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B2B Data
B2B data is an essential asset for creating ideal customer profiles, building targeted lists of pre-qualified leads, and more.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
B2B DATA
In sales and marketing, B2B data is an essential asset for creating ideal customer profiles, building targeted lists of pre-qualified leads, and much more. However, sourcing B2B data in a way that’s reliable as well as time- and cost-effective can be a challenge.
In this article you’ll learn all about B2B data, what it’s used for, and why it’s a vital asset in sales and marketing. You’ll also learn about the fastest and most cost-effective way of sourcing B2B data.
WHAT IS B2B DATA?
B2B data, or Business-to-Business data, is machine-readable information – information which can be processed by computer programs – that is of benefit to B2B companies. B2B data is particularly useful in marketing and sales campaigns, as it helps identify new sales leads and get in touch with them.
There are 5 distinct types of B2B data:
- Demographic data,
- Firmographic data,
- Technographic data,
- Chronographic data, and
- Intent data.
1. Demographic Data
Demographic data is related to personal and geographical characteristics. These include name, email address, telephone number, location, employment history, and skills.
2. Firmographic Data
Firmographic data is based on company information, such as company name, company location, industry, number of employees, and revenue information.
3. Technographic Data
“Technographics” is a portmanteau of the words “technology” and “demographics.” It refers to information that describes the use of technology solutions, their adoption rates, and the potential challenges they present for organizations.
Technographic data is data related to the technology that an employee or a company uses. Examples include:
- Browser type,
- Operating system,
- Cloud-computing infrastructure,
- Server type, and
- CRM platform.
4. Chronographic Data
Chronographic data relates to events and changes occurring as time progresses. This data is also known as “sales triggers” and includes company location move, job join or leave, company job hiring, company funding, company acquisition, company IPO, and event appearances.
Chronographic data highlights the events that can facilitate new sales or marketing opportunities, making this type of data particularly vital for B2B sales and marketing teams. It enables B2B salespeople and marketers to identify when a prospect is most likely to purchase a product or service.
Examples of B2B sales triggers include when:
- A manager is promoted to a Head of Department role,
- An employee leaves one company and joins another,
- A business relocates to a new city, and
- A B2B organization secures funding from investors.
5. Intent Data
Intent data is the newest type of B2B data and refers to the online behavior of prospects browsing the Internet. This includes what prospects are looking for, what content they’re engaging with, and whether their online behavior indicates purchase intention.
Using intent data allows marketers and salespeople to target prospects while they’re researching products or services. This makes it possible to approach prospects at the right time in their buyer’s journey, enabling salespeople and marketers to influence prospects’ decisions before they arrive at a purchase decision.
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B2B data: how it's used?
There are 6 key B2B data points that SaaS sales and marketing teams should always collect (where feasible):
- First name,
- Last name,
- Job title,
- Company name,
- Business telephone number, and
- Business email address.
These data points are crucial for a number of different B2B sales and marketing activities:
- Lead generation:
The process of identifying your ideal customers and sourcing their contact information. In this activity, the most important factor is the quality of the data used. - TAM identification:
Defining your Total Addressable Market (TAM), i.e. the total number of potential prospects in your target market. - ICP development:
The process of developing an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) which is a representation of your perfect customer. The profile can be used as a springboard for finding other customers that match the characteristics of your ICP. - Outbound sales:
Contacting and engaging with prospects through phone, email, social selling, or networking. - Demand generation:
In B2B marketing, “demand generation” refers to the umbrella of marketing activities that B2B marketers employ to attract new customers. These include content marketing, email marketing, and Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing. - Analytics:
The process of tracking B2B sales and marketing metrics with the purpose of managing and optimizing individual and/or team performance.
B2B data is a vital asset for many different marketing activities and strategies. For example, quality B2B data is the fuel for a successful account-based marketing campaign. It’s what enables you to create segmented lists of contacts which your sales and marketing teams can use to grow your lead pipeline – and how you will ultimately identify your best-fit accounts.
In-house vs. outsourcing
There are several ways to source B2B data. However, not all of them are equally reliable or cost-effective. For example, even though sourcing in-house may seem like the best option, it usually isn’t. There are several reasons for this:
- Hiring and training: Hiring a team of data researchers is a resource-heavy task. The team will need training in data acquisition and best practices for cleansing, validating, and storing B2B data. This process takes time and money, and while B2B data is valuable, depending on the size of your company it might not be worth the resources to be spent on employment contracts, pension contributions, and payroll set-up.
- Subscription costs: In order to source data you need to be able to identify and scrape B2B contact details of leads. This requires a range of tools, the vast majority of which are subscription-based, meaning the costs will add up fast.
- Heavy and time-consuming workload: Producing a clean spreadsheet of B2B data is a time-consuming process. Sourcing and scraping the data with email-sourcing tools can often become a slow and manual process due to inaccuracies and emails that can’t be found. Once the data is sourced and scraped, you’ll need to cleanse and validate it as well as append the data with valid information, all of which take time and resources that would be better spent on actually using the B2B data.
These factors tend to mean that the benefits of in-house sourcing – namely a fast turnaround from sourcing to using the data, and having full control over the sourcing process – are ultimately not worth the time and resources required to source B2B contact data in-house.
This is why we recommend outsourcing your B2B data needs. There are 2 different ways of doing this:
Hire a Freelancer
There are several benefits to hiring a freelance web scraper. It’s usually affordable, and – depending on how much data you need – the turnaround time can take as little as a few days.
However, there are a few drawbacks to hiring a freelance web scraper. Contracts are usually short and can be terminated quickly, meaning both you and the freelancer risk wasting each other’s time.
You also run the risk of your data not being sourced in a GDPR-compliant way. Some freelance web scrapers source in compliance with the GDPR, but as this is not a given you should be very careful when choosing a freelancer.
Choose a B2B Data Provider
As a B2B company, the fastest and easiest way you can source B2B data is by using a B2B data provider: a tool that enables you to optimize the processes surrounding B2B data.
A B2B data provider like Ocean.io ensures that rather than spending their time sourcing B2B data, your sales team can focus on engaging with qualified leads and closing new deals. In this way, you save money on hiring and training an in-house data sourcing team.
Using a B2B data solution enables your sales team to create targeted sales lead lists of B2B contact data. This allows the team to filter by key data such as job titles, industry, and firmographics to effectively collect the information you need to create a successful account-based marketing campaign or cold outreach strategy. Accordingly, your sales team can focus on talking to great leads instead of spending too much time prospecting.
With a B2B data provider, the data is regularly cleansed, validated, and updated. You also won’t have to rely on freelancers, which means you’ll know how your data was sourced – so you can have better peace of mind regarding your processing of GDPR-compliant data.
Conclusion
B2B data is machine-readable data of 5 distinct types:
- Demographic data,
- Firmographic data,
- Technographic data,
- Chronographic data, and
- Intent data.
B2B data helps B2B companies identify new sales leads and contact them, and it is therefore vital for running successful marketing campaigns and outreach strategies. Sourcing B2B data, however, can be a demanding endeavor depending on your chosen method.
Rather than spending time and resources on hiring and training an in-house data sourcing team, we recommend that you choose a B2B data provider: a reliable, cost-effective solution that saves your sales team time on prospecting and allows them to focus on closing deals.