eBook

The Market
Segmentation
Playbook
The art and science of dividing accounts
into groups for customized sales and
marketing experiences

1 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

Table of Contents
Section 1: Section 4:

Introduction................................................. 3 Campaigns Based on Behavior Segmentation.... 20

• Use precision, not paint rollers • Behavioral data for journey-aligned campaigns
• A note on harnessing technology • The three types of behavioral data you can leverage
• Let’s dig in • Orchestration based on website behaviors
• Final thoughts on why behavioral data is so important
Section 2:

Your Target Account List......................... 5 Section 5:

• Start with your existing list Six Best Practices for Segmentation......................25
• The different segments of a market • Practice total TAL management
• Expand and maintain your TAL • Be smart about segmentation
• The three methods for identifying target accounts • Lean on intent
• Checklist: Identify your target accounts • Deliver timely, relevant messages
• Deliver insights to sales in real time
Section 3: • View your strategy from an account-based lens

Build Your Segments................................. 11

• A brief history of segmentation Section 6:

• Market segmentation begets personalization Keep Your Eye on the Prize.......................................27

• The sweet spot of segmentation
• Common segmentation approaches
• Simple, multi-attribute, and advanced segmentation
• Segments prioritized
• Checklist: Vet your segmentation approach
 Section 1

Get Ready: Introduction

Use precision brushes, not paint rollers
You could attempt to paint a masterpiece using a paint roller.
But why would you? You would want precise paintbrushes to
get to the finer details, right?

The same could be said about attempting to pull off a marketing

strategy with no particular audience in mind. Applying broad
strokes to penetrate an indiscriminate set of buyers might be
quick and easy. But you’d be expending resources on people
who aren’t in-market to buy and aren’t qualified to buy what
you have to offer.

Put down that albatross of a paint roller and grab hold of

a precision detail brush.

When you’re more precise in your application—focusing on the

specific audiences that show a demonstrated interest in your
product or service—you’re likely to accomplish more successful
(and pleasing) results.

3 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 1

Let’s dig in
A state-of-the-art ABM practice calls for identifying target accounts using firmographics,
predictive analytics, and behavioral data. And we can use some of the same data
characteristics to segment our list of accounts into more focused audiences.

Strategic audiences are an essential component of your overall marketing and sales strategy,
driving prodigious ABM success and, most importantly, impacting the bottom line.

In Sections 2 and 3 (Your Target Account List and Build Your Segments), we address how
to build a list of initial target accounts, bring it to maturity, and divide it into a number of
smaller audiences.

Then, in Section 4, Campaigns Based on Behavior Segmentation, we dive deeper into

using behavior-based data for building targeted audiences.

We wrap up in Sections 5 and 6 (Six Best Practices for Segmentation and Closing
Thoughts) with tips to build a topnotch segmentation strategy and some final inspiration
to keep your eyes on the prize.

A note on harnessing technology

Recent advancements in actionable artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have opened
new capabilities for our advertising, marketing, and sales programs.

Today, we can set our sights higher–engaging the right accounts with the right content at the
right time by using the power of firmographic data, predictive analytics, and behavioral data.
By leveraging these data signals, we can build segmented audiences and align our messaging
to milestones in the customer journey.

4 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

Identify: Your Target Account List

35%
Before you can identify your segmented audiences, you’ll first need to build your target
account list (TAL), which are the accounts that are truly worth pursuing and the group
of accounts on which sales and marketing will focus all of their outbound efforts.
of marketers say they
Focusing on the right accounts makes all the difference between building an efficient
suffer from inaccurate
ABM strategy and spending time and resources on companies that will never buy from
you. Your list of accounts is layered. The deeper you get, the more targeted your audience. targeting, according to
Give your TAL a name. This list will be the unifying force in your company, helping your
Forrester. Establishing
revenue teams work together for a common goal. a thoroughly vetted
Once you establish your TAL, you can identify your most valuable prospects, which you
TAL in your ABM
can segment into smaller audiences. Your segmented audiences can represent more strategy will help you
granular opportunities, like accounts that are active in the sales cycle or customers to dominate your B2B.
whom you can upsell.

