Apollo Data Enrichment Service using Company Id with Google Sheets and Telegram integration

We all know that a common problem for sales & marketing professionals is having inaccurate or incomplete Company Data; whether it be that you have a phone number listed on a Website from 2 years ago or an Email goes to an old Executive, it is wasting your time and causing you to miss opportunities as a result of the gap in data accuracy. Having Current Information should be used to your advantage to get in touch with the appropriate Contact at the Appropriate Time, so you can capitalize on that Opportunity.

Apollo Data Enrichment is a tool that will allow you to collect Current Email Addresses, Phone Numbers, Job Titles, Business Metrics, and all of the information related to Technology use for Businesses and store them in your Database. Apollo does this by Matching your Raw Data to the Unique Digital Code assigned to each Business (Company ID) within the Apollo Database.

If you consider that you have a List of 500 Businesses with only the Names and Domains of those Businesses, Apollo can use your Company ID to quickly retrieve a full Business Profile of that Organization, including who the Key Decision Makers are, any Structural Changes, and overall Turnover Rate. A process that previously required days of Manual labour was completed in About 10 Minutes.

Amazing right?! And This was merely the beginning!

The Importance of the Company ID for Accurate Search & Enrichment

An example was provided (NextGen Solutions) with several different Companies with the Same Name (NextGen Solutions) as the above-mentioned Company Name, however, if you do not have a unique ID associated with that Company, it would be easy to mistakenly Group together two (2) or more different Companies. A Company Id is similar to a "passport" for a business in the Apollo System. A Company Id is a unique identifier that helps avoid duplicate matches.

For example, one of our customers had 1,200 businesses they needed to process. By using a Company Id to identify these companies, their data accuracy increased from 63% to 98%. The number of errors decreased from 444 to 24, which means the analyst now has an extra 18 hours in a week, instead of having to do manual checks for accuracy.

Company Id's can be obtained through the Apollo API; when performing the initial search by either a company name or domain, the results will show a list of associated Company Id's for all subsequent requests. As such, Company Id's ensure that all of your operations are consistent and precise.

Integration of Apollo with Google Sheets

Linking Apollo to a Google Sheet

One of the best features of this integration is that it allows you to turn a Google Sheet into an ongoing database and have that same Google Sheet auto-populated with rich data from Apollo via the API. When adding new companies to the Google Sheet, Apollo will enrich these companies and auto-populate them in the adjacent columns. No need for additional exports, no need to manually copy/paste—it's done automatically.

ASCN.AI handles the integration as "NoCode" technology, meaning you don't have to be a developer to do it. The only requirements for this integration are: (1) you will need an API key from Apollo and (2) you will need access to the Google Sheets API (which is easy to set up through the Google Cloud Console).

The integration process consists of obtaining your API key from your Apollo account settings and storing it securely. Next, sign into ASCN.AI and create a Secret Key. Connect the Google Sheets API to ASCN.AI, and you'll choose a trigger that executes when a new or updated row is created or found. The automation automatically retrieves relevant technical and business data from Apollo every time a new row is created to the Google Sheet or an existing row is updated. After requesting and receiving enriched technical data from Apollo via its Enrichment API using the Company Id (in the spreadsheet) as the identifier, the enriched data (i.e. email address, phone number and industry) is saved on the spreadsheet.

After configuring the workflow, you can leave it running with no need for any further intervention. As soon as the automated table update detects a new row and a query is launched against Apollo API, it will write the enriched data back into the Google Sheet. This can take less than 5 minutes to set up.

Suppose you have a Google Sheet with columns for Company Name, Domain and Company Id. When a new entry is added to the Google Sheet, this will trigger the workflow to retrieve the Company Id associated with the Company Domain and enter this Company Id into the Google Sheet next to the entry. In real-time, while the customer is using the software, they will receive a notification from Telegram with a message similar to "1 new company enriched. 3 decision-makers found." You can choose how often to retrieve updated information from Apollo, whether it be once a day or as soon as new Companies are entered.

Use Case Example in Google Sheets

Example 1: Enrich Leads Prior To Cold Outreach

A marketer enters 300 Domains into the Google Sheet via an Advertising Campaign. The workflow finds the Company Ids associated with these Domains and retrieves decision-makers, email addresses, LinkedIn Profiles and Technology Stack. The workflow filters all companies that generate $5M or more annually and adds this filtered list to a new "Hot Lead" Google Sheet. A report is created that will track qualified leads and send that report to Telegram.

Out of 300 domains, we were able to identify 47 domains we should contact to create a qualified lead. This process only took about 8 minutes compared to an estimated 6 hour manual process.

Scenario 2 - The weekly update of the client database for our clients.

Every week, our CRM will export our client's list to Google Sheets and then the workflow will search for any changes: newly added contacts, those that had job title changes or had invalid email or phone numbers. The workflow will also track significant events (i.e., IPOs or ownership transfers) and will alert the sales department of any opportunities to upsell the client. A summary of the updates are given to the team through Telegram.

Results: The client database now has an accuracy level of 94% from just a couple of months ago when it was only at 71%. This was achieved by utilising the automated system to support the client database.

We have implemented Telegram as our primary source for notifications and managing all the steps of the data enrichment process. Notifications are received almost instantly, so there's no need for you to check on the spreadsheets or emails constantly.

