment fails, you log the error (don’t break the pipeline).

That’s it. No fancy magic. Just a simple loop, automated.

Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often

You don’t need an army of consultants or a six-figure vendor contract to pull this off. Start with the basics, automate what matters, and don’t drown in data you’ll never use. The best automation is the one your team actually maintains—and trusts.

Set it up, watch it for a while, and tweak as you learn. If it starts to feel like a full-time job, you’re probably overcomplicating things. Keep it simple, and focus on getting real value from your customer data.