Copying from directory pages when you sell to painters and decorators
Are you still copying company names from a web page one by one? Here is how people who sell to painters and decorators fix it.
Are you still copying company names from a web page one by one?
A directory or member list shows exactly the companies you want, but there is no export button. Copying every name, website and phone number by hand takes forever.
It hits harder when you sell to painters and decorators. Painters and decorators are mostly sole traders and small teams who win work through word of mouth and local reputation. They buy paint and tools regularly, so trade counters and suppliers compete for their loyalty, and most decisions are made quickly by the owner.
Useful lists stay on the page because turning them into rows is too much work. Manual copying also introduces errors.
Paste a page, get rows.
With paste and collect you paste the HTML of a page you opened yourself into Riftjaw. You pick the repeating blocks, turn them into rows and send them to import. Riftjaw does not crawl the web; you supply the page.
- Fields that fit painters and decorators, such as interior or exterior
- Email prefixes that fit, like info@, hello@ and enquiries@
- Status, tags and a segment on every record
How to fix it in Riftjaw
- Paste the HTML. Copy the source of the page you opened and paste it in.
- Pick the blocks. Select the repeating block that holds one company.
- Send to import. Turn the blocks into rows and map them like any other file.
Other walls when prospecting painters and decorators
Many decorators trade under their own name, so the company column is empty or inconsistent.
Placeholders with a fallback, such as {company|your business}, keep the mail readable even when a field is missing.
Lists contain a lot of one person businesses that change phone numbers and sites.
Keep the source and date on each record, archive records that bounce and export a clean list whenever you need it.
You want to send a gentle offer, not a blast that looks like spam.
Campaigns go out in small batches of 10, with a test send first and unsubscribed contacts skipped automatically.
Fields worth recording for painters and decorators
Record these and you can split the list later, write sharper mails and see who fits your offer.
| Field | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Company name | The key field. Duplicates are checked on it or on the website. |
| Website | Needed to derive an email when the export has none. |
| Interior or exterior | Tells you which products and seasons matter to them. |
| Commercial work | Firms doing offices and shops buy in larger volumes. |
| Spraying | Spray finishers are a separate audience for equipment suppliers. |
| Service area | Useful for suppliers with local trade counters. |
Questions people ask
Look at their listings or websites for spraying services and record it in a field or tag. The paste and collect tool can help you turn a directory page you have open into rows for import.
If you have a first name field, use a placeholder like {first_name|there}. If not, the fallback keeps the greeting natural.
If your file has an email column, that wins. If it only has websites, tick the prefixes you want, such as info@, hello@ and enquiries@, and Riftjaw derives addresses from each domain. Derived addresses are good guesses, not verified, so start with small batches.
Yes. The Free plan runs the whole pipeline on one list with small campaigns, and you do not need a credit card. Move to Pro when you want more lists, segments and bigger campaigns.
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