6 Ways Domain Intelligence Shapes Smarter Marketing & Stronger B2B Growth

When I invited Blake Sitney, Founder and CEO of Profound Networks, to join me on the B2B Influence Podcast, I knew that the conversation would challenge how most marketers think about identity in the digital economy. Blake and I have known each other for more than two decades, and few people understand the intersection of data, identity, and technology the way he does.

His insights reminded me that in today’s B2B world—where businesses often exist entirely online—the humble domain name has become one of the most powerful identifiers a company owns.

Here are six smart insights from the conversation with Blake that, from my perspective, can elevate B2B growth for forward-looking organizations in 2026:

1. From Factory Floors to Digital Footprints

For more than a century, companies were defined by their physical footprints—their offices, factories, and warehouses. But as Blake explains, the traditional model no longer fits the reality of the information age. Many high-growth firms today, from Airbnb to digital-first startups, operate without a physical headquarters at all. Instead, they are anchored by a digital identity—their domain. A domain uniquely identifies a company in ways that traditional business identifiers can’t. Unlike proprietary database IDs or numerical identifiers, domains are open and universally accessible. The moment you see airbnb.com, you know the business it represents. It’s an organic, globally recognized signal that carries rich metadata—what Blake calls the “golden key” to understanding a company’s digital presence.

2. The Power of Domain Intelligence

Profound Networks specializes in compiling digital attributes tied to these domains—everything from website traffic and backlinks to hosting environments, CRM usage, and e-commerce capabilities. When you map a domain to a company’s physical and legal information, you get the best of both worlds: a unified view that bridges the physical and digital identities of a business. This kind of intelligence transforms how sales and marketing teams operate. If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are your ideal customers already exist online. But how do you know if they’re truly viable prospects? As Blake pointed out, a company without its own domain likely isn’t ready for enterprise-level engagement. By identifying active, legitimate domains—and validating them through factors like registration age and activity signals—marketers can prioritize accounts that are real, active, and ready for outreach.

3. Solving the Master Data Puzzle

Inside large enterprises, the various teams, such as marketing, sales, IT, and compliance, often operate in silos. Creating a single, unified customer view remains one of the biggest challenges in data management. Blake’s team approaches this by matching domains to physical addresses using what they call match flag strings—essentially verifying that company names, addresses, and phone numbers align with what’s published on a target website. Why does this matter? Because the company’s own website is often the most authoritative “source of truth.” Domain mapping can therefore complement, and sometimes outperform, traditional master data management systems by providing a digital verification layer that confirms which entities truly belong together.

4. Corporate vs. Free Email Domains: Getting Attribution Right

Blake also shared an important distinction between corporate and free email domains, something that directly impacts campaign accuracy. Many businesses still use Gmail or Yahoo addresses, making it impossible to confirm whether an individual truly represents the company they claim. When marketers rely on corporate domains (like @gs.com for Goldman Sachs, for example), they can verify that communications are reaching legitimate business contacts. This principle becomes even more crucial as third-party cookies and device IDs disappear. With privacy regulations tightening and tracking tools losing effectiveness, domains offer a more durable, privacy-safe foundation for attribution.

5. The Cybersecurity and Compliance Connection

What struck me most during the discussion with Blake is how domain intelligence now extends far beyond marketing. It’s also a core pillar of enterprise risk management. He described how Profound helps organizations map all “child” and “host” domains that roll up to an ultimate domain, like microsoft.com encompassing bing.com, xbox.net, and others. This mapping enables companies to understand their full attack surface and pinpoint where vulnerabilities or unauthorized infrastructure might exist. It also supports compliance efforts by detecting when a supposed company in one country is actually operating servers in a sanctioned region.

6. Domains as the New Data Layer for B2B Marketers

Listening to Blake describe these use cases made me think about how much the definition of “business identity” has evolved. The domain is no longer just a web address—it’s a data layer that informs marketing segmentation, validates contact accuracy, enhances attribution, and strengthens compliance frameworks. For marketers, that means your audience targeting and campaign performance depend increasingly on domain-level insights.

A New Era of Digital Identity

As AI, privacy regulations, and cybersecurity concerns reshape the digital landscape, durable identifiers like domains will become even more critical. They’re transparent, persistent, and verifiable—qualities every marketing and data leader should value in an age of disappearing cookies and fragmented identity graphs.

For me, this conversation was a reminder that true digital identity starts with trustable, observable signals. Domains provide exactly that: a consistent, universal anchor point that connects the dots across marketing, compliance, and risk.

At Outward Media, as we continue to assist brands and agencies to build precision audiences, it’s exciting to see how domain-based intelligence is unlocking new ways to verify, reach, and engage the right businesses in a responsible, data-driven way.

Go here to listen to Blake discuss the shifting digital identity landscape in detail, including how Profound Networks is transforming the industry with deep intelligence into the IT infrastructure of 300+ million domains, including 90+ million unique businesses and organizations.