The real problem with lead lists
Most teams don't have a “data quality” problem in the abstract. They have a workflow problem: they export lists before they validate, they enrich duplicates, and then they lose trust in the numbers.
A workflow you can run every week
- Ingest and snapshot
- Take your raw export file and keep it unchanged as the evidence record.
- Normalize inputs
- Standardize email casing.
- Normalize domains (remove whitespace, unify punycode where needed).
- Dedupe with rules
Use deterministic dedupe before enrichment:
- Keep one record per normalized email.
- If you have multiple rows for the same email, merge fields (non-empty wins).
- Validate quality gates
At minimum, run:
- email format sanity
- domain validity (basic check)
- missing first/last name policy
Enrich only what passes gates
Enrichment should be downstream of validation, not upstream.Export with confidence
Export to CSV/CRM-ready format, and keep a “validation report” file for traceability.
Quality gates table
| Gate | Why it prevents wasted work |
|---|---|
| Format validation | Stops garbage emails entering enrichment |
| Domain check | Reduces bounces and low-quality enrichments |
| Dedupe before enrich | Prevents inflating counts with duplicates |
Typill how-to starting points
- Start at /
- Use Typill to convert email and list data into structured outputs ready for your pipeline.
FAQ
Why not enrich first?
Because enrichment amplifies bad data. Deduping and validating first makes every later step cheaper.
