So you’ve got a big pile of B2B contacts. Now what? If your list is like most, it’s a mix of gold, garbage, and everything in between—outdated emails, fake names, companies that shut down three years ago. If you actually want to reach real decision-makers and not waste money sending campaigns to dead ends, you need a way to clean up and vet that data. This guide is for sales teams, growth hackers, and anyone tired of crossing their fingers and hoping their lists are good.
Proxycurl can help. If you haven’t heard of it, Proxycurl is a set of APIs that pulls fresh data from LinkedIn and other sources, making it a strong option for scraping, validating, and enriching B2B contacts. But it’s not magic, and it won’t fix everything for you. Here’s how to actually use it to filter and validate your B2B contact info—a real, no-nonsense guide.
1. Get Your Contact List Together
Before you touch Proxycurl, get your contacts into a spreadsheet or CSV. You’ll need at least one of the following per row:
- LinkedIn profile URLs (gold standard, if you have them)
- Company domains
- Names + company (less precise, but usable)
Pro tip: If your data is a mess—typos, missing fields, duplicates—clean it up first. Garbage in, garbage out.
What doesn’t work: Don’t expect magic if all you have is “John, works at Google.” You need enough info to make a match.
2. Set Up Proxycurl (The Basics)
Proxycurl isn’t a plug-and-play app; it’s an API. If you’re not comfortable with code, you’ll need a developer or a tool like Postman or Zapier to help. Here's what you need to get started:
- Sign up for a Proxycurl account (free tier is limited, but good for testing)
- Get your API key from your dashboard
- Read the docs (they’re actually decent and not just fluff)
Quick reality check: Proxycurl isn’t cheap if you’re running huge lists, but for targeted validation, it’s worth the cost.
3. Pick the Right Proxycurl APIs
Not every API endpoint is worth your time or credits. Here’s what matters for B2B contact validation:
- Person Lookup API: Pulls live data from a LinkedIn profile URL.
- Contact API: Attempts to find business emails, phone numbers, and social links for a person.
- Company Lookup API: Validates company info from a domain or LinkedIn company URL.
Ignore: The “Enrich from Name” endpoints sound promising but are often hit-or-miss unless you have unique names or small companies.
4. Filter Out Bad or Outdated Contacts
Now, run your list through the right API to see what’s still valid. Here’s how:
If you have LinkedIn Profile URLs:
- Use the Person Lookup API to pull current job, company, and activity.
- Check for these signals:
- The profile is still active (not “This profile does not exist”)
- The person’s current role matches your target criteria
- The company is still operating
If you have only names + companies:
- Use the Person Lookup API with company domain and name.
- Review match confidence and only keep strong matches (Proxycurl will tell you).
For company validation:
- Use the Company Lookup API with the company domain or LinkedIn URL.
- Look for:
- Company status (active/inactive)
- Employee count (are they still big enough to matter?)
- Industry fit
Pro tip: Don’t just delete every “unknown” result—sometimes data goes stale. But if you see obvious red flags (closed company, no longer in target industry), cut them.
5. Validate Contact Information
Now the tough part: making sure emails and phone numbers actually work.
Use the Contact API
- Feed in the LinkedIn profile URL or name/company.
- Proxycurl will return any emails, phone numbers, and sometimes social profiles it can find.
What actually works: - Business emails are often accurate if the LinkedIn profile is up-to-date. - Personal emails and phone numbers are hit-or-miss. Don’t expect to get a direct line for every VP. - Social links can be useful for outreach if email fails.
Double-check emails
Even if Proxycurl gives you an email, don’t take it on faith. Run emails through an email verification service (like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce) before you blast out campaigns. Proxycurl doesn’t guarantee deliverability—just that the email exists somewhere.
What to ignore: Don’t bother with “catch-all” emails or info@ addresses unless you’re desperate.
6. Score and Segment Your List
Not every “valid” contact is worth your time. After you’ve enriched and validated, add a scoring step:
- High quality: Current job title, active company, verified business email
- Medium: Current info, but only generic email or company is borderline
- Low quality: Outdated info, no email, or company is out of your target
Tag or filter your spreadsheet so you can focus on high-quality leads first.
Pro tip: If you’re short on time, automate this step with a simple script or spreadsheet formula.
7. Rinse and Repeat (But Don’t Overdo It)
Contact data goes stale fast. Plan to re-validate your lists every few months—especially before big campaigns.
But don’t overengineer it. You don’t need to run every contact through five enrichment tools. Start simple: validate what you have, cut the obvious dead ends, and focus on the rest.
Honest Takes and Gotchas
- Proxycurl is only as good as your input. Bad or missing LinkedIn URLs = weak results.
- Data privacy: Don’t be creepy. Make sure your outreach respects privacy laws.
- It costs money. Proxycurl charges per API call. Validate your most promising contacts first, not your whole 100,000-row CSV.
- It’s not a silver bullet. No tool can turn a list of “John from New York” into verified, C-level leads.
Keep It Simple—and Iterate
You don’t need a PhD in data science to clean up your B2B contacts. Start small: get your list, use Proxycurl to validate and enrich, cut the junk, and focus on quality. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good—just ship your first batch, see what works, and tweak from there.
Good luck—and remember, the best list is the one you actually use.