If you’ve tried to run a B2B sales or marketing campaign with messy contact data, you already know the pain: bounced emails, wasted time, missing key people you should be talking to. This guide is for anyone who manages B2B contact lists and is tired of bad data slowing them down. We’ll walk through how to use Infotelligent to actually verify and clean up your contact info—without the fluff or wild promises.
Let’s get into it.
Why bother cleaning your B2B contact data?
You might think, “Isn’t having more contacts better?” Not really, not if half of them are dead ends. Messy lists mean:
- Emails that bounce and hurt your sender reputation
- Wasted sales time chasing people who’ve moved on
- Missed opportunities because the right folks aren’t on your radar
- Low response rates (and a demoralized team)
If you’re serious about B2B sales or marketing, you need clean, verified contact data. The tools can help, but you need a clear process—and a skeptical eye.
Step 1: Get Your Contact List Ready
Before you even touch Infotelligent, make sure your data isn’t a total mess. Garbage in, garbage out.
Tips: - Export your contacts from your CRM, LinkedIn, or wherever you keep them. CSV or Excel works. - Check for obvious junk: duplicate rows, missing emails, weird characters. - Separate your contacts into “People” (name, title, email, phone) and “Companies” (company name, domain, industry).
Pro tip: If your contact list is old (over a year since last update), expect a lot of changes. People move jobs all the time.
Step 2: Import Your List into Infotelligent
Infotelligent lets you upload your contact lists for verification and enrichment. Here’s how to do it, and what to watch out for.
How to Upload
- Log in to your Infotelligent account.
- Go to the “List Management” or “Upload Contacts” area.
- Choose your file (CSV is safest).
- Map the columns (make sure “email” goes to “email,” “company” to “company,” etc.).
- Start the import.
Heads up: If your file is huge (tens of thousands of rows), break it into smaller chunks. Most tools—including Infotelligent—will choke on massive files, or at least slow down a lot.
What Works, What Doesn’t
- Works: Infotelligent is good at matching standard fields (name, email, company domain). It’ll flag missing or weird values.
- Doesn’t work: If your data is full of custom fields or odd formats (e.g., “VP of Fun” as a title), expect to clean up manually.
Step 3: Verify Email Addresses and Contact Details
Now for the real value: checking if your emails and phone numbers are actually valid.
What Infotelligent Does
- Email verification: Checks if the email is deliverable. Flags risky or bouncing emails.
- Enrichment: Fills in missing fields—like phone, title, LinkedIn profile—if it finds them in its database.
- Company matching: Aligns your contacts with up-to-date company info, like size and industry.
How to Run Verification
- After upload, select your list in Infotelligent.
- Click “Verify” or “Enrich” (the wording might change, but you’re looking for a button that kicks off the check).
- Let it run. For big lists, this can take a while.
- Download the results when it’s done.
What actually gets fixed:
- Invalid or undeliverable emails are flagged.
- You might get updated job titles or company names if people have switched jobs.
- Sometimes, you’ll get phone numbers or social profiles filled in.
What doesn’t:
- Don’t expect miracles. If an email is totally wrong (e.g., “bob@company.cmo”), it’ll get flagged, but you won’t get a new, correct email out of thin air.
- If someone isn’t in the Infotelligent database, you won’t get much new info.
Step 4: Review and Clean the Results
This is where a lot of folks get lazy. Don’t just trust a tool to do all the thinking—double-check the output.
What to Look For
- Bounced or risky emails: Remove or flag them in your CRM. Sending to these hurts your reputation.
- Obvious mismatches: Sometimes enrichment gets it wrong—double-check if Jane Smith is now listed as “VP of Sales” at a company she left a year ago.
- Duplicates: Tools are getting better, but duplicate contacts still slip through. Combine or remove them.
How To Clean
- Download the cleaned/enriched list from Infotelligent.
- Compare it with your original.
- Update your CRM or marketing tool with the verified contacts only.
- Archive or delete the rest.
Pro tip: Keep a copy of your original file. Sometimes automation breaks things, and you’ll want a backup.
Step 5: Fill in the Gaps
No tool has 100% coverage. For key contacts, you’ll sometimes need to do a little manual work.
- Missing emails: If Infotelligent can’t find an email, try tools like LinkedIn or simple guesswork (e.g., most companies use firstname.lastname@company.com).
- Job changes: If you see someone has moved, check LinkedIn for their new info.
- High-value targets: For your “must-have” contacts, always double-check their info before a big campaign.
Don’t waste time on:
Trying to fill in every blank for low-priority leads. Focus on the folks who matter.
Step 6: Keep Your Data Clean (Set a Routine)
Cleaning data is not a one-and-done deal. People change jobs all the time, companies merge, and emails go stale.
- Set a schedule: Run your main lists through Infotelligent (or another tool) every 3–6 months.
- Before major campaigns: Always verify before a big push—nothing kills a launch like a bunch of bounced emails.
- Automate if possible: If your CRM integrates with Infotelligent, set up auto-enrichment or scheduled checks.
But: Don’t get obsessed. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s a list that’s good enough for real outreach.
When Infotelligent Shines (and When It Doesn’t)
What works: - Quick identification of bad emails and duplicate contacts - Filling in missing business info for US and larger international companies - Easy bulk uploads and downloads
What doesn’t: - Finding contact info for super-niche roles or tiny companies - Fixing everything in one go—there’s always some manual work - Guaranteeing 100% accuracy (no tool does, no matter what the sales pitch says)
What to ignore: - Hype about “real-time” updates. Most databases update every few weeks or months, not instantly. - Over-promises about finding every contact—there are always gaps.
Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
You don’t need perfect data—you need data that doesn’t trip you up. Use Infotelligent to do the heavy lifting, but don’t expect magic. Clean your lists, check your work, and make it a habit. Over time, your outreach will get better and a lot less frustrating.
Remember: It’s way faster to keep your data tidy than to clean up a mess after a campaign goes sideways. Start simple, stay skeptical, and iterate as you go.