Modern marketing tech can give you access to an almost endless number of B2B data points.
Without a laser-focused marketing strategy, it can be easy to fall down the rabbit hole and lose sight of what’s important. Do you really need to know each lead’s favourite football team and meal deal combo? 😂
No—you only need to focus on certain types of customer data.
As the providers of an award-winning B2B lead generation and marketing automation platform, we know a thing or two about data.
So in this article, we’ve put together an infographic telling you which customer data types you need for B2B marketing, and which specific data points you should be collecting.
What is customer data?
Customer data is the information customers provide you with when they interact with your business online and offline. For example, when they visit your website or social media, use mobile applications, fill in surveys, respond to marketing campaigns or attend your event.
Collecting and analyzing different types of customer data is a basis for creating a masterful data-driven marketing plan.
Segmentation precedes efficiency, so breaking up your customer data helps you to focus on the stuff that counts.
To find out how, scroll down! 👇
What 6 types of customer data are there?
We’ve identified 6 B2B data types which B2B marketers should be collecting. The nature of your own business might cause you to lean into some of these more than others, but to some extent, these should all be covered.
1. Demographic data
Demographic customer data is the ‘who’ - and we don’t mean Pete Townshend’s rock band! Who specifically is this person? For B2B marketers, this means collecting the following data points:
- Name
- Age
- Email address
- Telephone Number
- Location
- Employment history
- Skills
This is fundamental information that every marketer needs. It’s not going to give you too much information about the lead’s buying habits or interests, but it can give insight into whether they fit your ICP (ideal customer profile).
2. Firmographic data
Firmographic data is the ‘who for’. Which company is this person working for? What does the company do? For B2B marketers, measuring this type of customer data means collecting:
- Company name
- Company location
- Industry
- Number of employees
- Company revenue
Many marketers will stop here. A combination of demographic and firmographic data points will provide enough information to implement a relatively targeted, growth marketing plan. But you can go a lot further if you gather even more useful data.
3. Technographic data
Technographic data is the technologies that the employee or company is using. There are two reasons marketers should be collecting this type of customer information:
- Understanding this can give the marketer some insights into the contact’s workflows, how they could be improved, and the pain points they might face day-to-day. This is particularly useful if you’re providing a particular solution that other technologies don’t have.
- Evolve or die. Understanding which technologies are being used by other companies can help you to define your own workflow. Look into what can be offered by these technologies and decide whether you should be using them yourself.
4. Chronographic data
Chronographic data points change over time. Much like technographic data, these customer data points can refer to either the company or the employee. Chronographic data is made up of the following:
- Location move
- Job join/leave
- Company funding
- Company IPO
- Company acquisition
- Company event appearance
- Company hiring
Without regular updates, this kind of customer data sets can stagnate very quickly. Cognism Enrich keeps your data up to date by running searches to see how leads or companies have progressed over time. Cognism’s accurate, globally-compliant data can then be used to update your stale database.
5. Quantitative data
Quantitative data is the ‘how much’ - nothing less than cold, hard stats for marketers to interpret. This data type is collected during the marketing process, through the use of B2B marketing tools. Quantitative customer data points include:
- Website clicks
- Form completions
- Event appearances
- Email open rates
- Click-through rates
- Current customer information
The amount of quantitative data that you can collect is enormous, so we have only listed a few important ones. The main benefit of using this type of client data is its impartiality; you know where you stand.
6. Qualitative data
Qualitative data is the ‘how was’. It’s concerned with quality rather than numbers. This can often give you insight into the type of person the prospect is. It’s hard to collect at scale, but is always worth recording when you do speak to a contact.
Collect this information throughout the customer journey. Examples of these data points are:
- Social media activity
- Notes from previous conversations
- Questionnaire completions
- Product feedback
The importance of qualitative data is often overlooked. It’s additional useful information that doesn’t fit into the data categories SaaS marketers often focus on. Used right, it can give you a very competitive edge.
You can enhance your analytical insights by incorporating synthetic data into your datasets. It allows marketers to gain valuable simulated information that complements the existing real-world data, enabling more accurate predictions and informed decision-making.
Download our quick guide to customer data
Here is a quick guide to the customer data types for you to keep! Just right-click, hit save, and count on this whenever you need a quick reminder.
Better data = better marketing
Cognism Prospector can give you access to all of the demographic, firmographic, technographic and chronographic data you need.
With 16 data points on over 400 million contacts worldwide, Cognism can be your 1-stop marketing shop for compliant B2B data.
Talk to one of our experts today to see whether our solution could be the final piece of your inbound lead generation puzzle.
Click the button below to schedule your free demo! 👇