Start with your existing list

The good news is that revenue teams innately understand the value of addressing key
audiences, and your organization likely isn’t pursuing your total addressable market (TAM)
with its eyes closed. You probably already have a list of “named accounts” or “strategic
accounts” to which you want to sell.

This is a great place to start. You can create your initial TAL using these accounts. Later,
you can increase the size of your TAL to include a greater scope of accounts that represent
your best opportunities, and then segment it deeper for your key accounts.

5 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

The different segments of a market Expand and maintain your TAL

Within your total addressable market there are five segments, As your ABM practice matures and your business
which each get smaller and smaller in size. changes, you’ll want to expand your initial TAL to
include more than just your strategic accounts. How
While the accounts in your target market are those that fit your
big your list should be depends on factors like the
customer profile, this list is too large to address in a meaningful
length of your sales cycle and how many sales reps
way. When you narrow your focus on your target accounts and
you have. It’s unique to your business. Use our
the smaller segments, you identify the accounts that are worth
modeler to calculate your ideal TAL size.
pursuing and that you can pursue properly.
Grow your list carefully and deliberately over time.
Focusing on the right audience is the cornerstone of
As you progress, your list should get larger, and more
account-based marketing. When revenue teams address their
of your revenue should come from it. You don’t want
market through segmentation, they can build a B2B program
to miss out on new opportunities, but you also don’t
that’s a stroke of genius.
want to stuff your list with too many unqualified
accounts. Yuck.

TAM

Target Market

Target Accounts
Give sales teams the right tools
Engaged Accounts At Demandbase, we give our sales teams the ability
to add or disqualify accounts on the TAL through our
Opportunities CRM platform. The enterprise team can add up to 15
accounts, and our mid-market team can add up to 30.
Customers We audit their changes to make sure we don’t stuff the
TAL with accounts that shouldn’t be there.

6 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

Three methods for identifying target accounts

You can use three methods to update your TAL: ideal customer profiling, predictive
modeling, and behavior-based targeting. When the time comes, you can use any of
these methods alone or in combination.

1 2

Ideal customer profile (ICP) Predictive analytics

Ask yourself, who’s your best customer? (It’s OK, we As we mentioned at the top, the advent of sophisticated technologies
all have one, and no one else needs to know.) Now, has propelled the power of ABM. Through the power of predictive
wouldn’t it be nice to clone them? technology, you can identify additional accounts to add to your list
without diluting your ABM strategy’s success. Predictive analytics can
That’s what the ideal customer profile (ICP) is all about.
leverage your CRM data to identify your existing accounts’ characteristics
It’s a set of characteristics that makes up your prototypical
and then pair that data with algorithms and machine learning to determine
company. It factors in experiential information from your
the likelihood of future outcomes for other accounts in the market.
sales reps and firmographics you obtain from your CRM.
So the better your data, the more accurate your ICP. Whew, that was a mouthful. Simply put: Predictive analytics can help
you identify the companies that are likely to be your best opportunities
The worksheet on the following pages lists ICP
based on your current outcomes. Better.
characteristics that are preferred by B2B companies.
You can use it to qualify or disqualify any account from One more thing: Predictive analytics tools are data-driven and highly
your TAL. The end of the worksheet has room for more depend on the quality of your CRM data to identify your existing market.
characteristics you might want to add, reflecting the You may not be able to identify net-new buyers from the results, but
nuances of your business. you can generate a valuable list of companies with a propensity to buy.

7 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

Behavior-based targeting
Identifying intent and engagement is the most sophisticated way to
select your best-fit accounts. And it’s ABM’s secret sauce for program
performance. The most successful B2B teams have figured this out, and
their TALs include accounts showing promising behavioral signals across
first- and third-party data.

