Web scraping is the process of extracting data from a website or another source of information. Instead of waiting for long hours to copy-paste information the 2019 edition of data extraction requires only a few minutes to scrape an entire piece of information.

Web scraping is great. It functions on the main criteria for every business which is data retrieval. In 2019 data is everything and web scraping ensures that you are getting a dose of all that in your business strategies.

There are many brands today that offer web scraping facilities. Some allow you to conduct it manually while some conduct it with a smooth automation process. Conducting web scraping is easy, all you need to do is:

Click the website you want to extract

• The web scraping process will commence
• Data is then captured and saved in a format you would prefer such as CSV file and more

Imagine what would an asset such as web scraping if used in businesses, can do for its growth?

With data being a priority and need for the modern B2B brands today, how can web scraping impact and influence the way your business conducts its process.

1. Helps in price monitoring

Many businesses fail to get their pricing strategies right. Pricing plays an important part in any b2b business and your brand must set it right. But with so many competitors, how can you identify which pricing strategy will win over your prospect's attention? Here is when web scraping can help you.

With web scraping, you can easily scrape through all the pricing information online from various competitors and get the information in your system to monitor. As you analyze them, it becomes easier for you to set the price in which your prospects will revert in a good response.

2. Sufficient data to analyze solutions

The market will not be the same as it is right now. 5 years from now maybe the techniques or the solutions being offered now will be much more advanced. Hence it is important to always keep a track of what is happening in the market. But with such a restricted data platform, how can a brand like yours be able to prep for the new change?

Here is when web scraping can help you. With the data available online from researches or articles or even prospect information a brand like yours can use this as a great opportunity to collect the data which can help you to work on the creation of a solution which your prospects will favour a few years from now. You will also have an idea of how the market is changing and what the ideal image of the market is looking like from a prospect's point of view. This all can contribute to the well being and growth of your business.

3. Helps in the generation of leads

Lead generation is one of the most crucial processes in any business. With lead generation, a brand can tap leads and convert them into a potential sales lead. Hence web scraping understands the importance of this process and has a solution that can make your sales agents happy.

With web scraping, you can scrape through all the list of your leads from the social media handles, competitor's source of information and any other places where the lead activity is higher. This is great as not only are you receiving all the lead information such as their name, designation, email address and phone numbers you are also speeding up the process of a lead generation much quicker for the business.

4. Scrapes through competitor activities

To be successful, pushing above your competitors is a good start. When you can perform better than your competitors that’s when your identity and your position continue to soar higher. But how would you know what your competitors are doing or what their next plan of action is?

Here is when web scraping can help you. With web scraping, right from their pricing strategies to what their prospects say about them can be easily scraped via the web scraping process. All this information can help in your business plans to mould and create the ideal solution prospects are looking for. Web scraping gives you the liberty to always keep a close eye on their competitors so that before they can levy the advantage, your brand would already be serving prospects' attention much faster.

5. Sustains brand identity

Brand identity can take minutes to fade away. Building up such a reputation takes years of hard work and in 2019 with the competition getting tough there are instances where identity damage is happening more than just being an occasion. Prospects, before they can even consider buying from you, are always on the lookout via the online platform to learn more about what your brand has to offer.

And so in this situation, if they find even one bad review that would be enough to turn their confidence into doubts about investing in your brand. Hence web scraping can be beneficial here. With web scraping, you can easily scrape through all the fraud and bad reviews and get them quickly eliminated. Conducting this action regularly keeps your brand's identity intact as the elimination of bad reviews are taken care of immediately.

6. Manage social media activities

Social media is the hub where a brand can easily tap leads. Making use of social media is a great way for brands like yours to capture leads. Today everyone is on social media and if you aim to grow your lead count in a more organic manner, social media leads are what you need to look out for.

Social media is the place where you can easily engage with your prospects. From sharing relevant content to creating ads that will trigger attention, identifying what suits your prospect interest is the key to lead generation via this platform. Web scraping helps you to conduct this activity in a more hassle-free manner.

