Intent data refers to the signals or behaviors that indicate a potential customer's interest or intent to purchase a product or service. These marketing intent signals can come from various sources, such as website visits, content downloads, social media interactions, and search queries. Buyer intent data plays a crucial role in modern marketing and sales strategies, as it helps businesses identify and prioritize the most promising accounts/leads, tailor their messaging, and allocate resources more effectively.
There are two main approaches to leveraging intent-based marketing: tracking intent and creating intent. Tracking intent involves monitoring and analyzing the digital footprints left by potential buyers as they research solutions and engage with your brand online. This approach aims to identify prospects who are actively in the market for your offerings and prioritize them for follow-up and nurturing.
On the other hand, creating intent is a more proactive approach that focuses on generating interest and demand within your target audience. Instead of waiting for prospects to signal their buying intent through online behaviors, businesses actively seek to educate and influence their target market, shaping their understanding of the problems they face and positioning their solutions as the optimal choice.
While tracking intent is valuable for capitalizing on existing demand, creating intent is essential for driving long-term growth and capturing a larger share of the market. By shaping the conversation and influencing buyer perceptions, businesses can stay ahead of the curve and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry.
Tracking Intent: The Traditional Approach
Tracking intent is the conventional method of identifying potential buyers by monitoring their online activities and behavior. This approach involves analyzing the digital breadcrumbs that buyers leave behind, such as anonymous browsing of high-intent pages, reading product reviews, or engaging with relevant content.
The process typically involves the use of various tools and technologies that can deanonymize users and report intent signals at a company level. These marketing intent tools track activities like website visits, content downloads, webinar registrations, and social media interactions, among others. By aggregating and analyzing this data, businesses can identify companies or accounts that are potentially interested in their products or services.
One of the primary advantages of tracking intent is that it provides a direct indication of a buyer's interest. When a company or individual engages with relevant content or performs specific actions, it can be interpreted as a signal of their intent to solve a particular problem or explore a solution.
However, tracking intent also has its limitations. First, it often occurs late in the buyer's journey, when they have already developed a perception of the problem and potential solutions. At this stage, buyers may have already formed opinions or preferences, making it more challenging to influence their decision-making process.
Additionally, tracking intent relies heavily on the availability and accuracy of the prospect data being collected. If the tracking mechanisms or data sources are incomplete or flawed, the resulting intent signals may be inaccurate or misleading, leading to wasted efforts and resources.
Furthermore, tracking intent alone does not provide a comprehensive understanding of the buyer's context, motivations, or specific challenges. It merely indicates potential interest, but lacks the deeper insights necessary to craft effective messaging and engagement strategies.
The Challenges of Tracking Intent
While tracking intent can provide valuable insights into potential buyers' interests, relying solely on this approach presents several challenges. Firstly, by the time a buyer's intent is detected through activities like anonymous website visits or reading product reviews, they are often already deep into their decision-making process. This late entry into the buyer's journey can make it difficult to influence their perception of the problem and the desired solution.
Additionally, when tracking intent, you are likely to encounter competitive deals where the buyer has already formed preconceived notions about the problem and potential solutions. In such cases, it becomes challenging to reshape their understanding and position your offering as the optimal choice.
Furthermore, tracking intent alone can lead to a reactive approach, where you are constantly playing catch-up with buyers who have already started their evaluation process. This can result in missed opportunities and a lack of control over shaping the narrative around the problem and its potential solutions.
Creating Intent: A Proactive Approach
While tracking intent is a valuable strategy, it often means engaging with prospects relatively late in their buyer's journey. By the time they exhibit signals like researching solutions or reading reviews, they may already have preconceived notions about the problem and potential solutions. This can make it challenging to influence their decision-making process and differentiate your offering.
In contrast, creating intent is a proactive approach that aims to shape the buyer's perception of the problem and their understanding of the available solutions. By educating the market and your target accounts early on, you can influence their problem awareness and decision criteria from the outset.
Creating intent involves identifying potential pain points, challenges, or opportunities that your target accounts may not yet be fully aware of or prioritizing. By providing thought leadership, industry insights, and educational content, you can help shape their understanding of the problem and position your solution as a compelling option.
