Guides
How to find every business, and reach the right ones.
Practical, step-by-step methods you can follow by hand or with Leadraft. More on the blog.
Guide
B2B mailing lists: build or buy, for direct mail and email
B2B mailing lists for postal and email: what lists cost per thousand, USPS NCOA, CASS and Marketing Mail basics, compliance, and building one from Google Maps.
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Can ChatGPT find leads? What it can and can't do for a lead list
Can ChatGPT find leads? It can research a few businesses, but it can't list a whole market or verify emails. What works instead: data source, API, CSV.
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Lead generation with Claude: MCP setup, prompts and guardrails
Use Claude for lead generation: what web search can and can't do, exact MCP setup for Claude Code, Desktop and Cursor, prompts that work, and spending guardrails.
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Clay and Google Maps: what Clay's Maps source does, where it stops, and how to import a full local list
What Clay's Google Maps source returns, its 1,000-result default and no-website gaps, why teams source outside Clay, and how to import a CSV or webhook feed.
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How to find emails on Facebook business pages (and when not to)
Where a Facebook Page shows its email, why many don't, what Meta's terms say about scraping, and a manual workflow for Facebook-only businesses.
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How to find who owns an LLC, state by state (15 states compared)
Where to search LLCs in CA, TX, FL, NY, DE, NV, WY and 8 more states, whether members or managers are public, what annual reports show, and what it costs.
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How to find the owner of a business: every legitimate method, and what each one shows
Find who owns a business using its website, state filings, DBA records, license lookups, property records, BBB, LinkedIn, local news or a phone call.
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Instant Data Scraper on Google Maps: how to use it, what it captures and its limits
How to use the free Instant Data Scraper extension on Google Maps, step by step: what it captures, why it stops near 120 results with no emails, and when to upgrade.
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Lead list template for Google Sheets and Excel (free CSV download)
A free lead list template with the columns that matter, status dropdowns, data validation and dedupe formulas for Google Sheets and Excel. Download the CSV.
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New business license lists: where to get them free, by city and state
Free official lists of new business licenses and registrations: Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, state filings and paid lists.
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Does Google Maps show email addresses? (No. Here's where to find them)
Google Maps and Google Business Profile have no email field. Here is what a listing does show, and the five places a local business's email actually lives.
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How to export Google Maps results to Excel, CSV or Google Sheets
Google Maps has no export button. The manual options (saved lists, Google Takeout), the tools, the columns to keep, and Sheets formulas to clean and dedupe.
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How to find new businesses in your area before your competitors do
Where new businesses show up first: state LLC filings, county DBA notices, city license data and new Google Maps listings, with real counts and a routine.
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Why Google Maps stops at 120 results, and how to get every business
One Google Maps search stops at about 120 results and the Places API at 60. Why the cap misses businesses, and how tiling and keyword variants get the rest.
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Google Maps business categories: the list that matters for lead generation
How Google Maps categories work, how many exist, why one keyword misses businesses, and nearly 300 categories by vertical with the searches that find them.
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Google Maps lead generation: the complete playbook (2026)
Google Maps lead generation end to end: niche, area, keywords, coverage, cleaning, verified emails, outreach and re-runs, with a worked 2,000-business funnel.
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Google Maps scraper: what it is, what data you get, and how to choose one (2026)
What a Google Maps scraper does, every field you can get, the four types of tool, the 120-result cap, emails and verification, and real cost math per lead.
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How to find a small business owner's email address
Find the owner's name (website, state filings, licenses, BBB, LinkedIn), build the likely email formats, verify them, and handle catch-all domains honestly.
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How to find (and verify) the email address of any local business: 7 methods
Seven ways to find a local business's email, from the contact page to WHOIS to pattern guessing, with a decision flow, a realistic hit rate and how to verify.
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How to scrape Google Maps without code, with Python or with an API (4 methods compared)
Four ways to get business data out of Google Maps, step by step: a no-code extension, Python and the Places API, a scraping API, and a lead tool, with costs.
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Is scraping Google Maps legal? An honest answer
Google's terms prohibit scraping Maps. What that means in law in 2026: contract vs crime, hiQ, Google v. SerpApi, the CFAA, GDPR and CCPA, and email rules.
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How to get a list of all businesses in your area (or by ZIP code)
Free and paid ways to list every business in a city or ZIP code: Census counts, city license data, state filings, libraries, Google Maps, and how to check it.
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Local business leads: where to get them, what they cost, and how to qualify them
Where to get local business leads (Google Maps, data vendors, directories, state filings, LinkedIn, referrals), cost per usable lead, and how to qualify them.
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Skip the busywork.
Leadraft runs the searches, cleans the list and checks every email.