Web scraping is the process of extracting information from a source or website which contains valuable information and scraping all of that and saving it in your system in the format you would like to view it in such as CSV file and much more.

Previously, if a company needed to extract information from a website, they would opt for the method of copy-pasting. But the drawback here was when it comes to large data the copy-pasting would consume a lot of time to conduct the action and when you copy-paste big data the website slows down alerting the owner of suspicious activity.

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But with web scraping, this isn’t the case. In just a few minutes you can easily extract information without slowing down the website which is why it has grown to be popular. To conduct web scraping activities is convenient, all you need to is:

1. Select the website/source you want to scrape
2. Choose the data which you needs scraping
3. Run the web scraping code
4. Save it all in your system

So why is web scraping important and why does it matter?

1. SCRAPES RELEVANT DATA FROM THE CROWD

There are tens and thousands of data available online but not all that data is relevant to help your business grow. As a brand you know what is required for your brand’s enrichment and hence with web scraping, extracting only that portion of essential data that can help brands succeed faster in their lead capture activities.

For instance, if you want to scrape data from your competitor's websites, web scraping makes that happen without the competitor's website slowing down or having any risk of any brand conducting this action to be detected. 

2. QUICKER IMPROVISATION OF BRAND’S SOLUTIONS

A brand can enhance its solution when it has the right data which exhibits the requirements needed to improvise the solution. Web scraping provides accurate data because all the data being driven is from sources that have been following it or from platforms where prospects have mentioned their opinion on their expectations about a particular product.

All of this contributes a valuable data collection to brands which can help them to improvise their solution better. Since brands have an analysis of what their prospects are expecting, it becomes easier to adapt to the modifications and also plan out the next possible changes before the new trend hits. 

3. RETAINS BRAND SUCCESS

A brand success can only be retained when a band continues to serve the needs of all its prospects even with each changing trend. But how can that happen when the trends have no time of their arrival? With the data collected, brand’s can have an idea, it might not be the exact prediction but a simple analysis of how their solution will be looked upon a few years from now. Not only that aspect, but brands can also have an analysis of how their prospects will look at a product.

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For instance maybe the current product offered by a brand is great,it has all the features and the prices are great, with web scraping you can get data which will help you analyze what more are prospects looking from the product for instance maybe they want few features to be automated or they want a specific feature and so on. Web scraping ensures that you get the data that can help you still cater to the prospect's needs no matter the changes and still retain the success crown for longer. 

4. OUTSELL COMPETITORS

The harsh truth is if you want to be successful, outselling your competitors can win you over some brownie points. With web scraping, you can easily scrape any information which will most likely help your brand to hover in front of your competitors. It could be their pricing strategies, their prospect reviews and any other information which will most likely help in catering to your very own prospect needs.

The market is growing and changing all the time when it comes to conducting activities which can pull your brand closer to assisting their needs better, web scraping is an ideal tool for that action to take place.

5. INDULGES IN LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES

To capture the ideal lead for a brand, it takes up a lot of research time to find the right audience which fits a brand’s target audience. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just have a list that consists of the leads which can be interested in what your brand has to offer? Web scraping lets this happen. 

There are moments where you find leads in the most unimagined places, for instance, your blog post comments, or if someone has shared your post and even leads can be found within your peers activities as well such as their engagement sections of the individuals they interact with openly online, all these prospects stand as a potential sales leads for your brand. 

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With the help of web scraping, you can easily scrape such information, get their contact details as well as email addresses without breaking a sweat and conduct efficient cold calling and emailing on the spot. This not only saves a lot of time for the sales agents to find them through the crowd but also speeds up the process much quicker than imagined. 

The data in which web scraping extracts are all accurate and from relevant sources means that if you apply that data it becomes easier to improvise the solution you are selling. Generating leads in a market where their prospects are well informed can be tough hence with a solution such as a web scraping, you can benefit some major advantages that could help your lead driven activities to function better.

1. HELPS YOU FIND THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

The key ingredient to tapping leads is to find out first which is your target audience. When you don’t engage with the right target audience, your chances of converting leads becomes relatively less. Hence with web scraping, you can easily find out which audience will be best suited for your brand. You can scrape websites of your competitors and monitor which leads are great for your brand and start engaging with them sooner.

