Eight Benefits of Utilizing Company Data

Company data refers to information related to the firm – whether it is internal or external information, businesses can leverage company data to improve numerous operations and even boost performance. The following sections explore what company data is, how it is collected, and eight benefits of utilizing it.

What is company data?

Company data is a broad term that encompasses all firm-specific information. It is often categorized as internal data or external data. The first type refers to data collected through internal tools, such as customer relationship management, and external data that refers to firmographics, technographics, and others.

Firmographic data is similar to demographics but is a concept relevant to businesses, so it includes a firm’s industry, location, and size, among others. Technographic data refers to a firm’s technological capabilities, digital presence, and more.

Sources of company data

There are several ways businesses can access company data. As Outside Insight mentions, more than half of all data collected is web scraped. Web-scraped data includes specific, relevant information collected from a website or social media.

Another sourcing method is the online collection of data that was generated by organic traffic. Sales consultations, mailing lists, job postings, and others are all examples of online data collection. This data is often collected by businesses via Google Analytics and other similar software.

Finally, manual collection may be the most tedious source of data collection because it is the most time-intensive. Some examples include surveys, cold calls, lead capture tools, and more. This also requires an in-house team of specialists, technological resources, and other aspects that can easily raise the costs associated with data collection.

How do businesses use company data?

Businesses and investors use company data in a myriad of ways. Given its large scope and different sources, company data can be used for different objectives and applications. For instance, marketing and sales can use company data to generate leads. Alternatively, investors might use firmographics and technographics to identify potential investment opportunities.

Benefits of Utilizing Company Data

1. Improved investment intelligence

Company data is extremely varied, so you can use it to augment your investment decisions. For instance, you can use firmographic data, such as industry and size, to find high-growth companies. Additionally, when combined with technographic data, investors are able to identify investment opportunities that match their investment strategy and objectives.

2. Improved lead generation

Firmographic data can be used to fuel your lead generation pipeline. For instance, you can use funding, employee data, and company-specific information to find potential leads. If you have a B2B company, you can combine resume data with firmographic and technographic data to paint a complete picture of your prospective clients and cater to their specific needs.

Additionally, internal data also helps improve lead generation. You can collect relevant information from job postings, lead capture tools, and social media activity to find new clients and address their pain points.

3. Market research

Companies leverage firm-specific data to uncover market trends, keep track of industry growth rates, and find emerging industry trends. With this information, both investors and companies can improve the quality of their decisions.

4. Competitive intelligence

Firmographics and technographics help business leaders obtain a deeper insight into their competitors’ growth, strategy, and opportunities. For instance, you can use job postings data to identify when a competitor opens a new office and expands their team. Leveraging this information, businesses may improve competitive intelligence and retain and improve their market share.

5. Improved efficiency

A company that sells software and technology may use technographic data to enrich their CRM database. In other words, they can easily collect information regarding companies that use similar software or may be in need of technological upgrades. Then, the business can reach out to these potential clients and offer them personalized products and services.

6. Improved performance

Data collected from your competitors, customers, and the general market can be used to boost business profitability. This is because you can identify patterns, trends, and create actionable plans to improve efficiency.

7. Work productivity

Business efficiency is the result of all the policies, regulations, and processes within your firm. These must be personalized according to the corporate culture, workforce, and more.

If you want to improve work productivity, you need deep insights into the mechanisms of your company. Collecting data relevant to your company and competitors can show you what you need to improve, what aspects of your business fuel your success, and what should remain unchanged.

8. Predictive analysis

Businesses leverage company data to facilitate predictive analysis which helps you make actionable forecasts. Apart from being able to seize market opportunities before your competitors, predictive analysis can help you mitigate risks, identify gaps and shortages, and make the appropriate plans to improve long-term business profitability.

Summary

All in all, company data is extremely beneficial. Firms can leverage it to generate leads, improve customer satisfaction, and enrich numerous internal processes, systems, and tools. In this digital era, information provides unprecedented levels of power and competitive edge, regardless of the business industry.

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