Using B2B Data Segmentation for Sales Success

We work with many business-to-business clients on direct mail and data services projects, and a key task is list segmentation, selecting and personalizing by criteria with proven impact on sales success. A recent MarketingProfs article by Ed King, CEO of data automation firm Openprise, offers some great practical tips on using B2B segmentation for demand generation, starting with these top ways to segment B2B customers and prospects: 1) job level, which can be inferred from job title, winnows the decision-makers from the chaff of general leads; 2) job function, also inferred from job title, can start with coarse department divisions, such as Finance, Sales, IT, etc, or drill down by specialization within functional area, to tailor for buying process; 3) company size, either in terms of annual-revenue or employee-number ranges, helps target for product/service fit and offer; and 4) industry, using NAICS or SIC codes, selects best verticals for response/purchase. Segmentation can be used to achieve many key goals, King points out. Segmentation of the existing database helps develop a profile of best customers, so the business can market look-alike prospects by the same job, company and industry parameters. Segmentation also allows B2B marketers to go beyond targeting individual leads, who may not be the right contacts, to an account-based marketing that is more efficient. Segmentation, of course, supports more engaging personalization. Finally, segmentation permits money-saving suppression of low-value or low-response targets. These goals are not out of reach even for B2B marketers lacking quality segmentation data since they can turn to data services like ours for data appending and data cleaning/normalizing for effective segmentation. For the complete article, go to http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2016/29267/four-practical-segmentation-tips-for-b2b-marketers