What Is Firmographic Data?

DEFINITION
Firmographic data is a collection of descriptive attributes (aka key characteristics) about businesses that may be utilized to develop distinct market segments and find high-value clients.

💡Understanding Firmographic Data

You can think of firmographic data as the B2B version of demographic data. Instead of looking at the contact’s personal information, you’re looking at the data of the company itself – like employee size, annual revenue, and industry.  

This data is crucial to the B2B lead generation process as it ensures alignment with leads and your Ideal Customer Profile (or ICP for short).

The following are examples of the data you may find in firmographic segmentation, depending on your company’s area of focus:

• Type of business (B2B or B2C, product or service-based, SaaS)
• Industry type
• Company size
• Company structure
• Annual revenue
• Annual ad spend
• Geographic data
• Number of employees
• Quarterly and annual profits
• Legal status
• Credit rating
• Sales numbers

By analyzing this information, you can segment companies and understand who your customers are and what they care about. 

This knowledge is valuable in the lead scoring and ranking process and improves your sales and marketing efforts by assisting your sales team in determining which leads to pursue most aggressively to shorten the sales cycle length and create better marketing campaigns.

🖋 Takeaway

Firmographic data is a must-have data source for B2B companies looking to enhance their consumer journey and lead generation efforts. It assists you in figuring out who your potential customers are, how to engage with them, and how to convert them once they’ve discovered your company.

Remember that the most essential step in the process is actually converting those incoming leads. Understanding the best course of action once they come to you may be the most important aspect of it all. In this regard, lead scoring is useful for targeting the right people with the best offers at the time they are searching for them.

What Is Firmographic Data?

When B2C businesses target potential leads, they frequently focus on demographic data that can help them qualify and convert such leads. They examine data points such as a user’s age, gender, location, education level, relationship status, and gross annual income. Firmographics are the B2B equivalent of demographic data.

B2B brands are focused on companies and other businesses as clients, not individual people making personal purchasing decisions. The prospect’s age is almost irrelevant, while factors like the size, revenue, or industry of the company matter greatly.

Firmographic data is different sets of characteristics of firms (aka businesses, organizations, or companies) that can be used to create different market segments and identify high-value clients.

The characteristics usually included in firmographic data may include the type of business (B2B or B2C, SaaS, small businesses), how many employees they have, company size, industry, location, and annual revenue.

How Do You Collect Firmographic Data?

Lead signup forms and landing pages are the easiest and most direct way to get your potential clients’ firmographic data. High-intent pages such as free trial or book a demo opt-in and high-value offers such as free consults or webinars are your best chance to have your leads complete this information and avoid acquiring inaccurate data.

On top of that, LinkedIn is a great resource for B2B marketing, and it’s also an exceptional mine of data. While not all brands will be on the platform, you can still learn so much from the ones that are there. 

Finally, if you need to dive deeper into a company you can search for them on the web. You’ll also find firmographic information in self-reported data or online sources like podcasts, news reports with verified data, or case studies about the business from alternative sources.

How Do You Convert Leads Into Clients With Firmographic Data?

Once you have it, you can use accurate firmographic data to strengthen your entire sales and lead generation funnels. For starters, you’ll have a better understanding of your ICP and you’ll be able to hone in on your preferred target market with laser-focused sales and marketing campaigns and relevant messaging.

More importantly, you can use firmographic data to build a lead scoring system and pinpoint the prospects that are ready to buy.

A tool like Breadcrumbs combines firmographic data with activity data and adds time to the equation to alert you when qualified prospects are ready for your sales teams to close the deal. 

With the information Breadcrumbs gives you, you’ll be able to create workflows to nurture leads with more high-value content and gently nudge them through the next stage of the customer journey.