Are you looking for a Dropcontact alternative that does more than just email enrichment? If you have got a CSV or an Excel file full of leads, you might be eager to use it right away to contact them as soon as possible. Wait a minute - let's not confuse speed with haste. Even if we assume that you do have real-time data (which I hope you do), are you sure that your data is reliable and accurate enough?
I mean, there is no need mentioning that a good database is an essential ingredient for an effective campaign. While Dropcontact is excellent for email enrichment, what if you need a complete solution that both generates AND enriches leads? To improve the quality of your customer data and discover new prospects simultaneously, we can explore data enrichment tools that go beyond traditional limitations.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Data Enrichment Tools
- Tool #1: Dropcontact for Professional Email Discovery
- Setting Up Your Data for Dropcontact
- Understanding Dropcontact Credits
- Analyzing Dropcontact Results
- Alternative Method: Using LinkedIn URLs
- The Limitations of Dropcontact
- Tool #2: Scrap.io - The Complete Lead Generation & Data Enrichment Solution
- Getting Started with Scrap.io
- Choosing Your Search Criteria
- Advanced Automation: Scrap.io API & Make.com Integration
- Geographic Targeting Options
- Advanced Filtering for Precise Targeting
- Exporting Your Targeted Data
- Comprehensive Data Fields Available
- Conclusion: Why Scrap.io is the Best Dropcontact Alternative
- Frequently Asked Questions
Understanding Data Enrichment Tools
The overall idea of data enrichment is to add additional data fields based on the starting ones you have previously collected. Data fields can help you to laser segment your different targets, or B2B data enrichment can even help you to gain other means of contact like email addresses, social media links, and so on.
It can be done manually, but this is probably the most boring and time-consuming task ever created. Thus, the purpose is to automate B2B data enrichment. In this guide, I will present you two tools - two tutorials to do the job. Let's jump into it.
Tool #1: Dropcontact for Professional Email Discovery
The first tool I'm going to talk about is called Dropcontact. Dropcontact is a pure data enrichment tool and it will help us to get professional email addresses from our leads, among other things.
But as we have said earlier, the main point of a data enrichment tool is that it requires us to get some information beforehand. To use Dropcontact efficiently, we need to get three data fields: we need to get a first name, a last name, and a company's name.
Actually, there is something even better than a company's name, and it's the company's website. And it does make sense because a company name can be related to multiple companies - actually, multiple companies can share the same name. But a website URL is related to a single company, which implies that the result we will get will be more accurate.
Setting Up Your Data for Dropcontact
Unfortunately, I do not know any web scraping tool which will help me to get the first name, the name, and the company's website, so we have to type it manually. For the sake of the example, let's say I want to enrich three leads. I want to know the professional email addresses of:
- Elon Musk
- Gom Mubes (as mentioned in the video)
- Ben Chestnut
Now let's find out what the websites are for each of these individuals' companies.
All right, we've got our sample. We just need to save our file. Let's come back to Dropcontact and I just need to drop my file.
Understanding Dropcontact Credits
Please note that once you have created an account with Dropcontact, you have access to 100 free credits. 100 free credits doesn't entail that you will get 100 email addresses because one credit is equal to one try. Depending on your input, you can get from 50 to 75% of professional email addresses. But one more time, it also depends on your categories and the categories you are targeting, but we will talk about that later on.
I drop my file, I wait for a little bit. It will consume free credits, so I process my file and I see you back once I've got my results.
Analyzing Dropcontact Results
I download my file and let's see what we've got. So I've got:
- The civility (ma'am or sir) which can be really helpful if I expect to conduct an email campaign
- First name, last name, and full name
- The job title
- The professional email address (so maybe we might be able to say hello to Elon Musk)
And we've got next to it email qualification. So we've got "catch all at Pro" and "nominative at Pro". What does it mean?
