How to Enrich a CSV or Excel File: Step-by-Step Guide (2026)

You’ve got a CSV export from your CRM, an Excel spreadsheet of event leads, or a contact list from a trade show. The problem? It’s incomplete. You have names and companies — maybe a few domains — but no verified professional emails, no phone numbers, no LinkedIn profiles.

That’s exactly what data enrichment solves. This guide walks you through how to turn a raw CSV or Excel file into a complete, actionable B2B prospecting database — step by step, no technical skills required.

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Why Enriching a CSV or Excel File Matters in 2026

An incomplete prospecting file is a direct drag on your sales output. According to HubSpot, sales teams waste an average of 27% of their time dealing with bad or missing data. On top of that, around 30% of B2B data decays every year — contacts change jobs, emails go invalid, companies pivot.

Data enrichment means completing an existing file with additional information: verified professional emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn URLs, firmographic data (industry, company size, location). The goal is straightforward: take a raw list and turn it into a qualified, workable database.

Here’s a practical example. Sarah, a Sales Manager at a B2B SaaS startup, receives a monthly Excel file with 200 leads from industry events. The file has first names, last names, and company names — but no email addresses. Without enrichment, Sarah has to manually look up every contact. With a proper enrichment workflow, she gets verified emails for all 200 leads in under 10 minutes.

With that context in mind, let’s go through the process step by step.

Step 1: Prepare Your CSV or Excel File

Before enriching anything, your file needs to be properly structured. A poorly organized file produces enrichment errors and inconsistent results.

Minimum data you need (and what you can get from it):

Columns to check before importing:

• Headers are clear and sit in a single row (no merged cells)
• Data is consistent within each column (no mixing first and last name in one cell)
• Special characters are properly encoded (UTF-8 recommended)
• No completely empty rows in the middle of your data

Expected result: A clean file with distinct columns for each data type, ready to import into Google Sheets.

Step 2: Import Your CSV or Excel File into Google Sheets

Google Sheets is where Derrick runs natively — so this is the mandatory step before any automated enrichment.

For a CSV file:

1. Open Google Sheets and create a new spreadsheet
2. Click File > Import
3. Select your CSV file from your computer
4. Under separator type, choose “Detect automatically”
5. Select “Replace spreadsheet” or “Insert new sheet(s)” based on your preference
6. Click Import data

For an Excel file (.xlsx):

1. Go to drive.google.com
2. Drag and drop your Excel file directly into Drive
3. Right-click the uploaded file > Open with > Google Sheets
4. A Google Sheets version opens automatically

Expected result: Your file is visible in Google Sheets, with columns properly separated and data readable. Check that special characters (accents, etc.) display correctly.

Step 3: Install and Set Up Derrick in Google Sheets

Derrick is a Google Sheets add-on that lets you enrich B2B data directly from your spreadsheet, with zero technical setup.

Installation:

1. In Google Sheets, click Extensions > Add-ons > Get add-ons
2. Search for “Derrick” in the Google Workspace Marketplace
3. Click Install and grant the requested permissions
4. Derrick now appears in your Extensions menu

First launch:

1. Click Extensions > Derrick > Open
2. Sign in to your Derrick account (or create a free account)
3. The Derrick panel opens on the right side of your spreadsheet

Expected result: The Derrick panel is open in Google Sheets and your available credits are displayed. You’re ready to run your first enrichment.

Step 4: Enrich Your Data — Available Workflows

This is the core of the guide. Derrick offers several enrichment types depending on what data you start with and what you want to get back. Here are the most commonly used workflows for enriching a CSV or Excel file.

Find Professional Emails

What you need: First name, last name, and company domain (or company name)

How to do it:

1. In the Derrick panel, select “Lead Email Finder”
2. Map the columns for first name, last name, and domain/company
3. Select the destination column for the emails
4. Click Run to enrich all selected rows

Derrick finds the professional email for each contact and validates it in real time. You get a verified email with a confidence indicator — no guessing.

For a deeper dive into verifying your email list, check out our guide on email verification.

Find Phone Numbers

What you need: The contact’s LinkedIn profile URL

How to do it:

1. In the Derrick panel, select “Phone Finder from LinkedIn”
2. Map the column containing LinkedIn URLs
3. Select the destination column for phone numbers
4. Run the enrichment

If your file doesn’t yet include LinkedIn URLs, start with the step below first.

Find LinkedIn Profiles

What you need: First name, last name, and (optionally) company name

How to do it:

1. Select “LinkedIn Profile Finder” in Derrick
2. Map the first name, last name, and company columns
3. Run the search

Derrick finds the matching LinkedIn profile URL for each row. This data can then feed into the Phone Finder or LinkedIn Profile Scraper for deeper enrichment. Learn more about the lead enrichment feature.

Enrich Company Data

If your file contains company names or domains, you can automatically pull in firmographic data:

1. Select “LinkedIn Company Scraper” or “LinkedIn Company Finder”
2. Map the column with the company name or LinkedIn company URL
3. Run the enrichment to get: industry, headcount, location, description, LinkedIn URL

All available enrichment workflows are listed on the Derrick data enrichment page. You can also explore the company enrichment feature for a full breakdown.

Expected result: Your file now has new columns filled with enriched data. Depending on the quality of your input data, completion rates typically range from 60% to 85%.

Step 5: Clean and Normalize Your Enriched File

Enrichment can generate duplicates or inconsistently formatted data. Before using your file in a campaign, a cleanup pass is essential.

Remove Duplicates

If your file has the same contact appearing multiple times — for instance, from two different source lists — Derrick handles this natively.

