Building Target Account List: Strategies for Building the Perfect List

Having a target account list helps in running a targeted lead generation campaign, which in turn maximizes the time and effort invested in planning and running them. The quality of leads generated is high and they convert with lesser touch points.

Before you begin building your target account list, you must have clarity on the outcome of the campaign. Otherwise you will end up with a list of leads that do not convert. 

Here are some questions to ask when you sit down to plan the lead gen campaign:

• Do you wish to populate the top of the funnel?
• Do you want your prospects from a specific location?
• Do you want a list of prospects that are more in-market?
• Do you wish to prime them for when they are ready to buy?
• Do you want a list of potential buyers for the next 6-12 months?

The answer to these questions help in building a target account list that generates leads that are easy to nurture and convert.

How to build the perfect target account list

There are three steps to building the perfect target account list:

1. Choose the criteria for building the target account list
2. Check the size of the target account list created
3. Reach the optimum list size using lookalike or criteria overlay activities

The first step in building the perfect target account list is to select the criteria so that all the names on the list meet established criteria.

8 Criteria for choosing target accounts

These are the eight primary criteria you must focus on when creating the initial list of target accounts for your lead gen campaign.

Company size

Yes, you need to be clear on something as basic as company size. Just saying small business or enterprise level is not sufficient. You need to ask more specific questions:

• What is the size of a small business according to you? 
• From what employee numbers would you start considering an organization to be an enterprise? Some consider 500 to be the right number whereas for others 250 is good enough. 
• What is your internal criteria?

Geography

It is understandable that you want to cast the widest net possible but it is not practically possible for you to service Leeds in all locations. Because you need to ask yourself if you have the capability to do so. Before you nod your head in yes, consider this. 

Leads ideally like to speak with salespersons in their native language. Do you have salespersons capable of reaching out in the local language of the geography you are targeting?

And then there is the other extreme when it comes to targeting the right geography. If you narrow down too much, you will not have a long enough list to start with.

Your target geography should not be as wide as Europe or as narrow as a particular state or ZIP Code in the US.

Industries

Even if you can possibly target all industries with your product (typically true of SaaS products such as HR or CRM or payroll processing), you should not. There would be industries where the compliance level or purchasing process or other criteria are such that meeting them is beyond your scope.

For instance, any product in the finance industry has to comply with numerous regulations. Is your product capable of that? Or, the purchase process in government organizations goes through a long-drawn tendering process. Do you have the bandwidth to handle that?

When we say do you have the capabilities it implies do the requirements match your business outcomes. For instance, you can always modify your product to meet the regulations in the finance industry. But how will that affect your development capacity, budget allocation and go to market strategy?

Buying committee

Even if the ultimate purchase decision may be taken by C-suite executives, it’s the buying committee that does research, creates a shortlist and gives recommendations, on which the decision is based.

When creating the target account list, don’t just think about the target account. Think about how accessible the buying committee would be.

Job roles

When we talk of buying committees, the target job roles become very important criteria for building the target account list. You should have a very clear-cut list of job roles you wish to target with your lead gen campaign.

The granularity of data is important when we talk of job roles. Just saying IT Manager+ is not sufficient. Because it will also cover roles of developers and coders, and they are definitely not doing the research or making recommendations. It’s the managerial roles within the umbrella term of IT manager+ that you need to target.

Tailor-made Content available

If you already have some tailor made content available, such as case studies or white papers or in-depth blog posts that speak specifically to a segment of your target audience, you should hundred percent go ahead and create a target account list where those content pieces would be useful to establish and nurture communication channels.

Existing list

Times you already have a list of target accounts. In such a scenario it is important to know how this list was acquired. If it is generated using other activities where people interact with your brand, it is a great target account list to begin with because you already have an aware and qualified audience. It would always be easier to convert those that are already aware of your product.

If the target list is acquired from a third-party and you do not know if they are aware of your brand and products, you need to treat them like first time visitors and engage with them accordingly.

Technographic information

You can also create a target list based on the technologies used by the companies, which are compatible with your solution. For instance if an organization uses macOS and iPhones and iPads on its systems, targeting them for an HR SaaS product designed only for Windows and android users does not make sense.

Challenges in creating target account list

Once you have created the target account list, you may face two challenges:

• Building a too large account list
• Building a too small account list

In both scenarios, running lead gen campaigns can be challenging. 

If the list is too large, your campaign may lose its effect because it is targeting a wide audience, diluting the communication. On the other hand if the list is too small, you might end up generating insufficient numbers of leads, which will make it impractical to run the campaign in the first place.

Solution

However, there are ways in which you can expand or shrink the target account list to the optimum size.

Overlaying criteria: In case of too large a list, overlaying some criteria can shrink it to the optimum size. For instance you can overlay a criteria of geography or job roles over the list.

Lookalike activity: In case of too small a list, look alike activity can be initiated to add companies in the same geography or of the same size to the list. However for doing this you must have access to a list of look alike companies.

How Think ABM can help

Think ABM lead gen experts help you begin building the perfect target account list by identifying the criteria most suited to your specific needs, based on your existing capacities. And then we help you with:

• Creating a list using intent to purchase algorithms that detect companies that are in-market for a specific solution
• Logically overlaying your massive account list with intent or demographic data.
• Running lookalike activity based on geography or company size or intent to purchase data.

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