Data extraction, web scraping or data mining is the process of extracting data from a source, be it an email, website, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter account.
It can be done manually, but it is often done with the help of AI software using machine learning that can automate the process to make things more efficient.
There are many different types of data that can be extracted, such as contact information (name, email address, etc.), and company information (sales numbers, email addresses for customer service, etc.).
Is web scraping legal?
Automated online scraping with AI tools of publicly accessible data is acceptable as long as it doesn’t disrupt the business or operations of the website being scraped or utilize the data for any malicious purposes.
If you use the right tools and master the way to do web scraping, also known as data mining, there’s nothing illegal about the data collection as it is already public online and available for you to use. With this methodology, you only automate what you would do manually on LinkedIn or the website.
Methods for extracting data
There are many methods for extracting data from a given source. The most common method is to use a software program that is specifically designed for this purpose. Let’s take a look at a few.
1. Chrome scraping extensions
Extensions allow you to find anyone’s email address by simply visiting their profile on social networks like LinkedIn.
The number of Chrome extensions for email search on the market is huge and finding the one that works best can be complex. We personally have tested most of them and we found Lusha to be one of the best. The free trial starts at $29 per month.
Here’s a list of other similar tools:
- ContactOut: Pricing starts at $49/month, one of the most accurate tools on the market
- Slintel Lead Finder:100 Free Credits, $99/month with 500 Data Credits + Enrichment
- RocketReach: Price starts at $59/month, free trial option available
- LeadIQ: Pricing starts at $75 per month
- Kaspr: $37/month and a free trial is available
- Skrapp: it will cost you $49 per month
- Find That Email: 19/month with free credits available
- Finder Expert: $39/month with free credits available
- Voilà Norbert: 50 free searches, $49 per month
- eMail-Prospector Pro: $1,195 per year, free trial available
- FindEmails.com: $19/month with a free trial available
2. B2B Databases
Databases are great for B2B prospecting and clean data collection. They can provide you with people’s names, job titles, emails, and more. In essence, online databases are similar to LinkedIn, except that email addresses are available to see.
Some of the more sophisticated online databases can aggregate much more data than LinkedIn in comparison as they employ hundreds of external data sources to collect their data intelligence. By doing so these tools can give you insights into the technology stack a company uses, it is funding and even insights into their annual revenue.
UpLead is one example of a B2B business data provider. You can start a free trial and after that, it starts at $99 per month.
Thankfully this market segment is very competitive, so there are many tools you can choose from based on your needs and budget. A few others we can recommend are:
- LeadFuze: Starting at $132.30 per month, a free trial is available
- ZoomInfo: About $10,000 a year, custom pricing model
- Slintel Lead Finder: 100 Credits Free Trial, $99/month with 500 Data Credits + Enrichment
- Lead411: pricing starts at $50 per month with 7 days free trial available to you
- Cognism: Pricing starts at $750 per month
- SalesIntel: Custom pricing, Free Trial available
- Fit: Starting at $49/month
- InsideView Insights: custom pricing
- Clearbit Enrich: $ 20.000 annually
3. Outreach tools (recommended)
The outreach tools are the most complete solution you will find on the market today. With their native extensions and integrations outreach tools do exactly what tools 1 and 2 do, plus the option to directly send outreach campaigns to your collected prospects!
Fantastic, don’t you think?
Here are our favorites.
Waalaxy
Ideal for LinkedIn and cross-channel campaigns.
Description: Waalaxy is a super promising tool that we personally use at our agency on a daily basis and of which we are an agency partner. We recommend it for automation on LinkedIn and small email campaigns.
How to use it: Through its extension, you can directly import prospects from your LinkedIn search and do data enrichment thanks to its native integration with other software. You can also directly create email campaigns on this tool.
Prices: Starting from $0 per month up to $80 per month. To get the auto import feature you will need the Advanced version of the tool which starts at $50 per month.
Good news: Being an Agency partner, here is a link you can use to get a 2-month free trial. Click here to discover its features and start your free trial today!
Lemlist
Ideal for cold email outreach and cross-channel campaigns.
Description: It is the leading software in the sector and will allow you to reach an incredible degree of customization.
How to use it: Through its extension, you can directly import prospects from your LinkedIn search and do data enrichment with its native integration with other software, and directly create email campaigns.
Price: Start at $29/month up to $99/month (the $99/month version is the one we use and recommend).
Conclusion
Automated data collection or scraping is acceptable as long as it’s not used for malicious or in other damaging ways. Today with the help of AI-powered softwares you can scrape data just like a person can, allowing you to get things done faster and most likely more accurately in just a few hours.
