Demystifying Firmographics: A Guide to NAICS, SIC Codes, and Company Size

In the world of B2B, understanding your customer is everything. Just as consumer brands use demographics to understand individuals, smart businesses use firmographics to understand other companies. These data points are the building blocks for everything from targeted marketing and sales strategies to robust risk assessment.

But what exactly are firmographics, and how can you leverage them effectively? This guide will demystify the most crucial firmographic data points—industry codes and company size—and show you how to access this information instantly.

What Are Firmographics?

Firmographics are descriptive attributes of organizations used to segment them into meaningful groups. Think of them as "demographics for businesses." By analyzing a company's firmographic profile, you can build a detailed picture of their operations, scale, and position in the market.

Key firmographic data includes:

• Industry: What does the company do?
• Company Size: How many employees do they have? What is their annual revenue?
• Location: Where are they headquartered and where do they operate?
• Company Age: When were they founded?

Mastering this data allows you to create a precise Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), score leads more accurately, personalize outreach at scale, and gain a powerful competitive edge.

Decoding Industry: A Primer on NAICS & SIC Codes

Industry classification codes are the universal language for defining a company's line of business. The two most common systems are SIC and NAICS.

SIC Codes (Standard Industrial Classification)

Developed in the 1930s, the SIC code system is a four-digit classification standard. It was the primary system used by U.S. government agencies to classify businesses.

• Structure: Hierarchical, with the first digits representing broad categories and subsequent digits adding more specific detail.
• Relevance: While still found in many databases, the SIC system is largely considered outdated as it doesn't adequately cover modern, technology-driven industries like software development or digital marketing.

NAICS Codes (North American Industry Classification System)

NAICS is the modern standard, developed jointly by the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to provide a more relevant and detailed classification system.

• Structure: A six-digit code that offers a far more granular view of a company's specific industrial sector than the older SIC system. For example, within "Software Publishers" (NAICS 511210), you can get much more specific than the broader SIC equivalent.
• Relevance: NAICS is the current standard for government and business use, capturing the nuances of today's complex economy. It's the gold standard for defining your target market.

Gauging Company Size: The Power of Employee and Revenue Data

"Company size" is more than just one number. It's a combination of metrics that, when viewed together, paint a picture of a company's operational scale and financial power.

• Employee Count: This is a strong indicator of a company's operational complexity and potential needs. A company with 10,000 employees has vastly different challenges and purchasing habits than one with 100. It's a key qualifier for everything from HR software to IT infrastructure.
• Annual Revenue: This is the ultimate measure of a company's financial health and purchasing power. For sales and marketing teams, revenue data is critical for estimating deal size, prioritizing high-value accounts, and understanding a prospect's budget.

The challenge? Both of these numbers are moving targets. Employee counts fluctuate, and revenue figures for private companies are notoriously difficult to find and verify.

The Challenge: Why Is Good Firmographic Data So Hard to Get?

Manually gathering accurate firmographic data is a significant operational drag. The information is:

• Fragmented: Spread across government portals, company websites, social profiles, and private databases.
• Outdated: Static lists and databases go stale the moment they are published.
• Inconsistent: Different sources often provide conflicting information.

This process doesn't scale. Your teams end up wasting valuable time on manual research instead of focusing on what they do best: selling, marketing, and building great products.

The Solution: Query Any Business, Instantly with businesses.do

What if you could bypass the manual work and get a complete, verified firmographic profile with a single API call?

That’s the power of businesses.do. Our API is built to do the heavy lifting for you. Simply provide a company domain or name, and our agentic workflows query multiple public and private data sources in real-time to deliver the most current information available.

Go from a simple query to a rich, actionable profile in seconds.

{
  "status": "success",
  "query": {
    "domain": "example.com"
  },
  "business": {
    "name": "Example Corporation Inc.",
    "legalName": "Example Corporation, Inc.",
    "domain": "example.com",
    "yearFounded": 1992,
    "industry": "Software & Services",
    "naicsCode": "511210",
    "sicCode": "7372",
    "employeeCount": 12500,
    "annualRevenueUSD": 2400000000,
    "location": {
      "streetAddress": "123 Example Way",
      "city": "Techville",
      "state": "CA",
      "postalCode": "90210",
      "country": "USA"
    },
    "socialProfiles": {
      "linkedin": "linkedin.com/company/examplecorp"
    },
    "isVerified": true
  }
}

Stop wrestling with outdated spreadsheets and manual searches. Whether you're enriching your CRM, qualifying leads, or building programmatic workflows, you need data that is accurate and on-demand.

Integrate the businesses.do API today and turn firmographic insights into your competitive advantage.