Successful firms use intent data to drive the development of B2B leads. It offers them a significant edge over the competition, allowing them to poach customers from rival companies.
The only way to level the playing field is to fight fire with fire. That is how to transition your efforts to lead generation based on purpose.
What is Meaningful Data?
Meaningful or Intention data refers to information on potential clients or customers, including their behavior, interests, and likelihood of making a purchase.
Businesses may optimize their marketing efforts based on buyer intent data, ensuring that resources are focused on high-quality, in-market leads. This information may originate from first-party sources (client purchase history, online actions, prior talks, etc.) and third-party sources (cookies, traffic analytics software, media brokers, etc.).
Intent-driven lead generation is the consequence of augmenting the lead generating process with intent data.
Instead of targeting a large number of prospective leads, B2B marketers examine intent data to identify in-market consumers actively seeking their brand’s goods and services.
Why Choose Meaningful Data to Generate Leads
Using intent data, 55% of sales executives effectively enhanced conversions, according to intent data statistics. Additionally, fifty percent said that meaningful data enhanced their sales, alignment, and account prioritizing. The following are other advantages of leveraging intent data to generate leads:
Stop Spending Resources on Wrongly Targeted Prospects
Businesses are able to home in on B2B prospects that are primed for a sales presentation thanks to intent data. In addition, they prevent spending money on information that will not be used in conversion routes. This maximizes promotional expenditures while boosting sales results.
Enhance the Customer Journey
Using intent data, businesses may adjust marketing efforts to the demands of customers in the market. It guarantees that leads get material that addresses their pain points, answers their concerns, builds their confidence, and encourages them to make a purchase.
Find Profitable B2B Leads Instantaneously
B2B data solutions may give you with leads with purchasing intent.
Employing such services is a simple and cost-effective method for using intent data. If you identify the perfect partner for your intent data requirements, there is no need for guessing, false positives, or a laborious research procedure.
Increase Organizational Cohesion
In order for lead generation initiatives to be intent-driven, multiple departments must work toward the same objectives. This refines the cooperation, communication, and brand alignment of your whole team, which will help your business beyond intent-focused efforts.
Get Past the Declining Returns of All-Purpose Marketing
Marketing focused on volume is still an efficient method for generating new B2B leads. A one-to-all strategy to B2B lead generation will provide declining results beyond a certain point.
Intent data may assist you in surpassing that threshold. It enables you to reach the ideal prospect at the ideal moment with the ideal information.
Four Proven Strategies for Targeting Leads with Intent
Here are 4 ideas for establishing an intent-based lead generating strategy:
1. Utilize Intent Signals to Determine The Ideal B2B Lead Profiles
In intent-driven lead generation, the prioritization of prospects from a list is based on their buy readiness. This only works if you already have that list.
Who do you provide services for? What are their responsibilities and how much purchasing power do they wield?
Answering the following questions will help you develop numerous consumer profiles for your intent-driven lead generation campaign.
Observe intent signals to comprehend the content consumption, engagement, and communication preferences of your ideal lead. These signals help illuminate your leaders’ present objectives and obstacles.
Examples of intent indicators:
- Participating in social media
- Employing contact form
- Signing up for newsletters
- Joining message boards
- Downloading a complimentary resource
- Observing a webinar
- Filling out a survey form
According to Gartner research, to sell a sophisticated B2B product, firms must interact with six to ten decision makers. Define these six to ten personas and create tailored experiences for each.
2. Trim Your Intentional Data Streams
Document your internal and external intent data sources in order to monitor, evaluate, and improve performance over time.
Here are a few examples of sources of internal intent data:
- Web site traffic reports
- App use statistics
- Polls, Surveys & Studies
- Information about customer onboarding and registration
- Email conversation exchanges and segmentation
Common sources for external or third-party data include the following:
- Solutions for B2B consumer information and intent marketing
- Marketing channel reports
- Analytics for social media platforms
- Analysis of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) platform keywords
- Industry studies and survey outcomes
Concentrate on several sources of intent data. Consider both internal and external intent data sources for a more complete picture of your potential B2B customer.
3. Merge Intent-Based Marketing with Account-Based Data
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) focuses marketing efforts on particular prospects. It complements intent data, which allows you to pick the best prospects to pursue.