By harnessing real-time ABM data insights, we can build audiences

composed of our hottest accounts, using personalization to inform how
they discover our brands as soon as they’re in-market. And we can drive
how they progress along their path to purchase.

OK. So now that you’ve got your TAL down, you’ll want to start building
your segmented audiences. Read on to learn how to pull off segmentation
using the insights you’ve gathered thus far.

A note about smart data

Behavior-based targeting requires good quantitative data, but it doesn’t need to come from your
CRM. At Demandbase, we’ve built software that does it more effectively. Our Qualification Score
and Pipeline Predict scores use the power of AI and big data to identify and prioritize accounts
that matter most. Qualification Score helps identify accounts that fit your ICP, while Pipeline
Predict looks at behavior patterns that lead to an account becoming an opportunity.

8 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

Checklist:
Identify your Section 1: Common ICP considerations
target accounts The account’s qualification score is at least the minimum required.
There are three methods you can Yes No Account score: Ideal range:
use to update your target account
list: ideal customer profiling,
The account is not already a customer.
predictive modeling, and behavior-
based targeting. When the time Yes No
comes, you can use any of these
methods alone or in combination.
They are within the ideal size and industry.
This worksheet lists ICP
Yes No
characteristics that are preferred
by B2B companies. You can use it Industry: Ideal industry:
to qualify or disqualify an account
Annual revenue: Ideal annual revenue:
from your TAL. At the end of the
worksheet, there’s room for more Employee size: Ideal employee size:
characteristics you might want to
add, which reflect the nuances of
your business. Your services align with the account’s Your services align with the account’s
business objectives and goals. strategic direction.

Yes No Yes No

You provide a product, solution, or There are no recent marketplace shifts

service that the business needs. that would disqualify the account.

Yes No Yes No

The account is not disqualified by sales. Other:

Yes No Yes No

9 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 2

Checklist:
Identify your Section 2: Characteristics that promote brand loyalty
target accounts Does the business share similar key pain points?
Yes No Description:

Does the business share similar customers?

Yes No Description:

Does the business share similar competitors?

Yes No Description:

Does the business share similar values and causes?

Yes No Description:

Does the business share similar products and solutions that you own?
Yes No Description:

Does the business share similar internal functions, operations, and teams?
Yes No Description:

Other?
Yes No Description:

Other?
Yes No Description:

10 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Create: Build Your Segments

A brief history of segmentation
Trivia buffs, this one’s for you:

Wendell Smith was the first to propose that market segmentation,

rather than product differentiation should be at the heart of
strategic decision making.1 (As such, he’s considered to be the
father of market segmentation.)

That was way back in 1956. If you think we’ve come a long
way since then, we’d agree. After all, placing segmentation
front and center of our B2B strategies has become standard
practice. It’s the first step in being able to communicate with
our audiences in relevant and meaningful ways.

Then why, according to the Harvard Business Review, is

market segmentation tied to the failure of product launches in
America?2 Because even though segmentation is a no-brainer,
many organizations are not using it to provide a clear direction
for their goals. This section delves into helping you invest in
segmentation wisely.

1. Source: Smith, Wendell R. (1956). Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation

as Alternative Marketing Strategies. Journal of Marketing, volume 21(1), 3-8

2. Source: Schneider, Joan; Hall, Julie (April, 2011). Why Most Product Launches Fail,
Harvard Business Review.

11 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Market segmentation begets personalization

52%
An audience is a segment of your company’s target accounts, and it’s tied to a marketing
initiative. For example, accounts can be prospects, customers, and accounts that attended
a webinar, or even accounts that are in a sales rep’s territory.
of marketers say they
Once you’ve built your audiences, you can rank them from high to low priority and focus
customize experiences
on creating personalized resources based on their priority level.
based on the challenges
Lower priority accounts might be great for one-to-few or one-to-many personalized ABM campaigns,
while one-to-one marketing methods can be reserved for your highest priority accounts.
and needs of the account.1

