If you’re looking to build a target account list that powers successful account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns and boosts conversions, this guide shows you exactly how to do it.
A target account list (TAL) is a curated list of high-value businesses that represent your ideal customers.
Unlike traditional marketing approaches that cast a wide net, a TAL focuses your entire go-to-market team’s efforts on the accounts most likely to convert and deliver long-term value.
This precision is exactly why TALs are critical to ABM success. Account-based marketing fundamentally shifts from volume-based to value-based targeting, and your TAL defines which accounts deserve that concentrated investment.
Building TALs allows a level of personalisation that goes beyond simply including a company name in an email.
It enables you to understand:
When both departments work from the same carefully researched list of target accounts, the coordination between them becomes seamless.
Sales and marketing alignment translates into practical benefits:
Marketing can create content that directly supports sales conversations, while sales teams can provide feedback that informs marketing strategy. Both teams can track progress against shared objectives.
Our customers (using Cognism to build target account lists) have seen improvement in connect rates by up to 80%, an increase in pipeline by 40-50%, and conversion rates of around 30%.
While the results may differ from platform to platform, the principle remains:
Quality targeting delivers measurably better results than broad-based approaches.
TALs help you identify and prioritise accounts with the highest revenue potential.
Research shows that 91% of companies using ABM increase their average deal size, with 25% achieving increases over 50%.
Companies report that 80% of marketers link ABM to improved customer lifetime value.
When you target accounts that genuinely fit your ideal customer profile, you’re not just improving sales metrics - you’re setting the stage for customers who actually succeed with your product.
These customers provide better case studies, become reliable references, and generate expansion revenue opportunities.
Creating a TAL that converts requires more than guesswork.
Follow these five strategic steps to build a list that drives measurable results:
The foundation of any effective TAL begins with a clear understanding of your ideal customer.
This goes beyond basic demographics to include the characteristics that correlate with successful, long-term customer relationships.
Start by analysing your best existing customers. Look for patterns in:
The goal is to identify the attributes that predict both successful sales cycles and positive customer outcomes.
Your ICP should include firmographic data such as company size, revenue, and location, but also technographic information about the systems and tools your prospects use.
Cognism provides access to over 20,000 technology data points, enabling you to understand your prospects’ current technology environment and identify integration opportunities or potential challenges.
Intent data reveals which accounts are actively researching solutions in your category, while trigger events signal changes that might create new opportunities.
Look for signals such as:
These events often indicate periods when companies are more receptive to new solutions or more likely to have a budget available for purchases.
Cognism’s signal suite automatically tracks these types of events across your target accounts, enabling timely outreach when prospects are most likely to be receptive to conversations.
The quality of your TAL depends heavily on the accuracy and completeness of your underlying data.
With 20% of B2B revenue loss attributed to poor data quality, investing in data enrichment isn’t optional - it’s essential for campaign success.
Data enrichment ensures your TAL includes:
Cognism’s enrichment feature can update existing databases automatically, while our API integration ensures your CRM stays current as information changes. This is particularly valuable given that CRM data accuracy typically decays by 30% annually.
Regular data maintenance keeps your TAL current as companies evolve, people change roles, and business priorities shift. Investing in data quality pays dividends in the form of higher connection rates and more effective outreach.
Successful account-based selling requires you to map the buying committee within each target account.
This means identifying:
Create comprehensive contact maps that show:
This information enables multithreaded sales, an approach that builds consensus and reduces the risk of deals stalling due to internal politics or competing priorities.
Understanding the buying committee also informs your content strategy, ensuring you have materials that speak to each stakeholder’s concerns and interests.
Treat your initial TAL as a hypothesis to test and refine based on real-world results.
Track performance across key metrics:
Use this feedback to adjust your ICP and improve your account selection criteria. If certain types of companies consistently fail to engage, consider removing them from your lists.
If unexpected account types show strong interest, investigate whether your ICP should be expanded.
Regular list validation ensures your TAL remains focused on accounts with genuine potential while eliminating those that are unlikely to convert.
Not every account on your TAL deserves equal attention. Prioritisation ensures you focus resources on the opportunities most likely to generate significant returns.
A three-tier system works well for most organisations.
