The B2B buying cycle is complex and delicate. Pushing the wrong message or incorrectly timing an outreach email can be the difference between landing business or losing it. Unfortunately, that means it can be incredibly stressful to map out your go-to-market plan — unless, of course, you eliminate the guesswork with data.
B2B data is the cornerstone of modern sales and marketing tactics. With the rise of the internet, buyers have completely changed how they explore solutions, and every keystroke and mouse click generates usable data. In this guide, we’ll explore what B2B data is available and how you incorporate various streams of analytics into your marketing and sales efforts effectively.
The Different Types Of B2B Data
If you want to leverage B2B data, you have to understand the distinct types of data that form the backbone of data-driven decision-making. Firmographic, technographic, and intent data each play a pivotal role in sculpting sales and marketing strategies that resonate clearly with your businesses’ audiences.
Basic Contact Details
To start, contact information is the most widely available and understood form of B2B data. In years past, outbound sales depended heavily on purchasing contact information like a prospect’s first name, last name, email, and phone number.
While you’ll still need contact details to connect with leads, your marketing and sales teams can tap other data streams to craft more impactful messaging.
Firmographic Data
Firmographic data categorizes companies based on industry, size, age, and location. These data points are akin to demographics but look at the company level versus the individual level.
Technographic Data
Technographic data reveals the tools and technologies a company utilizes, offering sales teams the key to unlocking opportunities and tailoring their approach. Understanding the current tech stack of potential buyers can help you better understand their needs and pain points.
Intent Data
Finally, intent provides insights into your target buyers’ purchasing journey and behaviors, enabling precise targeting and engagement. While firmographic and technographic data are more concrete, intent data requires thoughtful analysis to be used correctly.
How To Source B2B Buyer Data
If you’re itching to get started with B2B data, how you’ll acquire high-quality data is a critical piece of the puzzle. Whether you purchase it from a reputable data provider or you plan to collect it yourself, the most important things to consider are compliance and accuracy. In an ideal world, you’ll use a mix of first and third-party data to form an informed, holistic view of your buyers.
There are two main ways you can source data: through providers or your own efforts.
Sourcing From Reliable Data Providers
Tapping into third-party data from a reputable data vendor can be a game-changer, offering a breadth of accurate insights integral to data-driven decisions. Providers like Bombora and LeadSift serve as gatekeepers of quality data, ensuring their data is appropriately collected and maintained. Here at Predictiv, we partner with both intent data leaders in tandem with data we collect in-house.
In-House Data Collection Techniques
Alternatively, rolling up your sleeves and delving into in-house data collection can yield highly relevant and tailored data. You can use website forms, gated content, and lead-generation ads to collect valuable contact data and behavioral insights. Collecting your own data can be time-consuming, but you’ll end up with exactly the information you need with no fluff.
Ensuring Data Compliance & Accuracy
No matter how you get your data, you must acquire and store it compliantly and respectfully. Stewarding contact information well is vital, or you may face hefty penalties. Plus, people are growing increasingly concerned with how their information is handled, and you don’t want your potential buyers to have any reason to mistrust you.
Empower Sales & Marketing Teams With B2B Data
After sourcing and securing your B2B data, you can use this buyer data to refine your sales and marketing strategies. Over 85% of companies using B2B data see noticeable positive results — and here’s how you can, too.
Personalize The Buyer’s Journey
No two consumers are the same, and with data at your fingertips, you can meet each potential buyer where they are. A highly personalized buying experience positions your brand in the best light. As key decision-makers move through the sales funnel, you can serve them custom messaging that aligns with their needs and questions.
Enhance Lead Generation & Scoring
Lead generation and scoring are the lifeblood of any go-to-market team — after all, without a solid scoring system, you won’t know which leads to prioritize. B2B data can serve as a north star, guiding outreach teams to the warmest leads, streamlining the sales cycle, and securing logos more efficiently. With predictive analytics and CRM automation, the process of nurturing and scoring leads becomes a science, allowing for hyper-precise targeting and super-efficient pipeline management.
Optimize Account-Based Marketing
ABM is one of the most critical strategies B2B sales teams rely on. By tapping B2B data sets, marketers gain invaluable insights into the behaviors, preferences, and pain points of target accounts. B2B data provides the foundation for identifying the most promising prospects, from firmographic details to purchasing indicators. A data-driven approach allows you to prioritize accounts with the highest potential for conversion so you can nurture high-dollar accounts.
Empower Your Partners
Partnership marketing propels your brand in front of an entirely new but still relevant audience, and when you lean on B2B data, you can create even more impact. Just like you’d use data, partners can leverage intelligence to better understand who they’re trying to reach, expanding your network and proving you’re the ideal organization to team up with. With the right data, you can guide your partners to the best accounts to prioritize, help them tailor their messaging, and so much more.
How To Manage B2B Data
Data isn’t static — in-market buyers are real people, managing their own goals. If you don’t ensure you’re working with accurate data, your efforts won’t pack as much of a punch. To ensure accuracy, you have to routinely audit and enrich your existing data.
Validating & Enriching Data
No matter what kind of data you use, data quality is paramount. You should regularly validate and cleanse your data to eliminate duplications and errors. If you’re working with a B2B data provider, they should have stringent protocols for routinely auditing their data.
Data enrichment is the process of enhancing existing data sets with additional information or attributes to provide deeper insights and improve their quality. Enriching data breathes new life into your existing data sets. By leveraging external sources and employing data enrichment tools, your data remains a well of insightful and actionable information.
Turn Touchpoints Into Conversations With Predictiv
Here at Predictiv, we provide B2B organizations with rich intent data so you can tailor your marketing campaigns and outreach efforts and see max engagement. With our unique blend of first and third-party intent data, your sales and marketing teams can:
- Gain valuable insights into in-market buyers
Effectively target key decision-makers
Deliver messages at exactly the right time
If you’d like to unleash the power of unified intent in your go-to-market strategies this year, we’d love the opportunity to show you around our intent-powered solutions for B2B sales and marketing teams.