What a B2B lead should include before you pay for it

A B2B lead worth paying for has five parts: a real company that is still trading, a person to write to, an email address that belongs to that company at a domain that accepts mail, a website that is theirs, and a dated reason to get in touch now. Social pages are a useful extra when you can confirm they belong to the company. Anything less is a row in a spreadsheet, and a row you still have to research is not a lead.

Use the checklist below on any supplier, including us, before you pay.

The checklist

1. The company, from the public record.
2. A person, usually the director, when the public record names one.
3. An email address that belongs to the company, at a domain that accepts mail.
4. A website that opens and is theirs.
5. The reason and its date: why this company, and why this week.
6. Social pages, when you can confirm they belong to the company.

1. The company, from the public record

Every UK limited company is on the Companies House register, free to read. A lead should carry at least the registered name, the company number, its status, its trade codes and where it is registered. The number matters most: it is unique and never changes, so it is how you avoid paying twice for the same company under two spellings.

Check the status. A company that is dissolved, or in liquidation, is not a customer, however good the email address looks. Companies House data for lead generation covers what the record holds and what it leaves out.

2. A person to write to

An email that opens with a name gets read differently from one that opens with "Dear Sir or Madam". For a small limited company the obvious person is a director, and directors are named on the public record.

Be wary of any supplier that promises a named person on every single lead. Some companies have a corporate director, some have several and it is not clear which runs the business, and some records are out of date. The honest promise is the director's name when the public record has it.

3. An email that belongs to the company

This is where most bought lists fail. The questions to ask about every address:

• Whose is it? It should be on the company's own website domain, or plainly the company's own. An address in a website's footer can belong to the web designer who built the site, and an address on a template site can be a placeholder nobody reads.
• Does the domain accept mail? A quick check of the domain's mail records tells you whether mail can be delivered there at all. It cannot prove one mailbox exists, and nothing can without sending to it.
• Where did it come from? Published by the company is best. Guessed from a pattern such as firstname@ is how bounces happen.

A general address such as info@ or hello@ on the company's own domain is a real way in. At a small firm it is often read by the owner. What it must not be is someone else's.

4. A website that is theirs

A website confirms the company is trading, tells you what it actually does, and gives you something true to say in your first line. Check that it opens and that it belongs to this company rather than a namesake in another town.

For some trades the website is the whole reason to write. A web designer wants the companies whose site is old or broken, which is what the poor-website filter finds.

5. The reason, and its date

A list of companies in your trade is not the same as a list of companies worth an email this week. The reason is what makes the first line specific and the timing right, which is why every Leadistry lead comes with the dated reason it is worth an email today. On the public record the useful reasons are dated:

• Registered in the last 12 months, and still choosing its suppliers.
• Accounts or a confirmation statement due, or overdue.
• First accounts coming.
• A change of name.

A reason without a date is just a label. The date is what lets you say "I saw your confirmation statement is due next month" and be right. UK company buying signals explains each one.

6. Social pages, when they are really theirs

A company LinkedIn page, the director's LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram are useful for checking who you are writing to and for a second way in. They are only useful if they belong to the company. A page for a different firm with a similar name is worse than no page, because it makes your first line wrong.

What a lead should not include

Some fields look generous and are a liability:

• Phone numbers for cold calls. Unsolicited marketing calls to numbers on the Telephone Preference Service registers break UK rules. We do not supply numbers at all.
• Personal email addresses of sole traders. Sole traders and ordinary partnerships are treated as individuals under UK marketing rules, which is stricter. Whether you can email sole traders explains the difference.
• Headcount and turnover for small firms. The register has no headcount field, and small companies usually file accounts without turnover. Any figure you are shown for them has been estimated.

What a lead record looks like on the Leads screen

In Leadistry, every company we have found for you sits on one Leads screen, including your 25 free ones. Each row has the company, what you asked for and the dated fact that matched, the director, the email, the social pages we could confirm, whether you have emailed them, the website, the trade, the location and the date it was added.

• Filters on every column, and a search box.
• A status for every email in plain words: not emailed yet, waiting, sent, replied, bounced, and why anything was not sent.
• Open a row to see what you asked for, the email, who to write to, their pages and the public record, with a link to Companies House.
• Download exactly the rows you are looking at as a CSV, on any paid plan.

Paying only for complete leads

One lead is one lead, whatever it carries. A company we cannot complete is held back and never charged, and if the first email to a lead bounces, the lead is credited back automatically, once. What a bounced cold email costs you explains why, and our accuracy page sets out what we check and what we will not claim.

Start free with 25 leads and no card, and hold them to this checklist.