An example of a typical notification would include the company name, enrichment status, a link to the enrichment row of the Google Sheet, and any key contacts (team members) associated with the company.

• The notifications of the transactions are received about ten (10) seconds after any update occurs.
• If there is a problem with our Apollo API, the Telegram bot will send you a notification of the error immediately when the problem occurs.
• The complete team will see the notifications simultaneously, which increases the speed of communication.
• You can work with leads on the go and do not need to be in the office to accomplish this task.

The BotFather on Telegram is used to create the bot. The BotFather generates a token for the bot, which we securely save in our ASCN.AI account. In the telegram messaging node you added to your workflow, include variables for the name of the company, the number of contact decisions available, and the link to retrieve the information from the Google Sheet provided.

You will receive a variety of messages, including:

• Successful message: "Company [name] has been enriched, with [number of decisions] decision makers found. See the details at: [link]."
• An error message: "Company [name] cannot be enriched, and please validate the Company Id."
• A critical lead: "This is an extremely hot company with over $50 million in annual revenue: [name], and the CEO's contact is [email]. Must contact immediately."

Apollo API Technical Setup

When making an Apollo API request to enrich a company's information, you send a request to apolloapi.com/companies/enrich with the datafields Company Id and whether to include any personal email addresses or phone numbers. The response will provide a full profile of the company, as well as its contacts with corresponding email addresses, phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles. If the Company Id cannot be found, the API will return an error message that the Company Id was not found in your Google Sheet and this error should be recorded there as "not found."

The data that will be written to your Google Sheets is in a convenient structure that captures the Company Name, Domain Name, Company Id, Industry, Employee Count, Annual Revenue Amount, and Executive Contact Details.

A few tips that may help with optimising the use of the API:

• Utilise batch requests by submitting up to 25 Company Ids per request, thus saving your API credits.
• Cache your data on your server for 30 days. This should prevent you from repeatedly calling the API and incurring additional charges.
• Keep separate tab for request audit log with dates, IDs, status and error.

Telegram integration – API or Webhook

Telegram Bot API can be used two different ways: polling and webhooks. At ASCN.AI we prefer to use polling so that we don't have to have an additional server. If you would prefer to use a Webhook, you will need to create a public endpoint and register it with Telegram to receive commands and send enriched data back in real-time.

Benefits and Advantages of Using the Service

Time Saved – Better Data Quality

A B2B SaaS Client automated enrichment of 800 companies per month. Previously, an analyst was processing 40 hours of data manually; now, it only takes 3 hours to perform a critical error check. That is approximately a full week of work savings! Outdated contacts were reduced from 34% to 6% due to the fact that Apollo updates their data base on a daily basis.

Reduction in Manual Entry Errors

The human factor causes 70% of all errors: typographical errors, incorrect telephone numbers, and incorrect e-mail addresses. In mass data entry, the error rate can exceed 15%. The automation of data entry using the Apollo API via Google Sheets has decreased these types of errors significantly. When an invalid e-mail address is identified, a notification is sent via Telegram. In one of our projects, the percentage of invalid contacts decreased from 22% to only 3% due to better quality data and automation through Apollo.

Enhancements in Lead Quality and Conversion Rates

Enhanced databases create a foundation for effectively segmenting audiences and targeting communications. Customers feel special when you address them by name instead of using the generic "Dear Manager": "John, I see that Acme Corp is utilizing Salesforce...," which makes for a much more engaging experience and a shorter time frame from lead to conversion through your sales funnel.

An example from a crypto fund demonstrates the benefits of automation and how it identifies businesses receiving new funding rounds, with managers initiating contact with the company within 48 hours after release of the funding announcement. Consequently, the conversion rate from lead to appointment climbed from 8% to 19%. In another case, a B2B sales organization dramatically improved their lead quality by 67% by using a similar strategy to determine those leads' respective technology stacks; specifically, HubSpot users.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What data can you enrich from Apollo?

• Company Information: Including name, domain (website), industry, employee count, revenue, technology stack, address, and news articles related to the company.
• Contact Names: Job Titles, company email, personal email, business phone numbers, profiles on LinkedIn/Twitter
• Additional Data: Growth trends, changes in management team members, competitor intelligence, and valuations.

What are the limitations for integration through Google Sheets?

• Max API calls: Each user can only make a maximum of 100 requests every 100 seconds. To accommodate larger volumes of data, a delay should be included in automation.
• Maximum Character Length: 50,000 characters (recommended that long descriptions be entered as comments in Google Docs).
• Max Spreadsheet Limit: 10,000,000 cells per spreadsheet (for extremely large databases, we recommend dividing the database into multiple spreadsheets). You'll need to allow about 10 seconds for updates between Google Sheets and ASCN.AI to stabilize communication between Google Sheets and ASCN.AI.

What is the security of Telegram integration?

The Telegram API uses HTTPS and end-to-end encryption to ensure the confidentiality of data. It is recommended to store the Telegram bot token in the ASCN.AI Secret Keys Vault and not in the actual code of the bot. Additionally, restrict bot access by using a whitelisted Chat ID. Lastly, ensure to change the token periodically—at a minimum, once every three months.