If you’re in B2B marketing or sales and tired of wasting time on generic outreach, you’re in the right place. This guide is for anyone who wants to use Usergems to build account lists that actually matter—so you can run marketing campaigns that don’t sound like they came from a template. We’ll cut through the noise and show you exactly how to do it, what to watch out for, and what to skip.
Why Bother with Targeted Account Lists?
Let’s be real: spray-and-pray outreach is dead. If you want replies (or even just engagement), you have to focus on the right companies, with the right message, at the right time. Targeted account lists help you skip the guesswork. They’re not magic, but they’re a big step up from blasting out emails to anyone with a LinkedIn profile.
That’s where Usergems comes in. It’s a tool that tracks job changes, surfaces warm contacts, and helps you build lists of accounts you should actually care about. But the tool’s only as good as the lists you build. Here’s how to do it right.
Step 1: Get Clear on Who You Actually Want (And Don’t Want)
Before you even log into Usergems, pause and figure out who matters for your business. This isn’t about “total addressable market”—it’s about what actually works for your team.
Ask yourself: - What do your best customers have in common? (Industry, company size, tech stack, pain points, etc.) - Where have you closed deals quickly in the past? - Are there industries or company types that always drag out deals or never buy? Ditch those. - Who’s not a fit, even if they look good on paper?
Pro tip: Pull up your CRM and look at won deals from the last year. What patterns pop up? It’s usually pretty obvious, but people skip this step all the time.
What to ignore: Don’t chase logos just because they’re big or well-known. Focus on companies that actually need what you’re selling.
Step 2: Set Up Your Ideal Customer Criteria in Usergems
Now you’ve got a clear picture of your target. Time to fire up Usergems.
How Usergems Handles Targeting
Usergems lets you customize who you’re tracking and which accounts you want to monitor. The more specific you get, the less noise you’ll deal with later.
In Usergems, you can filter by: - Industry or vertical - Company size (employee count, revenue) - Location - Technology used (if the data’s available) - Past engagement with your company - Custom fields (depending on your integration)
Set these filters up to match your ideal customer profile. Be picky. It’s easier to add later than to clean up a messy list.
Watch out: If you make your filters too broad, you’ll get overwhelmed quickly. If you make them too narrow, you might miss out on good, unexpected fits. Start with what you know works and expand from there.
Step 3: Build Your First Targeted Account List
Now for the hands-on part.
- Go to the Account List or Segments area in Usergems.
- Set up a new list. Give it a name that means something (e.g., “US SaaS Companies 200-1000 Employees” beats “List 1”).
- Apply your filters:
- Industry
- Size
- Geography
- Any other must-haves you found in Step 1 & 2
- Add exclusion criteria. This is key. Remove:
- Existing customers (unless you’re running expansion campaigns)
- Companies that went nowhere in previous cycles
- Industries you know never close
- Save your list. Usergems should now show you a list of accounts that match your criteria.
Pro tip: Save your filter settings so you can re-use them later. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel every time.
Step 4: Layer in Contact Tracking (The Real Power Move)
Most tools stop at the account level. Usergems goes deeper by tracking contacts—especially those who’ve changed jobs or have existing relationships with you.
Why This Matters
People buy from people, not companies. If someone who liked your product at their old job just moved to a new target account, that’s a warm lead you don’t want to miss.
How to set this up:
- Enable “job change” tracking in your Usergems settings.
- Connect Usergems to your CRM, LinkedIn, and/or email so it can see historical relationships.
- Tell Usergems which roles or seniority levels matter (e.g., “only track VPs and above,” or “only sales and marketing contacts”).
Usergems will then: - Notify you when someone you know joins a target account - Flag accounts where you have multiple connections (these are gold) - Let you prioritize outreach based on actual relationships
What to ignore: Don’t waste time tracking everyone. Focus on decision-makers and champions. Junior contacts are fine for research but rarely move the needle on big B2B deals.
Step 5: Review and Clean Up Your List
Resist the urge to fire off campaigns yet. Bad data kills good marketing. Take a quick pass through your new list:
- Double-check for duplicates. Usergems is good, but no tool’s perfect.
- Spot-check for weird outliers. Sometimes the filters pull in the occasional oddball—companies in the wrong industry, or obvious mismatches.
- Remove dead accounts. If you know a company’s recently been acquired, laid off half their staff, or is a lost cause for other reasons, cut them now.
Pro tip: If you’re working with a sales team, get their feedback before finalizing. They’ll spot things you miss.
Step 6: Export or Sync the List for Campaigns
Now you’ve got a clean, focused list. Time to actually use it.
- Export the list as a CSV if you’re running campaigns outside Usergems.
- Sync with your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) if you want to run automated sequences.
- Push to your marketing automation tool for email, ads, or direct mail.
- Assign owners: Make sure each account has a clear point person for follow-up. Otherwise, leads get lost.
What to ignore: Don’t blast everyone on the list with the same message. This defeats the purpose of targeting. Segment further if you need to.
Step 7: Personalize Your Outreach (Don’t Waste the Opportunity)
This is where most teams drop the ball. You’ve got a sharp, targeted list—don’t ruin it with generic messaging.
Ways to personalize: - Reference the contact’s previous relationship with your company - Mention relevant recent news about the account - Call out mutual connections or shared pain points - Keep it short, specific, and human
What works: Even a little bit of context (“Congrats on the new role!” or “Saw you just launched X product…”) goes a long way.
What doesn’t: “Hi [First Name], I wanted to circle back regarding your digital transformation needs…” Delete, delete, delete.
Step 8: Track Results and Tweak Your Lists
Building targeted lists isn’t a one-and-done thing. Markets shift, people move, and what worked last quarter might flop next month.
- Monitor reply rates, meetings booked, and closed deals from each list.
- Adjust your filters if you’re getting too much noise or missing good accounts.
- Archive lists that aren’t performing. Don’t let old, bad data clog up your workflow.
Pro tip: Keep notes on what criteria worked (or didn’t). This turns gut feelings into real, repeatable strategies.
Keep It Simple and Keep Iterating
Targeted account lists are about focus, not perfection. Usergems is a great tool, but it won’t magically fix a bad strategy or sloppy execution. Start small, keep your lists tight, and don’t overcomplicate things. The best campaigns are the ones you actually launch, not the ones stuck in “list-building” limbo.
You’ll get better results—and waste less time—by revisiting and refining your lists every quarter than by obsessing over the “perfect” criteria. Get started, see what works, and adjust as you go. That’s how the pros do it.