Top 5 Company Research Tools for Targeted Prospecting 

Once you identify your target audience, you have to locate and contact them. This process is called targeted prospecting. It’s where a business builds relationships with those most likely to express interest in or purchase a product.

That isn’t all there is to gain. These prospects also share the most relevant feedback and display behaviors that help businesses fine-tune their marketing strategies. Data and market research tools to help streamline the process should fulfill the following criteria:

  • Reliable, accurate data sources
  • Scalability to grow with a company
  • Integrates with other essential tools 
  • Visualizes complex datasets and insights
  • Meets security and compliance standards
  • Responsive, active customer support 
  • The preferred pricing structure

1. BookYourData

Bookyourdata

BookYourData bills itself as an all-in-one prospecting tool, guaranteeing a 97% delivery rate on email lists. It’s able to do this thanks to real-time verification that consistently cleans up its massive databases of more than 500 million profiles.

Perhaps its greatest strength is the advanced filter. This makes it useful for a wide array of demographics and potential investors in nearly any industry, including B2B sales, insurance, tech, real estate, and finance.

Features and Pricing

  • Advanced filter for narrow searches
  • 97% accuracy in providing deliverable emails
  • More than 500 million profiles from more than 200 countries
  • Access to 100+ data attributes for both contacts & companies
  • 24/7 customer support

BookYourData offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model with a free version available for instant download. Package prices vary depending on the number of contacts (credits). The more you buy, the more you save, with the highest tier offering access to 250,000 contacts for $0.03 apiece.

Why is BookYourData the best company information database?

Few email verification tools can offer such an attention-grabbing guarantee. The promise of 97% accuracy in combination with the sheer number of user profiles is very promising for effective company research. Organizations worldwide have already taken notice:

  1. #1 Highest Rated Sales Intelligence Software by G2
  2. Rated #1 for Company Data Availability in Sales Intelligence
  3. Rated #1 for Ease of Use in Sales Intelligence (Mid-Market)
  4. “One click can find hundreds of essential contacts for your B2B initiatives. Bookyourdata is unique since you may export unlimited contacts. Other platforms limit contact exports.” - Katherine B., DevOps Engineer

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2. RocketReach

RocketReach

RocketReach pulls contact info from social media sites like LinkedIn, public databases, and company websites. Like BookYourData, users can rely on real-time verification for higher-quality leads.

Notably, RocketReach offers seamless integration with CRMs and sales websites, bulk lookup capabilities, and a browser extension.

Features and Pricing

  • CRM integration
  • API access
  • Browser extension
  • Email tracker
  • Custom lists

RocketReach has various subscription tiers available for both individuals and teams. Individual plans currently range from $48-$249 a month. Team plans go up to $207 per user per month. Custom team plans are also available with unlimited annual lookups. 

What does this data search tool do?

Accurate data and specific filtering make RocketReach a very formidable company research tool. Find prospects based on job title, industry, company size, and other criteria. 

  • Direct dial phone number lookup
  • LinkedIn integration
  • Company insights and hierarchies
  • Detailed search function

3. Seamless.ai

Seamless.ai

Seamless.ai automates the lead generation process with beneficial customer analysis. Overall, it’s a great tool for a deeper, more granular ideal customer profile. 

Marketing teams, account executives, and sales leaders in tech, finance, and software can get the most value from Seamless.

Features and Pricing

  • Real-time data gathering 
  • Unique, AI-driven insights
  • Up to 95% accuracy in providing verified leads
  • CRM integration
  • Browser extension

Seamless.ai offers Free, Pro, and Enterprise packages. The Free version comes with 50 credits and limited features good for getting acquainted with the platform. You must inquire with Seamless.ai’s sales team for details on paid plans.

What does this business research tool do?

Seamless.ai stands out for its use of advanced algorithms and artificial intelligence. These go a long way in helping teams personalize lead communication.

  • Facilitates competitive benchmarking during marketing research and analysis
  • Verifies existing data in your CRM
  • Automates sales sequencing and email campaigns
  • Helps in identifying key market players and locating accurate contact info

4. Apollo.io

Apollo.io

What if you want to automate the entire funnel? Apollo.io aims to do just that, from locating leads to sealing the deal. Automated outreach sequences, personalization options, and the ability to reach out on LinkedIn thanks to full integration are just a few ways it achieves this.

Apollo is recommended for startups and small-to-medium enterprises working in B2B sales across a range of industries.

Features and Pricing

  • Lead scoring 
  • Predictive analytics
  • Customizable reports
  • Analytics and tracking
  • Advanced filters

Apollo.io allows single users to sign up and start for free. From there, a Basic subscription runs $49/month, the Professional $79/month, and Organization runs $119/month per user.

How does it research company information?

It’s not just the user who gets the benefit of CRM integration. Apollo.io leverages this as well to collect as much company info as it can. It also utilizes web scraping, third-party data providers, and publicly available information.

