What is Firmographic Data and How to Manage it?

What Is Firmographic Data How Collect And Manage Firmographic Data-Min

Data is everywhere, but you lose a competitive edge when your business doesn’t know what to look for. However, beyond knowing what to look for, managing the data you find is also important. Managing firmographic data is a vital part of the collection process.

When you have the right profiles for companies you service, it becomes easier to execute market targeting. In the same vein, your business’ decision-making improves. Just as a reminder, your competition is investing heavily in firmographic data to stay ahead. It’s, therefore, important that you understand the management of firmographic data sets.

Managing firmographic data involves knowing how to collect, how to use, and how to classify. We’ll dive deeper into these further in this article.

What is Firmographic Data?



The firmographics definition reflects the description of businesses by your business. B2C companies do demographics to describe the people they serve. As a B2C business, you use firmographics to understand the other businesses you serve.

Hence, firmographic data are elements and factors that define target markets to help businesses understand their customers (other businesses). Firmographic data can be ingested from several sources to be sorted and stored in a single location.

The classification of firmographic data is called firmographic segmentation. Segmentation understands the unique characteristics and purchase patterns of different target audiences and classifies them accordingly.

Beyond firmographics’ definition, you must understand how to collect the data.

How Collect Firmographic Data

The proper collection is the first stage of effective firmographic data management. Thanks to the various digital tools available today, there are different ways to collect raw data. First, however, know that you’ll need to sort through the data post-collection.

Lead Forms and Landing Pages

When customers or potential leads are signing up on forms, it’s best to collect data at this point. Ask the right questions, and you have a high chance of getting accurate data. You can also get data on landing pages.

Identify the pages your leads see higher value in, e.g. demo or free trial page. Then, it would be best if you asked them to complete a form. Webinar pages are also high-value incentives you can offer.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has shaped communication and interaction in the corporate world since its launch. As a result, the platform has proven to be a great resource for B2B marketing. From the LinkedIn page of your lead or current client, you’ll find a trove of information to leverage.

Investigation



You shouldn’t be wary of collecting as much information as you can—Google searches, interviews, data scraping, etc. You can also check for brands on sites like Owler, Glassdoor, etc. You can also get free data from sites like Coresignal.

How to Use Firmographic Data

It’s not enough to have a firmographics definition at the back of your head or possess an enormous database; you must understand how to use the data. Below is how to effectively leverage the data you have.

Know the Sectors Your Business Attracts

When you collect data, it becomes easy to identify where your customers are coming from. Understanding your traffic sources causes you to research more to understand the sector’s needs.

Create Important Offers

Upon understanding who and where the target audience is, create offers personalized for them. The messaging on your site should also be more valuable to them.

Tweak Your Marketing Campaigns to Perfection

The main advantage of having firmographic data is to do marketing right. Make each marketing effort count.

Classifications of Firmographic Data

There are three major classifications for firmographic data. These are;

● General Business Firmographic Data
● Financial Firmographic Data
● Industry Firmographic Data

These classifications come with different elements, which are all important to your understanding of your customers.

General Business Firmographic Data

The examples of elements that fall into this category are;

Industry Classification: You must understand the SIC (Standard Industry Classification) and NAICS (North American Industry Classification) classification of the companies you service. This gives you details of business size and area. Visit the NAICS website.

Ownership: The type of ownership that runs a company is vital to know. The common ownership categories are; sole proprietorship, Limited Liability Partnerships, Limited Liability Corporations, Public shareholder corporations, and private corporations. Some other businesses may also be franchise-owned.

Business Existence Duration: Is your target company a startup? Or a mature organization?
When the company was founded will give an insight into this.

Employee Count: The number of employees indicates the business type and size. The numbers reflect either the business is small, medium, or large. Employee count below 1500 is small.

Location: Some businesses have one office; others have hundreds across the world. It’s vital to know how branched the customer is.

Products and Customers: What’s the client’s product and service offering? What customers do they target?

Market Size: How big is the market in which the target business operates?

Financial Firmographics



As a marketer or business owner, it’s important to know the finances of your customers. Elements to consider here are;

Revenue: What is the year-on-year revenue of your customers? Do they have increased sales? What do their financials look like on a 5-year prediction? Research all questions related to money.

Growth Trends: Are they getting more market share in their industry? Will they remain profitable in the short and long runs?

Industry Firmographic Data

Below are the ‘industry firmographic data’ to pursue:

Competition: You should know about your customer’s competitions. You can use that to predict their purchase actions.

Influencers: It’s important to understand how influential the potential client is in the industry.

Technographic Data: It’s also vital to have details on the customer’s technology for their operations.

Conclusion

Managing firmographic data is vital for your business’ growth. Hence, as much as you can, invest both time and resources in data collection and analysis.

What Is Firmographic Data And How To Manage It-Min

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