Intent data helps your company identify which leads or accounts are actively conducting research for your products or services.
It’s typically used by organizations to alert sales and marketing teams when their target accounts are in buying mode for their particular product or service. It can also be used to help your team build a list of key and aspirational accounts as well as a strategy for campaign personalization and automation.
Like most martech nowadays, you’ll read about how intent data will dramatically boost your conversions and sales. This is certainly possible, but just like all the other bells and whistles in your tech stack, how you implement the data into your strategy is key.
First Party vs. Third Party
There are two types of intent data, first-party and third-party, both of which use a combination of IP addresses and browser cookies to track user activity online.
First-party intent data isn’t anything new. It comes from tracking your website and is often called “engagement data”. Many marketing automation platforms have produced first-party intent data for more than a decade now and most marketers already have access to it.
First-party intent data can be anonymous, meaning there’s no name associated with the record, or it can be known, meaning the user has provided their name and contact information (typically from form submissions, CRM contacts, etc.)
Today, the real excitement around intent data revolves around third-party data.
Third-party intent data is a much newer category than first-party. While marketing automation tools already track your own web properties, third-party intent data providers can track everyone else’s.
Third-party intent data providers collect and aggregate online research activity from a data-sharing co-op of thousands of B2B websites and publishers. From these publishers and websites, the data providers are able to analyze billions of content consumption events.
By aggregating content consumption over time, data providers create engagement baselines for your target account’s average content consumption so they can identify surges above normal levels of topic searches.
These surges can mean a lot to the marketer and is really where the art meets the science. A surge in “erp software” topics could signal a pain point with an existing vendor or partner, high purchase intent for new software, or perhaps an open position on their dev team. How you leverage the data is key.
How can my company incorporate intent data into my marketing strategy?
With a combination of first and third party intent data, marketing and sales teams can now truly personalize their outreach.
No longer bound by the limitations of your web property engagement, marketers can go one step further than link clicks and page views to get a much clearer picture of what their key or aspirational customers are searching for.
If a sales team knows the topics a particular account is researching, they can craft more relevant messages. If a marketing team knows the context behind that research, they can personalize their campaign assets and nurture content (think landing pages, drip emails, display ads, etc.).
Here are some common uses for intent data:
- Build targeted account lists for Account Based Marketing (ABM) – Sales and marketing teams can dynamically filter outreach lists for accounts that show active interest.
- Personalization – Marketing and sales teams can better personalize their initial outreach with resources that match whatever target accounts are already looking for.
- Targeted advertising – Intent data can be used to deliver more relevant and timely ads to both known and anonymous prospects.
- Lead scoring and prioritizing accounts - Weigh your lead scoring model to give priority to companies that demonstrate interest and purchase intent – before they initiate the buying process with a competitor.
- Analyze and retain customers - Get real-time visibility into customers that are researching topics and solutions you offer so you can up-sell and protect customers from your competitors.
Is intent data the right investment for my company?
At STAPHAUS, we have first-hand experience building out successful intent-based marketing programs, but typically the investment only makes sense at B2B organizations with lengthy, and often complicated, buying journeys. We have seen success with our professional services, software, and manufacturing clients, to name a few.
Another reality is that intent data is probably only worth the investment if it can be combined with other forms of data. It’s a powerful tool for delivering the right message at the right time, but should be seen as an add-on to your first-party intent data that comes from marketing automation providers such as HubSpot, Marketo, Eloqua, and others.
Most B2B organizations benefiting from the powers of intent data have at least a CRM and marketing automation tool in place, so they can keep track of top prospects and aggregate and take action on the data about those buyers.
Where can I purchase intent data for my key and aspirational clients?
As intent data becomes more of a common tool for B2B marketers, we have seen a lot of new data providers pop up as well as a lot of intent-data integrations for existing software.
Here are a few providers to get you started on your research:
