Your Most Powerful Ally For ROI In B2B Marketing

Intent data is considered by some marketers as defining the marketing strategy of the future.

Yet others think it to be a superpower for marketers.

Intent data has emerged as a must-have tool for both marketing and sales departments.

When marketing professionals execute intent-driven campaigns, they are able to identify and prioritise the best-fit, active accounts.

Additionally, intent data enables marketers to gain a better understanding of the accounts.

Target them with a tailored, precise, and relevant approach to increase conversions.

Contents of this article:

#1. Defining Intent Data
#2. Categories Of Intent Data
#3. 6 Ways To Use Intent Data In B2b Marketing
#4. Choosing The Right Intent Data Vendor
#5. Conclusion

#1. Defining Intent Data

Intent Data is defined as data that has a specific purpose.

An individual’s or company’s intent to purchase a product or service is revealed by their online behavior, over time.

This behavior is captured by intent data in datasets – a large collection of data.

This is then used by B2B marketing and sales teams to gain a clear understanding of the prospects’ buying decisions throughout the lifecycle of the purchase.

However, the most important aspect of intent data is that it reveals prospects who are actively engaged in the purchasing process.

If you’re a B2B marketer, intent data helps you understand what a potential buyer is most inclined to buy, tell, or even do next while browsing the internet.

Additionally, it enables marketers to grasp the following:

What are potential buyers doing on the various websites that are tracked?
Which topics are they most interested in?
Which solutions are they seeking?
Which content are they currently consuming?
What topics do they spend their time researching on a regular basis?

#2. Categories Of Intent Data

Intent data is gathered from various digital sources and is divided into two categories: first-party intent data and third-party intent data.

First Party Intent Data

These are also known as internal intent data.

These are intent insights or behavioural signals that you gather through your own or controlled digital properties.

These web properties could include:
- The backend of your website
- Marketing, or email automation platforms
- One or more analytics tools
- A web-based application
For example, you may be measuring:
- Web form fill-ups
- Content downloads
- Social listening
- Online chats
- Email engagement and email delivery stats
In all these instances you will be collecting first-party intent data.

B2B marketers can reap some benefits from first-party intent data, but this is only to a degree.

The reason is that first-party intent data can only provide information about buyer engagement or activity on your own website. So the data could be biased.

Moreover, the data does not disclose any information about what your potential customers are doing or researching elsewhere on the internet.

Due to the nature of their buyer’s journey, you are only able to gather valuable information about opportunities during one stage of their journey.

You need more for predicting user behavior.

Third Party Intent Data

Third party, or external intent data is collected by someone other than your own organisation from sources other than your digital properties.

This data on sites and technologies that you do not own, provides a comprehensive and comprehensive picture of your prospects’ and customers’ activities, behaviours, and content consumption.

Data from third-party intent sources provides insight into the interactions that your target audience has across the web.

It provides you with information about what your target audience has been doing online prior to visiting your website.

In most cases, third-party B2B data providers or external data vendors collect this information, either through data co-ops or through partnerships with publisher websites.

It is also sourced from data providers who legally collect information about individuals through the use of website cookies or IP lookups.

The Combination Of Both

The combination of first-party and third-party intent data is recommended for B2B marketers.

This helps you get the most benefit from intent or behavioural insights about prospects and customers.

The combination makes it possible to gain a more comprehensive understanding of your target audience – purchase intent, business goals, behaviours, interests, research, and other online activities.

#3. Three ways To Take Advantage Of Intent Data

Let’s take a look at how intent data can help you take your B2B marketing to the next level.

Hyper Personalize Experiences

It is a known fact that 62 percent of marketing professionals consider hyper-personalisation to be a critical strategy in their businesses?

B2B marketers no longer personalise their campaigns solely on the basis of general preferences and demographics.

Marketers today prefer to take their personalisation game higher by probing deeper into the key interests, needs, and behaviours of their target audience.

Intent data helps you do two things:
1. Create hyper-personalised experiences
2. Implement real-time targeting
The result: You’ll be able to see exactly what your prospects are looking for and which topics they’re currently researching.

The information provided by this data can be used by you to target prospects with hyper-personalised messaging at the most appropriate time.

Intent data provides you with information about more than just keyword intent.

Your marketing team can use hyper-personalisation to pursue and close prospects successfully in two ways
1. Those who are most likely to purchase from you
2. Those who are most interested in your brand
Enhance Brand Awareness

If you are a B2B marketer looking to increase brand awareness and get in front of as many prospects as possible, intent data can be a fantastic ally for you.

It helps you develop your content marketing strategy.

You get to reveal specific topics that your target audience is interested in learning about.

This helps you create content that
1. Addresses the needs, pains, frustrations and challenges of prospects
2. Inform them that you have a solution to their problems.
  Most of the time the prospects may just not be aware of your solution.
With intent data, you can reach such prospects while they are still researching, gain an understanding of their pain points, and present your brand or solution, in the most favourable light possible.

What it does is to allow you to show your brand or product even before potential customers visit your website or contact you directly.

Intent data is particularly effective when you wish to target
1. Different segments with varying needs
2. Different stages of the customer journey.
Alignment of Marketing and Sales Strategies

Marketing and sales alignment is essential for achieving individual marketing and sales objectives as well as increasing revenue growth and profitability.

The account-based marketing (ABM) process, which is widely used in the B2B landscape today, requires this step to be completed successfully.

According to statistics, when businesses use ABM to align their marketing and sales teams, they become 67 percent more effective at closing deals.

With intent data, you can ensure that your marketing and sales teams are pursuing a common goal:
1. They are on the same page all the time
2. The communication gap between the two teams is minimised or eliminated
3. Establish a common language between the two teams that allows them to work together
4. Consider skipping accounts that are unlikely to do business with you or who are not ready to make a purchase.