Well, nominative at Pro means that we are pretty sure at 95% that this email address is a valid one - it has been verified. However, catch all at Pro implies that the email address has not been verified, so the bounce rate is very likely to be higher than usual. In other words, we can bet that this email address doesn't exist.
Actually, we've got:
- The LinkedIn profile
- Dropcontact information
- The company's name
- The website
- Company LinkedIn URL
And that's it. This was the number one scenario - we can get professional email addresses with a first name, a last name, and a website URL.
Alternative Method: Using LinkedIn URLs
But what about if we don't have access to these pieces of data? Can we do things in a different way? Well, we can achieve a similar result based on LinkedIn URLs. Let's give it a try.
I will target Dropcontact employees and I will scrape, let's say, 10 employees. I'm going to use a web scraping tool in order to extract LinkedIn URLs.
After the process is over, I have 10 data rows. I can download my Excel file and, same thing as before, I can drop my file. Please note that using LinkedIn URLs instead of company's websites is less efficient, so it's pretty likely that we will get fewer email addresses.
Same data fields as we have discussed, and we've got six email addresses out of 10. When we pick up LinkedIn URLs as an input, we can get around 50-55% of email addresses. Then the remaining data fields remain the same.
The Limitations of Dropcontact
As you can notice, Dropcontact is a perfect tool if you already have a CRM, because usually speaking, the hardest part is always to collect the initial data fields.
So here is a little trick for you: we can also use the API key in order to link, for example, Phantom Buster and Dropcontact. In other words, we will be able to do data scraping and data enrichment at the same time.
To sum up, although being a good tool, Dropcontact is not a good tool for everyone. To begin with, Dropcontact doesn't work well for some professions - usually small companies. If you are targeting lawyers, construction workers, doctors, and so many more, Dropcontact will be unable to enrich your files.
Secondly, Dropcontact only remains a data enrichment tool. It means you have no choice but to provide the software with an input - to provide the software with data you have previously scraped. And to some extent, data scraping is a tedious task.
Tool #2: Scrap.io - The Complete Lead Generation & Data Enrichment Solution
So what would you do if you are looking for an easier solution? What would you do if you want to contact small and medium-sized companies? What would you do if you wish to automate data scraping and data enrichment at the same time?
Well, the answers lie in a software named Scrap.io. The promise of Scrap.io is to help you to turn Google Maps into a leads machine. With over 200 million establishments indexed and the capacity to process 5,000 queries per minute, Scrap.io is the only solution that allows you to extract all Google Maps listings at the scale of an entire country in just two clicks, without any coding required.
What Makes Scrap.io Different: Complete Lead Generation + Enrichment
Unlike Dropcontact which only enriches existing data, Scrap.io is a complete solution that both generates AND enriches leads simultaneously. Here's what makes it powerful:
Input Requirements (What You Need):
- Geographic criteria: City, department/county, region/state, or entire country
- Business category: Choose from over 4,000 available categories on Google Maps
- Optional filters: Email presence, website, phone number, social media, rating, reviews
Target Audiences That Work Best:
- Local businesses: Restaurants, retail stores, service providers
- Small to medium enterprises (SMEs): Professional services, agencies, consultants
- B2B companies: Any business listed on Google Maps with public information
- Industry-specific targeting: Healthcare, legal, construction, real estate, etc.
- Geographic expansion: Businesses looking to expand into new territories
What Information You'll Get (Complete Data Output):
Basic Business Information:
- Company name and description
- Full address with coordinates (latitude/longitude)
- Phone numbers (all available)
- Website URL
- Google Maps listing URL
- Business status (open/closed)
- Main activity and all business categories
Contact & Digital Presence:
- Professional email addresses (extracted from websites)
- Social media profiles: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X, LinkedIn
- Multiple contact pages if available
- Additional email addresses found on the website
Google Maps Intelligence:
- Customer reviews: Rating, number of reviews, review breakdown by score
- Photos: Number and URLs of business photos
- Business hours: Complete opening schedule
- Price range: Budget indicators ($/$$/$$$/$$$)
- Google Maps claimed status: Whether business manages their listing
- First seen date: When the business first appeared on Google Maps
- Occupancy data: Peak hours and busy times
Advanced Website Intelligence:
- Website technologies detected: WordPress, Shopify, etc.