Implement a thorough approach for lead qualifying to deliver qualified leads to your ABM funnels.
Additionally, you must reimagine your content marketing approach and tailor your message to your ideal customer profiles. Put your lead personas and intent data streams to use for this purpose.
Use emotional messages to connect on a deeper level with accounts. At each funnel level, appeal to their emotions, such as curiosity, skepticism, want, and even greed. This enables you to fine-tune content along the marketing funnel so that it resonates with intent-driven prospects.
4. Employ Technographics and Firmographics to Recognize Similar Audiences
The more intent data you use, the more accurately you can identify in-market customers. This gives you with more firmographic and technological information on your customers.
Utilize these elements to generate audiences that are similar to your existing leads.
Firmographic data refers to “organizational demographics.” It monitors organizational characteristics such as the purchasing procedure, buying committee, budget, and size.
The term “technographics” refers to the categorization of prospective companies depending on their technology usage. This includes variables such as technology acceptance rate, implemented solutions, and the organization’s technology stack use difficulties.
Study the technographics & firmographics of your target account to uncover specific issues. Personalize your marketing based on your results to increase the effectiveness of your outreach.
The majority of intent data in use consists of third-party intent signals. However, they are insufficient to engage purchasers who are contemplating a purchase.
Intention Data Avoiding Pitfalls
Intent data is a crucial asset that may boost your lead generation and sales success, but it is not an out of the box solution.
To optimize intent data, avoid the following intent-driven lead generating pitfalls:
Giving Up Clients of Competitors
Competitor displacement campaigns are a further application of technographic data.
These efforts have a singular objective: to encourage the clients of your competition to switch to your solutions.
A successful rival displacement campaign has the following components:
- Who are the consumers of your competition? What are their solutions’ provable weaknesses?
- Product advantage identification: How are your offerings superior than those of your competitors? What challenges did your product resolve that your competitor’s solution did not?
- Which of your competitor’s clients have sought out alternatives? Have they published any negative reviews?
- Variations in the opposition: Has a competitor’s management lately changed? Did they announce the discontinuation of any products or functions?
The combination of competitor displacement and intent data is potent. You identify flaws in your competitor’s offerings and relentlessly attempt to replace them, generating in-market leads who have previously bought comparable services.
Early Measurement of Intent
If your website lacks sufficient content, you shouldn’t measure intent data, particularly from traffic analytics.
Using traffic analytics effectively reveals your audience’s content choices and important themes. Without sufficient content, consumers will have limited choices when it comes to the sites they can see and the activities they can engage in.
This results in incorrect intent data that might mislead you as to what your audience really want.
Communication Failures Between Sales and Marketing
Without alignment between your sales and marketing departments, intent data is useless.
Marketers should keep salespeople “in the loop” about interactions, purpose, and language utilized in the qualifying of leads. This will aid salespeople in executing outreach and follow-ups that align with the account’s purpose and journey.
On the other side, salespeople should assist marketers in identifying a winning prospect. Analyze past sales and emphasize intent indicators that are often present on the conversion route.
Using Data Only for Sales
In lead creation and nurturing, intent data gives a tremendous advantage. Unfortunately, some companies merely utilize technology to customize sales interactions in an effort to increase sales statistics.
Remember that the buyer’s journey involves more than just the buying decision.
Don’t get myopic about buying intent, and also help those doing research. Personalize the experience by providing comprehensive responses to their questions, whether on search engines or social media.
Not Keeping Up with Evolving Customer Flows
Businesses that cannot react to the ebbs and flows of B2B buyer behavior cannot be saved by intent data alone.
Always be abreast of the most recent B2B buyer journey trends, tactics, and data. Utilize third-party data sources to evaluate and assess your lead generation strategy based on purpose.
Some of the most important B2B buyer journey figures for 2022:
- Eighty-four percent of customers want to feel privileged.
- Over seventy-five percent of purchasers want independent research.
- The majority of B2B purchasers find it difficult to do study and get a solution.
It’s Time to Sell, They Want to Purchase
It takes time to refine intent data in order to construct a well-oiled lead creation engine. Competitors are gaining ground; close the gap by receiving direct delivery of in-market leads.
Contact Iscope Digital now to connect with B2B prospects with buying intent.