The sweet spot of segmentation

The most successful Demandbase customers focus on just four to five key segments at a time.
Operationally, it’s tough to serve up personalized experiences to more segments than that.
10-30%
More contextual,
For example, let’s say you’ve built seventeen different experiences for seventeen different immersive, and relevant
segments. When you slice your audiences that thinly, you often end up with sample sizes too experiences can increase
small for any meaningful performance data, so decisions about what works and what doesn’t marketing spend efficiency
may prove difficult. Moreover, accounts that fit into so many segments don’t typically represent
your best opportunities.
by 10 to 30 percent.2

Effective segmentation
A handful of manageable key segments can Example 1: Current customers who’ve bought Product A but not Product B.
represent your best opportunities, on the individual
Example 2: Prospects who’ve visited three solution pages.
and account level. And that’s exactly what you
want. Here’s an example of effective segmentation: Example 3: Prospects who are in the healthcare industry.

1. Source: Demand Gen Reports, 2019 ABM Benchmark Survey; 2. Source: McKinsey & Co

12 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Common segmentation approaches

While you can always leverage the data from the targeting methods you used to identify your TAL
to segment your audiences, you can also include more in-depth approaches.

Here’s a list of six characteristics typically used by B2B marketers to create segmented audiences.

1 2

Industry Company size (employee size or annual revenue)

Targeting industry verticals is one of Mid-market companies typically face challenges that differ significantly from
the most common ways B2B companies those faced by small businesses or enterprise organizations. They also have
approach their markets, and one of the different buying committees, sales cycles, and decision processes.
most successful. Why? Because industry
What’s more, mid-market tech companies may be focused on productivity
verticals tend to have unique and specific
gains, while enterprise tech companies may have their sights set on deeper
attributes, pain points, and goals.
investments in machine learning. Small business tech companies, on the other
For example, financial services hand, are often concerned with creating scale.
companies tend to be more conservative
Just as with industry, you can align your offerings and messages to organization
and often focus on compliance issues.
size and use it to shape your segmentation strategy.
Whereas manufacturing companies
typically care more about cost and time
rather than value. And retailers care
about maximizing loyalty to customer
Making an impression
lifetime value, while software and
technology companies are laser-focused We typically get just one chance to make a good impression. Focusing your
on innovation and product adoption. strategy on the industry-specific issues experienced by your accounts is a
great way to demonstrate that you know what matters to them and that you
offer solutions for their particular needs.

13 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

3 4

Journey stage Product usage

Understand where your accounts are Segmentation by product usage is particularly useful for developing engagement
in the buyer’s journey. The messaging strategies that advance cross-sell and upsell opportunities. For example, if you know
that resonates the most with companies you’ve sold a customer a printer, then an obvious follow-up to their customer experience
that are just becoming aware of your would be to present them with an offer on their next ink purchase.
products and services can look very
different from the messaging that’s
5
addressed to accounts who’ve been
engaged with you for some time or
are just about ready to pull the trigger.
Prospect/Customer/Partner
Whether you’re trying to land new business, expand opportunities with a current
Content can play different roles at
customer, or deepen ties with a partner, you’ll want to create relevant and targeted
different stages in the buying cycle,
messaging that resonates with each type of relationship. Prospects may need to
from a whitepaper that defines an
know more about who you are and what you do, while customers may respond well
industry problem (awareness focused),
to special upsell offers. Partners, on the other hand, might be motivated by reminders
to data sheets that describe your
of your position as an industry leader.
particular value proposition
(engagement focused), to an RFP
checklist (consideration focused). 6
Oh, and if you’re ready to double-down
Intent
on a customer-journey-focused
segmentation strategy, then start with Intent-based segmentation approaches are becoming increasingly popular because
a customer journey map. It will illuminate they are so powerful. We’ve seen that building audiences around accounts that are
your account’s experiences and how researching your brand, topics relevant to your business, or your competitors is a
best to reach them where they are at highly successful approach. We’ll spend more time on this in the next section, Campaigns
in the buying process. Based on Behavior Segmentation.

