By Caroline Forsey

Companies are still struggling to improve the reach and reliability of personalized data about potential clients and customers.

Part of the problem is supply — bigger data volumes offer greater insight around B2B and B2C buying preferences both immediately and over time.

But variety also plays a role. While information about individuals at a company (demographics) and the technology they use (technographics) can help enhance marketing and sales outcomes, there’s also a place for firmographics, which are datasets that help businesses effectively segment organizations into meaningful categories.

The challenge? Although this is a great high-level definition, it doesn’t offer much in the way of specifics or actionable strategies.

In this complete guide to firmographics, we’ll define firmographic data with a look at key forms and functions, explore how it’s used for segmentation, and dig into the types of questions that can help your company locate — and leverage — firmographic data.

What is firmographic data?

Demographic data focuses on information tied to individuals. Data such as contact names and customer purchase preferences are examples of demographic assets that can be used to drive targeted marketing campaigns.

Firmographic data shifts the focus to organizations — or firms — to collect and analyze key information about the operation of enterprises themselves. Common firmographic data examples include:

• Industry type — From manufacturing or logistics organizations to financial, professional or legal service firms, industry type is a key vector for segmentation. Worth noting? Many companies occupy more than one industry vertical and can also occupy multiple firmographic segments.
• Organizational size — How big is the organization, both in terms of physical location and staff size?
• Total sales and revenue — Both quarterly and annual information is relevant here. While annual sales and revenue data can drive long-term sales strategies, quarterly results can help pinpoint more immediate needs.
• Current location — Where is the company headquarters located? How many satellite offices do they have, and where?
• Ownership framework — Is the company a public organization? A private enterprise? An NGO, charity or non-profit? Each comes with their own unique market approach.
• Growth trends — Is the company growing, downsizing or maintaining its current market position? All three movement metrics offer opportunity, but must be approached in different ways.

There’s also a crossover segment of firmographic and demographic data as it relates to specific job roles, titles, departments, and potential buying power.

By understanding more about the people responsible for decision-making within an organization along with the operational framework that surrounds them, businesses can better target marketing efforts to receptive audiences with the power to take immediate action.

Benefits of Firmographic Segmentation

The primary goal of firmographic data is to help organizations segment potential B2B customers into meaningful segments, which in turn can reduce the distance between observation and action.

If marketers, sales teams, and C-suites have access to segmented information that classifies prospective clients by size, location, revenue, or current growth …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

Author: Aaron