What are the filtering options when I search a company?

In the home page you can filter your search for a company or a list of companies in multiple ways:

• by company name
• by business category
• by field of activities

The system takes the country associated to the visitor as default country to run the search.

Once the first search results are available you can further narrow your search with these additional filters:

• by country, selecting one or more countries you are interested in.
• location area, indicating a region or city of interest if you are looking for a geolocated business
• field of activity
• business category

Why I can not see all the companies in my search result?

Searching for companies in B2B Stars is free.

At the top of your search page, you will see the overall number of companies found in thesearch. If you do not have an account in B2B Stars, you will see details of up to 10 companies.

On the other side, registered users can see details of up to 20 companies in their search results. To view and download the entire result of your search you need to purchase the information. Information on how to purchase data can be found on this page.

What is B2B Stars Market Coverage?

B2B Stars covers 99% of companies with 10 employees or more in the top Western Europe markets (the 13 largest countries in economic size plus Finland).

In US B2B Stars covers 99% of companies with 100 employees or more, 75% of companies with 50 employees or more, 50% of companies with 10 employees or more.

Which Countries are today in B2B Stars?

Starting from September 2nd, the platform lists the companies registered in UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

The current roadmap is to include US and other 9 Western European markets by December 2024.

How can I optimise the search if I want a list of companies in the same industry?

B2B Stars uses the most frequent industry classifications systems: NACE (Nomenclature of Economic Activities) for Europe and NAICS for North America (North American Industry Classification System).

Both systems aim to provide a standardized way of classifying industries and economic activities, facilitating data collection, analysis, and comparison within their respective regions.

However, NACE and NAICS – both available in B2B Stars – are not very intuitive and often they do not reflect the business of the company, as it often changes in time and it is not updated in the public files. This is why B2B Stars:

a) authorizes Administrators of a Company Page to change it if they wish so

b) add two other categorizations:

• Business Category, which simplifies NACE and NAICS making it more intuitive and easier to use. However, being this categorization connected with the official NACE/NAICS records, they are also at risk of not providing the most recent view of a company’s business.

• Field of Activity follows a completely different approach and segment companies based on what they declare as core businesses in their web site, and own social media or in B2B Stars Company Pages when their profile is “claimed” and “verified”. Furthermore, if a company is active in more areas (for instance in consulting and in marketing services), each area is added to give a more comprehensive view of their business. Currently, however, we cannot cover all existing companies with such classification.

B2B Stars recommendation is that – whenever available – users should make searches using both Business Categories (higher number of results) and the Field of Activities (higher quality of the results based on updated info & a comprehensive view of each company).

What does Field of Activity mean?

Field of Activity is a system to segment companies based on what they declare as core businesses in their web site, own social media or in the “claimed” and “verified” Company Pages of B2B Stars. If a company is active in more areas (for instance in consulting and in marketing services), each area is added to give a more comprehensive view of their business. This system provides the highest quality of results as it is based on updated info and a comprehensive view of each company. Currently, however, we cannot cover all existing companies with such classification.

What does Business Category mean?

Business Category is a business classification which simplifies NACE and NAICS making it more intuitive and easier to use. However, being this categorization connected with the official NACE/NAICS records, they are also at risk of not providing the most recent view of a company’s business.

What does NACE and NAICS mean?

B2B Stars uses the most frequent industry classifications systems: NACE (Nomenclature of Economic Activities) for Europe and NAICS for North America (North American Industry Classification System).

Both systems aim to provide a standardized way of classifying industries and economic activities, facilitating data collection, analysis, and comparison within their respective regions.

However, NACE and NAICS – both available in B2B Stars – are not very intuitive and often they do not reflect the business of the company, as it often changes in time and it is not updated in the public files. This is why B2B Stars:

a) authorizes Administrators of a Company Page to change it if they wish so

b) add two other categorizations: Business Categories and Filed of Activity.