14 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Simple, multi-attribute, and

advanced segmentation
Organizations can use one or more segments, alone
Simple segmentation
or in combination, to form simple, multi-attribute, or
advanced segmentation strategies.
Segment Attribute
To the right is an example of simple segmentation with
one primary segment: industry. The segment has three • Software and Technology
unique attributes: software and technology, healthcare, Industry • Healthcare
and financial services. • Financial Services

Here is an example of multi-attribute segmentation.

In this case, the companies we want to target are
Multi-attribute segmentation
either in software and technology or healthcare,
Segment Attribute
with medium or high volumes of web traffic. They
use specific marketing technologies and are • Software and Technology
headquartered in either Canada or the US. Industry
• Healthcare
• High
Web Traffic
• Medium
Marketing Analytics: Adobe or Google Analytics,
Tech Used and MAS: Eloqua or Pardot
• US
Geography
• Canada

15 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

As your ABM practice matures,

you may progress to more
Advanced segmentation
advanced segmentation that
Basic Criteria Basic Criteria + Fit Basic Criteria + Fit + Timely Event
uses multiple criteria like those
described in the following table. • Revenue
• Demonstrating a need • Researching relevant topics
• Headcount
• Showing interest in our • Engaging with site content
• Region
value proposition • Presence of a buying committee
• Industry

We recommend starting with just

two or three targeted segments.
Segment Subsegment Goal for this segment
But if you are in a large, complex Retail $2M in pipeline this quarter
marketing department, then you Enterprise
may already be in the throes of FinServ Increase engmt by 25% this half
Customers
executing across many segments.
Other Increase web visits by 30% this half
Here’s an example of a multi-
attribute segmentation strategy Retail Add 16 net new logos to pipeline this quarter
built for eight disparate Enterprise
FinServ Increase engmt by 15% this half
sub-segments, along with Prospects
example goals for each. Other Increase web visits by 15% this half

Mid-Market Product A Users $8M upsell to Product B this year

Customers Other Create $5M in upsell opportunities this quarter

16 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Segments prioritized
Whether you want to launch campaigns against eight subsegments, like in the previous
example, depends on access to resources, ability to execute, and budget. If you’re like
most marketers, you can only go after a few segments because of budget limitations.

Remember: You’ll want to ensure you’re focused on the segments that represent your
best opportunities no matter which approach you use.

Consider the following characteristics when prioritizing your segments:

Revenue potential: Engagement:

Identify the accounts that are likely to spend more, either Accounts that have engaged with your brand (i.e., first-party
through initial purchase or upsells. engagement) are easier to convert. For example, hone in on
accounts with individuals who have attended an event, have
Resources required: popped into your targeted ads, or have been to your website.
Focus on accounts that won’t cost so much to close. (Engaged accounts are those that are lower in the funnel.)

Journey stage: Intent:

Consider that accounts lower in the funnel will close faster. Identify the accounts that are consuming third-party content
online related to your products and services. For a deep dive
Firmographic fit: on the power of intent, check out our eBook Intent is the
Look for accounts with the right demographics and New Lead.
geographics, including characteristics like number of
employees, number of clients, industry, technologies Sales and support history:
used, type of organization, and location. Nurture the accounts with which you have good relationships.

17 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Checklist: Segmentation Health Check

Vet your
Are the segments different in meaningful ways?
segmentation
approach Yes No

Once you settle on a segmentation

Are the segments large enough? (Have you segmented a segment too thinly?)
approach, put a critical eye to it.
Use this segmentation checklist Yes No
to determine the viability of each
segment. Does each of your target accounts clearly fall into one segment or another?
If the answer to any of the questions Yes No
is no, then revisit your strategy
until you arrive at a model where
Do you have enough bandwidth to tackle all of the accounts in the segments?
each segment is uniquely
Are they manageable?
differentiated and includes your
best opportunities. Yes No

Do the segments you’ve chosen represent your best opportunities?

