Digital Business vs Local Business Lead Generation

Two Different Worlds of Lead Generation

Lead generation has traditionally meant finding businesses with physical locations: restaurants, dentists, law firms, retail stores, contractors. You search Google Maps, scrape directory listings, or drive around town collecting business cards. This approach works well for a huge segment of the market, but it completely misses another massive segment: businesses that exist only online.

Digital businesses, including SaaS companies, e-commerce stores, digital agencies, online consultancies, and remote service providers, represent a growing portion of the global economy. They do not have storefronts. They do not appear in local directories. They require a fundamentally different approach to prospecting.

Easy Email Finder now supports both approaches with two distinct search modes: Local Business (powered by Google Places) and Digital Business (powered by web-wide search). Understanding when and how to use each mode will maximize your lead generation results.

Local Business Lead Generation: Strengths and Limitations

Local business search is the original mode in Easy Email Finder. It uses the Google Places API to find businesses with physical locations in specific cities and regions. Here is what makes it powerful:

Strengths:

• Highly targeted by geography. You can find every plumber in Phoenix or every restaurant in Brooklyn.
• Rich data from Google Places including ratings, reviews, business hours, and price level indicators.
• Businesses with physical locations tend to be established and stable.
• Great for selling location-based services like local SEO, signage, insurance, or delivery.

Limitations:

• Misses all businesses without a Google Places listing.
• Cannot find remote, distributed, or online-only companies.
• Limited to businesses that have claimed their Google Business Profile.
• Location bias means the best results are in populated urban areas.

Digital Business Lead Generation: Strengths and Limitations

Digital business search is the new mode that finds companies across the open web, regardless of whether they have a physical address. Here is how it compares:

Strengths:

• Finds online-only businesses invisible to local directories.
• Includes tech stack detection, revealing the tools each business uses.
• No geographic limitations. Find businesses operating anywhere in the world.
• Captures the fast-growing segment of remote and distributed companies.

Limitations:

• Cannot target a specific city or neighborhood the way local search can.
• Does not include Google Places data like ratings, reviews, or business hours.
• Results may include a wider variety of business types, requiring more filtering.

When to Use Local Business Search

Use the Local Business mode when your target customer has a physical location and you care about geography. Some examples:

• You are a local marketing agency that serves businesses in your metropolitan area.
• You sell products or services that require physical proximity, like commercial cleaning, office supplies, or IT support.
• You are targeting a specific industry that is inherently local, like restaurants, medical practices, or auto repair shops.
• You want to leverage Google Places data like review counts and ratings to qualify leads.

When to Use Digital Business Search

Use the Digital Business mode when your target customer operates online and geography does not matter. Some examples:

• You sell software, SaaS tools, or digital services that work for any online business.
• You are looking for digital agencies, e-commerce stores, or online consultancies.
• You want to target businesses by the technology they use rather than where they are located.
• You are seeking partnerships with startups, tech companies, or online brands.

Combining Both Modes for Maximum Coverage

The most effective lead generation strategy uses both modes. Here is an example of how a web design agency might combine them:

Local search: Find restaurants, dental offices, and retail stores in your city that have outdated websites. These are great candidates for a website redesign, and you can meet them in person to close the deal.

Digital search: Find online businesses, SaaS companies, and e-commerce stores that need website improvements. These clients may be located anywhere, and the project would be handled entirely remotely.

By working both channels, you double your addressable market and reduce your dependence on any single source of leads.

Data Differences Between Modes

Each mode returns slightly different data enrichment. Here is a comparison:

• Both modes: Business name, website URL, verified email address, social media links.
• Local Business only: Google Places data including address, phone number, ratings, review count, business hours, price level, and business status.
• Digital Business only: Tech stack detection showing CMS, analytics, payment, and marketing tools used by the website.

The tech stack data from digital business search is particularly valuable for B2B sales because it lets you personalize your pitch based on the technologies a prospect already uses.

Pricing Is the Same for Both Modes

Both Local Business and Digital Business searches use the same pay-as-you-go pricing: $0.25 per email, 5 free lookups to start, no subscription required. You can switch freely between modes without any additional cost.

For deeper guidance on each approach, check out our complete guide to digital business lead generation and our guide to prospecting online-only businesses.

Try both modes at easyemailfinder.com and see which produces the best results for your business.