Which are the criteria for being listed on the top of the search?

Unlike general purpose search engines which ranks companies based on web criteria (site traffic, links, web content, etc.) often within a “black box”, our platform is meant to build more relevant and transparent results for companies searching for other businesses for whatever purpose (sell, buy, partner, benchmark, etc.).

Our primary ranking criteria are based on:

• Companies’ reviews (top 3)
• Industry awards and recognitions (top 3)
• Credit score (top 3)
• Purchase Signals

Industry awards and recognitions will be added progressively during the last quarter of 2024. Other criteria maybe added either in Q4 2024 or in Q1 2025 and will be made known as soon as effective.

After the above external criteria, two more B2B internal criteria applies: if a Company has a Claimed or a Verified Page (so that information had been validated and/or updated and/or enhanced), then the Company is ranked higher at equal conditions of the other external criteria.

Why Companies Reviews are critical?

We are aware that nothing can replace actual customers or suppliers in assessing a company. Unlike general review sites, B2B Stars requests the view not only on products / services but on any major aspects of a business relationship. For more information about the reviews rating see the section “Company Review”.

Why Industry awards and recognitions are critical?

After the voice of the customer and of the supplier, it is critical as well to report the industry analysts’ position on a company key offering. However, we weight it differently as:

a) unlike companies review, the industry awards are related only to products, and we know that other aspects of the business relationship are equally important and

b) SMBs struggle to get recognized and receive awards due to the heavy investment that often is required to be nominated and then awarded.

For this reason, these criteria are weighted more for larger organizations and are included mainly as a “booster” for SMBs which succeeded in receiving such awards and recognitions.

How do you rate Awards & Recognitions?

We take into account only awards and recognitions which are largely adopted by each industry / field of activity. In the rating we consider for each company:

• The geo scope (local / regional / worldwide) of the awards
• The criteria of the award (i.e. if company size is the main criteria, the award will not be considered)
• The authority of the institution issuing the awards
• The number of awards received in the last 3 years
• The age of the awards

Why credit score is critical?

Credit score is very important for the overall ranking due two main reasons:

• The companies with high/very high score have good financial health and are likely to invest more and have a higher potential to grow. For this reason, they can be ranked higher in the overall list.
• The companies with low/very low score are at risk of not being in business soon or to struggle to pay their liabilities. In both cases they are not accounts we can prioritise for our users.

SMBs can have a high/very high score like enterprise accounts as the risk of default is relative to the revenues/costs and and assets/liabilities of each organisation.

Why Purchase Signals are important?

Purchase Signals or Buyer Intent Data is a set of “digital signals”, analysed and validated by artificial and human intelligence, about what businesses search, read or communicate on B2B topics and solutions (predominantly) in digital and social media. Such analytics is important as it provides likelihood that a company can be “in market” for a given product/offering.

The overall score (on all solutions) provides an index of business dynamism as a high score means a company actively interested in a number of B2B offering and investment. A high score with a high financial health (credit score) means even higher likelihood of a company being in market in several B2B offerings.

How do I create an account in B2B Stars?

Signing up to B2B Start is simple and free, the only condition is that your company is already in B2B Stars.

If your company is not listed but it is eligible to be inserted (see question What is B2B Stars Market Coverage?), then you can first submit a request to register your company and once registered you can complete your registration process.

How can I sign up (create an account) to B2B Stars?

Signing up to B2B Start is simple and free, the only condition is that you accept B2B Stars Terms and Conditions of Service.

You can create an account either using your Google or LinkedIn account credentials or by entering your email address and a password.

During the registration process, you will be asked to associate yourself with a company and to insert your work email address. A verification email with a verification call-to-action button will be send to your company email address.

Only after we have verified and validated who you are, we will create your account. Once the account is created you will receive a Welcome to B2B Stars email.

What is a company account administrator?