Yes No

Are your solutions for them uniquely differentiated from the competition?

Yes No

Can you make significant and profitable inroads into the segments?

Yes No

Do the segments represent growth opportunities?

Yes No

18 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 3

Checklist: Segmentation Health Check, Cont.

Vet your
Are they industries, categories, or companies that will expand over time?
segmentation
approach Yes No

Do you need to do more research on the key pain points and challenges for your chosen
segments? (Likely, the answer is yes. That’s a healthy response. Stay abreast of current
industry trends to demonstrate you understand what your customers care about. Regularly
monitor the intent of the buying team in your target accounts.)

Yes No

Have you identified the goals, needs, and motivations among buyers in your segments
and how your solutions help to achieve them?

Yes No

Is there proof that your offering is a good fit for your chosen segments? Do you already
have customers in the segments on which you’ve chosen to focus?

Yes No

Have you run your segmentation strategy past sales leadership. Do they agree that
these are the segments that represent the best opportunities for your business?

Yes No

Do you have a process in place for iterating or updating your segmentation

strategy regularly?

Yes No

19 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 4

Identify: Campaigns Based

on Behavior Segmentation
You’re probably used to seeing customer journey maps where
awareness (the point in the buying cycle where the account is
aware of and is researching your brand) is depicted as the first
stage, right? But there’s something that happens before awareness
that’s crucial to customer acquisition, and that’s intent.

In Sections 2 and 3, we introduced how you can use intent to

expand and maintain your TAL and segment audiences. In this
section, we dig deeper, addressing how you can build a
personalized strategy across the account journey by focusing
on intent signals.

The fact is, buying activity (intent) is happening even before

prospects are aware of and show interest in your business.
You want to reach them at that moment—when they first enter
the buying process—and then nurture their experience with
your brand throughout their journey.

B2B cycles
B2B cycles are getting longer and involve increasingly more stakeholders. That is why
companies that wait for the awareness and interest stages to hit (e.g., waiting for
leads to come in through form fills) simply don’t enjoy the same close rates as those
that get in early—by leveraging intent.

20 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 4

48%
Behavioral data for journey-aligned campaigns
Firmographic segmentation and predictive analytics are effective approaches for
developing content that’s relevant to a particular segment. However, these approaches of marketing teams
don’t help you understand what content and offers are the most appropriate at any
are expected to organize
specific moment, from intent and conversion to loyalty and advocacy.
their strategies around
For effective B2B performance, you’ll want to craft timely campaigns and programs
the customer journey
that align with the account journey, thereby creating stronger connections with your
customers and prospects. By using AI and machine learning technology, we can identify in 2020, up from 18%
behavior through third- and first-party data that will inform the content of your personalized in 2019.1
marketing programs.

Three types of behavioral data you can leverage 35%

of B2B marketers are
1 expected to make use
of intent data in 2020,
Purchase intent up from 25% in 2019.2
If an account is behaving online in a way that signals they’re interested in products and
solutions relevant to your business, they are showing purchase intent. For example, if
your offerings include specific network solutions, and you can identify accounts that are
consuming content online around “security software” or “cybersecurity platforms,” the
odds are that these accounts are good prospects for you.

Building audiences around accounts that demonstrate purchase intent is a great way to
narrow the field and focus on accounts representing your best opportunities. Accounts
showing purchase intent typically represent a broad set of accounts that have demonstrated
interest in all of the terms that are relevant to your offerings.

