Section 2:
Data-driven ICP and account prioritization
In order to differentiate Targeted Demand Generation from more traditional forms of demand generation and align itself with ABM ambitions, identifying the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and effectively prioritizing accounts is a crucial step.
But it's not as simple as just looking at basic demographics.
Using Targeted Demand Generation economies of scale to create a data-driven ICP
It's not always easy to obtain the right audience intelligence. A lot of marketers rely on 1st party data, like CRM and internal customer knowledge, but according to a recent survey, 56% of B2B marketers have trouble getting the right intel to create accurate ICPs. And that's a big problem, because if you don't have an accurate ICP, you risk wasting a ton of resources and missing out on potential customers.
In order to really get it right, you need to use data-driven approaches that incorporate technology alongside behavioral and intent-based data.
This allows you to better understand the market and pinpoint the most relevant ICPs.
3rd party supported Targeted Demand Generation can be an effective way to access better data at a much larger scale. Tech tools such as NLP can help you make sense of this data, providing clear visibility over your total addressable market (TAM), available market and target market.
The great thing is that this approach allows you to validate your ICP assumptions by comparing them with real-life accounts. Additionally, you can use the same technology to find "lookalikes" that match your ICP criteria but wouldn’t have been on your radar due to 1st party data restrictions.
This means you can increase the size of your TALs without diluting relevancy to your business. It also serves as the perfect foundation for trialing and refining ICPs, as it allows for piloting different audiences with less risk by leveraging 3rd party tech, audiences and data.
Using intent data to prioritize your TALs
Do you want to make your TALs even more effective? Try incorporating real-time content consumption data and other forms of action-based intent data.
Moving beyond demographics and incorporating intent-based data helps you understand the buying signals and real-time interests of your target audience. The ability to harvest these on an individual and account level, provides the enhanced ability to identify in-market tendencies. This can help inform how you prioritize your TALs so that you can ‘gold star’ highly relevant and engaged accounts who are actively in the market for your products or services.