Any employee within a company can use and register in B2B Stars for free. Only selected employees, however, should be identified as page administrators. The system allows up to 5 administrators per company profile.

The role of the administrators is to update the company information page, upgrade the profile when needed, respond to reviews, engage with other companies and purchase additional services.

What is BMail?

BMail is the platform specific messaging system. There are two types of BMail: individual's BMail and company's BMail.

Users can write to companies using the company BMail from their company page. In this case any communication sent to the company will arrive to all the administrators of the company page. Users can write to individuals in response to a review. When using the individual BMail only the individual will receive the message.

Individuals don’t have a personal page in B2B Stars, their name is visible only when they live a review for a company in a non-anonymous way.

How do I connect with companies on B2B Stars?

You can connect with companies through the B2B Stars messaging platform BMail.

What is the difference between free and paid company pages?

All companies legally registered in the countries covered by B2B Stars with 10 employees or more are in B2B Stars with a page or can be added.

Once an administrator of your page validates or updates some company information, the page will reach the status “Claimed” with the associated badge giving your company additional credibility.

With the “Verified” profile, for a small annual fee, the administrators can update and enrich the company profile obtaining maximum visibility.

See here a complete description of the different company profiles and prices. Who owns a company page?

Who owns a company page?

The owners of a company profile are the administrators of the page. Up to 5 people, registered in B2B Stars as employees of a specific company, can be administrators of the company page.

There are two conditions to meet to become administrator of a page: The user must be registered into B2B Stars and must be associated with the company AND must update the company profile to Claimed (free service) or Verified (paid service).

Updating the company profile to Claimed is completely free; to do so the user must update the 1st level company information and update the opt-in preferences to accept the full Terms and Conditions of Service.

With the Verified company profile, a user can not only update the 1st level company information but also add additional profiling information making the company more visible to searches.

An admin can invite other colleagues to become admins. In this case, they will receive an invitation by email to register at the portal and then to the company administrators.

How many employees can be administrators of their company page?

Up to 5 people, registered in B2B Stars employees of a specific company, can be administrators of the company page.

What is a “Verified” company?

A “Verified” company has at least one administrator associated to its profile, some of the 1st level company information updated and the profile enriched with additional information such as awards and differentiators.

The Verified profile provides maximum visibility and allows the company to appear higher in the search.

This type of account is available for a small annual fixed fee.

See this page for complete information on the Verified company profile.

What is a “Claimed” company?

A “Claimed” company has at least one administrator associated to its profile and some of the 1st level company information updated.

The Claimed profile provides better visibility, and it is available for free.

See this page for complete information on the Claimed company profile.

What is the profile information of a company?

A company page has a set of standard information, some of which (1st level information) can be updated for free by a registered administrator of the company.

The company standard profile information includes:

• Company firmographic
• Logo
• Website
• Social media
• Description
• Business Category and Fields of Activity
• NACE category

Additional information is available in Verified company profile.

See this page for complete information on the information available in company profiles.

What is a company review?

All registered users in B2B Stars can leave reviews for companies with whom they have or had a business relationship either as client or supplier.

The review appears in the company page as a star ranking from 1 to 5 and with an area with a textual comment.

Leaving a company review is easy, the user must answer a very small number of questions.

Reviews in B2B Stars are company-to-company reviews, the name of the registered user leaving the review will never appear on the company page unless he/she decides otherwise.

Only the company name and position level within the organisation of the reviewer will appear on the company page. However, a reviewer can decide to keep the company name anonymous.

The questions a reviewer needs to answer are customised by type of business relationship (client versus supplier).

Reviews are a great way to reward your clients and suppliers as well as a way to provide useful information to your peers looking for similar services.

We also aggregate information from B2B only reviews from either a company website or other reviews sites. For aggregated reviews, we show, when possible, a general score and an AI-based executive summary of the reviews.

Can I remain anonymous when leaving a review?

The reviewer can choose to display their name and company name in a review or remain anonymous.

