You know you need more clients, and you know cold outreach can work. But when you sit down to start, you hit the same wall: who exactly are you going to email, and where do their addresses come from?
This guide walks you through building a lead list of local businesses from scratch. The goal is a list you can send to this week, not a spreadsheet that sits half-finished in a folder.
Step 1: Write down who you are looking for
Before you collect a single name, write one sentence describing your target. Be specific about three things:
- Business type: "dental clinics" is better than "healthcare".
- Location: a city, a region or a list of cities.
- A signal they need you: no website, an outdated website, few reviews, no booking system, slow replies.
For example: "Independent electricians in Leeds and Manchester with a website but no online booking." That sentence tells you what to search for, where, and what to say in your first email.
If you serve a niche, look at how businesses in that niche describe themselves. Electricians, for instance, might list as "electrician", "electrical contractor" or "emergency electrician". Our page on electricians shows how one trade can be approached.
Step 2: Choose your keywords and cities
List every term a business like your target might use to describe itself. Aim for five to ten variations. Then pick two or three cities to start with rather than a whole country.
Starting small has practical benefits. You can check the quality of the leads quickly, adjust your message, and avoid burning through a huge list with an email that does not land. If you are unsure where to start, read which cities to target first.
Step 3: Collect the businesses
For local businesses, Google Maps is the most complete public directory you have. Each listing usually shows the name, category, address, phone number and website.
You have two options:
- By hand. Search "plumber in Bristol", open each listing, and copy details into a spreadsheet. This is slow, but fine for a first 30 to 50 leads to test an idea.
- With a scraper. A tool runs the search for you and pulls the listings into a table. This guide covers it without technical setup: scrape Google Maps without code.
In GetClient, the Google Maps scraper accepts several keywords and several cities at once, and each lead can include emails found on the website, the owner's name and title with a confidence score, and social profiles, where these are public.
Whichever way you go, capture these columns at minimum:
| Column | Why you need it |
|---|---|
| Business name | Personalizing the greeting and subject |
| Category | Grouping leads by message |
| City | Local references in your email |
| Website | Researching them and spotting your signal |
| Actually reaching them | |
| Owner name (if public) | Writing to a person, not a company |
Step 4: Find the right email address
A business with no email on its listing is not a dead end. Check the website's contact page, footer and about page. Many small businesses list one address, often something like info@ or office@.
These generic addresses are fine for small local businesses, where the owner often reads them directly. For larger companies they may go to a shared team, so a named contact is better. Our explainer on role-based email covers when they are worth sending to.
When you have an owner's name, use it. A first name in the greeting makes the email read like it was written for them, because it was.
Step 5: Clean the list
Raw lists always contain junk. Before sending, go through it and:
- Remove duplicates. Chains and businesses with multiple listings show up more than once.
- Remove the wrong businesses. A search for "electrician" can pull in suppliers and wholesalers.
- Remove anyone you should not contact. Existing clients, competitors, people who already said no.
- Fix obvious formatting issues. Names in all caps, stray spaces, missing cities.
Then verify the email addresses. Verification checks whether an address is likely to accept mail. Sending to many invalid addresses leads to bounces, which can hurt your sender reputation. GetClient lets you run verification on a list before sending; otherwise use any verifier you trust.
Step 6: Sort and prioritize
Not every lead is equally worth your time. Add a simple column to mark priority, based on your signal from Step 1. For example:
- A: clear sign they need you (no website, broken site, poor reviews).
- B: possible fit, worth a general message.
- C: weak fit, email later or not at all.
This is a basic form of lead scoring. Email your A leads first with your most tailored message. Group leads by category too, so a dentist and a roofer do not get the same email.
Step 7: Get the list ready to send
Your list is only useful once it is somewhere you can send from. Make sure the columns match the merge fields in your email tool, so a greeting fills in the business name or first name correctly.
A few final checks:
- Your sending domain has SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up.
- You have a working unsubscribe option.
- You know your daily sending limit. See how many cold emails per day for guidance.
- You have checked the email and privacy rules that apply where you and your recipients are. This is not legal advice.
In GetClient, saved leads go into folders in My Leads and feed straight into a campaign, so you skip the export and import step. You can also bring in leads from elsewhere by CSV import. You can try it with the 100 free credits new accounts get; see plans and credits for more.
Keep the list alive
A lead list is not a one-time job. Businesses close, change owners and change email addresses. Each time you start a new campaign, refresh the leads for that city or niche rather than reusing an old file. Note who replied, who unsubscribed and who bounced, and keep those records with the list so your next round starts cleaner than the last.