Selecting the best business market segment for your B2B business doesn’t have to be a statistical nightmare. It’s really as simple as discovering a few characteristics that distinguish businesses from one another and using those characteristics to select business with characteristics that make them good potential business customers.

Business characteristics are called firmographics, and they provide the same type of factual information about businesses that demographics do about consumers.

Both demographics and firmographics are facts. Firmographics provide facts about businesses that help to group them into target markets, just as demographics enable business-to-consumer businesses to select a consumer target market.

Three categories of firmographics help B2B businesses determine a business market segment to target. These include:

Selecting a Business Market Segment With Organizational Firmographics

Select a Business Market Segment by Financial Firmographics

Selecting a Business Market Segment With Industrial Firmographics

Using Organizational Firmographics To Select a Business Market Segment

Each business market segment differs by its size. Size includes the number of employees in the company, the number of stores, plants or branches it has, and the number of locations of these branches.

Size distinguishes businesses in several ways. Number of employees can help you determine whether the business owner or an employee is in charge of purchasing. Number of plants, branches or stores can mean that each makes individual purchasing decisions. Thus, knowing size helps to determine how many people and the type of people B2B business owners have to contact and build relationships with.

Age of the business can help you determine the types of products and services needed and the best way to market to the businesses. For instance, young businesses require more of a consultant approach to marketing because they don’t always know what is on the market or exactly what they need. Older businesses usually know exactly what they need, but often meeting their needs requires customizing features to meet their needs.

Location also helps to select the best business market segment because their needs, business cultures, economic influences, regulations and tax laws all differ by location.

Organization firmographics such as size, age and location can help you to separate the best business market segment from all the others so that you can concentrate your marketing efforts on businesses most likley to provide good return on your marketing investments.

Selecting a Business Market Segment With Financial Firmographics

Selecting a business market segment based on financial firmographics enables you to consider how much volume a potential business customer will purchase and how able it is to pay for those purchases.

For example, if you sell a machine that automates packaging products, it’s more likely that businesses with large sales volume will purchase your machine than will smaller ones, whose small sales volume makes human packaging less expensive.

A business market segment also differs by ownership factors. These factors include whether the business leases or owns its office, plants, stores, warehouses, and equipment. By knowing these ownership factors, B2B businesses can often predict businesses needs and purchases.

By selecting a business market segment whose financial firmographics best match the benefits features and prices of what you sell, you can determine those businesses most likely to purchase your product or service.

Using Industrial Firmographics To Select a Business Market Segment

Industrial firmographics provide another way to distinguish the best business market segment to target. Businesses differ in many ways according to the industries they operate within. Each industry has different standards, regulations, expectations, inspections, etc. that require different products and services. Determining which industry has the most need and desire for what you sell goes a long way to selecting your target market.

The following example illustrates how industrial firmographics influence what businesses need and want and what kinds of customers they will be.

A manufacturing business market segment that uses high-tech equipment in its production differs considerably from a manufacturer who uses only low-tech production. They purchase completely different equipment and supplies, use different processes, and have different facility needs.

Luxury market businesses need different production processes and buy different types of supplies than businesses who manufacture higher-volume, mass marketed products. Thus, one type will be a better potential customer for your B2B products than another.

Also consider the information industry. Books publishers and consultants are both in the information industry, but what they sell and what they earn differs considerably. Consultants sell their time and their knowledge. Their income is limited by what they can charge per hour. Publishers sell products – books, and their incomes are limited only by the number of books they can sell at a profitable price.

So knowing industrial firmographics of businesses, helps you to select those with industry characteristics that make them good potential customers.

Conclusion

B2B business owners can improve their marketing with organizational, financial and industrial firmographics.

Your ability to select the best target market for what you sell is enhanced by good record keeping and research. Good records help you to recognize which business market segment provides the best customers within each type of firmographic.

With such records, and an understanding of different firmographics, you can select your target market from the most profitable business market segment.

People tend to confuse PR and advertising, but the truth is that they are quite distinct and while good advertising can bring your business plenty of publicity, theres nothing like great PR to give you that boost in the public eye.

First of all, you need to realize that PR is public relations. Its coverage that isnt paid for in cash, like advertising. It takes a lot more effort to create good PR, but it is well worth it, since this method is far more effective for publicizing your business.

PR Advantages

The advantages of using PR are many, so lets take a look at a few of them.

Cost.

PR is usually free. It may cost you in printing out your press release and stamps to send them, but its still a lot cheaper than advertising which can run into the thousands of dollars!

Placement.

No matter how much you pay for an ad, youll never get a big front page placement. Thats reserved for news and offering great PR is a good way to get that position for absolutely nothing.

Credibility.

People know that ads are paid for and they take them with a grain of salt. While a good ad can still convert, people are automatically suspicious of an advertisement. However, with media coverage brought about by PR, people wont have their guard up. Theyll read your story and be interested in it without being suspicious because it is assumed to be un-biased.

Angles.

Once youve been featured on the front page, its quite possible for other areas of the newspaper to pick up on your story and redo it in their own way. This can provide free repeat coverage, within the same publication which is a real boost to publicity. People need to see information a lot of times before they make the decision to buy, so the more publicity, the better.

Exposure.

Youd be surprised at how far a good news story can go! Unless you have something to do with a piece of major breaking news, chances are you wont be the number one story on the news tonight, but that doesnt mean you cant enjoy repeat coverage. If one television show or newspaper reports on you, it’s quite likely that your story will also show up on other channels!

Details.

You can offer far more details about your company or product within a public relations story. Most newspapers will want to print more than a few lines, which would be standard for an advertisement, so youll want to include information that will catch the public eye.

Connections.

Having connections with the media is never a bad thing and can stand you in good stead later on when you want to give your business a boost. Make sure that your press releases are exactly what editors are looking for, which will give you a leg up next time you have a press release. Theyll know that you provide quality work and this will reflect in their treatment of you.

There are many reasons to choose PR over advertising, if you have to make a choice. The truth is that combining the two publicity methods is an excellent method for gaining the optimum number of sales. However, when it really comes down to it, good public relations trumps advertising the majority of the time. Building connections and relationships with the media is invaluable and should definitely be utilized in every business that wants to be successful.