How to Build a Quality Lead List for Cold Emailing in 7 Steps

Creating cold email campaigns is hard enough, but having a bad lead list is a mistake you should always avoid. 

Well, I know how disappointing it is to see time, money, and resources wasted due to inaccurate or outdated information. 

Often, businesses face a similar problem when they are on a cold email list. 

However, newcomers don’t know that poor leads can be a serious problem for their business. 

Poor leads can cause:

• Low open rates – Your emails get ignored, and no one responds.
• High bounce rates – Your emails never even reach inboxes.
• Missed chances – You lose opportunities that could have given you business or helped you grow your business. 

I have been there, too, and I know how discouraging it feels when your campaign fails because of poor data.

So, is there a solution? Making a high-quality lead list. 

How? You just need to know the right process and steps. That’s it. 

By the end of this blog, you will learn how to build a quality lead list for your cold email campaign. 

Let’s get to real work. 

Build a Quality Cold Email List: Table of Contents

• 7 Steps Process to Follow for Building Quality Cold Email List
  1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to Target the Right Audience
  2. Explore Multiple Channels to Research Potential Leads
  3. Choose Reliable Tools to Simplify Lead Generation Process
  4. Verify Email Addresses to Maintain a High-Quality Lead List
  5. Segment Your Leads for Relevant and Impactful Outreach
  6. Regularly Update and Maintain Your Lead List for Better Results
  7. Follow Compliance and Best Practices for Ethical Cold Emailing
• Build a Quality Lead List With Saleshandy Platform for Cold Emailing
• FAQs: Building a Cold Email Lead List

7 Steps Process to Follow for Building Quality Cold Email List

Let’s understand the first step in detail about ICP.

1. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to Target the Right Audience

You might have a question. Why is ICP necessary at the first stage? 

I believe ICP helps you build quality leads because you know exactly whom to target or your ideal prospects. 

Defining ICP helps you to target the right prospects, which ensures your efforts achieve the desired results. 

So, shall I begin to learn how to create your ideal customer profile? Here are the easy steps that you should follow for defining ICP. 

Start by taking a look at your best existing customers. What patterns can you find in their demographics, challenges, and behaviors? 

You need to have a complete idea of your current customers to get a better understanding of who the best customers are. 

Next, consider researching the common pointers your customers share. For example, you can find common traits based on industry, company size, location, budget, roles, or maturity. 

Here are the key characteristics you should know about your ideal customer profile. Check the following image. 

Once you have a basic understanding of your ideal customer profile, you should learn about the challenges and opportunities that your ideal customer profile is majorly facing. 

Lastly, write down or create a proper document or sheet for your ICP. 

There are templates available in the market that you can use to create your ICP. 

So, this is ideal for the process I follow while defining ICP for building a cold email list. 

Still, if you are a novice or want to understand ICP in detail, read our detailed article on creating an ideal customer profile. 

2. Explore Multiple Channels to Research Potential Leads

What’s next? Defining ICP is just an initial step. 

Once you are ready with ICP, start researching and identifying leads on multiple platforms, such as social media networks, events, and competitor analysis.  

This step helps you build a cold email list with the right prospects. To do this, you need to take advantage of social media. 

LinkedIn Platform for Finding Leads

Well, you know LinkedIn is a powerful professional networking platform. LinkedIn allows you to find potential leads. 

You can start researching platforms like LinkedIn by filtering leads by industry, job, title, company size, and location. That is also all according to your ICP. 

In addition, you can research your potential leads on LinkedIn by exploring industry-specific forms, online communities, and groups. 

Why?

All these platforms are goldmines for finding leads discussing industry trends, challenges, and solutions; all of these align with your ICP’s pain points. 

The next option for finding or researching the leads is leveraging networking opportunities. 

2. Build Connections with Networking at Events or Webinars

One of the best points is networking, which is useful when you know exactly who you’re looking for. 

Whether at an event or on a webinar, keep your ICP in mind or be handy to network with individuals who match your profile. 

If they are a good fit, get their contact details for follow-up outreach. 

If you cannot attend in-person events, you must go for virtual webinars or events.

Virtual webinars or events allow you to get the list of potential individuals (whether in your group or on your LinkedIn or WhatsApp group). 

You can filter out the people that match your ICP and contact. 

3. Analyze Competitors to Identify Potential Leads

The next way is conducting competitor analysis, which is an effective strategy to find leads. 

How? 

Let me explain. Using the competitor analysis method is useful for three reasons. 

1. Identify and understand customer pain points and preferences by studying competitor’s reviews, case studies, and testimonials. (Save your time experimenting and investing money upfront) 
2. Competitor analysis helps you know gaps in your offerings or underserved segments of the customer base. You can then target overlooked opportunities and offer your product accordingly to your end users. 
3. Analyze competitors to know about your ideal prospects using your competitor’s product or services and are interested in similar solutions. 

How to conduct competitor research: 

• Visit review platforms like G2, Capterra, or Trustpilot to see recurring issues in your competitor’s feedback.
• Search social media hashtags or posts that mention your competitor’s product and include keywords like “problem,” “frustrating,” or “alternative.”
• Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to map relationships between competitors’ clients and their broader networks.
• Use social listening tools (e.g., Hootsuite, Brand24) to monitor comments, shares, and likes on competitor posts.

At this stage, you might have a list of leads, but not enough. I understand. 

So, you want to know where to find a list of highly targeted leads for your cold emailing. 

I have answered it in our next step. Yes, using reliable lead generation platforms. 

You might have a question. Is it a reliable way to get leads? Or doesn’t it violate the laws of global institutions? 

The answer is no. I have answered it in our last point. I will tell you it’s a compliant and legal way to generate leads. 

3. Choose Reliable Tools to Simplify Lead Generation Process

Manually building an email list is time-consuming and error-prone.  

However, what if you get a tool with a high-targeted list of leads? 

Sounds good, right? Just a few clicks to get a highly-targeted list of leads is in your hands. 

Don’t worry; you don’t need to go and find the tools. I have already done that work for you. 

Here is a list of the top three platforms to help you get specific leads for your outreach campaign. 

Top Lead Generation Platforms

1. Saleshandy

If you want to scale your cold email campaigns, Saleshandy is a reliable choice. 

You can easily find the right leads with access to 700M+ B2B professional contacts and 60M+ company profiles. 

Whether email addresses or phone numbers, Saleshandy helps you connect with prospects quickly and accurately.

You can use a free trial of Saleshandy to run a test campaign. 

Saleshandy allows you to test a campaign with up to 100 recipients and offers full access to all features to help you learn how it works for you. 

The AI-powered unified inbox helps you manage conversations to get all emails in a single place.  

You can also integrate with CRMs like HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive.

What I like most is how easy it is to personalize emails. You can create multi-step sequences and use tools like spintax and merge tags to send tailored messages. 

Saleshandy offers multiple pricing plans to match the needs of different individuals. 

The first pricing plan of Saleshandy starts at just $24/month, and its Lead Finder lets you get up to 10,000 contacts in bulk in a single go. 

Overall, it’s a great tool to help you find leads and improve your cold email outreach.

You can read our detailed review of Saleshandy here. 

2. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a reliable platform for lead generation. 

The platform offers 275M+ contacts from 73M+ companies to help you find high-quality leads. 

It also offers search filters to find leads based on criteria such as industry, job title, or location. 

Apollo claims to provide data with a 95% accuracy rate, allowing you to reach the right people every time. 

Its simple user interface and advanced search filters make it possible to filter leads with a good chance of conversion. 

Apollo integrates with CRMs like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Pipedrive. So you can manage your leads and outreach campaigns from one central location.

3. Lusha

Lusha is one of the leading lead-generation platforms. The platform offers access to 100 million professional contacts. 

Lusha is known for its high-quality, 95% accurate data, which makes finding the right decision-makers across various industries easy. 

Whether searching by role, location, or company size, Lusha’s advanced search filters help you build a highly targeted list of prospects. 

One key advantage of Lusha is its integration with popular CRMs like Salesforce and HubSpot. So you can import and manage leads directly from your system. 

Top Email Finder Platforms 

1. Saleshandy Connect 

If you have ever struggled to find verified emails for your prospects, Saleshandy Connect has you covered. 

You get a Chrome extension integrated with LinkedIn and CRMs to extract emails in seconds.

Email validation reduces bounce rates by 90%, ensuring better campaign delivery and engagement. 

What I like about Saleshandy Connect is how it makes it easy to prospect with direct CRM integration. 

This way, you can instantly add leads to sequences, saving hours of manual work and boosting productivity.

Saleshandy Connects works well with LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and more, making it an all-in-one tool for all users. 

With verified data, you can write personalized emails that increase open rates and drive better results.

2. Hunter.io

Hunter.io is another reliable tool for finding emails through domain search and email finder features. 

Hunter.io provides a confidence score to help you choose the emails that are safe to use in cold email campaigns. 

One thing I liked is that Hunter shows where it found the emails, which adds trust. 