2. COLLECT CONTACT INFORMATION

With web scraping, you can easily collect lead information without any hassle. So many times, your competitors or other sources have a sign-up option for their leads to engage with them. If you scrape such data you can easily retrieve email addresses and phone numbers which will help you to tap leads and convert them into a potential sales lead. For B2B leads the number one way to go ahead and win leads is through referrals and when you can collect such information it becomes quicker for you to assist them too. 

3. MONITOR DATA

The market keeps changing and so does your client's preferences. Before your competitors can even plan their next move it is crucial that you hit the target audience first With web scraping you can subscribe to daily data capture from sources so that you are always aware of what your current clients are looking out for. For B2B lead generation, web scraping helps you to monitor the raw data you have in hand so that you can apply the solutions when you plan your next lead generation action. 

4. ASSISTANCE IN LEAD GENERATION ACTIVITIES

For B2B lead generation to take place, many things are vital as mentioned in the above pointers, the right target audience, the contact details and the update on client preferences. With web scraping, this can all be assisted. Since all the vital information is being extracted it is put to good use with your lead generation activities. This data that you receive is important because it helps you in nurturing your clients at the right time whilst tackling the huge competition in the market. 

5. CAPTURE DATA FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

‘’49% of B2B marketers site social media marketing as the most difficult lead generation tactic to execute’’

Today every client of yours is on social media. But the sad reality is that there are so many of them but you might not be able to find them all. So many different social media handles, multiple users, constant engagements can lead you to miss out on a few essential leads which could cost your brand a high value. With web scraping this is possible. You can extract any information about your clients from Instagram, Linkedin or Facebook and even get a hold of their community so that you can keep a closer eye on who you can engage better with. With almost everyone imprinting its presence, it’s great to capture B2B leads with such a platform that has potential leads right closer to you. 

6. FIND POTENTIAL LEADS ON LEAD SOURCES

Another great way to generate leads is to find them in places which they often walk upon. For instance, if your clients are found more on a particular social media handle, say for instance Instagram, you can use web scraping to conduct this process. Another great place to find your leads is through craigslist. You can find many listings and it’s a great source to scrape them to retrieve valuable information. 

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7. STAYING AHEAD OF YOUR COMPETITORS

This is one of the most crucial factors to conduct B2B lead generation. An excellent way to receive quality leads which will instantly turn into hot leads, which will give you the expected results you aim to achieve and which will help you soar your brand higher sooner is by web scraping your competitor's information. With web scraping you can easily monitor and track down all the information of your competitor's next move, from their pricing patterns to their lead reviews and feedback, you can get all this information in your system via web scraping and apply its solution by improvising your solution to sell them better.

8. FOR SUCCESSFUL CONTENT CREATION

Content is a great tool to engage with your clients. Not only does it trigger the attention of your clients, but it also makes a huge impact on lead generation activities too. For instance, many content tools for instance SEO are a great medium to generate leads. For example, with SEO you can find the keywords which your clients are using so that you can include in your content and pull their attention towards your brand solution. Even other forms of content such as blogs or social media posts are a great way to engage with your leads more closely. With web scraping, you can easily gather keywords or the posts and topics which your clients want to see and apply the same when you engage with them via the content platform. 

9. CAPTURING LEADS BETTER WITH EMOTIONAL CONNECT

When you can connect with clients during the conversation, you have scored your way to develop their trust upon you and begin listening to what solution you have to offer them. Similarly, when you can understand what runs in your clients' minds when it comes to their emotional connection with a brand, you can use this mechanism to grasp them more closely to you.

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For instance, if your clients engage with a brand because they were able to relate to them, or they were able to connect emotionally, chances are your leads can be converted quicker. With web scraping, you can scrape the data you have to find out about what are the factors that trigger an emotional connection with your clients. You can then use that information when selling your solution to them. 

10. KEEPING YOU UPDATED ON LATEST MARKET STRUCTURES

It's 2019 and how the market was years ago will be solely different when you compare it to today. Your client's preferences change with the growing trends which is exactly why you need to step your next game action. With web scraping this is possible. It is important that you know what’s going on in the current market so that you can enhance your sales strategy and product improvement better.

With web scraping, you can use this technique to extract regular market changes information and quickly modify the way you create, interact and communicate with your leads. When your clients are aware that you are selling them the latest solution which is trending, they will automatically be drawn closer to you hence increasing B2B lead generation more efficiently. 

