How to use public records for lead generation?
Written by Cameron James·November 12, 2026Quick answer
To use public records for lead generation, treat them as a source of trigger events, not a contact list. Company registries and regulator filings show you who has just changed directors, raised money, moved address or filed new accounts, which tells you who to contact and what to say. Pick one record type that matches your buyer, check it on a schedule, and write a first message that refers to the specific change.
Key facts
- In the UK, Companies House lets you look up a company's current and resigned officers, registered address, date of incorporation and previous names for free.
- Companies House also offers free email alerts when a company updates its details, such as a change of director or address.
- In the US, the SEC's EDGAR database gives free public access to filings from publicly traded companies and others, and its full text search covers more than 20 years of filings.
- EDGAR also publishes a real-time list of latest filings, so you can see new filings as they are submitted.
- A public record usually tells you about a company or an event, not about the right person to talk to. You still need to work out who owns the problem.
- Records are only useful for lead generation when you can link a specific change to a specific thing you sell.
Start with the trigger, not the list
The mistake is pulling every record you can find and calling it a pipeline. A registry gives you thousands of names and no reason to contact any of them. The value is in the change: a new director, a fresh set of accounts, a new registered address, a recent filing.
So start from your buyer. If you sell something a newly appointed finance director would care about, a director change at a company that fits your ideal prospect is a real signal. If nothing in the records maps to something you sell, it is the wrong source, however free it is.
Set it up so it runs without you
In the UK you can look up officers, addresses and filings on Companies House, and set free alerts so changes come to you. In the US, EDGAR lets you search filings by company and by keyword, and lists the latest filings as they land. Pick one record type, one alert or saved search, and a ten-minute slot each week.
When I ran outbound, the lists that worked were small ones, forty or so accounts with a reason to talk, not four thousand with none. Two caveats from experience. Records go stale, so check the date before you quote anything. And they rarely name the person who actually owns the problem, so you still do the research to find them.
Turn the signal into a first message
Open with the specific change and one sentence on why it matters to them. "I saw you appointed a new finance director last month" lands. "I found your company in a public database" does not.
Keep the ask small. If what you send next is a PDF, such as a proposal or a one-pager, a short video next to it explaining why you got in touch makes it feel less like a mail merge. LiveDocument does that behind one link, though it will not find you the lead. For how this fits the wider routine, see my notes on a sales prospecting process.
The Bottom Line
Public records are a source of reasons to get in touch, not a shortcut to a bigger list. Find one change that matters to your buyer, watch for it, and open with it.
Written by Cameron James