We have a lot of options.
When we are considering buying something, we can consult different websites, brands or stores in order to find the perfect match.
Think about it — have you ever made a major purchase without doing some research first?
When it comes to identifying accounts to target for marketing campaigns, you have a lot to choose from. So how do you narrow it down? The answer: data.
But not just any kind of data. Behavior and intent data are two of the obvious choices, but there are different sources of data that can tell you a whole lot more about an account.
Let’s explore firmographic and technographic data.
What is Firmographic Data and How Do You Use It?
The same way that demographics provide information about human characteristics, firmographic data provides information about firms or companies that allow you to group them into market segments.
Firmographic data is useful because it gives marketers deeper insights that they can then use to leverage target accounts. In other words, firmographic data gives businesses information about what organizations, rather than individuals, would benefit most from their product/service. This is particularly useful when it comes to account based marketing (ABM).
As with demographic data, there are various types of firmographic data that marketers and sales teams can leverage including:
- Industry: What industry does the company fit into? Are they a non-profit, a B2C company, another SaaS, etc? This information can determine how you approach a sale and what content you share with them.
- Size: How big is the company account you’re targeting? Will they need your product on a larger scale, or are they too small to benefit from it?
- Location:Ask yourself where your customers are doing business, where they’re headquartered, and whether or not they have more than one location. The answers to these questions will help you better understand your customers needs, send timely communications, and personalize content.
- Performance: When you know how a company is doing performance-wise, you can better understand how your product/service can help them grow. Turn to things like market share, sales figures, and growth and losses to see what stage a company is at in their life cycle.
How to use firmographic data
As with most kinds of data, firmographic data can be used to build personalized content strategies. However, you can also begin to:
- Create targeted social media campaigns
- Construct highly relevant and personalized emails
- Write timely and topical blog posts
- Implement A/B testing
Firmographic data is imperative for segmenting your target audience, but it’s important to keep in mind that that information alone isn’t necessarily enough.
Firmographic data plus the behavioral data that you gain through your website analytics can collectively provide a wealth of information. These data sets allow you to build the perfect, personalized campaign to target and nurture qualified leads.
What is Technographic Data?
Every company out there uses technology. And in the SaaS world, knowing the specific technology that a given account uses could make or break a sale.
Technographic data is information about the technology stacks of other companies. For many B2B brands, a tech stack can be a significant qualifying factor. Technographic information tells you what tech your existing and potential customers are already using -from CRM databases to autodialers.
It can also tell you when your prospects are using this technology. Ultimately, without technographics, you have very little insight into how a company operates.
When it comes to finding out technographic data, you can ask the following questions:
- What software do our target customers already use?
- Are there any holes in their tech stack that your product could fill?
- Could your product potentially replace a software they are already using by being more efficient or cost saving?
How can you use technographic data?
Technographic data can inform your marketing campaigns in a variety of ways. Similar to firmographic data, technographic data allows you to create even more hyper-targeted segments. Further, this data provides information about customer pain points as they exist with their current tech-stack; opening the door for you to present your product as a solution.
Below are a few ways in which technographic data can supplement personalized campaigns.
- More specific segmentation: Tech stacks give you information about what technology a company is already using. But more than that, they provide insights into what a company’s budget may be, what kind of things they are willing to spend on, and which brands they may already be loyal to.
- More effective account based marketing: When a sales rep better understands the motivations behind technology selections, they can better prepare to pitch their product.
- Better news-driven campaigns: Technographic data can include information about new features or product launches. Staying up to date with this information can allow you design content that caters to those specific releases. Doing your homework will always pay off.
The Combined Power: How to Leverage Firmographic and Technographic Data
Combining firmographic and technographic data ultimately helps you target better accounts. It makes perfect sense — the more data points you have about something, the better informed decision you can make when choosing target prospects.
While firmographic data is the more obvious choice for gathering information, using technographic data to enhance those findings makes choosing a target account even easier (and much more effective).
While most companies put the onus on firmographics and demographics, technographics are the third arm of the ABM triangle.
Think about it this way: You want to get a birthday present for a close friend. You know about their personality, their hobbies, their style, etc. But so do a lot of people. What if you get them something they already have, or something they don’t even need/want in the first place?
With technographic data you know about a company’s behaviors, location, and employees but you also know what they already have, what they want, and what they don’t need.
Key Takeaways
The combined power of firmographic and technographic data is something to be reckoned with when it comes to targeting accounts, creating marketing campaigns, and designing personalized content.
The more you know about someone (or some company), the better you can identify their pain points, and offer a relevant solution.
Ready to get the right data in your hands? Schedule a free demo today.