This approach complements tracking intent by ensuring that when prospects do begin actively researching solutions, they have already been exposed to your perspective and are more receptive to your messaging. By creating intent early, you increase the likelihood of being considered a credible and trusted source when the buyer is ready to engage.
Leveraging Job Changes and Past Champions
Tracking job changes of past customers or champions can be a powerful strategy for creating intent in new accounts. When individuals move to new organizations, they often carry with them similar challenges and pain points from their previous roles. By identifying these champions changing jobs and proactively reaching out, you can capitalize on existing relationships and familiarity with your solutions.
For example, let's say you previously worked with a customer champion named Sarah at Company A. Sarah was instrumental in adopting your product and driving success within her team. Now, imagine Sarah has recently taken a new role at Company B, where she faces similar challenges. By tracking her job change and reaching out, you have an opportunity to leverage your existing relationship and credibility with Sarah.
Sarah is already familiar with the value your product delivers and may be more open to exploring a partnership at her new company. She understands the problem your solution solves and can serve as an internal advocate, helping you create intent and awareness within Company B.
Case studies and success stories from past champions can also be powerful tools for creating intent in new accounts. By showcasing how your solution has helped others in similar situations, you can demonstrate your expertise and the potential impact your product can have.
For instance, if you previously helped a company in the same industry as Company B streamline their operations and improve efficiency, you can leverage that case study to illustrate the tangible benefits your product can provide. This real-world example can help create intent and interest within Company B, as they see the relevance and applicability of your solution to their own challenges.
Tracking job changes and leveraging past champions is not only about capitalizing on existing relationships but also about creating intent through credibility and social proof. By demonstrating your expertise and showcasing your track record of success, you can establish yourself as a trusted partner and increase the likelihood of creating new opportunities within target accounts.
Monitoring Executive Statements and Analyst Engagement
Executives often provide valuable insights into their company's strategic direction and challenges through public statements, such as earnings calls, investor presentations, and annual reports. By closely monitoring these sources, you can gain a deeper understanding of the problems and pain points that executives are focused on addressing. This insight can help you identify potential areas where your solutions might be a good fit, allowing you to proactively create intent within target accounts.
Similarly, tracking analyst engagement can also be a powerful indicator of intent. When lower-level analysts or employees attend webinars, conferences, or other educational events related to your offerings, it may signal a growing interest or emerging need within that organization. These individuals are often tasked with researching potential solutions and gathering information to inform decision-makers.
To effectively monitor executive statements and analyst engagement, consider implementing the following strategies:
- Monitor new press releases, and executive statements: Utilize tools or services that can monitor and alert you when executives from your target accounts make public statements or when employees engage with relevant industry events or content.
- Analyze earnings call transcripts: Regularly review earnings call transcripts from your target accounts to identify any mentions of challenges, initiatives, or strategic priorities that align with your offerings.
- Track industry events and webinars: Stay informed about upcoming industry events, webinars, and educational sessions that may attract attendance from your target accounts. Monitor registration lists and attendee engagement to identify potential intent signals.
- Leverage social media monitoring: Monitor social media platforms, such as LinkedIn and Twitter, for updates, comments, and discussions involving executives or employees from your target accounts. These can provide valuable insights into their areas of focus and potential pain points.
- Collaborate with industry analysts: Build relationships with industry analysts who cover your target markets. They can often provide valuable intelligence on emerging trends, challenges, and areas of interest within specific industries or accounts.
By actively monitoring executive statements and analyst engagement, you can gain a deeper understanding of the problems and challenges faced by your target accounts. This knowledge can inform your content strategy, enabling you to create educational resources that address these specific pain points and establish your company as a thought leader in the space. Ultimately, this proactive approach to creating intent can help you get ahead of the competition and increase your chances of being considered as a potential solution when the need arises.
Building a Scalable ABM Program
To build a scalable account-based marketing (ABM) program that combines both tracking and creating intent, follow these steps:
- Define Your Target Accounts: Start by identifying the specific accounts you want to target based on your ideal customer profile (ICP) and firmographic data. This will help you focus your efforts on the accounts most likely to convert.
- Develop Buyer Personas: Create detailed buyer personas for each of the key decision-makers and influencers within your target accounts. Understanding their pain points, challenges, and motivations will help you craft more effective messaging and content.
