3 Effective Ways to Leverage Intent Data

Knowing how to leverage intent data is the key to success in B2B marketing. In a recent survey, we spoke to 200 senior marketers working in large companies with an employee range of 500+, and the most common challenge in this sample set when using intent data was being able to make it actionable.

In fact, the top three challenges reported were all of a human nature. While 64% of respondents said they struggled to turn data into actionable insight, a similar 63% struggled to combine data with strategy for targeted ads, and 56% found it difficult to ensure data was being used by the sales team.

All of the issues highlighted in our survey are based on human engagement and usage, and can be fixed with effective planning and management. This underlines the importance of knowing what to do with the data, and how to make it meaningful. Therefore having a strategy in place is vital, and here are three successful uses of intent data that must be included in your strategy development.

1. Take content creation to the next level

Content is the cornerstone of demand generation, and without it, businesses have no voice in the digital world. Through demand generation, you can tap into a wider audience, heighten awareness of your brand, shout about your products and services, and position yourself as a thought leader in the industry. And all of this is achieved through content, increasing your inbound customers.

By using intent signals to inform your content strategy, you can reach potential customers who haven’t engaged with you yet. And as a prospect’s purchasing decisions are influenced very early on in the buying process (long before they make contact or visit your website), it’s important to get your brand noticed and start building customer relationships even in these primitive stages.

Then of course, there’s content for every stage of the sales funnel, taking you from demand to lead generation techniques. And in order to create a comprehensive content strategy, it’s important to understand the different types of intent data out there, and how they should be used.

While first party data is collected by you from your own customer base and website visitors, third party data is sourced from external sites and is owned and managed by data providers. According to our survey, over half (55%) of B2B marketing leaders consider a combination of both to be the best approach for content development.

Although first party data seems to be the preferred source of data collection (with 67% of respondents saying they rely on this the most), third party behavioural data can be useful for accessing untapped audiences, so it makes sense to take a combined approach if resources allow.

However, there’s a reason why B2B marketing leaders tend to favour first party data. When it comes to fine-tuning your strategy, first party data provides a great deal of information about the people already in your sales funnel. Whether they are returning customers or prospects who have shown interest in your products, intent signals can help you service them better.

By reviewing markers such as length of engagement or content format, you can gain insight into buyer intent. Or by looking at internal search queries, you can establish research trends among buyers and tailor content to their needs. 

2. Elevate your Account-Based Marketing Tactics

Account Based Marketing (ABM) is an area that benefits greatly from intent data, as marketers are able to build ‘cookie pools’ based on the right personas for accounts that are surging. When there are spikes in relevant search activity, intent can be leveraged for ad targeting.

Firmographic data, such as industry, company size, revenue, location or total number of employees can be combined with intent data at scale to give you even deeper insights into what your prospects are about to do next. This means you can successfully segment accounts, while making buyer personas more accurate.

Our survey reveals that the number one benefit of intent data is being able to create effective buyer personas, which is the foundation of any ABM campaign.

Through accurate personas and improved segmentation, you can understand what topics are important to certain accounts. Giving you an opportunity to personalise content for their consumption. And when it comes to personalisation, it doesn’t have to be as time-consuming as you might believe. Repurposing content is often overlooked, yet it brings so much added value for a lot less work. On average, it takes around 40 different pieces of content per target account to execute a successful ABM campaign. So being able to reuse and repurpose content is advantageous if you need to keep an eye on resource.

Businesses can also optimise third party intent data to eliminate competition. Despite your sales team building great rapports with leads, converting them into buyers can be tricky when they are also talking to other companies. Intent data can be used to see when prospects are searching for competitor services, giving you an opportunity to direct prospects towards your brand through targeted ads.

3. Improve lead scoring and nurturing

It’s also beneficial to leverage intent for lead scoring and lead nurturing purposes. You may already know that your lead has the right job title, and is at the right target account, and even what content they’ve consumed on your website. But if you can also see that this lead comes from a surging company, you can score them accordingly and prioritise them for sales contact. 

Lead nurturing is also a vital step in ensuring high scoring leads move through the funnel. And nurture workflows and email campaigns are the best way of marketing to users along the purchasing journey, allowing you to impact their behaviour.

According to the 200 senior marketers in our survey, the best channels for utilising intent data are email marketing and nurture workflows, with 72% of respondents using these as their primary channels.

It’s important to note that lead scoring is a methodology that marketing and sales both share. As seen earlier with the results from our survey, collaboration and data sharing can be a problem, with over half (56%) of marketers reporting challenges with ensuring data is used effectively by the sales team.

This means that collaborative working is imperative if you want to make your data go further. In order to leverage intent information and make it actionable and meaningful, improve shareability and reporting.

Break down department silos and encourage better communication between sales and marketing, while making the strategy clear for all relevant teams. Use lead scoring to your advantage, make your data actionable, and you’ll be able to inform sales of leads that are ready to convert, improving business performance and your bottom line.