However, its B2B database is smaller, and the search filters aren’t as advanced as other tools like Saleshandy or Apollo.

Apart from that, Hunter.io has a database of 117M+ professional contact emails, a free browser extension, and works properly with CRMs and sales tools. 

It even offers bulk email verification for your requirements. 

The database is small, support is only through email, and it often fetches general company emails instead of direct ones.

3. Skrapp.io

Skrapp.io is great if you’re looking for a tool to find bulk emails. 

The platform features a B2B database, company search, and LinkedIn integration. You can also use the email finder without signing up.

The best part is its detailed email verification process, which checks for common issues like invalid syntax or fake emails. 

But sometimes, the platform feels buggy, and bulk searches don’t always remove invalid emails.

Skrapp.io comes with free Chrome and LinkedIn extensions, a database of 150M+ profiles, and connects with tools like Salesforce and Zoho.

The tool can be buggy sometimes, and it doesn’t always filter out invalid emails in bulk searches.

4. GetProspect

GetProspect makes email finding simple with its Chrome extension and email lookup features.

I liked how it scores the validity of emails, which made it easier to trust the results.

GetProspect has a database that covers 230M+ emails and 26M+ companies, which is helpful for various industries. 

However, I feel the UI design is outdated, and their support team can be slow to respond.

Apart from that, the platform works well with CRMs, has LinkedIn extensions, and provides a simple email lookup feature.

5. Snov.io

Snov.io is another tool that can be used to find emails and search domains with a large B2B database. 

I found its advanced search filters helpful for getting specific campaign leads.

That said, its pre-verified emails aren’t always accurate, which led to some bounce-backs. 

The pricing is also expensive if you’re on a tight budget.

Snov.io includes a B2B database, LinkedIn, and Chrome extensions and connects with CRMs like HubSpot and Pipedrive.

The pre-verified emails aren’t always reliable, and the pricing isn’t very cost-friendly for smaller teams.

Read this listicle guide on email finder platforms to find a perfect platform that fits your requirements. 

4. Verify Email Addresses to Maintain a High-Quality Lead List

Whether you buy a lead list or manually prepare a list of leads, you must go for verification of your email addresses. 

Why? Email verification allows you to avoid invalid domains, temporary email addresses, or even emails that are backlisted or no longer exist.

Let me share my personal experience. When I started sending out cold emails, I didn’t pay enough attention to this, and my bounce rate was high. 

That’s when I realized how necessary it is to use email verification platforms.

By using platforms like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce, you can reduce the bounce rate and increase the deliverability of your email outreach campaigns. 

Imagine sending out 500 emails only to have 50 bounce because the emails were invalid. 

You know it’s frustrating and hurts your reputation with email providers, which eventually lands your emails in spam folders or, even worse, hurts your domain reputation. 

I didn’t know about these hacks before. But I want you to understand how to avoid the issues that I have faced. 

Key Tips:

• Use bulk email verification: If you have a large list of email addresses, bulk verification helps save time and makes sure that your list stays clean.
• Do it regularly: You don’t wait for your email performance to drop. With regular verification, you can get a list of only active emails. 
• Remove inactive emails: Remove addresses that haven’t engaged with your emails in months at regular intervals.

You can also integrate email verification tools with your CRM to automatically flag inactive or invalid email addresses. 

Over time, following these tips helped me build a reliable lead list that I trust. I believe these tips will help you create a high-quality email address lead list. 

Or you can simply follow these steps to verify email addresses in this guide. 

5. Segment Your Leads for Relevant and Impactful Outreach

Segmentation of a lead list allows you to personalize your outreach campaigns for better engagement and results. 

It allows you to create a message that is relevant to each group so that you can increase the chances of conversation. 

Let me share an example: 

When I started, I sent the same email to everyone, whether they were CEOs or marketing directors. 

The results were poor, and I quickly realized the need for segmentation.

For instance, I showcase ROI and analytics when emailing a marketing director. However, I focused on affordability and ease of use for small business owners.

Here’s why segmentation works: It lets you address specific pain points, allowing for more relevant and personalized messages. That, in turn, increases engagement.

Segmenting of leads also makes it easier to track performance. 

When you know who you are targeting, measuring how well each group responds becomes easy to track.

Here are the benefits of segmentation: 

• Targeted messaging: Speak to the specific pain points of different groups. A segmented list allows you to customize content to each group’s needs.
• Better engagement: Send personalized messages to improve chances of getting a response.
• Easy tracking: When you know who you are targeting, measuring the performance of the campaigns becomes easier. 

