Sub-Industry Company List Building in Apollo.io
Apollo.io’s industry filters are broad by design. If you’re targeting a specific niche - like coffee shops with multiple locations - you need to layer filters strategically. This tutorial walks through the process using coffee retail as an example.
The Six-Step Process
Step 1 - Start with Keywords
Begin by searching for “coffee” in the keywords filter. Keywords search company descriptions, websites, and other text fields - casting a wider net than industry codes alone.
Step 2 - Layer Industry Filters
Add relevant industry categories like Retail and Restaurants. This narrows results to companies that both mention coffee and operate in the right sectors. Without this step, you’d get coffee equipment manufacturers, coffee blogs, and other irrelevant results.
Step 3 - Apply Geographic Targeting
Filter for United States-based accounts (or whatever geography you’re targeting). This is especially important for location-based businesses like retail chains.
Step 4 - Exclude Irrelevant Results
Use the exclude function to remove companies that made it through your filters but don’t fit. Scan the results list and add exclusion keywords for common false positives.
Step 5 - Use Location Count Filters
Apollo.io has a retail locations filter that helps identify chains versus single-location shops. If you’re selling to multi-location operators, this filter is essential.
Step 6 - Save Your List
Save the filtered results as a list for analysis and outreach campaigns. You can use saved lists as the foundation for persona building and sequence enrollment.
Tips for Sub-Industry Targeting
- Keywords plus industry filters together are more precise than either alone
- Always scan your first page of results to spot false positives early
- The employee count filter can serve as a proxy for company size when location count data isn’t available
- Save your filter combinations so you can refine and reuse them