Reverse ETL

Technical Definition

Reverse ETL is the reverse of traditional ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipelines—instead of moving data into a data warehouse for analysis, Reverse ETL pushes processed data from warehouses into operational systems like CRMs, marketing automation platforms, and customer support tools. Where traditional ETL feeds business intelligence, Reverse ETL operationalizes insights by ensuring customer-facing systems have current, enriched data. This includes syncing lead scores, enriching contact records with scraped firmographic data, and pushing product intelligence to sales platforms.

Business Use Case

Sales teams use Reverse ETL to push competitive intelligence into Salesforce—scraped pricing, product releases, and news about prospects’ competitors enriches sales workflows. Marketing automation platforms receive enriched lead scores based on website engagement data scraped from public sources. Customer support teams see real-time product availability and issue patterns when support ticket systems receive scraped product catalog updates.

Pro-Tip

Implement change data capture (CDC) before Reverse ETL to sync only modified records rather than bulk re-syncing entire datasets. This reduces API load on destination systems and ensures sales/marketing teams see only relevant changes. Tools like Hightouch, Census, or Airbyte provide managed Reverse ETL connectors, but for custom requirements, webhooks from your data warehouse can trigger targeted API pushes to destination systems.