1. Open the Derrick panel
2. Select “Remove Duplicates”
3. Choose the column to deduplicate on (email, LinkedIn URL, etc.)
4. Derrick identifies and removes duplicate entries

More details on the Remove Duplicates feature page.

Normalize Your Data

Well-normalized data improves deliverability and CRM consistency. Derrick’s Data Normalization feature:

• Splits first and last names stuck in the same cell
• Detects format inconsistencies (capitalization, extra spaces, stray characters)
• Standardizes data so it’s ready for your sequencing tool or CRM

Verify Enriched Emails

If you used the Lead Email Finder, emails are already validated in real time. But if your original file already contained emails you’re not sure about, run the Email Verifier on your full list before exporting. This eliminates hard bounce risks before you hit send.

Expected result: A deduplicated file with normalized data and verified emails — ready to import into your CRM or cold email tool.

Step 6: Export Your Enriched File to Your CRM

Once your file is enriched and cleaned in Google Sheets, you have two options:

Option 1: Manual CSV export

1. In Google Sheets, click File > Download > Comma-separated values (.csv)
2. Import the CSV into your CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive) following that tool’s native import flow

Option 2: Automate with Zapier or Make Derrick integrates with Zapier, Make, and n8n. This lets you build an automated workflow where every new row added to your Google Sheet gets enriched automatically and pushed to your CRM — no manual steps.

Common Errors (and How to Fix Them)

Problem 1: Low match rate — few emails found

Impact: You run the Email Finder on 200 contacts and get results for only 40.

Solution: Check that your input data is complete and accurate. The Email Finder needs at minimum a first name, last name, AND company domain — not just the company name. If you only have the company name, use the Company Finder first to get the domain, then re-run the Email Finder with that domain.

Problem 2: CSV imported incorrectly — all data in one column

Impact: After importing, all data shows up in a single column instead of being properly split.

Solution: Your file likely uses a semicolon as a separator instead of a comma. When importing into Google Sheets, select “Semicolon” as the separator type (or use “Detect automatically”). If the issue persists, open the CSV in a plain text editor to identify the actual delimiter.

Problem 3: Special characters showing as garbled text (encoding issue)

Impact: Accents or special characters appear as strings like “é” or “’” instead of the correct letters.

Solution: During import, specify UTF-8 encoding. If the file originates from Excel on Windows, it may be encoded as ANSI or Windows-1252 — try these options in the Google Sheets import settings.

Problem 4: Duplicate rows after enrichment

Impact: Your original file had 500 rows and now has 520 after enrichment.

Solution: This happens when some contacts already existed multiple times in the source file. Run Derrick’s Remove Duplicates feature on the email or LinkedIn URL column to clean things up.

Problem 5: Enriched emails bouncing in your campaign

Impact: Your bounce rate exceeds 5% despite enrichment.

Solution: Before exporting to your cold email tool, run the Email Verifier on your full email list. Real-time verification removes invalid addresses — potential hard bounces — before you send. More details on email verification.

Key Takeaways

• A raw CSV or Excel file isn’t prospecting-ready — enrichment is what makes it actionable
• Input data quality directly determines your completion rate: first name + last name + domain = best results
• Importing into Google Sheets is the mandatory first step to use Derrick
• Core workflows: Email Finder, Phone Finder (from LinkedIn), LinkedIn Profile Finder, Company Scraper
• Always clean before exporting: remove duplicates, normalize data, verify emails
• Around 30% of B2B data decays every year — enrich your database regularly, not just once

Conclusion: Your CSV File Is Just One Step Away from Being Useful

Enriching a CSV or Excel file no longer requires a data team or technical expertise. With the right workflow — import into Google Sheets, enrich with Derrick, clean up, and export — any SDR or growth marketer can turn a raw lead list into a complete prospecting database in under 20 minutes.

Next time you receive an incomplete lead file, don’t let it sit in a folder. Enrich it. Every missing column is a missed contact opportunity.

Turn your CSV files into complete prospecting databases

Derrick enriches your contacts directly in Google Sheets: verified emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and company data — in a few clicks.

Try for free →

FAQ

How do I enrich a CSV file with email addresses? Import your CSV into Google Sheets, then use Derrick’s Lead Email Finder. Map the first name, last name, and company domain columns. Derrick finds and validates the professional email for each row. Match rates depend on the completeness of your input data.

What’s the difference between a CSV and an Excel file for enrichment? Both behave the same once imported into Google Sheets. CSV is a universal plain-text format (comma-separated values); Excel (.xlsx) is a proprietary Microsoft format that supports formulas and formatting. For B2B enrichment purposes, the format doesn’t matter — only the quality of the data inside does.

How many contacts can I enrich at once with Derrick? Derrick runs on a credit system (1 credit = 1 enrichment action). The free plan includes 200 credits per month — enough to test on small files. Paid plans start at $9/month for 4,000 credits, with unused credits rolling over to the next month.

Is enriching from a CSV file GDPR compliant? In the UK and EU, B2B prospecting based on legitimate interest is permitted, provided the data is used for professional purposes relevant to the contact’s role. Enrichment should target professional data (work email, business phone) rather than personal data. Always include an opt-out option in your outreach. Check out the B2B data enrichment glossary for a breakdown of key compliance concepts.

My Excel file has formulas — will they carry over to Google Sheets? Google Sheets can read most Excel formulas, but some Excel-specific functions aren’t supported. For B2B enrichment, formulas usually aren’t needed — only raw values (names, companies, domains) are used as input. If you want to be safe, export your Excel data as CSV (values only) before importing.