How B2B Marketers can Use Firmographic Data to Improve Their GTM

Use Firmographic Data to Improve Their GTM

Your go-to-market strategy or GTM strategy establishes a clear path from where you are now to where you want to be, along with the necessary resources you need. Knowing your target audience, their firmographics, and their tech stack can smoothen the process of planning a successful strategy and achieving your goals quickly. 

Firmographic data (sometimes called the “B2B equivalent of B2C demographic data”) is crucial to running a successful B2B business. Here is how B2B firmographic data can help marketers improve their GTM.

What Firmographic Data Tells You

While you communicate with individuals, you ultimately sell to businesses. While tailoring your marketing messages to individual decision-makers is effective, it is useful only in the late stages of the sales cycle. To enrich your pipeline with qualified leads, you need to first target your accounts at the organizational level. 

Here is where it comes into play. 

You can use firmographic data to segment organizations (not people) into meaningful categories that appeal to your sales and marketing teams. Some examples of firmographic data are as follows:

• Industry or sector
• Location
• Company Size
• Performance metrics like total annual sales, quarterly revenue, and average growth
• Ownership structure and hierarchy 
• Technologies used and tech stack composition (also known as technographic data) 

Firmographic Data Sources

There are many ways to collect B2B firmographic data. Here are the three simplest ones. 

#1 Lead Forms and Surveys

Lead forms are an excellent way to get firmographic data upfront. You can incorporate lead forms on landing pages that render high website traffic. Other ways to get firmographic information through lead forms is by offering a lead magnet, such as downloadable e-books or free reports. Another way to collect is to offer an optional survey to returning website visitors. 

#2 Company Data on LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a goldmine of data for B2B marketers. You can find firmographic data on LinkedIn company pages. What’s more, you can rest assured that this information is complete, accurate, and reliable because it has been shared publicly by the company itself. 

#3 Third-party Data Enrichment

Data enrichment tools are designed to collect firmographic information like annual revenue, recent funding acquired, number of employees, and industry for businesses all over the world.  Third-party data enrichment tools are cost-effective and can unlock an enormous volume of data. However, some data providers may be unreliable or outdated, so it is best to research and compare before purchasing third-party firmographic data. 

How To Use B2B Firmographic Segmentation To Improve GTM

It is vital to factor in firmographics in your GTM strategy to outline market segments and identify if they are a good fit for your sales teams. This step will save you considerable time, effort, and resources. 

The bulk of your GTM strategy relies on improving the effectiveness of your sales and marketing efforts, so the first step is to understand who you are selling to. This includes defining your: 

1. Target market
2. ICP (Ideal customer profile)
3. TAM (total addressable market) 

You can use firmographic data as your base to pinpoint the what, who, and where of your target market by understanding their needs based on industry, growth, revenue, etc. Apart from these data fields, you can complement your firmographic segmentation with the following types of data: 

1. Current customer data: Observe how your current customers are using your product. Figure out what the top customers have in common.
2. Technographic data: Once you identify your top customers, look at their tech stack. What technologies are they using and why? How does your product fit in? 
3. Intent data: Understand what your target customers are researching online, where they are in their buyers’ journey, and what their firmographic profile looks like. 

An Example of Firmographic Segmentation: Microsoft

In 2017, Microsoft announced a vertical industry GTM strategy for customers looking for a technology-driven business and seeking vendors who have insight into their specific sector. Microsoft started their industry initiative to focus on vertical markets such as finance, retail, manufacturing, government, education and healthcare. This strategy worked wonders for Microsoft and is an example of successful firmographic segmentation. 

Firmographic Segmentation: Advantages and Disadvantages

The biggest advantage of firmographic segmentation is that it allows you to devise highly-targeted strategies using a combination of key data such as industry, company size and location. This is a simple way to filter and organize the list of your potential prospects. 

However, firmographic data alone isn’t enough. For example, suppose you segment your database by revenue. Not all companies with the same revenue may be in the same growth stage. A company that is enjoying accelerated growth might be investing large amounts into new technologies. Meanwhile, another company with the same revenue might have different financial priorities. They may be cutting costs and not be very keen on investing in new technologies. 

Final Thoughts: Making The Most Of Firmographics

While basic firmographic data alone isn’t enough, you can deepen your insights by looking into other types of prospective-customer firmographic data. 

For example, to differentiate organizations within the same revenue bracket, it helps to look at the funding received by the organization. How companies operate and what work model they follow also affect their buying decisions. So, segment your accounts by work model – remote, hybrid, or in-office only. 

Finally, look at your target company’s marketing strategy and what keywords they are using to market their products. This will help you understand how they want to position their product.