How to Use Firmographic Information to Target New Customers for Your Business

Firmographics are just one of many tools used in marketing and audience segmentation today. This particular term is used primarily in B2B marketing, since it essentially describes the attributes of a company, or “firm,” if you will. This can be used in addition to demographics and other segmentation tools, and it offers many benefits in helping create the perfect B2B client or audience. 

Of course, there are several different aspects of firmographics to consider and the weight of each will vary from one company to the next. In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about how to make the most of firmographic details when creating audiences and strategies to reach them. 

The importance of audience segmentation

Blanket marketing has never really been that effective. Some brands try it, nonetheless, and find out for themselves that the results are far from the best. That’s where audience segmentation comes into play. Every business, regardless of the industry, should be able to pick out a very specific audience that they will target with their marketing strategies. To do this, you have to define the different characteristics of each audience that you serve. 

For example, as a B2B company, you might serve small and mid-size businesses. That allows you automatically to segment your audience into two groups. Then, you can take it even further from there. The more details you can gather, the more specific your audience will be. Then, you can craft targeted marketing messages to get better conversions and increase sales. 

Audience segmentation can be done in several methods, but there are three that are the most common:

• Demographics: identifiable customer attributes, like age, income, gender, race, etc. 
• Psychographics: audience beliefs, values, and needs 
• Firmographics: business characteristics and attributes that separate B2B clients

In this blog, we’re going to focus on the latter. If you don’t take time to consider this part of your target customer, you’re going to miss a big opportunity to refine your market. It’s not a one-time process, but something that you need to keep in mind throughout your marketing efforts so that you can get the results that you deserve. 

What are firmographics?

Firmographics refer to audience segmentation that is used primarily by B2B marketing professionals. B2B marketers can use demographics and psychographics, but they often need a better way to classify the organizations that they’re going to do business with. There are several different attributes that you can use to define these markets, but there are six that are usually the most common:

• Industry
• Location
• Company size
• Annual revenue
• Company type
• Titles (employees/executives)

Industry

Industry targeting is an important part of your marketing. After all, you’re not going to market to every single industry or business. Think about which industries your products or services would best serve. If you are capable of targeting multiple industries, which ones will be most effective? Where should you start marketing first? 

Location

Does location matter to your business? Where are your prospects located? Perhaps they’ve got multiple locations and you want to target them all or separately. Are they in a different time zone? You don’t want to try calling them at some random hour only to realize it’s the middle of the night where they are. 

Company size

How many employees are in the company? Is the company in a growth trend or seeing downsizing? Do they have an established presence? It also helps here to decide what size company or companies your business would do the best working with. 

Annual revenue

In marketing, you’ll want to reach out to businesses of the right size, but you can’t just look at the number of employees they have or the size of their building. The annual revenue will help you define your target audience much better than you realize. Are they out of your reach? Are they too small and have an annual revenue that wouldn’t allow them to afford to work with you? Think about this realistically to determine which companies you want to market to. 

Company type

What type of company are you going to work with? Consider the attributes like whether they’re a headquarters, a branch location, or even a franchise. Maybe you’ll consider public vs. privately held companies or focus on corporations or SMBs. All of these elements will help you define your target audience in the B2B world that much easier. 

Executive/employee title 

When you contact a business, you will typically have a single person that is your point of communication. You need to consider who this employee is and what kind of decision-making power they have. Identify key stakeholders and ensure that you know the titles, or at least the level, of employees that you want to reach with your B2B marketing. 

When you combine all of these aspects you are able to create an ideal business “persona” for your marketing strategies. Then, you’ll have the ability to reach more clients and get more conversions, just by taking the time to consider how to segment your audience in the best ways possible. 

When the leads start coming in, who’s fielding the calls?

Of course, once you start honing your marketing using firmographics, you’re going to need solutions in place to field all the new calls and leads coming in, including a 24/7 answering service like the dedicated team at Smith.ai. Our virtual receptionists can deliver solutions for all kinds of needs, from assistance with your outreach campaigns in the first place to taking the calls, scheduling appointments, qualifying leads, and more. 

We’ll also help you craft the perfect strategy to manage all of it and offer other solutions to help you grow your business and get more out of your marketing efforts. No matter what you need, we’ve got solutions ready to assist. 

To learn more, schedule a consultation to discuss what the 24/7 virtual receptionists at Smith.ai can do for your business marketing and other needs. You can also reach us at hello@smith.ai or (650) 727-6484.