What is firmographic data?

Firmographics is a set of characteristics about an organization that can be broken down into two groups: standardized characteristics and custom characteristics. Standardized characteristics are data that remain the same regardless of which organization uses the data. 

Examples of standardized characteristics are industry, annual revenue, number of employees, location of headquarters, technographic data points, etc. 

Custom characteristics are data that are defined in relation to a particular organization. For example, the stage in the sales lifecycle and purchase intent score are data points that will be different from organization to organization. 

Firmographics help group organizations into different segments. For example, organizations can be broken down into different categories such as entity type (business, non-profit, governmental agency, etc.).

How firmographics can help marketing & sales teams

For marketing and sales teams with an account-based marketing (ABM) strategy for targeting prospects, firmographic data plays a vital role. 

Firmographics can help marketing and sales teams segment their target market, define sales and marketing pitches, explore how to expand into new target market segments, and assist sales development representatives (SDRs) in their inbound sales and outbound sales prospecting.

Account-based target market segmentation

Sales and marketing teams can use firmographics to help define organizations that fall within their target market. 

For example, sales and marketing teams can define their target market as businesses with more than 300 employees and less than 1,000 employees in the healthcare industry. 

From this definition of a target market, sales and marketing teams can create a list of companies to focus on reaching. 

Defining sales & marketing pitches for different target market segments

In an ABM strategy, sales and marketing teams can use firmographic data and their target market segments to create personalized pitches for different target market segments. 

Sales and marketing teams can use standardized firmographic characteristics to craft messaging. Custom firmographic characteristics can also be used. 

Sales and marketing teams can use personalized messaging around purchase intent or if a company is in a particular stage in a sales lifecycle.

Exploring how to expand into new target market segments

Since firmographic data assists sales and marketing teams in defining which organizations to target based on their target market, sales and marketing teams can apply firmographics toward exploring new target market segments. 

Firmographic data gives sales and marketing teams structure for new segment exploration and reporting results. For example, sales and marketing teams can define different segments by industry, choose to message those segments differently, and report results by industry segment. Sales and marketing teams can personalize their messaging using many different methods, including marketing emails and website personalization.

How to access firmographic data

There are several companies that assist sales and marketing teams in getting standardized firmographic data. 

Companies like Clearbit and FullContact offer an API solution to programmatically retrieve firmographic data. These companies assist organizations in putting this information into a marketing automation tool. 

Custom firmographic data requires sales and marketing teams to define attributes that will  help their organizations. Most marketing automation tools allow organizations to define their own set of data about prospects.