Prospecting tradespeople, local shops and local businesses
Restaurants, heating engineers, osteopaths, storefront shops: these professionals are barely on LinkedIn, and when they are, they hardly ever open it. For them, the right data is elsewhere: in company registries and on Google Maps.
Why LinkedIn is the wrong starting point
A baker, a plumber or a physiotherapist has no professional reason to keep a LinkedIn profile up to date. Many do not have one; those who do often created it once and never log in. A LinkedIn extraction therefore brings back a handful of profiles, and a LinkedIn campaign on this target waits for acceptances that never come.
If you still want to go through Sales Navigator, for a trade that is a bit more connected, two settings make all the difference. Filter on company headcount (self-employed and 1 to 10 employees) rather than seniority: a tradesperson writes "Carpenter" on their profile, not "CEO", and the seniority filter can divide the real volume by twenty-five. And filter on the current job title, in quotes, rather than on keywords.
In France: start from registries and Google Maps with Basile
For a French target, Basile is the natural starting point. Every company in it is already matched with its Google Maps listing (address, opening hours, phone, rating and reviews), its registry data (declared activity, director, creation date) and, when they exist, its website and LinkedIn profile.
For a local target, search for companies rather than people, and combine three families of filters:
- The trade: by activity, or by NAF code (also called APE code), the official activity code INSEE assigns to every French company. Basile's activity filter brings together the NAF code, the Google Maps category and the LinkedIn industry, which catches part of the badly coded companies.
- The area: département, postcode or city. For a sales round or a service area, it is the filter that matters most.
- Size and status: headcount, legal form, and active companies only. For shops, the Google rating and number of reviews help spot the busiest businesses.
The search shows the number of results before any export, and only the export uses your quota. Check that the volume makes sense, neither 40 nor 400,000, before pulling the file.
A few common NAF codes
| Trade | NAF code |
|---|---|
| Bakery, bakery and pastry | 10.71C |
| Plumbing (water and gas installation) | 43.22A |
| Heating, air conditioning | 43.22B |
| Electrical work | 43.21A |
| Traditional restaurants | 56.10A |
| Garage (light vehicle maintenance) | 45.20A |
| Hairdressing | 96.02A |
| Dental practice | 86.23Z |
The NAF code reflects the main declared activity, not always the real one: a tradesperson who does both plumbing and heating may be coded under either. Take the neighbouring codes, then sort things out in the exported file.
Why you will mostly find generic addresses
With a tradesperson or a shopkeeper, the email address that exists is the one on the website: contact@, info@, or the business name. Often even a Gmail or Orange address, set up by the owner. Named addresses like firstname.lastname@company.com assume a company mail system with one mailbox per person, which a business of two or three people almost never has.
That is why the named email search returns very little on these targets, whatever the tool: the address simply does not exist. Private individuals, doctors, notaries and independents within the same network are in the same situation. Stacking enrichment providers will not change that, except to add wrong addresses.
Basile provides the generic addresses published by companies at no extra cost. For these targets, they are your file.
Sticking contact@ in front of every domain, without knowing whether the mailbox exists, is the shortest road to a double-digit bounce rate. Only use addresses that are actually published, and verify the ones from an old file before sending.
A generic address changes the way you write
In a small business, the generic address is almost always read by the owner, between two jobs or two services. Sometimes by a partner or an assistant. So write to the business, without pretending to know the person, and only once per business: you only have one address anyway.
- A plain "Hello" without a first name, when you do not have the owner's name
- Personalization through the trade, the town, the Google rating or reviews
- A short message, readable on a phone
- A concrete offer, tied to the daily reality of the trade
- An empty first name variable or a guessed first name
- Large-account vocabulary ("synergies", "decision makers")
- Follow-ups close together on a shared address
- A sequence that starts with a LinkedIn step
Gmail, Orange, Wanadoo: more heavily filtered recipients
A good share of small professionals use a consumer mailbox. These addresses filter outreach more heavily: expect more messages in spam, and know that Orange (orange.fr, wanadoo.fr), the main French consumer provider, is particularly hard on cold email, whatever your sending host.
They cannot be verified either: Emelia's email verifier always rates Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo addresses as "invalid", because these providers refuse to answer verification requests. It does not mean the addresses are wrong.
Split your file between company-domain addresses and consumer addresses. You can verify the first ones before sending, and track the results of the second ones separately, at a more moderate volume.
The phone, often your best channel
Google Maps listings and websites almost always show a number, which Basile provides at no extra cost. It is usually a landline; with small tradespeople, it is quite often a mobile, the owner's.
The mobile number search, on the other hand, relies on the person's LinkedIn profile. On a target without LinkedIn, it has little to work with: the published number remains your best asset. Many people combine a short email with a call a few days later.
Without LinkedIn, build an email sequence
Without a LinkedIn profile, the LinkedIn steps of a multichannel campaign have nothing to do. For these targets, start from an email-only campaign, for instance the Pure Cold Email template offered when you create a campaign, and keep follow-ups well spaced.
Outside France: Switzerland, Belgium and other countries
Basile only covers France. For Switzerland, Belgium or any other country, you have to assemble the list another way:
- LinkedIn, for trades that are somewhat present there (dentists, architects, agencies, independents): Sales Navigator with an area filter, a profile language filter and a 1 to 10 headcount, then the email search. On these targets, a good share of the addresses found will be generic or Gmail.
- Google Maps listings, through a dedicated extraction tool: name, address, phone, website, sometimes an email address, in any country.
- The country's public registries (in Switzerland, the Zefix central business name index; in Belgium, the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises) and professional directories, to check an activity or find a director's name.
Once the list is assembled, import it into Emelia as a CSV: it is the same path as for any other file.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we get asked on this topic, answered briefly.
Why does the email search find almost nothing on my tradespeople?
Because the named address does not exist: a tradesperson has a generic address, often a Gmail or Orange one, not a firstname.lastname mailbox on a company domain. The email search only looks for named work addresses. Use the published generic addresses, which Basile provides at no extra cost.
Can I send a campaign to contact@ addresses?
Yes, when they are published by the business: for a small business, it is the right channel, and often the only one. What you must avoid are guessed generic addresses, made up by adding contact@ in front of a domain without knowing whether the mailbox exists.
How do I find a tradesperson's mobile number?
Look first at the number published on their Google Maps listing or website: with small tradespeople, it is often a mobile. Emelia's phone search starts from the LinkedIn profile; without a profile, it has nothing to work with.
Does Basile cover Switzerland or Belgium?
No, only France. For those countries, combine LinkedIn for the trades that are on it, a Google Maps listing extraction, and the country's public registries, then import everything as a CSV.
Should I avoid Gmail or Orange addresses?
Not necessarily: with a tradesperson, it is often the only address. But they filter outreach more heavily, Orange in particular, and they cannot be verified. Send them a moderate volume and track the results separately.