Use the following criteria to assign account scores:
The weighting of these factors depends on your business model and account-based marketing strategy.
Effective segmentation enables targeted campaign development while maintaining efficiency across your ABM efforts.
Common segmentation approaches include:
This works well because companies in similar sectors face comparable challenges and operate under similar constraints.
It allows for industry-specific messaging, case studies, and value propositions that resonate more strongly than generic communications.
Examples:
Technology and software, healthcare, financial services.
This recognises that enterprise accounts require different approaches from mid-market companies.
Larger organisations typically have more complex decision-making processes, longer sales cycles, and different budget considerations.
Examples:
Enterprise (1000+ employees), mid-market (100-999 employees), small business (1-99 employees).
This is useful for companies operating across multiple regions, particularly when local regulations, business practices, or competitive landscapes vary significantly.
Examples:
Domestic vs. international, regional markets, specific time zones.
This groups accounts based on how likely they are to use your solution.
Different use cases often require distinct messaging. They may also involve different stakeholders in decision-making, and present distinct implementation challenges.
Examples:
Primary use cases for your solution, specific pain points or challenges, integration requirements.
This works hand-in-hand with segmentation to guide resource allocation. The combination of segment characteristics and tier level determines your approach for each account.
For example:
Tier 1 enterprise accounts in the financial services sector might receive highly customised campaigns addressing regulatory challenges, while Tier 3 mid-market technology companies might enter broader nurturing sequences sharing industry trends.
Dynamic scoring enables accounts to move between tiers as circumstances change. An account showing increased intent signals might move from Tier 3 to Tier 2, triggering more intensive engagement.
Conversely, accounts that remain unresponsive over time might be moved to lower tiers or removed from active targeting.
Even well-intentioned teams can undermine their ABM success by making these critical errors:
Resist the temptation to include “maybe” accounts in your TAL.
A focused list of 50 high-quality accounts will always outperform a scattered list of 500 marginal prospects. Quality beats quantity every time.
Outdated contact information and inaccurate company data waste resources and damage your brand reputation.
Invest in data verification and regular enrichment to ensure your outreach reaches decision-makers.
Your TAL should evolve continuously.
Accounts that don’t engage after reasonable effort should be moved to nurture campaigns, while new high-potential accounts should be added based on emerging signals and market changes.
Sales teams have real-world insights about account accessibility, competitive positioning, and buying readiness that data alone can’t provide.
Hold regular feedback sessions with your sales reps; this prevents marketing from targeting accounts that sales knows are unwinnable.
Company size and industry matter, but behavioural signals often predict buying readiness better than demographics.
Balance traditional criteria with intent data, technology changes, and growth indicators.
Here are the essential platforms for building and managing high-converting target account lists:
Cognism is a comprehensive data platform that makes precision targeting possible, addressing the core challenge of poor data quality that undermines many ABM efforts.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator provides powerful search and filtering capabilities, identifying accounts and contacts within the world’s largest professional network.
⚠️ Compare Cognism vs LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
Apollo.io combines prospecting capabilities with email verification and automation features in an all-in-one sales intelligence platform.
⚠️ Compare Cognism vs Apollo.io.
UpLead focuses on real-time data verification with a user-friendly interface designed for building targeted prospect lists efficiently. More suitable for individual salespeople and small teams.
⚠️ Compare Cognism vs UpLead.
ZoomInfo provides company intelligence and organisational mapping capabilities with extensive B2B data coverage.
Some Cognism customers targeting Europe found that ZoomInfo’s mobile phone data wasn’t enough after using the tool for a while.
⚠️ Compare Cognism vs ZoomInfo.
Creating an effective target account list is both an art and a science. It requires the right strategy, tools, and execution to drive real business results.
With the framework and strategies outlined in this guide, you’re equipped to build TALs that fuel successful ABM campaigns and drive revenue growth.
The key to TAL success lies in starting with high-quality, accurate data. Without reliable contact information, company insights, and intent signals, even the best strategy will fall short.
Build your target account list with Cognism’s industry-leading data and tools:
Our platform provides the accurate, compliant, and comprehensive data you need to identify, prioritise, and engage your ideal customers effectively. Click 👇 to talk to us today!