How many senior decision-makers are actually in our audience?
Client Solutions · Customer & Audience Segmentation
See who's really in your database, by role, seniority, sector and organisation type, and put your budget where it counts.
Your taxonomy or ours. Bespoke projects. Works with your existing CRM.
The challenge
Most B2B databases hold more value than they show. Years of registrations, enquiries, members, subscribers and CRM imports add up to a real asset.
But the same role turns up written a dozen different ways. Organisation types are missing or inconsistent. Sector fields were set up for a campaign three years ago. So when you need to reach a specific audience quickly, you end up with a broad send, a manual spreadsheet exercise, or a best guess.
Good segmentation lets you answer questions like:
How many senior decision-makers are actually in our audience?
Which sectors and organisation types do we reach well, and which are thin?
Can we send a different message to buyers, specifiers and influencers?
Can we show exhibitors, sponsors or advertisers who our audience really is?
Segmentation turns a list of contacts into an audience you understand. We don't just make your data tidier. We make it more useful.
What we segment by
We classify contacts and organisations against the criteria your marketing and sales actually depend on. Pick the ones that matter to you, or let us recommend a structure.
Contacts
Every job title standardised into a consistent function, however it was originally written.
Contacts
Know who signs off, who influences and who uses, so each group gets the right message.
Contacts
Function and seniority combined into the personas you market to, so complex audiences become clear, usable groups.
Organisations
Organisations classified by what they actually do, not just a broad industry code.
Organisations
A clear view of the markets your audience comes from, for targeting and reporting.
Organisations
Separate large accounts from smaller businesses, so offers, pricing and sales effort match the organisation.
Contacts & organisations
From country down to region, county and council area, for regional campaigns, events and sales territories.
Contacts
Know which addresses reach a named person and which go to a shared inbox, so key messages land with the right people.
Bespoke
The segments specific to your business, event or membership model.
Your taxonomy
We'll apply your own categories and naming conventions, so the results drop straight into your CRM, reports and existing workflows.
Our taxonomy
Use The Data Business's ready-made categories. Detailed enough to be useful, ready to use with no setup.
What you get
Customer segmentation is only useful if you can act on it. Alongside your segmented database, we show you what your audience is made of and where to focus next.
Know who you're reaching. Know who you're missing.
Every record tagged consistently, returned in a format ready for your CRM and marketing tools.
A clear breakdown of your database by function, seniority, sector, organisation type and size.
Where your coverage is deep, and where you don't yet have enough of the right people.
Which audiences to prioritise, how to approach them and what to build next.
What it means for your team
How it works
Tell us what you're trying to achieve. We'll work out the segments you need and do the work to get you there.
Not sure where to start?
Begin with an Audience Health check. We'll look at how complete and well segmented your database is today, and show you which fixes will make the biggest difference.
Ask about an Audience Health checkMore registrations from a sector, better-qualified sales leads, sharper member campaigns. We agree what success looks like.
We confirm the segments and personas that matter, using your taxonomy or ours, and any criteria unique to your business.
Specialist technology does the heavy lifting at scale. Our data specialists handle the judgement calls and check the results.
Where a record is missing the detail needed to segment it, we can enrich it so fewer contacts are left unclassified.
Your segmented database, a breakdown of your audience and clear recommendations on where to focus.
Some segments too thin to target?
Segmentation often shows where you need more of the right people. We can map your wider market to show who you're not yet reaching, build the organisations and contacts you're missing, or get your whole audience ready for launch.
Who it's for
Our specialism
Event audience segmentation for every stage of the cycle:
Separate members from prospects, understand who you represent by sector and role, and target recruitment and renewal campaigns.
Break down your readership by function and seniority, and show advertisers and sponsors the quality of the audience you reach.
Give your clients segmented, campaign-ready audiences, delivered by us behind your service.
Typical roles we work with
Why The Data Business
Technology-powered. Human-led. Bespoke. Accountable.
Automation classifies large databases quickly. Our specialists review the edge cases, the ambiguous titles and the results.
No forced generic structure. We segment around your objectives, your naming conventions and your market.
We don't just tag records. We show you what your audience looks like and can build what's missing.
We understand the difference between a visitor, an exhibitor prospect and a sponsor target, and segment accordingly.
A finished, quality-checked output and a dedicated account manager, not another platform to learn.
We've used The Data Business for several years for bespoke list builds and reverification. Not only do we get great engagement rates from the data, but Chris and the team are always very helpful and diligent.
FAQs
Audience segmentation is the process of dividing your contacts and organisations into groups that share useful characteristics, such as job function, seniority, sector or organisation type. It lets you target, personalise and report on each group separately instead of treating your whole database the same.
Customer segmentation usually focuses on people who already buy from you. Audience segmentation covers your wider database too: prospects, visitors, members, subscribers and past contacts. We can segment either, or both together.
Yes. We can apply your existing taxonomy so the results fit your CRM and reporting. If you don't have one, we can use ours or help you design a structure around your goals.
No. That's one of the most common reasons clients come to us. We standardise free-text job titles into consistent job functions and seniority levels, combining automated classification with human review.
Automated classification handles the volume, and our data specialists check the ambiguous titles, edge cases and final results before anything is returned to you. If something doesn't look right, we'll fix it.
We can enrich them first, filling in missing details such as organisation type, sector, company size or website, so more of your database can be segmented and used.
We only use the data you send us for the work you've asked us to do, and we fill gaps using publicly available business information. We're happy to talk through how we store, process and return your data before any project starts.
No. We return your segmented data in a format ready to import into your existing CRM and marketing tools.
Either. Many clients start with a one-off project, then segment new registrations, leads or members on a regular basis so their database stays organised.
Tell us what you're trying to achieve. We'll talk through the segments that matter, look at the data you have and suggest where to start. No obligation.
Looking for new prospects instead? See Sales Prospect Intelligence