If you work in B2B sales or marketing, you know bad contact data is more than an annoyance—it’s a money pit. Outdated emails, missing info, duplicate records... it all slows you down. The promise: tools like Persana can help you clean up and enrich your contact lists so you’re not wasting time chasing dead ends.
But here’s the thing: most enrichment tools are overhyped, and cleaning data can quickly turn into a rabbit hole. This guide is for anyone who wants to get the real value out of Persana—without spinning their wheels or buying into empty promises.
Let’s walk through how to actually use Persana to get your B2B contact data in shape, step by step. No fluff.
Why Bother Cleaning and Enriching Your Data?
Before we get tactical, a reality check: clean, enriched data makes everything downstream easier—finding leads, running campaigns, sales follow-ups, you name it. But don’t expect miracles. No tool, including Persana, will magically make bad lists good, or give you private cell numbers for Fortune 500 CEOs.
Here’s what is realistic:
- Fewer bounced emails
- Fewer wasted dials
- Better segmentation (so you’re not spamming everyone)
- More complete profiles for outreach and personalization
Do this right, and you’ll spend less time cleaning up after data mistakes—and more time actually talking to real prospects.
Step 1: Prep Your Data (Don’t Skip This)
Before you throw a messy CSV at Persana, do a basic cleanup. The better your starting data, the better the results.
What to check: - Remove exact duplicates. Persana can dedupe, but it’s faster and cheaper to start with a cleaner list. - Standardize columns. Make sure names, emails, company names, and job titles are in separate columns. Use consistent headers. - Fix obvious errors. If you see someone named “asdf” or company listed as “test,” just delete them.
Pro tip: If your CRM or marketing platform exports in a weird format, open it in Excel or Google Sheets and do a quick sort/filter. Take five minutes now, save yourself a headache later.
Step 2: Import Your Data into Persana
Now, let’s get your data into Persana.
How to do it: - Log into Persana. - Go to the “Import” section. - Upload your CSV or connect your CRM (if you’re integrating directly—this only works with supported platforms). - Map your columns. Double-check that “email” is mapped to email, “company” to company, etc.
What’s worth doing: - If Persana can’t recognize a column, fix it before moving on. Mis-mapped fields = bad enrichment. - Import smaller batches if you have a gigantic list. Large uploads can slow down or timeout.
What’s not worth stressing over: - Fancy CRM integrations. If you’re not technical, just use CSVs. You can always import back later.
Step 3: Set Up Your Enrichment — Be Selective
Persana offers a bunch of enrichment options. Here’s where people waste money: pulling every possible field just because it’s there.
Pick what you actually need:
Most B2B teams care about:
- Validated work emails
- Current job title
- Company size/industry
- LinkedIn profile URL
Stuff you can probably ignore: - Personal emails (usually out of date) - Social media links you’ll never use - Flimsy “intent” scores or personality guesses
How to configure: - In Persana, select which fields to enrich. Uncheck anything you don’t care about. - Set your preferences for data quality vs. coverage (e.g., do you want more results, or just accurate ones?).
Reality check:
The more fields you ask for, the more expensive and error-prone it gets. Focus on the 3-5 fields you’ll actually use in your workflow.
Step 4: Run Deduplication and Validation
Persana can help you spot duplicates and validate emails. Don’t skip this step.
Why bother? - Duplicates waste sales reps’ time and hurt deliverability. - Bad emails = more bounces, higher chance of getting flagged as spam.
How to do it: - Use Persana’s deduplication tool to merge or flag duplicate contacts. Review any flagged as “possible duplicates”—sometimes it’s just people with the same name. - Run email validation. Persana will flag emails as valid, invalid, or risky.
What to do with the results: - Delete or merge obvious duplicates. - Remove “invalid” emails unless you have a good reason to keep them. - “Risky” emails (catch-alls, etc.)—use your judgment. For big campaigns, it’s safer to leave them out.
Step 5: Review and Export Clean Data
Don’t just blindly export everything Persana gives you. Take a few minutes to review your results.
What to check: - Are the new fields actually filled in? If you see a lot of blanks, you may be asking for info that just isn’t available. - Any weird data? Sometimes enrichment tools pull outdated job titles or mismatched companies. Spot-check a sample. - Did Persana overwrite any of your good data with nonsense? If so, revert or fix those rows.
Export options: - Download the cleaned/enriched CSV and import it into your CRM, marketing tool, or wherever you work. - If you’re using an integration, double-check that the sync didn’t overwrite anything you want to keep.
Pro tip:
Keep a backup of your original data. If something goes wrong, you’ll be glad you did.
Step 6: Set Up a Regular Cleaning Schedule
One-and-done doesn’t work with B2B data. People change jobs constantly. Make cleaning and enriching a routine.
How often? - For most teams, once a quarter is plenty. - If you’re running big outbound campaigns, monthly might make sense.
How to automate: - Schedule imports/exports in Persana if you’re using the integrations. - Set a recurring calendar reminder to repeat the process.
Don’t get obsessive:
You don’t need perfect data—just data that’s good enough to keep your team productive.
What Persana Does Well (and Where It Falls Short)
The good: - Fast, easy bulk enrichment for standard fields (emails, company info, LinkedIn URLs). - Decent deduplication and email validation tools. - Integrations with some major CRMs.
The not-so-good: - Like every enrichment tool, data is only as good as the underlying sources. Some info will always be missing or outdated. - Coverage is better for tech, SaaS, and larger companies—not so great for obscure industries or tiny firms. - “Bonus” fields (like social media or intent) are hit-or-miss.
Bottom line:
Persana saves time on grunt work. Just don’t expect it to magically double your pipeline or find you a secret list of hidden prospects.
A Few (Non-Obvious) Tips
- Check your credits: Enrichment isn’t free. Make sure you’re not burning through credits on fields you don’t care about.
- Spot-check company names: Enrichment tools sometimes match the wrong company if there’s ambiguity (“Apple” the fruit seller, not the tech giant).
- Sync one way: If integrating with your CRM, start by pushing clean data into the CRM rather than pulling everything out. Fewer surprises that way.
Keep It Simple and Iterate
Here’s the real secret: Don’t overcomplicate this. Clean up your data, enrich what matters, sanity-check the results, and move on. No tool will give you perfect data, but with Persana, you can get “good enough” without a ton of manual work.
Try it, tweak your process as you go, and don’t let perfect be the enemy of done. In B2B, that’s about as efficient as it gets.