How to Get Local Business Leads with AI

What you need

• A free Apify account (it includes $5 of credits every month)

• The Claude desktop app (the web version does not work for this)

• A niche and a city you want to target

Step by step

1. 1

   Create a free Apify account

   1:16

   Sign up for a free Apify account. Apify runs small scrapers it calls actors, and you will use the Google Maps one because it lets you target businesses in a specific place. The free plan gives you $5 of credits each month, which in my experience can cover over 1,000 leads if used correctly.

   ApifyCopy

   https://www.apify.com?fpr=migueltorrez

2. 2

   Create an Apify API token

   2:03

   Open the Console, click Settings, then the API & Integrations tab. Under Personal API tokens, create a new token and name it (I use "Tutorial"). Click the Copy button on the new row. That is all you need from Apify.

   Token nameCopy

   Tutorial

3. 3

   Open Connectors in the Claude desktop app

   2:45

   Open the Claude desktop app. In the left sidebar (click the burger menu if you don't see it), choose Customize, then the Connectors tab. Click the plus symbol, Add Connector, then Browse Connectors.

4. 4

   Install the Apify connector

   3:42

   Search for Apify, open it and click Install. If it bugs out, quit Claude, open it again and come back to this tab.

5. 5

   Configure: paste the token, Save, Enable

   4:03

   Click Configure. Paste your Apify token, click Save, then click Enable. Once it's enabled, the Apify tools load: Claude can find actors, check what a run will cost, run them and fetch the results.

6. 6

   Check that Claude can reach the scraper

   5:00

   Go back to the main Claude window and ask whether it has access. I recommend a bigger model such as Opus for this kind of analysis. Claude should find the Google Maps scraper with the best ratings.

   PromptCopy

   Hey, Claude, do you have access to the Apify Google Map scraper?

7. 7

   Run your first search

   6:16

   Ask for a small batch in your niche and city. You can get much more specific: fetch pricing, filter out businesses without contact information, or narrow the search to one part of a city. You can watch the run appear under actors on the Apify website.

   Prompt (my example)Copy

   Using that scraper, can you please get me 20 Michelin star or high-end gastronomic restaurants located in Paris, please? Let me know when you're done.

8. 8

   Review the contacts, then scale up

   8:35

   Check the results: phone numbers, emails and Claude's breakdown, which you can use to call, email or go door to door. To scale, ask for 100, 500, 1,000 or 2,000 results. In my experience that costs less than $10.

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