  • Find gaps in contact information such as phone numbers, company email addresses, and LinkedIn profiles
  • Fine-tune a sales approach with more comprehensive information about the organizational structure of a company
  • Pursue specific job titles in one industry and tailor an email sequence to people in that position
  • Score leads to unearth key figures most likely to respond to outreach efforts

5. UpLead

UpLead

Build an enviable collection of B2B leads with help from UpLead’s more than 160 million contacts and companies. Rather than just pass along the information, UpLead presents profiles in a way that serves the bigger picture and augments market research.

UpLead is a solution trusted by recruiters, marketing agencies, sales teams, and business owners.

Features and Pricing

  • Up to 95% data accuracy
  • Technology tracking
  • Browser extension
  • Email pattern intelligence

UpLead is available to try for free for seven days with five credits. The Essentials plan costs $99/month and will supply 170 credits with key features. All features are only available via the Plus package, which costs $199/month and comes with 400 credits.

How does it perform company data search?

UpLead’s algorithms comb through the entirety of the public internet, not just social media and company websites. Any news articles, blogs, press releases, and much more contribute to its collection of data. From there, they clean it up and verify the information.

  • Use UpLead’s advanced search function to isolate executives and decision-makers in a specific industry
  • Search relevant industry players in one geographic location and send personalized invites to a networking event or conference
  • Use profile information as market research to create better customer profile templates 
  • Collect information from competitor profiles to anticipate next ventures and find service gaps your company could fill

Benefits of a Company Research Tool for Businesses

Market research tools help target audiences, improve products and services, support strategic decision-making, and nurture growth. They organically integrate into marketing and sales strategies by:

  • Helping identify trends
  • Proving niche information about a target audience
  • Revealing competitor insights

Understanding the Needs and Preferences of Customers

Research tools that provide analytics can reveal pain points. Tailored content that acknowledges the pain point is already highly appealing. It’s even better if the product or service can be positioned as a solution for the pain point. 

  • Geographic data can indicate what customers in one area need or struggle with 
  • Purchase history helps companies anticipate what a consumer needs next
  • Social media analysis tells companies where the hesitation or criticism is so they can create content neutralizing that specific concern

Stay Ahead of Industry Trends

Examining different sets of data from various angles keeps a business relevant. The customer’s daily habits and behaviors today are the biggest indicator of what they need tomorrow.

  1. Uber outpaced other ride sharing services by using location data to gain insights on factors like congested areas and user demand. This way, there are more drivers positioned where they need them, increasing user satisfaction.
  2. Netflix uses data analytics to anticipate what a demographic wants to watch, and then produces original content that meets a set of criteria.
  3. Amazon’s algorithm is an all-time best for predictive analytics, forecasting demand and meeting it with a level of precision that skyrockets customer loyalty.

Mitigate Risks

The risks are just as present as the trends. Customer satisfaction, financial performance, and competitive intelligence are just a few metrics to analyze with a focus on risk management. 

  • Market research tools can give businesses a preview of how a new product would perform, preventing underwhelming launches.
  • Using these tools for industry analysis can show you where competitors are falling short so you can avoid following in their footsteps
  • Strategies to mitigate the potential disadvantages of a product or service can be deployed as early as possible 

Make Informed Business Decisions

Using various data points is a more reliable method of decision-making than learned experience. Hard, factual data improves areas like efficiency and customer knowledge with a lot more accuracy. Data is used to make the following decisions and many more:

  1. Email list segmentation for stronger returns on targeted marketing campaigns
  2. Pricing products and services in close alignment with demand
  3. Optimizing supply chain logistics for greater cost efficiency and customer satisfaction 
  4. Identifying and prioritizing the most promising leads, as well as continuing lead generation

Improve Marketing ROI

The most important (and obvious) way research tools improve ROI is through deep customer knowledge. The most responsive and relevant people will always be more likely to buy.

  • Studies conducted by McKinsey & Company indicate that companies using customer analytics are 23 times more likely to gain new customers
  • One data analytics company increased a retailer’s sales by hundreds of millions of dollars by identifying the need for an enhanced rewards program
  • Coca-Cola maximizes marketing ROI by using their own audience’s photos to influence the look and feel of their advertising 

How to Use Company Research Data in Your Marketing

If the average age of your ideal customer is relevant, it will impact where you invest in reaching them. The email marketing database is invaluable for B2B enterprises, specific social media platforms are frequented by younger consumers, et cetera. 

This is just one way data will influence marketing. Here’s a step-by-step overview of how to put research data to use:

  1. First, collect the data. Web analytics, reviews, transactions, campaign engagements, surveys, and more. Clean and maintain all data to ensure it’s of good quality.
  2. Get the insights. Identify demographics, pain points, keywords, potential needs, lifestyle factors, and other attributes that stand out.
  3. Start segmenting. Divide audiences by characteristics and start tailoring an approach to each group.
  4. Create the content. Generate variations of content based on each segment. Don’t forget to personalize messages and make recommendations based on their characteristics.
  5. Solidify the brand. Integrate the strategy across every marketing channel to enforce a cohesive identity customers recognize, building recognition, trust, and loyalty.