1. Source: Demand Gen Report’s 2019 ABM Benchmark Survey; 2. Source: Target Marketing Magazine

21 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 4

Keyword intent
Keyword intent is a more specific classification of intent. It’s worth your Has an account recently become
while targeting, advertising, and nurturing accounts according to their aware of your brand?
particular level of interest. For instance, you may want to deliver different
Nurture your budding relationship. You’ll
messages to accounts showing interest in “network infrastructure” than
want to deliver messages that reinforce
you might to those showing interest in “cybersecurity.” Using an ABM
your brand value.
platform to identify accounts demonstrating general intent is a great
place to start. Further, focusing your messaging strategy on trending
keyword intent is the next logical step. Has an account already visited your
high-level product and solution pages?
Now’s the time to deepen your relationship
3 by offering how-to or best practice content.

Engagement Is an account signed up to receive

content newsletters?
Once an account has experienced your brand (e.g., opened personalized
ads or went to your site), it’s beneficial to segment it according to its level Weave in middle- and bottom-of-funnel types
of engagement. The degree to which your account has engaged with of marketing plays, like webinars and field
your site content is an excellent indicator of where it is in the buyer’s event invitations, to deepen the relationship.
journey. Additionally, the degree to which they are engaged with your
brand overall is an excellent indicator of what you should do next. Has an account downloaded an
eBook or whitepaper?
Excellent! You’re ready to differentiate your
brand by offering third-party validation, like
analyst reports touting your position in the
marketplace.

22 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 4

Example: Campaigns based on behaviors

Arguably, some of the most valuable data you can gather on an account is what they are
interested in and how deeply they are engaged with your brand ... right now. This is so
valuable because it signals to you what behaviors you’ll want to drive next and what your
campaign objectives should be.

Let’s focus on site engagement as an example:

Observed Behavior Desired Behavior Campaign Objective

Offsite purchase intent Come to the site Increase awareness

Site visit Consume more content and stay longer Increase engagement

Engaged on site Enter sales pipeline Increase conversion

Behavioral segmentation also helps you to determine what your content offers and
messages should be, and how you’ll measure success.

Observed Behavior Desired Behavior Campaign Objective

Increase target accounts on site,

Come to the site Thought leadership, webinars, eBooks
visitors/account, and visits/account

Increase page views and session times,

Consume more content and stay longer Whitepapers, how-to videos, live events
decrease bounce rates

Analyst reports, best-practice guides, Increase MQLs, SALs, pipeline

Enter sales pipeline
RFP templates opportunities

23 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 4

Final thoughts on why behavioral data is so important

Firmographic data describes an account. Behavioral data tells marketers what is going on
with an account in real-time. The most successful ABM teams we see are those that fully
leverage both types of data to build audiences and execute timely programs against them.

B2B leaders don’t wait for form fills to gather data on an account. They let AI and machine
learning uncover earlier insights for them. They don’t guess as to where an account is in
their customer journey. They let engagement data tell them.

By harnessing the power of technology, B2B leaders can demonstrate that they
understand their specific business needs and where they are in their customer journey
instead of relying upon one-size-fits-all messaging and content.

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24 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 5

Review: Six Best Practices for Segmentation

1 2 3

Practice total TAL Be smart about Lean on intent

management segmentation At Demandbase, we are fond of
Don’t manage your target account list in Don’t try to be all things to all saying intent is the new lead. With
isolation, and don’t let it get stale. Campaign accounts with one-size-fits-all purchase cycles getting longer and
managers, field marketers, digital marketers, campaigns and experiences. The involving more stakeholders, it’s
marketing and sales operations leaders, and greater degree to which you can important to reach out to accounts
sales development leaders should be a part personalize your programs, the early in the process—not just when
of your ABM Leadership Team and meet more success you’ll have. Your they complete a form, but when
regularly to review your TAL. customers and prospects expect they show off-site intent: when they
messaging that’s relevant to their begin researching topics relevant
As your business changes with the addition industry, business, and unique to your offerings. You can build
of new products and solutions, your TAL can needs. That means using audiences around those accounts,
grow. As you learn more about the accounts firmographic data, predictive share them with your sales teams,
on your list over time, you can weed out those analytics, and behavior-driven include them in your ad campaigns,
accounts that haven’t proven to be a good data to build and refine your and launch multi-channel ABM plays.
fit. And as your ABM practice matures, your segmentation approach, so you Then, hone your messaging further
list should grow and become more focused. remain relevant and can build by focusing on keyword intent to
In time, a higher percentage of revenue meaningful relationships with differentiate your business.
should be coming from target accounts. your customers and prospects.