- Map the Buyer's Journey: Map out the different stages of the buyer's journey for your target accounts, from awareness to purchase. This will help you understand the information and touchpoints required at each stage.
- Create Targeted Content: Develop high-quality, relevant content that addresses the specific needs and challenges of your target accounts at each stage of the buyer's journey. This content should aim to both track and create intent.
- Implement Intent Tracking: Leverage B2B intent data tools to monitor the online behavior and engagement of your target accounts. This includes tracking activities such as website visits, content downloads, and social media interactions.
- Identify Intent Signals: Analyze the intent data to identify accounts that are showing signs of interest or intent to purchase your products or services. Look for patterns and trends that indicate a potential buying cycle.
- Create Intent Triggers: Proactively create intent triggers by leveraging tactics such as monitoring job changes, executive statements, and analyst engagement within your target accounts. This will help you identify and engage with potential buyers early in their journey.
- Orchestrate Multi-Channel Campaigns: Based on the intent data and triggers, orchestrate personalized, multi-channel campaigns that combine various tactics such as targeted advertising, email nurturing, direct mail, and account-based sales outreach.
- Measure and Optimize: Continuously measure the performance of your ABM program using relevant metrics such as engagement rates, pipeline contribution, and revenue impact. Use these insights to optimize your targeting, messaging, and tactics for better results.
- Align Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success: Foster close collaboration between all customer-facing GTM teams to ensure a seamless handoff of engaged accounts and a consistent, personalized experience throughout the buyer's journey.
By following these steps, you can build a scalable ABM program that effectively combines both tracking and creating intent, enabling you to engage with your target accounts at the right time and with the right message, ultimately driving more qualified pipeline and revenue.
Re-engaging Past Champions in New Roles
Successful customer relationships often hinge on the presence of internal champions who advocate for your solution and drive adoption within their organization. However, when these champions change roles or move to new companies, it can jeopardize the hard-earned progress and momentum you've built. Fortunately, there's a strategic approach to systematically re-engaging these past champions in their new roles, leveraging their existing knowledge and relationships to create intent and unlock new opportunities.
One effective strategy is to closely monitor job changes within your customer base and target accounts. By staying attuned to shifts in personnel, you can proactively reach out to former champions who have transitioned to new roles or organizations. These individuals already understand the value proposition of your solution and have firsthand experience with its implementation and impact. Consequently, they are more likely to be receptive to exploring how your offering could address similar challenges in their new environment.
When re-engaging past champions, it's crucial to approach the conversation with empathy and a consultative mindset. Avoid hard sales tactics and instead focus on understanding their new role, challenges, and priorities. Leverage their familiarity with your solution to position it as a potential fit for their current needs, but be prepared to adapt and tailor your approach based on their unique circumstances.
Maintaining open lines of communication and nurturing these relationships is key. Regularly share relevant thought leadership content, industry insights, and updates on product enhancements or new features that could benefit their organization. Invite them to webinars, events, or roundtable discussions where they can connect with peers and gain valuable perspectives.
Additionally, consider offering personalized advisory services or consulting engagements to help past champions navigate their new landscape and identify areas where your solution could drive value. This not only reinforces your commitment to their success but also provides a low-risk entry point for exploring potential opportunities within their new organization.
By systematically re-engaging past champions in new roles, you can effectively create intent and unlock a wealth of untapped potential. These individuals possess invaluable insights, relationships, and credibility that can accelerate the sales cycle and increase your chances of success in competitive situations.
Measuring the Impact of Intent Creation
Measuring the success of intent creation efforts is crucial to understand the effectiveness of your strategies and make data-driven decisions for future campaigns. Several key metrics and KPIs can provide valuable insights into the impact of your intent creation initiatives.
One of the primary metrics to track is pipeline contribution. By monitoring the number of new opportunities and the associated revenue potential that can be attributed to your intent creation efforts, you can gauge the direct impact on your sales pipeline. This metric can be further segmented based on the specific intent creation tactics employed, such as job change monitoring or executive statement analysis, allowing you to identify the most effective approaches.