How to Choose the Best Company Information Database Tool

The integration capability, the quality of the data, and the company budget. These factors and more are key in choosing the company information database tool that’s right for you. A few tips before drilling down:

  • Don’t choose tools with a large learning curve
  • Gain a fundamental understanding of what the tool does - for instance, email permutators and email finders sound similar, but are different
  • Don’t get distracted; keep an eye on the features that made you interested in research tools in the first place

Determine Your Research Objectives and Target Audience

Setting specific, measurable goals helps narrow down which tools will work best for your purposes. The roles of personnel using the tools will also impact the decision. For example:

  • Marketing teams will be interested in social media listening tools 
  • Sales teams may get the most use out of CRMs
  • Strategists and management have special interest in competitor analysis

Analyze Your Research Methodology

Surveys, tracking, social listening, and more. What your company does now to gather data should be improved by any tools added to the lineup. Here are a few ways to tell if a tool fits the bill:

  • The tool answers the questions you have about your research 
  • Its data collection capabilities match or enhance current methodologies and objectives
  • Data analysis features like segmentation and predictive analytics
  • Confirmation that the tool can reach target audience 

Look Into Data Quality and Integration

Quality data will come from various sources and can be analyzed across multiple systems. It facilitates collaboration and speeds up the decision-making process. Some integration and maintenance criteria:

  • Cleaning processes to keep data accurate and usable (real-time verification, for example)
  • API integration for efficient data sharing
  • Data replication for consistency
  • Optional: Manual integration for extremely niche, highly customized sets

Choose Reliable Business Research Tools

The truth is, any tool out there can generate and highlight positive reviews. What you want to do before committing to anything is reach out to customer support. If there’s a response within 24 hours, it’s a good indication of a reliable research tool. Here are a few other tips:

  • Read reviews from multiple sources, checking third-party websites as well
  • Pay close attention to the negatives and assess whether these drawbacks would be deal breakers for you, too
  • Look for signs of authenticity - users that leave their company name, for example

Acknowledge Your Capabilities

Conduct a variation of SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and factor in a tool’s features and advantages. Identify how the tool can support strengths and opportunities, and if it will mitigate threats and weaknesses. Some basic questions to ask:

  • Are the tool’s most-advertised features compatible with your technology infrastructure?
  • Do you have the budget and expertise to act on insights this tool provides?
  • Do you have the support of a team to use this tool or will training be necessary?

Understand Your Budget

As seen with the tools presented at the beginning, pricing and structures can vary drastically. The specific services are usually the cause as are the number of users. For example, list brokers can run more than basic email finders. Determining if you prefer pay-as-you-go services to subscriptions is a good start. 

  • Platforms such as BookYourData are more scalable for growing businesses thanks to pay-as-you-go pricing
  • Apollo.io balances increased automation with affordability for evolving teams, going up to around $120 a month per user for the organization-wide package
  • LinkedIn Premium vs Sales Navigator: Self-starters building from the ground up can save by starting with Premium and working up to the more sales-centric Navigator
  • Large organizations that need maxxed-out features and full integration across departments should pursue custom enterprise solutions from their preferred provider
  • Always utilize the free trial to get an accurate view of what it’s like to operate the platform

What to Remember About Company Research Tools

  • Reliability. The quality of the data matters most. All data should be regularly cleaned up and verified, and users should know how it was obtained. 
  • Relevance. The tools’ features should suit the business strategy and the team members using it. Cold email software, social media listening, et cetera should be relevant to company objectives, not extras someone hopes could work out.
  • Scalability. Research tools that can be trimmed back or upscaled to shift with certain tasks and goals will always be worth what you’ve paid.
  • Integration. Tools that can benefit every part of a business will meld seamlessly into existing operations. There should be no questions about how to share, organize, or add onto it.
  • A good reputation. Responsive customer service and authentic user reviews can tell you more about a tool’s reliability than any website sales pitch.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does company research feature?

Good company research features industry analysis and trends, competitor analysis, filtering, customer insights, and more.

How much does a company research tool cost?

It depends on the size of the company, the features, and the number of users, so the monthly price can range anywhere from $50 to $2,000. BookYourData’s highest tier allows access to 250,000 contacts for $0.03 apiece, Apollo.io’s Organization tier runs $119/month per user, and UpLead Plus costs $199/month.

Bookyourdata is the only provider with pay-as-you-go

Are there free company research tools?

Yes, two examples of popular free company research tools include Google Trends and Google Analytics. More comprehensive tools may offer free versions and free trials with limited functionality.

What is the optimal budget for the company research tool?

Larger companies with greater need may spend up to 5% of their annual budget on company research tools. Smaller businesses and those still growing may spend around 1-2% of their annual revenue.

What makes a good research tool?

Reliable data, integration capability, advanced filters, data visualization, and scalability are a few of the most important qualities a good company research tool possesses. 

What is the reliability of a research tool?

Dependable data is consistent, usable, and not prone to repeated and seemingly random errors. With high-quality data, you can reproduce favorable results again and again.

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