Recently, there are brands who conduct web scraping in an automated format so that they can keep in touch with regular updates. To conduct web scraping doesn’t require much technical knowledge, however, if you implement or familiarise web scraping languages, you will be able to conduct this action without any supervision.

1. PYTHON

Python is one of the most common coding languages. With reference to web scraping languages, this is popularly used for such a process. For any web scraping activities, Python is considered to be the finest in ensuring that this process is conducted without any errors.

Factors:

1. Beneficial tool for web scraping because it includes two impactful frameworks which matters while conducting this process, Scrapy, and Beautiful Soup.
2. The use of ‘Beautiful Soup’ application in python is intended for quick and efficient data extraction practices.
3. It contains advanced web scraping libraries which makes Python a better hit when compared to the remaining web scraping languages.
4. It contains a variety of the finest data visualization libraries for users like you to function better with.

2. NODE.JS

Node.js is most suited for data crawling activities that practice dynamic coding activities. It also supports distributed crawling practices. Node.js uses Javascript to conduct non-blocking applications which can help enhance multiple simultaneous events that would be taking place. 

Factors:

1. Beneficial for streaming activities
2. Can conduct API’s as well as socket-based activities
3. Has a built-in library
4. Can conduct basic web scraping data extraction activities
5. Has a basic stable communication

3. RUBY

Ruby is considered to be one of the open-source programming languages. It has a user-friendly syntax which is easy to understand and can be practiced and applied without any hassles. The greatest feature of Ruby is that it consists of multiple languages such as Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, Lip along with another new language. Ruby is well aware of how it needs to balance functional programming with the assistance of imperative programming.

Factors:

1. It is a simple web scraping languages
2. It is more on the productive process
3. No signs of code repetition take place
4. You require less writing for such a language
5. This language is supported by a community of users

Supports multithreading

4. C & C++

C and C++ are a great execution solution but it can be costly when it comes to conducting web scraping. Prowebscraper recommends, ‘’it is not advisable to use these languages to set up a crawler unless it’s a specialized organization that you have in mind, focusing only on extracting data.’’

Factors:

1. Simple to understand
2. Can write own HTML parsing library according to your requirements
3. Can conduct such a web scraping language better with dynamic coding
4. It can help to parallelize any scraper you use without any effort

5. PHP

PHP may not be able to be the ideal choice when it comes to the creation of a crawler program. In order to extract information such as graphics, images, videos, and other visual forms, using a CURL library is better. The best thing about the curl library is that it can help to transfer files with the help of protocol lists which have HTTP and FTP in it. Having this can help you in the creation of web spiders which could be utilized to download any kind of information from the online platform.

Factors:

1. Uses 39 MB of RAMusage
2. Uses 3% of CPU usage
3. It runs 723 pages per 10 minutes

While web scraping can help you in your lead generation activities, there is no harm in ensuring that this same activity can be conducted with a security net.

And that security net is called proxy servers.

Proxy servers stand between a user and the website it wants to access. When a user sends a request to view a restricted website the proxy server will receive the request first and then send it to the website. The reason why a proxy server receives it first is that it changes the IP address.

Many times you get blocked when viewing restricted sources of information because your IP address speaks about the location you are in. What a proxy server does is it helps to eliminate that issue by hiding your actual identity and giving another one.

Interesting Read : Step By Step Complete Guide to Web Scraping With Python

When it comes to web scraping for your business activities, proxy servers are beneficial. While you continue to scrape the multiple websites, proxy servers ensure that your identity is hidden and that the scraping activity conducts quicker. 

Proxy servers can help you scrape leads better, but it's not the only one advantage it can give your business. Proxy servers can help you in more ways which can affect your lead generation activities better.

1. IMPACTING MARKETING ACTIVITIES

Conducting marketing activities isn’t an easy process. The right process requires the right strategies to help a brand achieve the results it’s expecting. Conducting marketing activities such as campaigns that need to be sent from the company are all hugely dependent on data. From identifying the different types of leads such as warm, hot or not interested, the marketing campaigns will be framed accordingly. But with such restricted data how can create a campaign that will garner more leads.

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Proxy servers are the solution. When you use a proxy server you will be able to identify what exactly are your leads looking for in your solution. You will be able to gather that data and create a campaign that matches the vision of your prospects. So when a prospect receives it, they have no choice but to explore more about the solution you are offering.