25 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Section 5

4 6

Deliver timely, relevant experiences View your strategy from

Instead of delivering generic messages around your brand, deliver a journey-based lens
relevant experiences around your audience’s key interests—and Developing audiences around firmographic criteria is great.
strike while the iron is hot! It helps ABM teams deliver the right content to the right
Don’t waste time, energy, or advertising dollars on accounts that accounts. But developing audiences around the account
aren’t in-market. Even if you are focused on the right audience, journey is a game changer. It helps ABM teams to deliver the
you don’t want to blow your chances with them by sending the right content to the right accounts at the right time.
wrong message. Here’s a simple yet effective approach:
Customers and prospects want to know that you understand 1. Reignite stalled accounts. Consider which ad messages
their business and feel their pain—while they are in pain, not after are best for in-market accounts that haven’t been to your
they’ve just bought a competitive solution, realigned their interests, site in the last 90 days.
or updated their business model to meet market conditions.
2. Create an audience of engaged accounts. Identify those
with at least three page views, and develop content that
further engages them and keeps them interested.
5
3. Develop content for the long game. Because B2B sales cycles
Deliver insights to sales in real time are so long, be aware that you may have to keep audiences
engaged for quite some time. Be prepared to develop
If an account is surging on key terms that are showing buying
sophisticated content strategies that not only keep them
intent, you probably won’t want to launch an email campaign
engaged, but to deepen their relationship with your brand.
or personalized ads as follow up plays. Instead, marketing
should share real-time alerts with sales. That way, sales can 4. Create an audience of MQLs. When it comes to increasing
reach out immediately to those accounts with one-to-one pipeline opportunities, create an audience around your
interactions. What’s more, if sales is armed with knowing what marketing-qualified leads and target them with case
those key terms were that the account was surging on, then studies and third-party validation that will pull them over
their outreach can be even more effective. the fence.

26 | The Market Segmentation Playbook

 Closing: Keep Your Eye on the Prize
How do you know if you’ve nailed your market segmentation strategy? Get a demo
Just like any work of art, it requires analysis of all the formal elements. You have Demandbase One is the only ABM
to step back to see the full picture and lean in to see the finer details. In the world solution that connects everything
of ABM, it comes down to tracking your performance. sales and marketing teams need
to win in today’s B2B landscape.
Upper- and mid-funnel metrics like awareness and engagement are good early
See for yourself how Demandbase
indicators of whether accounts are likely to turn into revenue. The final test of
uses first-party data, third-party
your audience strategy is what percentage of your audience makes it into the
data, AI, and machine learning to
pipeline, and what converts into closed/won business. Don’t forget to analyze
help you easily segment your
the success of your audience strategy against other business outcomes like
audiences to close more deals, faster.
average deal size, total annual revenue, sales velocity, and retention.

The better you get at defining audiences around your best opportunities and Schedule a demo today
moving them through the account journey, the better the business outcomes
you should see. Isn’t that a pretty picture?

Demandbase is Smarter GTM™ for B2B brands. We help marketing and sales
teams spot the juiciest opportunities earlier and progress them faster by injecting
Account Intelligence into every step of the buyer journey and orchestrating every
action. For more information about Demandbase, visit [Link].

© 2022 Demandbase Inc.

27 | The Market Segmentation Playbook