How to use Bettercontact to enrich and verify B2B contact data

If you’re tired of chasing leads with half-baked or outdated info, you’re not alone. Most B2B contact lists are a mess—full of typos, dead emails, and missing job titles. If you want to actually reach people (and not just their spam folders), your data needs work. This guide is for sales, marketing, or operations folks who want to clean up their act using a tool like Bettercontact to enrich and verify B2B contact data. No fluff, just the steps that matter, with some real talk along the way.

Why bother with enrichment and verification?

Let’s get something out of the way: most contact data you buy or scrape is garbage. At best, it’s incomplete. At worst, you’re emailing addresses that haven’t been used since 2018. Here’s why enrichment and verification actually matter:

  • Enrichment: Filling in the gaps—company size, LinkedIn profiles, phone numbers, etc.—so you know who you’re talking to.
  • Verification: Making sure emails and phone numbers actually work, so your campaigns don’t bounce or get flagged as spam.
  • Compliance: Bad data can get you in trouble with laws like GDPR. Enough said.

If you’re sending out cold emails, doing outbound calls, or just trying to keep your CRM clean, you need both steps.

Step 1: Get your data ready

You can’t polish a turd, but you can at least try to shape it. Before you dump your list into Bettercontact, spend a few minutes prepping it. Here’s what actually helps:

  • Start with a CSV or Excel file. Most tools—including Bettercontact—work best if you give them a clean, tabular file.
  • Standardize your columns. At a minimum, you want: first name, last name, company, email, domain, job title. If you have phone numbers or LinkedIn URLs, great.
  • Remove obvious junk. Get rid of blank rows, test records, or weird formatting. Bettercontact can’t fix what it can’t read.
  • Keep it under control. If you’ve got 100,000 records, start with a sample. No one wants to burn through credits on a trash list.

Pro tip: Don’t worry about missing data. Enrichment is supposed to fill in the gaps. Just don’t upload lists where every field is empty—Bettercontact isn’t magic.

Step 2: Upload your data to Bettercontact

Here’s where you actually put Bettercontact to work.

  1. Log in (or sign up) for your Bettercontact account.
  2. Find the import/upload button—usually on the dashboard or under “Contacts.”
  3. Upload your CSV or Excel file. Most of the time, the tool will try to auto-map your columns. Double-check these mappings.
  4. Pick your enrichment and verification options. Some tools try to upsell you on every little add-on. For most people, just stick with email, company, and job title enrichment. Skip the extra social media stuff unless you really need it.

Heads up: If you’re on a free or trial plan, you’ll probably have limits on how many records you can process. Don’t waste your quota testing on garbage data.

Step 3: Run enrichment

Now for the fun part—making your contacts actually useful.

  • Kick off the enrichment process. This might take a few minutes to an hour, depending on list size.
  • What does Bettercontact actually add?
    • Missing job titles, company names, and company details (size, industry, etc.)
    • Updated email addresses (sometimes replacing old or catch-all emails)
    • Direct phone numbers (if available—not every contact will have one)
    • Social URLs (LinkedIn, company site, etc.)

What works well: - Company info is usually pretty accurate, especially for bigger companies. - Job titles are hit-or-miss—don’t expect miracles for small or obscure businesses. - LinkedIn URLs are great if you’re doing outbound on LinkedIn.

What’s so-so: - Direct dials? Be skeptical. Most vendors say they have millions, but the hit rate is low outside of North America or high-level execs. - Social profiles beyond LinkedIn are rarely useful for B2B.

Step 4: Verify your contacts

Enrichment is only half the battle. If you’re sending emails, you need verification—otherwise, you’re just asking for bounces and spam complaints.

  • Email verification: Bettercontact will check if emails are deliverable, risky, or invalid.

    • Deliverable: Safe to use.
    • Risky: Could bounce, or might be a catch-all domain. Use these sparingly.
    • Invalid: Don’t waste your time.

  • Phone verification: If you’ve enriched phone numbers, some tools let you check if the number is active. This is rarely 100% accurate—expect plenty of false positives.

What to ignore: Don’t obsess over “risky” emails. If you have a big list, expect 10-20% to be risky or unknown. It happens to everyone.

Pro tip: Export the valid contacts to a new file, and keep the rest for later. No need to delete them, but don’t use them for your first campaign.

Step 5: Clean and export your enriched data

Once Bettercontact is done, download your new, shiny contact list. But don’t just trust the machine—give it a quick gut check.

  • Look for obvious errors. If every job title says “CEO,” something’s off.
  • Spot check a few records. Google random names and companies to see if the info matches up.
  • Export only what you need. Don’t upload everything to your CRM—just the clean, valid records.

Pro tip: Keep your original files, your “raw” enriched file, and your “clean” export. You’ll thank yourself later if you need to troubleshoot.

Step 6: Put your data to work (without getting burned)

It’s tempting to blast out emails right away, but slow down:

  • Warm up your sending domain if you’re running outbound campaigns. Jumping from zero to 1,000 emails a day is a fast way to the spam folder.
  • Personalize as much as you can. Use job title, company, or LinkedIn URL if you’ve got them.
  • Track results. If you’re seeing a lot of bounces or unsubscribes, something’s off—either with your data or your messaging.

What not to do: - Don’t treat enrichment as a one-and-done process. Data decays fast—refresh it every few months. - Don’t pay extra for “AI insights” or “intent data” unless you can actually use it. Most of it’s marketing fluff.

What Bettercontact can’t fix

Let’s be real for a second. No tool, Bettercontact included, is going to magically turn a garbage list into gold. Here’s what enrichment/verification tools can’t do:

  • Find contacts that don’t exist. If someone isn’t online, no software will conjure up their info.
  • Fix really old or deeply wrong data. If you’re pulling from a 2016 list, expect a high bounce rate—no matter how many times you enrich it.
  • Replace actual research. If you need high-value, hyper-personal contacts, you’ll still need to do some digging yourself.

Keep it simple, and keep improving

If you’ve made it this far, you’re already ahead of most teams. The key is to start small, clean what you have, and use enrichment as a regular habit—not a one-off fix. Don’t obsess over perfection. Even the best tools can only do so much. Focus on getting a reliable, usable list, and keep iterating as you go.

Now, go put that cleaned-up data to work. Just remember: quality in, quality out.