2. ENHANCING SALES OPPORTUNITIES

Capturing a lead, nurturing them and then converting them into a sales lead is a tiresome task. To convince the prospects of today is difficult since they are already well aware of the solutions being sold in the market hence to cater to their queries, it is ideal to research about the needs of such prospects. But as mentioned earlier, the data available online won’t be as important for your brand. Hence to conduct the right research of prospects needs with data which matters it would be wise to use a proxy server.

A proxy server will be able to provide you with all the relevant data that can help sales reps to frame their sales pitches in a manner that can help them sell better. With the data in hand about the common prospect queries, with every call sales reps can easily cater to them without any hassles hence closing more deals and increasing the conversion rates higher. 

3. BUILDING STRONG ENGAGEMENTS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

‘’Social media users grew by 202 million between April 2018 and April 2019.’’ Social media is one of the fastest ways for any business looking to tap leads quicker. The users on any social media handle have grown higher and continue to grow. But with so many of your competitors already using this platform to engage with prospects, how can you manage to capture your prospect's attention?

With proxy servers this is possible. Proxy servers can help you to understand what kind of activity works better on social media. For instance, maybe your prospects would like brands like yours to engage with them with the help of video or infographics or other forms of content. When you have such a piece of information in hand, you are able to draw their attention and immediately grasp them. Social media is the hub for modern businesses of today to cater to prospects just the way they wish to be catered and with a proxy server, having all their data helps you to enhance social media engagements with them more effectively. 

4. CONDUCTS EFFICIENT SEO ACTIVITIES

‘’57% of B2B marketers stated that SEO generates more leads than any other marketing initiative.’’ SEO is considered to be one of the most efficient activities to capture leads in the form of search engines and content. To deliver the right SEO tactics there are many techniques that need to be incorporated such as using the right keywords, backlinks and writing the topics which users want to read, hence every brand tends to spend half of their time researching how they manage this activity more effectively.

With proxy servers, the research can be conducted in a more efficient manner. With proxy servers, you have the opportunity to access data from your competitors and view what SEO blogs they write upon or what comments have the prospects given on each of their actions. You can also tap the keywords they use which makes them rank higher and more. When you conduct this action, you are able to apply such effective strategies in your processes and outsell your competitors much quicker and better.

5. HELPS TO TRACK PRICING FACTORS

Another essential factor where proxy servers play an important part is setting the right price. Pricing matters in business and to set a price it takes a lot of research and considerations. As a brand you cannot set a too low price nor a high price, the price needs to be set according to the value it provides. Prospects evaluate whether a certain product is worth the price and is adding the value it's offering.

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To acknowledge this factor using a proxy server is efficient. With a proxy server, you can access information on competitors and analyze how they are setting their pricing strategies. You can also access your prospect's recommendations or feedback to understand how much they are ready to pay for a product and the reasons attached to their actions. By conducting these actions it becomes easier to set the right price which would make your prospects invest in your solution. 

6. CONDUCTING EFFECTIVE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

For a brand to succeed better having the right information in hand is important. For instance, many brands today invest their revenue in conducting multiple pieces of research with the help of CTO’s or data scientists who can help to use data to retrieve insightful results that could matter to a brand. But when data itself is so minimal how can the right predictions or the right accuracy be implemented in such an action?

Proxy servers ensure that every data being retrieved is of added value. Whether it is a competitor's website, social media or any other source which is limited or restricted, the proxy server ensures that when you use it to conduct any online data retrieval activity you are able to access all of it. When the insightful data is in your hand, it becomes easier to create a solution that will impact the way your brand will perform in the near future.

7. TAPPING ONLY THE RIGHT LEADS

How many times have you witnessed that amongst all your lead activities there are a few leads which don’t match the solution you are selling to them. These leads are not the ideal ones for you and will not be able to add any value to your business, but by the time you realize it, you have wanted a portion of your revenue already. The competition is so fierce that every lead capture needs to be done quickly or your competitors will capture them.

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Hence using a proxy server will be able to help you here. With a proxy server, you can access social accounts and other sources of information which provide you with the knowledge of your lead. Have you ever felt that your solution is a much better product than what your competitors are selling? If yes, it’s time you capture their audience and sell them a solution much better than what they are receiving at the moment.