With web scraping you can scrape through significant information such as prospects interest on topics, their opinions, and feedbacks, what catches their interest, what pages are they liking more, what topics do they want to learn about and much more. When you have all this information it becomes easier to create a solution that will not only promote your brand in a better way online but also help you create essential solutions which matter and will revert positive responses.

7. Enhances SEO activities

Did you know that SEO is another important factor that can help to capture leads? SEO content includes using the right keywords in content so that when your prospects want to find a solution, your content should be the first thing they see. But with so many keywords and content is already written online, how can a brand like you push away from the crowd and rank your content higher?

Here is when web scraping can help you. With web scraping, you can easily scrape through the common keywords being used by prospects as well as the topics which are garnering more interest and implement the same during your SEO presentations. You can also web scrape your competitor's information to understand what keywords they are using so that the impact your SEO strategy becomes much better.

8. Helps you identify prospects needs

If a brand invests its time and money targeting the wrong audience, no good can come out of it.

‘’In Business Efficiency for Dummies, business efficiency consultant Marina Martin states, “Inefficiencies cost many companies anywhere from 20-30% of their revenue each year.”

Many businesses fail to understand who are the right audience for them. In order to conduct efficient lead generation, you first need to identify which leads are you targeting?

Web scraping can help you make this process much easier for you. With web scraping, you can scrape through those leads which have shown interest in the business you are in. For instance, say if you are a software company that is selling proxies for a living. Now when you are scraping the leads, you will aim at those individuals whose interest surrounds proxies.

When you capture them that is when you will be able to assist their proxies needs with your solutions. You can also scrape information from social handles who are selling the same solution as you and convert them into a sales lead by directing them towards what you have to offer.

‘’PayPal Co-Founder Max Levchin pointed out, “The world is now awash in data and we can see consumers in a lot clearer ways.” The data you need to help you understand and reach your consumers is out there.’’

9. Improvise for a better solution

Your solution can never be the same currently or 5 years from now. It needs to be constantly improvised and worked upon so that your prospects only receive the best from using it. The market changes, technology grows and the preferences and trends fade away with the launch of new ones, how can you improve your solution to match the standards?

Web scraping can help you. With web scraping, you can conduct automated scraping activities on a regular basis to keep up with the market changes, upcoming trends, prospect feedback, opinions shared about your type of business and the industry you were working on. All of these will keep you insightful and help you to improvise on a solution that will not just excel prospect's expectations but also help you grow healthier in the long run.

“Once you can understand where the conversation is, who leads, the type of voices and the best place for you to add your voice, you can then start becoming a more active participant.”----------(Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image)

10. Creating ads for the target audience

Not all your audiences are the same. One ad cannot suffice all your target audiences. The reason being a few of your prospects could either be a hot lead or a warm lead. So for warm leads, you may have to show more ads to them to completely convince them to reach out to you. For your existing leads, you might want to show them a different ad that speaks about any new updates on your products. Web scraping can make this process simpler for you. With web scraping, you can easily scrape through information such as prospect behaviour, emotional connect and many other factors that will help you to create ads to target your various audiences.

While web scraping ensures that you are conducting the process hassle-free, there is one more ingredient that can help you to conduct this process in a more secure manner. The use of proxy servers can ensure the right security measures web scraping activities.

A proxy server is a middleman where it ensures that any information you receive is free from risks. When you want to access a website you send a request. That request is received first by a proxy server who changes your IP address. Once that happens the proxy server sends the request to the website who once approves of it sends back the content for you to view.

When the website receives the content you wish to view it ensures that the information is free of any risks giving you the security that you are looking at a reliable source. The main reason why your brand gets blocked when viewing a restricted website is that those websites are able to trace you with your IP address.

Dedicated proxies ensure that your identity is always hidden and instead display an IP address which the restricted website would favour upon. When you scrape for information, you are conducting this with so many sources in hand. Often sometimes chances are you can get blocked which can cause a hindrance in your work.

To avoid all that you must invest in a good proxy server that gives you great benefit. A few could be great security, a good number of proxies, the ability to shield your IP address and good speed to conduct the web scraping process.

Always go for a paid proxy server it yields better results and can conduct your web scraping activities much more pleasant. Web scraping is helping your business to grow well when you include a proxy server, you are conducting a secure and reliable process.