- Advertising pixels: Facebook Ads, Google Ads tracking
- SEO data: Page titles, meta descriptions, keywords
- Website forms: Contact form presence detection
- Multiple contact methods: All available communication channels
You have access to a quick demo below if you want to have an overview of what you will end up with, but we will see that in more details in a few minutes.
Getting Started with Scrap.io
The first thing you have to do is to create an account if it's not already done. Then you will have access to your dashboard. I invite you to click on it and to pay attention to this tab because it's the most important one of the software. Here you will be able to retrieve all your leads based on your criteria.
But what could be your criteria?
Choosing Your Search Criteria
The first one and the most obvious one is your activity. Actually, there are around 4,000 different categories listed on Google Maps, covering everything from restaurants and retail stores to professional services and B2B companies. So if you want to have access to the full list, we let you a link in the description.
As a consequence, I can allow myself to write a very accurate category. I might be looking for restaurants, of course, but as you can see, we have access to many different subtypes. I can select:
- A Thai restaurant
- Maybe an Asian restaurant
- A pizza restaurant
You get the idea.
Pro tip: Scrap.io also offers a free Chrome extension called "Maps Connect" that displays emails and social media links directly on Google Maps, allowing you to contact prospects with just one click without leaving the Google Maps interface.
Then I can pick up a specific country. We don't have access to all countries in the world, but Scrap.io covers 195 countries, giving you global reach for your lead generation efforts. Let's change it from France to United States.
Advanced Automation: Scrap.io API & Make.com Integration
Here's where Scrap.io truly shines compared to simple data enrichment tools like Dropcontact. Beyond manual exports, Scrap.io offers powerful automation capabilities:
Scrap.io REST API (Included in All Plans)
The Scrap.io API allows you to integrate lead generation directly into your existing workflows:
API Capabilities:
- Rate limit: 300 requests per minute
- Authentication: Bearer token system
- Format: JSON for all requests/responses
- Real-time data: Live extraction from Google Maps
- Endpoint: https://scrap.io/api/v1/
API Use Cases:
- Automatic lead generation triggered by CRM events
- Real-time prospect enrichment during sales calls
- Bulk lead generation for marketing campaigns
- Integration with custom applications and dashboards
Make.com Integration: Complete Automation
Scrap.io provides a dedicated Make.com module with pre-built scenarios for complete workflow automation:
Available Scenarios (Free at https://scrap.io/en/make-com):
- Automated Lead Generation Workflow:
- Trigger: New campaign in your CRM
- Action: Search Google Maps by criteria
- Output: Automatically add enriched leads to your CRM
- Data Enrichment from Existing Leads:
- Input: Email address, domain, or phone number
- Process: Enrich with Google Maps and website data
- Output: Complete prospect profile with all contact methods
- CRM Auto-Update System:
- Trigger: New lead enters your system
- Action: Enrich with Scrap.io data
- Update: Automatically populate all missing fields
- Google Maps Audit Workflow:
- Input: Your business or competitor list
- Analysis: Complete Google Maps presence audit
- Report: Business listing optimization recommendations
Make.com Integration Benefits:
- No technical skills required: Drag-and-drop interface
- Real-time synchronization: Instant data flow between tools
- Multiple triggers: Time-based, event-based, or manual activation
- CRM compatibility: Works with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and 1000+ apps
- Custom workflows: Build unique automation scenarios for your specific needs
When to Use API vs Make.com vs Manual Export
Use the API when:
- You have development resources
- You need real-time integration
- You want to build custom applications
- You require high-volume, automated processing
Use Make.com when:
- You want no-code automation
- You need to connect multiple tools
- You want pre-built workflow templates
- You prefer visual workflow management
Use manual export when:
- You need one-time data extraction
- You're testing new target criteria
- You want to analyze data before automation
- You're doing ad-hoc research projects
Geographic Targeting Options
I can select:
- A level one division (which means a state)
- A level two division (which means a county)
- A city (which means a city)
The last four criteria are location criteria. I type "New York", I click on search, and I will get real-time data of restaurants in New York City. And I've got around 6,000 results.