While segmenting your email list, here are the criteria you should apply. 

1. Industry: Customize your messaging to different sectors (retail, tech, eCom, or more).
2. Company size: Large companies need different solutions than small businesses.
3. Geographic location: Location-based segmentation helps offer relevant time zones or region-specific offers.
4. Job role: The decision-making process differs between the CEO, CMO, or operations manager.

Lead segmentation by engagement level is also important. You can bifurcate leads based on whether they are new, warm, or engaged leads to design your campaign accordingly. 

At last, using lead scoring helps you to pick and engage with the most interested leads. When a lead score is higher, there are more chances of converting that lead. 

This way, you can target leads with more personalized outreach. 

Overall, segmentation enables your emails to be relevant, personal, and timely, which drives better results.

6. Regularly Update and Maintain Your Lead List for Better Results

If you think that once the lead list is ready, you are done. It’s not like that. 

Lead lists need continuous maintenance to stay relevant. 

I have found that as businesses grow, so do the people within them. 

Professional contacts change roles, companies leave the business, or they lose interest in your product. 

So, regular updates are necessary to maintain a healthy and useful lead list.

If you ask me, I clean my list every few months. 

If someone hasn’t responded to my emails in a while or unsubscribed, I remove them. 

Similarly, I add any new leads relevant to my business when I attend networking events or webinars.

Here are a few other best practices that I follow. 

• Regularly clean your list: Eliminate old, unengaged, or invalid contacts regularly.
• Add new leads: To keep your lead list growing, add new contacts as you discover them through networking or new marketing campaigns.
• Lead status: Track the status of each lead to know if it’s a sales funnel or another so you can follow up accordingly.

I would also recommend using a CRM to automate this process as much as possible. A CRM like HubSpot or any other tool helps track your leads and update their status. 

This way, you don’t have to do it manually.  

7. Follow Compliance and Best Practices for Ethical Cold Emailing

When creating a cold email list, you must thoroughly understand and adhere to email marketing regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.

If you collect leads via web scraping or purchasing lists, ensure you comply with the rules. 

Not following the regulations might damage the reputation and result in a high penalty. 

As I build my own lead lists, I make sure that I have a legitimate reason to contact the lead. 

I only reach out to leads who have shown interest in similar products or services or who are within my target audience. 

On top of that, I make sure to provide an easy way for recipients to opt out or unsubscribe from future emails.

This method allows me to stay compliant and build trust with my leads. 

What else? Here are 3 key best practices to follow. 

3 Key Best Practices to Follow for Better Cold Emailing:

• Be compliant with rules: You must be aware of GDPR and CAN-SPAM to make your lead list compliant. 
• Provide unsubscribe option: Always include an unsubscribe link in your emails to let recipients opt out if they are not interested.
• Target relevant leads: Make sure the people you add to your list are relevant and benefit from your outreach.

By following these best practices, you will make sure your lead list is accurate, compliant, and safe to go ahead.  

You can run cold email campaigns that actually work without any headaches.

Build a Quality Lead List With Saleshandy Platform for Cold Emailing

In conclusion, building a high-quality lead list for cold emailing starts with understanding your ideal customer profile (ICP) and using the right lead generation platforms. 

By verifying emails, segmenting your list, and keeping it updated, you can ensure the success of your outreach.

I know it’s a time-consuming process, but it’s worth it. Creating a proper system, I believe, helps you drive quality leads, which is key to success. 

If you are looking for a quick way, you can use lead-generation tools like Saleshandy to build a targeted list fast.

➜ Try Saleshandy’s B2B Lead Finder and get 5 free leads to test it out.

FAQs: Building a Cold Email Lead List

1. What is the difference between buying leads and building email lead lists?

If you buy leads, you get a pre-made list of contacts. However, a pre-built email lead list is not always a good fit for your business. Building your own list allows you to target people who need what you offer. This way, you can make your outreach result-driven. 

2. Is lead enrichment necessary for building a high-quality lead list?

Yes, lead enrichment helps you gather extra details like job titles or company info, making it easier to personalize your emails. With lead scoring, you can better connect with your leads and improve your chances of a response.

3. What is the importance of lead scoring in identifying quality leads?

Lead scoring helps you figure out which leads are most likely to become customers. By giving scores based on actions like clicking links or opening emails, you can focus on the leads who show the most interest.

4. What is the importance of following legal guidelines while building a cold email list?

Follow the rules, such as GDPR or CAN-SPAM, to avoid trouble and ensure your emails don’t go to the spam folder. Staying legal helps build trust and confidence with your audience and keeps your email efforts running.