If you’re running account-based marketing (ABM), you know the pain: building a solid list of target companies is tedious, and most tools overpromise and underdeliver. This guide is for B2B marketers, sales ops folks, and anyone who’s tired of “ideal customer profile” fluff and wants a real, repeatable way to find the right accounts—without spending all week in spreadsheets.
We’ll walk through how to use Arti to build targeted account lists that actually help you run ABM campaigns that don’t suck. No magic, no silver bullets—just a workflow that works (and a few things to ignore).
Why Most Account Lists Miss the Mark
First, a quick reality check. Most “target account” lists are either:
- Too broad (hello, every company over 500 employees in the Fortune 1000)
- Too narrow (your CEO’s cousin’s startup and five logos from TechCrunch)
- Stale (last updated when fidget spinners were cool)
The problem? If your list isn’t tailored to your actual product, sales team, and campaign, your ABM efforts will flop. You’ll waste time chasing the wrong companies or missing real opportunities.
That’s where Arti comes in. It’s not a magic wand, but it does make finding, filtering, and updating account lists a lot less painful.
Step 1: Get Clear on Who You Actually Want
Before you touch Arti (or any tool), take 20 minutes to sketch out your “real” ICP (ideal customer profile). Skip the buzzwords. Focus on:
- Industry: Not just “tech,” but “SaaS companies selling to mid-market HR teams,” for example.
- Company size: By employees, revenue, or both—but be honest about what’s too small or too big.
- Geography: Where do you really win deals? Don’t chase accounts in regions where you can’t sell or support.
- Key triggers: Funding rounds, hiring sprees, tech stack, recent executive hires, etc.
Pro tip: Ask your sales team for the last 5 deals they loved and the last 5 that wasted their time. Build from there.
Step 2: Use Arti to Source Accounts That Fit
Once you’ve got your real criteria, fire up Arti. Here’s how to get started:
a. Set Up Your Search
- Log in to Arti and head to the account search module.
- Plug in your ICP filters—industry, employee range, location, funding stage, etc.
- Don’t just trust the default filters. Dig into options like:
- Technologies used (Arti can surface companies using specific tools)
- Recent org changes (like a new CMO or expansion into new markets)
- Firmographic tags (like “bootstrapped” or “private equity-backed”)
b. Don’t Overfilter
It’s tempting to stack on every filter, but you’ll end up with a list of 12 companies—half of which are owned by the same holding group. Start broad, then trim.
Stuff to ignore: - “Engagement score” or “propensity to buy” metrics that sound fancy but are black boxes. - Overly narrow titles or niche buzzwords—real buyers often don’t fit your perfect persona.
c. Review and Refine
- Scan the results for obvious duds (tiny agencies, holding companies, or anyone outside your market).
- Use the “exclude” function in Arti to ditch whole categories you know never convert.
- If you’re getting lots of noise, tweak your filters. If you’re getting nothing, loosen up.
Honest take: No tool, including Arti, will automatically spit out a perfect list. You’ll need to use your brain and cross-check with sales.
Step 3: Build, Tag, and Organize Your List in Arti
You’ve got your initial batch of accounts. Now, put them in order:
a. Build Lists
- Create a new list in Arti for this ABM campaign. (Name it something you’ll understand in three months.)
- Save companies directly to the list as you go—don’t rely on exporting and re-importing later.
b. Tag and Segment
- Use custom tags (“Top Priority,” “Tech Stack Match,” “Expansion Opportunity”) to group companies.
- Segment by region, vertical, or sales team if you need to hand off lists internally.
c. Add Context
- Attach notes or context in Arti for why a company made the cut (“Just raised Series B,” “Using competitor X,” “HQ in our target region”).
- This saves headaches later when sales or leadership asks, “Why is this company here?”
Step 4: Clean Up and De-Dupe
Sloppy lists kill campaigns. Take 10 minutes to:
- Run Arti’s de-dupe tool—it’s not perfect, but it’ll catch most obvious repeats or shell companies.
- Spot check for outliers: If a company looks off (wrong size, weird industry), investigate or remove.
- Export for sanity check: Sometimes it’s easier to spot garbage in a spreadsheet. Export and give it a once-over.
What to ignore: Don’t obsess over perfection. Aim for 90% clean—the other 10% you’ll fix as you go.
Step 5: Sync With Your Sales and Marketing Tools
Great, you’ve got a real list. Don’t let it die in a silo.
- Connect Arti to your CRM or marketing automation. Arti has integrations for most major platforms. If it’s a CSV export, so be it.
- Check for duplicates in your CRM. (Arti’s de-dupe isn’t a miracle-worker.)
- Set up alerts or workflows so sales knows when new accounts hit their list.
Pro tip: Keep your ABM list out of “all contacts” email blasts. Nothing says “personalization” like a mass-mail merge gone wrong.
Step 6: Keep the List Fresh
ABM lists rot fast. Companies grow, shrink, get acquired, or pivot. Here’s how to avoid chasing ghosts:
- Schedule monthly or quarterly refreshes in Arti. Run the same filters and see what’s changed.
- Listen to sales feedback—if an account is always a dead end, tag it or remove it.
- Watch for key triggers: Arti can flag funding, layoffs, or tech changes—use these to keep your list relevant.
Don’t: Obsess over daily updates. ABM is about focus, not busywork.
What Works, What Doesn’t, What to Skip
What works: - Pairing Arti’s data with your own judgment (and sales’ input). - Keeping lists short and focused—quality over quantity. - Tagging and notes for context.
What doesn’t: - Blindly trusting “AI-powered signals” or intent scores. - Overfiltering to a list so small it’s useless. - Forgetting to update or prune your list—stale data will burn you.
What to skip: - Fancy dashboards if nobody looks at them. - Overly complex scoring models (unless you have a data scientist on payroll).
Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
ABM success doesn’t come from the fanciest tool or the longest list. It comes from knowing who you want to target, finding them efficiently, and staying organized. Arti makes this easier, but only if you keep your process simple: define, search, tag, clean, sync, refresh.
Don’t stress about getting it perfect on the first try. Build your list, run your campaign, and tweak as you learn. That’s how you get results that actually matter.