Advanced Filtering for Precise Targeting
But what about if I need to get more accurate data? As you can notice, some restaurants don't have email addresses, some restaurants don't have websites, some restaurants don't have any phone numbers. What about if I want to include or exclude some data rows?
In that case, I can click on filter and we've got two different kinds of filters: we've got essential and advanced filters. Let's take a look at some of them.
Essential Filters
Main activity only - what is its meaning? Let's take an example: a restaurant may not only be a restaurant, it can also be a cafe, it can also be a bar, it can also be something else I don't know. In that case, if I click on "yes", I will only be looking for restaurants as a main category and not as secondary categories.
Other essential filters include companies:
- With a website
- With a phone number
- With an email
- With social media links
Advanced Filters
Now what about advanced filters?
Google Maps listing claimed - it simply means that companies are aware that they are listed on Google Maps. In other words, they at least pay some attention to their SEO. They're willing to find opportunities to target a broader audience.
We can also filter based on:
- The price range
- The rating and the number of reviews
- The number of features
Finally, we can target companies with a contact form on the website, in which case it means that the company obviously already has got a website. We can also filter based on ad pixels, but I will explain it further in a minute.
Exporting Your Targeted Data
Once I've set up everything I need, I can click on filter and I will get fewer results but much more targeted ones. If I'm happy with my result, I can click on export. I can click on advanced options, create an automatic export name, and if I want to get the first 30 rows, I type 30.
Here are indicated all the data fields I'm about to retrieve. Then I click on export. I'm now located within the "my exports" tab. Once the process is over, I will be able to download my results in a CSV or Excel file. All I need to do is to wait for a little bit.
Comprehensive Data Fields Available
Once I've got my Excel file, let's have a look. We've got 30 data rows. We start with:
Basic Information
- The company's name
- The description which is shown in some detailed pages (actually we've got multiple descriptions)
- Whether the restaurant is closed or not
- What we have been talking about - the main types and all types
- Website
- The phone number (do we have all phone numbers? We do)
- The full address which is divided into different subtypes
- The longitude and the latitude
- The link of the Google Maps detail page
Contact Information
- The email address (do we have access to all email addresses? We do)
- Social media links
- First seen on - when do we have seen this detail page the first time? It can give you an overall idea whether the company is new or not
Performance Metrics
- Price range
- Review count
- Review rating
- Review per score (so 20 people give a one-star rating and 189 people give a five-star rating)
- Number of pictures
- URLs of some pictures
Advanced Data Points
- Occupancy which is different from opening hours - occupancy is related to this bar chart
- Whether companies have been claimed on Google Maps
- Working hours
- Characteristics which is something you can find if you click the "about" tab
Website Intelligence
- SEO characteristics if the company has got a website, of course
- Website title
- Keywords
- Description
- Additional email addresses if needed
- Additional contact pages
- Additional social media links if available
And we end up with website technologies and website ad pixels. As an example, we can see that this company used WordPress to create their website, and that one spent a bit of budget using Facebook ads.
Conclusion: Why Scrap.io is the Best Dropcontact Alternative
While Dropcontact excels at email enrichment for existing leads, Scrap.io offers a complete alternative that addresses the fundamental limitation: the need for existing data.
Why choose Scrap.io over Dropcontact:
✅ Complete solution: Generate NEW leads + enrich them (vs. enrichment only)
✅ No input required: Extract directly from Google Maps (vs. needing names/companies)
✅ Works with SMEs: Perfect for small businesses (vs. limited professional coverage)
✅ Comprehensive data: 50+ data points per lead (vs. email focus)
✅ Automation ready: API + Make.com integration (vs. manual only)
✅ Geographic targeting: City to country-level search (vs. contact-dependent)
When to use Dropcontact: When you have existing contact lists and only need email enrichment.
