Keeping a B2B contact list clean isn’t glamorous, but it’s the difference between hitting the right prospects and blasting emails into the void. If you’re tired of bouncing emails and guessing who’s who in your CRM, this guide is for you. We’ll walk step-by-step through the real-world process of managing and cleaning your contact lists using Superwave—the way actual teams do it, not just what the marketing site says.
Let’s get into it.
1. Start with a Realistic Audit
Before you mess with anything, take a breath and see what you’re actually working with. Most lists are messier than you think—duplicates, outdated info, random people who never should’ve been there.
Here’s how to get your bearings:
- Export your contact list from Superwave: Get a CSV or Excel file. This lets you see the raw data, which is always more honest than the UI.
- Scan for obvious junk: Look for missing emails, weird formatting, and names like “Test” or “asdf.”
- Check list size: If you’ve got thousands of contacts but only a few hundred engaged, that’s a red flag.
Pro tip: Don’t trust that every field in your CRM was filled out by a human. Bots and imports make a mess.
2. Back Up Before You Break Things
This sounds boring, but you don’t want to nuke your entire list by accident. Always back up before you start deleting or merging.
- Export your full contact list again.
- Save a copy somewhere safe.
- If you’re working with a team, let folks know you’re about to do a cleanup.
It’s easy to get trigger-happy and regret it later. This step takes 2 minutes and can save hours of pain.
3. Dedupe and Merge with a Sharp Eye
Duplicates are inevitable, especially if you’ve imported lists from different sources or had sales reps adding contacts manually.
In Superwave:
- Use the built-in deduplication tool if available. This usually matches on email addresses or company domains.
- Review suggested merges—don’t just hit “merge all.” Sometimes two people at the same company have similar info but aren’t the same person.
What to watch for:
- Same email, different names: Usually a typo or a generic company inbox.
- Same name, different emails: Could be two people or one person who changed jobs or emails.
Manual review matters. Automated tools are good, but they’re not mind readers.
4. Standardize and Fill In the Blanks
Messy data makes it hard to segment or personalize. Once obvious duplicates are gone, standardize what’s left.
Tackle these fields:
- First and last names: Watch for all-caps, all-lowercase, or initials only.
- Company names: Make sure “Acme Inc.” and “Acme Incorporated” get treated as the same place.
- Job titles: Group similar roles (“VP Marketing” vs. “Vice President, Marketing”).
How Superwave helps:
- Bulk edit lets you fix a lot at once—just don’t get sloppy.
- Use filters to find blanks or weird values fast.
Skip these distractions:
- Don’t obsess over every minor typo. Focus on what you’ll actually use for outreach or reporting.
- Ignore fields nobody on your team cares about. Custom fields are often a graveyard.
5. Update or Remove Outdated Contacts
This is where most teams get lazy, but it’s where the real impact comes from. There’s no point emailing people who left the company two years ago.
Ways to spot stale contacts:
- Hard bounces: If Superwave shows an email is undeliverable, remove it.
- No activity: Haven’t opened, clicked, or replied in a year? Probably gone.
- Obvious clues: Email domains like @gmail.com or @yahoo.com for B2B lists—sometimes legit, often not.
What to do:
- Archive or delete dead contacts. Don’t just “mark as inactive”—actually get them out of your active lists.
- For big accounts, double-check with your sales team before removing. Sometimes that “dead” contact is just on sabbatical.
Pro tip: Don’t buy into the myth that a bigger list is always better. Quality wins every time.
6. Segment for Sanity (and Better Results)
Now that your list is clean, break it into useful segments. This makes your outreach more targeted and less annoying for recipients.
Segment by:
- Industry or vertical
- Company size
- Job title or function
- Engagement level (recent opens/clicks vs. never responded)
Superwave’s smart lists: Use dynamic or saved filters to keep these segments up to date, rather than exporting and sorting in Excel every time.
Don’t overthink it: Start with 3-5 segments you’ll actually use. You can get fancier later if it proves useful.
7. Set Up a Simple Maintenance Routine
List cleaning isn’t a one-and-done job. If you don’t keep up, the mess comes back quick.
How to keep things tidy:
- Schedule a monthly or quarterly review. Put it on the calendar.
- Automate what you can: Use Superwave’s automation features—like flagging bounced emails or inactive contacts.
- Get everyone on the same page: Make sure your team knows how to add contacts correctly (no “Test User” or random imports).
Skip the overkill: You don’t need a 30-page data hygiene policy. Just agree on a few basics and stick to them.
8. Don’t Fall for Shiny Tools (What to Ignore)
There’s always a new AI-powered “data enrichment” tool promising to clean your list with one click. Here’s the truth:
- No tool is perfect. Manual review is always needed.
- Cheap scrapers: These often add more junk than they remove.
- Append-only features: Adding missing info can help, but if the contact’s not engaged, you’re still wasting your time.
Stick with Superwave’s core features—bulk editing, filters, deduplication—before you go buying add-ons or third-party integrations.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple, Keep It Useful
You don’t need to obsess over perfect data. Just focus on a clean, usable list that helps you reach real people. Use Superwave for what it’s good at. Back up before you edit, clean regularly, and don’t get sucked into endless “data hygiene” projects. Start simple, tweak as you go, and you’ll actually use your CRM—rather than fighting with it.
Your future self (and your sales team) will thank you.