Segmentation drives how you engage with customers, create customer journey maps, and how they are being marketed to! How do you segment accounts? LinkedIn Industry, GICS or NAICS, or all?
When we talk about labeling leads, there are three options to label with industry. Here are those three types:
1. GICS: Global Industry Classification System
2. North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
3. LinkedIn Industry
You enrich one of the three industry types when you get a lead.
1. You can handshake with any database provider in the future.
2. Your CEO or investor wants to see leads/traffic at the industry level, and GICS provides 72 industry types. Therefore, it is possible to generate a report with meaningful insights. LinkedIn and NAICS will have 400+ industry types.
3. The definition of these industry types changes quarterly. These are well-established conventions, so your data labeling will not be outdated.
1. Mapping between LinkedIn Industry and NAICS, GICS is 1:many. Hence, it is preferable to keep both fields and not one. Most of the customers have learned to live with LinkedIn Industry accuracy.
2. GICS and NAICS mappings are not 1:1. There is always a risk of losing meaningful labeling when you switch from one to another. Hence, never remove a column until the other field is well-accepted.
Value of Industry is relevant due to the benefits provided above. It is relevant for businesses where target industries have limited or no segments. For example, if you care only about IT services and have verticals, then these industry types cannot be used in segmentation.
1. Go for Sub-Industry information in GICS or NAICS. This still might or might not segment the way you would want to do it.
2. Create another field and call it “segmentation variable.”
The industry field provided by traditional players is getting outdated. The good news is that there are new fields given above that are coming. These fields might require tweaking but can allow you to segment your audience better.
1. LinkedIn Specialties: Every company provides LinkedIn Specialties.
2. Business Tags: CrunchBase, OceanFrogs, and other vendors offer business tags.
2. Products and Services: Use the company’s products and services if business tags are unavailable.