In the latter case, only the country, the company's size cluster, the individual's seniority level (C-level, management, others), and the department (IT, finance, procurement, etc.) will be disclosed.

Who can leave a company review?

All registered users in B2B Stars can leave reviews for companies with whom they have or had a business relationship either as client or supplier.

Why reviews are Trustworthy in B2B Stars?

Unlike other platforms, the reviewers need to be registered with company present in the platform.

Furthermore, we have implemented both AI and human moderation processes to make sure that only legitimate reviews are published.

We as well, rely on users to alert us to suspicious reviews that will be investigated by us. Breaking the B2B Stars Community Guidelines, for example with fake reviews will bring to the exclusion from the platform of the reviewer and, possibly, of the company if multiple users of the same organization had been involved.

Contact us if you think a review is suspicious.

How the company rating for reviews work?

The Company Page reports the overall review rating received, from one to five stars (if at least one review had been published). Such rating depends on a number of variables, among others:

• The number of reviews “weighted” by the size of companies (we do not expect a small business to receive as many reviews as a large corporation)
• The results of each review
• The quality of the reviews (the more information provided by the reviewer, the better)
• The authority of the reviewer (the higher the number of reviews, the higher the authority)
• The date of the review

Where do you take the companies profile information?

In Western Europe all companies file their accounts and basic information to a public register so it’s easier to find reliable and updated information (usually not older than 1 year). We take information from public sources; we then add information from social media and web sites to better segment companies and then we integrate the outcome in our platform for an easy to use consumption.

In US, the information required by law are lower and the sources are multiple, so we use data from third parties to create our companies’ profiles. Then we add, information from social media and web sites which is richer than in Europe.

Where do you take credit score information?

Credit score is provided by Global providers of risk assessment which aggregates multiple sources of information (government and court records, trade payment data, adverse payment terms, financial statements, etc.) and apply statistical techniques by sectors to predict company insolvencies up to 12 months in advance.

We do not add/edit the credit score, but we make reasonable efforts to select leading and reliable providers for each market (for instance all ours providers have an office and access local sources within the specific market).

Note: credit score information is available only for companies with 50+ employees.

Can I buy company information on B2B Stars?

B2B Stars gives you the possibility to buy the results of your search. At the top of the search page, you can see the number of companies identified and the possibility to buy the information. To buy data you must be a registered user. There are two purchase options available:

1. Basic data: companies’ profile information (name, address, description, company size, website, field of activities, business categories, reviews) , the credit score and, when available, the suppliers’ and clients’ reviews.
2. Advanced data: companies’ profile information, the credit score and, when available, the suppliers’ and clients’ reviews, and purchase intent signals information for up to 6 solutions.

The price depends on the selected number of records you want to purchase.

You can find more information on Data Purchase here.

Note: credit score information is available only for companies with 50+ employees.

Can I send marketing email to B2B Stars contacts?

As B2B Stars places people privacy first, we do not make available or sell individuals’ emails externally; If you are interested in promoting your offering, we can send messages to other companies on your behalf through our internal email management service that include target selection, campaign setup and management, broadcasting automation, analytics setup and advanced reporting.

You can target the communication by corporate department and by seniority level and we expect your messages to be relevant for such audiences. If the open rates or the click through rates are too low, we may ask you to change the content or we may not broadcast new emails on your behalf as the interests of our community is our top priority.

You can also use the platform mailing system (BMail) to send a 1:1 communication to a company administrator(s) who opted in to receive such messages. We recommend communication via BMails to be highly personalised. If the administrator does not answer, you will be inhibited by the system to send further communications for the following 12 months to that company.

Can I buy advertising in B2B Stars?

B2B Stars offer a number of options to cover all advertising needs of our community.

B2B Stars offer the most effective advertising option for precise targeting, currently not available in any other platform. You can reach prospects with a double criteria: what they are searching for and the profile of the company they represent (industry, size of business, location, etc.). This is an extremely powerful way to identify companies likely to buy and belonging to the sectors you want to address and/or within the size of business you are more interested in.