Deal velocity is another important KPI to consider. Intent creation aims to engage potential buyers earlier in their decision-making process, which can lead to faster sales cycles. By tracking the average time it takes for opportunities generated through intent creation to progress through the pipeline and close, you can assess the efficiency of your efforts and make necessary adjustments to streamline the process.
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a critical metric that extends beyond the initial sale. Intent creation efforts can potentially attract more valuable and engaged customers who are more likely to renew and expand their relationship with your company over time. By analyzing the CLV of customers acquired through intent creation initiatives, you can evaluate the long-term value and profitability of these efforts.
Additionally, it's essential to monitor engagement metrics, such as website visits, content downloads, and event registrations, to gauge the level of interest and awareness generated by your intent creation campaigns. These metrics can provide early indicators of the effectiveness of your efforts and help you optimize your tactics accordingly.
Ultimately, measuring the impact of intent creation requires a comprehensive approach that considers various metrics and KPIs across the entire customer journey. By regularly analyzing and interpreting these metrics, you can refine your strategies, allocate resources effectively, and maximize the return on your intent creation investments.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned
When it comes to creating intent and driving successful marketing campaigns, there are several best practices and lessons learned that can help maximize your efforts:
Align with Sales: Ensure close collaboration between marketing and sales teams. Sales insights can inform the identification of key triggers and pain points, while marketing can provide valuable data and intelligence to support sales efforts.
Prioritize Quality over Quantity: Rather than casting a wide net, focus on high-quality, targeted accounts and contacts. Personalized and relevant messaging will resonate better and yield better results.
Leverage Multiple Data Sources: Combine various data sources, such as technographic data, firmographic data, and intent data, to gain a comprehensive understanding of your target accounts and their needs.
Continuously Optimize: Regularly analyze campaign performance and adjust strategies accordingly. Use A/B testing, track engagement metrics, and gather feedback to refine your approach continuously.
Embrace Omnichannel Outreach: Utilize a mix of channels, including email, social media, events, and direct mail, to reach your target audience through multiple touchpoints.
Foster Trust and Credibility: Establish your brand as a trusted authority in your industry by providing valuable content, thought leadership, and expert insights.
Measure the Right Metrics: Go beyond vanity metrics and track meaningful KPIs that align with your business goals, such as pipeline contribution, closed-won deals, and customer lifetime value.
Avoid Common Pitfalls: Steer clear of common mistakes, such as relying solely on third-party data, neglecting data hygiene, or failing to personalize messaging. Regularly clean and update your data to ensure accuracy.
By following these best practices and learning from successful campaigns, you can effectively create intent, engage your target audience, and drive meaningful business results.
The Future of Intent Data and Marketing
As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the role of intent data and marketing is poised to undergo significant transformations. Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), are set to revolutionize the way we collect, analyze, and act upon intent data.
One exciting development is the advent of predictive analytics, which will enable marketers to anticipate buyer behavior and proactively tailor their messaging and strategies. By leveraging advanced algorithms and sophisticated data models, businesses will gain unprecedented insights into their target audiences, allowing them to create highly personalized and contextualized experiences.
Furthermore, the integration of intent data with other data sources, such as social media, IoT devices, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, will provide a holistic view of the customer journey. This comprehensive understanding will empower marketers to deliver seamless, omnichannel experiences that resonate with buyers at every touchpoint.
Another emerging trend is the rise of conversational AI and chatbots, which will transform the way businesses interact with prospects and customers. These intelligent assistants will not only streamline the intent data collection process but also provide real-time, personalized recommendations and support, enhancing the overall customer experience.
As privacy concerns continue to shape the digital landscape, the future of intent data and marketing will also prioritize transparency and ethical data practices. Businesses will need to adopt robust data governance frameworks and implement stringent privacy measures to ensure compliance with evolving regulations and maintain consumer trust.
Moreover, the integration of intent data with other emerging technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), will open up new avenues for immersive and interactive marketing experiences. Imagine being able to virtually showcase products or services based on a buyer's expressed intent, creating a highly engaging and memorable experience.
Ultimately, the future of intent data and marketing lies in the seamless fusion of cutting-edge technologies, data-driven insights, and customer-centric strategies. By embracing these advancements, businesses will be better positioned to deliver exceptional value, foster long-lasting relationships, and drive sustained growth in an increasingly competitive and dynamic marketplace.
