- 01
Source accounts from local registries
- Start from the national business database, for example KBO in Belgium or KVK in the Netherlands
- Pull the data with scrapers from Apify or RapidAPI
- Or use an API tool such as the Kruispuntdatabank API or NorthData
- Or build your own scraper with Claude Code
- 02
Add businesses from Google Maps
- Scrape Google Maps to find local businesses in specific areas
- Do it natively in Clay, with an Apify scraper, or with a custom scraper built in Claude Code
- Use AI-based search only as a last resort, it is the slowest and least efficient
- 03
Set up your data architecture
- Store company name and VAT number, and use VAT as the unique identifier
- Store domain or website (if any)
- Store the full address: street and number, city, zipcode and optionally province
- 04
Enrich the missing company details
- Expect to start with little more than a company name
- Find the domain
- Scrape social links from the website
- Find the general contact email and general phone number
- 05
Qualify the accounts
- Apply your ICP rules to the enriched list
- Keep it simple, for local businesses this is usually a short check
- 06
Find the person behind each company
- Try existing tools like localpipe or openmart, but expect gaps for the EU
- Scrape the website's about or team page for the founder or owner
- Pull the registered people behind the legal entity from registry data
- If the company is owned through a holding company, dig one or two layers deeper
- 07
Activate across ads, email and calls
- Upload names and email addresses to run targeted ads
- Send direct email to the same list
- Call the people who reply or engage, as fast as possible
Tools mentioned
- Apify
- RapidAPI
- Kruispuntdatabank API
- NorthData
- Claude Code
- Clay
- Google Maps
- localpipe
- openmart