What are the marketing services options available in B2B Stars?

B2B Stars offers a series of marketing services to companies that want to gain visibility in the market and reach prospect buyers more effectively:

• Email to targeted audience’s lists. Using B2B Stars you can run email campaigns to targeted audiences.

• Verified Company Page: gain extra visibility within the B2B Stars platform for a small annual fee with the Verified company profile.

• Digital advertising to targeted audience lists within the B2B Stars platform and B2B related sites.

How can I buy B2B Stars Digital Services?

All Services can be purchased using an electronic Wallet. You can charge your wallet within your account dashboard with a minimum of 150£ and a maximum of £10,000. The wallet grants you a discounted price for the services, the more you recharge the more you save.

Otherwise, you can buy our services using a credit card or a bank transfer.

The digital services will be active as soon as B2B Star will receive communication of the payment.

How can a “Verified Company Page” help increasing visibility in B2B Stars?

If you upgrade your company page to Verified and insert more information about your company (key clients, sectors, differentiators, awards & recognitions, etc.) the system will place your company higher in the search results as far as the other organic criteria (peer’s review, awards, financial scoring, etc.) are equal with the non-verified companies.

What are Purchase Signals?

Purchase signals, also known as intent data, are a set of actions, analysed and validated by artificial and human intelligence, about what businesses search, read or communicate on B2B topics (predominantly) in digital and social media. Such analytics at solution level is important as it provides likelihood that a company can be “in market” for a given product/offering. The overall intent score (across all solutions) provides an index of business dynamism as a high score means a company actively interested in several B2B offering and ready to invest more than the average.

Understanding and responding to purchase signals is a crucial component of successful sales and marketing strategies, as it helps identify and pre-qualify opportunities in the market and maximise the chances to win clients by engaging in the early stage of their buying journey.

Furthermore, by identifying and addressing needs and interests of existing clients, businesses can also build strong relationships with their existing customers, increase cross selling and upselling and ultimately drive long-term growth.

How do you collect Purchase Signals?

Information is gathered indirectly from people’s online behaviour. It includes data like search queries, website visits, content consumption, clicks, downloads, and social media interactions.

We collect data weekly from billions of online user interactions on B2B related websites.

All data is processed by human and artificial intelligence at company level, we do not analyse any signal at individual level.

How can I use Purchase Signals?

Sales can act on Purchase signals by customizing prospects outreach and communication. By recognizing and addressing a potential customer's needs or desires, salespeople can build trust and establish a positive relationship, ultimately increasing the likelihood of a successful sale.

By analysing patterns in purchase signals, marketers can gain insights into customer preferences and behaviours, allowing them to tailor their messaging to better meet customer needs and desires.

Purchase Signals also play a key role in identifying interest in markets and verticals not yet approached by a company or to prioritize your sales effort focusing on companies that show higher interest level.

How can I buy Purchase Signals?

Purchase signals detected in each company and related to several B2B solutions are visible on each company profile page at aggregated level.

When buying company data from B2B Stars you can select up to 6 purchase signals solutions to add to your selected target list to make the purchase signals relevant to your specific offering.

What are the Purchase Signals Solutions you track?

Today we track signals for the following B2B offering:

• Technology (20 different solutions, for instance: BI, Analytics, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity, Data Centers, ERP, HR, etc.)
• Marketing and Advertising
• Banking & Financial Services (Financing, Exchange rates, Banking Other)
• Insurance
• Automotive
• Logistics & Transportation (Freight, Logistics & Supply Chain, International Trade & Customs)
• Sustainability

We plan to add in the following 12 months: Legal services, Accounting & Tax, Pharma. If you are interested in any of those 3 sectors, you can contact us and we can offer a custom solution until the service is fully operational.