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We’ve realized just how important and valuable data is in this data-centric world we find ourselves in. Every decision we make in our personal lives or business is based on information. Now, with the wealth of the internet at our fingertips, collecting data has never been easier. But once you’ve got the information, what happens next?
Data can be collected through web scrapers or SERP API or it can be bought from third parties. But to start using the information to make informed decisions, users must ensure that it’s accurate and as detailed as needed. This requirement has led to data enrichment being used to curate information and make it as detailed as needed for different purposes.
In this article about data enrichment, we’ll be covering the following topics:
- What is web scraping?
- What is data enrichment?
- Why should you combine the two?
What Is Web Scraping?
Web scraping automatically collects data from different websites and compiles this information into a single format. While buying data sets containing the information you need is possible, using web scraping tools is a much more cost-effective option. Depending on your business needs, you can use web scraping tools that are available at a range of cost points (including free-to-use platforms) to start collecting your information.
There are many different types of web scraping, and the type of data you need will determine the web scrapers that will best assist you. If you’re looking to scrape information on search engines, then a SERP API is good. In contrast, an image scraper is better if you need to collect data on images. Finally, the basic scrapers can be used to collect information from websites and social media platforms.
Web Scraping Use Cases
Web scraping is used for a variety of reasons. With web scraping, users can gain insight into current market trends. They can also monitor competitors, collect competitors’ prices to ensure a dynamic and competitive pricing strategy, and much more.
Here are a few different areas within businesses where web scraping can be used:
- Lead generation
- Price comparisons
- Competitor monitoring
- E-commerce
- Real estate
- Data analysis
- Academic research
- Improving machine learning
- Sports betting odds analysis
What Is Data Enrichment?
Data enrichment can be explained as the process of merging third-party data with an existing dataset. Every business starts with a basic dataset that contains the information they’ve collected. Still, sometimes you need to add to and expand this information to make more informed business decisions.
Data enrichment makes your existing raw information more valuable by expanding on it to gain a deeper insight into your consumers’ lives. This is important because the world is moving to a more personalized approach. Consumers are more likely to click on and support businesses that market directly to them than a vague marketing campaign.
There are many different types of data enrichment, but the two types used most commonly are demographic and geographic data enrichment. Demographic data enrichment aims to improve your demographic information. This can be by including the marital status of your consumers, how many children they have, the type of car they drive, and even the value of their homes. Geographic data enrichment involves adding more geographical information to your data set. This can include consumer addresses, zip codes, mapping insights, and more that can be used to give you a greater insight into your clients.
Data Enrichment Use Cases
Data enrichment gives you more insights into your consumers to create better-targeted marketing campaigns. Marketing campaigns that are more personalized and better targeted are also more successful.
Here are a few different ways that data enrichment can be used:
- You can improve your web forms conversion rates as you only need clients to fill in the required information with data enrichment tools completing the other fields.
- Enrichment apps can provide more information on potential leads to improve your lead scoring.
- Enrichment tools will keep your data up to date to ensure you can enhance your customer segmentation to ensure better marketing results.
- Enriching data helps businesses personalize their marketing campaigns at scale since more detailed data is available.
- Enriching data means having the most accurate and relevant data on hand when interacting with clients, meaning a much better consumer experience.
Why Should You Combine The Two?
These two processes complement each other and, when used together, can provide you with reliable and accurate data to make decisions. Web scraping automatically collects the vast amounts of data you need for your data sets. Once the data has been collected, users can then use data enrichment to merge the different data sets and refine the content to be more relevant and up-to-date.
Final Thoughts
Data enrichment is a great way to ensure that your data sets remain relevant and up-to-date. When combining your web scraping efforts with data enrichment tools, you can ensure that you have enough reliable information to curate personalized and targeted marketing campaigns to generate leads and increase sales.
