How to generate B2B leads. The list matters more than the copy.

1. Define the target narrowly

"B2B, 50 to 500 employees, growing" is a wish, not a target. A target you can search needs three coordinates that a register can answer:

• Industry code. NACE in the EU (TOL in Finland, SNI in Sweden, WZ in Germany), SIC in the UK, NAICS in North America. Without a code you cannot segment or exclude.
• Region. Country, and for large countries the region or state. "Germany" mixes Hamburg shipping with Bavarian machinery and makes the message generic.
• Size. Revenue or employee band, from filed accounts where they exist rather than from self-reported profiles.

Add a fourth if you can: a reason to talk now, such as a new company, hiring or a won tender. See buying intent signals.

2. Start from the register

Contact databases are convenient, but they are built from websites, profiles and bought lists. What is not in those sources is not in the database. The national register is the legal record of every company:

• United Kingdom: Companies House, free with an open API
• Germany: Handelsregister and Unternehmensregister
• France: INSEE Sirene and the RNE
• Netherlands: KvK Handelsregister
• Nordics: PRH in Finland, Bolagsverket in Sweden, Brønnøysund in Norway, CVR in Denmark

Check that the company is still active. Many registers keep closed companies, and in some of them most records are closed. See our register audit and the list of registers by country.

3. Enrich from the company's own website, in its own language

The German company publishes its Impressum and team page in German, the French one its mentions légales in French. If you only read English, you lose them. Useful pages: the legal notice, the team or management page, the contact page and the careers page. From those you get named email addresses, role mailboxes, phone numbers and the people in charge.

Check that the website really belongs to the company: the business ID or a distinguishing name on the page. Parked domains and pages of another company with a similar name are a common source of wrong data.

4. Set up deliverability before you send

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC on the sending domain. Start DMARC at p=none with reports and tighten it once the reports are clean.
• A separate sending domain or subdomain. Do not send cold email from your main company domain.
• Warm up new inboxes slowly over several weeks.
• Follow Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS.

Setting this up takes a day. Recovering a burned domain takes months.

5. Check addresses before sending

Guessing "firstname.lastname@" often fails, especially outside English-speaking countries. Check that the domain has a mail server, and use an address you found on the company's own pages where you can. Remove companies that have closed: mail to them bounces, and bounces hurt your domain.

6. Measure your own numbers

Reply rates shared on social media are not a benchmark. Measure your own: reply rate per step, per segment and per trigger. A sudden jump usually means the list was warmer than you thought or the measurement is wrong, not that the copy is magic.

7. The legal layer, briefly

This is a general overview, not legal advice. Check the rules of each country you send to.

• EU, GDPR: B2B outreach is usually based on legitimate interest. The message must be relevant to the person's role, the sender identifiable and opting out easy. National rules on electronic marketing vary.
• Finland: email marketing to a person's work address is allowed when it relates to their work role and opting out is easy.
• UK, PECR: corporate subscribers do not need prior consent. Sole traders and partnerships are treated as individuals.
• France and Italy: regulators interpret B2B email more strictly than many other EU countries.
• US, CAN-SPAM: no prior consent, but accurate headers, a postal address and a working opt-out.
• Canada, CASL: consent is required, with narrow exceptions.

Worked example: production software for European manufacturers

A company sells production planning software, deal size around 25 000 euros, to manufacturers with 50 to 250 employees in Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark. One SDR and one account executive.

• Target: NACE C25 (metal products), C28 (machinery), C29 (vehicle parts). 50 to 250 employees from filed accounts. Countries DE, NL, DK. Bonus: an open job in production or planning.
• Sources: Germany's Handelsregister for the company and managing directors, the Dutch KvK, the Danish CVR, then each company's own website in its own language.
• Funnel: start from the register count for those codes and sizes, narrow by the hiring signal, remove closed companies and duplicates, and measure what share of the rest you can reach.

Where Atlas fits

Atlas handles the list: companies from the official register by industry, region and registration date, closed ones removed, and the website, phone, email and decision-maker looked up from public sources with the source shown. Atlas does not send email. You export a CSV or send leads to your own CRM and outreach tool.

Questions