When to use Scrap.io: When you want to discover new prospects AND enrich them with comprehensive business intelligence in one unified platform.
This is the end of the video. I hope you have enjoyed it. If it's the case, you can give a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel.
And if you want to try the best Dropcontact alternative, create your Scrap.io account and get 100 leads free of charge. The link is in the description. See you next time!
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a data enrichment tool?
Data enrichment tools are software platforms that enhance contact and company records with additional data points, from CEO email addresses to company annual revenue. These tools automate the process of adding missing or incomplete information to existing datasets by integrating with your current systems and accessing external databases.
What is an example of data enrichment?
A common example of data enrichment is when you have a customer database with basic information like name and email, and you use a tool like Dropcontact to add professional details such as job titles, LinkedIn profiles, company information, and phone numbers. This transforms incomplete lead data into comprehensive prospect profiles.
What are B2B data enrichment tools used for?
B2B data enrichment tools are specifically designed to enhance business contact databases. They help sales teams by adding firmographic data (company size, industry, revenue), contact information (professional emails, phone numbers), and behavioral data to improve targeting and personalization in business-to-business sales campaigns.
How do data enrichment tools integrate with CRMs?
Most modern data enrichment tools offer direct integrations with popular CRM systems like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive. They can automatically enrich new leads as they enter your system or perform bulk enrichment on existing databases, ensuring your CRM always contains up-to-date and comprehensive contact information.
What's the difference between Dropcontact and Scrap.io?
Dropcontact is a pure data enrichment tool that requires existing data (names, companies) to add additional information like email addresses. Scrap.io, on the other hand, is a complete lead generation and data enrichment platform that can extract business data directly from Google Maps, making it ideal for finding new prospects AND enriching them simultaneously. Scrap.io also offers API integration and Make.com automation, while Dropcontact focuses solely on email enrichment.
How does Scrap.io API and Make.com integration work?
Scrap.io includes a REST API (300 requests/minute) and dedicated Make.com module in all plans. The API allows real-time integration into your applications, while Make.com provides no-code automation workflows. You can automatically trigger lead generation from CRM events, enrich existing contacts, or build custom workflows that connect Scrap.io with 1000+ apps including HubSpot, Salesforce, and marketing tools.
What types of businesses work best with Scrap.io enrichment?
Scrap.io works excellently with any business listed on Google Maps, particularly: local service providers (restaurants, retail), SMEs (agencies, consultants), B2B companies with physical presence, industry-specific targets (healthcare, legal, construction), and businesses expanding geographically. Unlike Dropcontact which struggles with small businesses, Scrap.io excels at finding and enriching local business data.
Can data enrichment tools help with lead generation?
Yes, data enrichment tools significantly improve lead generation by providing more complete prospect profiles. Tools like Scrap.io can generate new leads from Google Maps data AND enrich them with website intelligence, social media profiles, and contact information, while others like Dropcontact enhance existing leads with additional contact methods, making your outreach more effective and targeted.
Are data enrichment tools GDPR compliant?
Most reputable data enrichment tools are designed to be GDPR compliant as they work with publicly available data. Scrap.io specifically works with public Google Maps data and website information, while Dropcontact uses publicly accessible professional information. However, it's important to verify compliance with each tool provider and ensure you're following proper data protection practices when using enriched data for marketing and sales activities.
How much do data enrichment tools typically cost?
Pricing varies significantly among data enrichment tools. Dropcontact offers 100 free credits to start, while Scrap.io provides 100 free leads upon account creation with plans starting at $49/month for 10,000 credits. Scrap.io includes API access and Make.com integration in all plans, making it more comprehensive for automation needs compared to simple enrichment-only tools.