Targeting & ICP
Job Title vs Job Function: Which Should You Target?
Job function, what someone is actually responsible for, holds up more reliably across companies than job title does, since the same title can mean very different levels of authority depending on company size and structure. Title is still useful for the final list, since it's what appears on the mailer, but function should drive the targeting logic underneath it.
Practical guide · Published August 22, 2026 · Written by Jeffrey Huis in 't Veld
Why titles vary so much
Company size, industry norms, and internal culture all affect what title a given level of responsibility gets. A "director" at a small company might report directly to the founder and hold real budget authority. A "director" at a large enterprise might be several layers below anyone who actually approves spending. The title looks identical on a list. The authority behind it isn't.
What function captures that title doesn't
Function describes what someone is actually responsible for, operations, finance, marketing, IT, which tends to stay more consistent across companies of different sizes even as the specific title attached to that function shifts. Targeting by function first, then figuring out what title that function holds at a specific company, produces a more consistent list than targeting by title alone.
Using both correctly
In practice, both matter, function determines who should receive the piece, and title is what makes the mailer feel personally addressed rather than generic. The mistake is treating title as the primary targeting signal rather than the last step in identifying a specific person once function has already narrowed down who that should be.
Frequently asked questions
It can work reasonably well within a single company size band, where titles tend to be more consistent, but it becomes less reliable across a list that spans a wide range of company sizes.
Ask who actually owns the problem your product solves, who influences the purchase decision, and who controls the relevant budget, then map that to likely titles at each account.
Yes, since larger companies have more layers and more title variation. At smaller companies, one person often holds several functions at once, which simplifies the targeting question.
A specific title, where known, since it reads as more personalized. Function is the underlying logic that determines which title to look for.
To an extent, using role and department data where available, though some manual verification is often still useful for the highest-value accounts.
Related topics
Work with Yotru
How Yotru resolves title from function
Yotru's targeting starts from function, not title, then fills in the actual title and name at each account before the piece is produced, so the mailer reads as personally addressed even though the underlying list logic was built around role. When an exact title isn't available for a given account, the piece is still addressed by role rather than left generic, which keeps response rates closer to what a fully-matched list would achieve. .