Are you struggling to effectively reach and engage with B2B buyers? Data is essential for B2B sales and marketing success. However, merely having data is not enough. You must also understand how to use it successfully to reach your business objectives. That is why businesses have started looking deep into the information of potential customers that might add value to their business operations.
B2B intent data can be a valuable resource for marketers because it provides insights into potential customers' interests and online behavior. According to a Gartner report, 83% of B2B buyers spend their time researching and acquiring information before purchasing. Businesses can get a competitive advantage and establish a strong sales funnel by understanding the demands of these buyers and employing data analytics.
In this blog, we will look at the concept of B2B intent data and how it may help with lead generation and marketing activities. Read below to find out how to best utilize B2B intent data to the best of your business.
What is B2B Intent Data?
B2B intent data indicates the online behavior and interests of potential business clients. Intent data provides insight into prospects' buying signals, both obvious and subtle, allowing you to promote your product as the best alternative. These signs could include looking for terms linked to your company, booking a demo, or downloading a report.
Marketers can use it to better identify and target high-value prospects and key accounts. For example, a company selling industrial equipment wants to reach out to potential buyers in the manufacturing industry. They may leverage B2B intent data to find individuals or businesses that have recently searched for or expressed interest in industrial equipment on social media or product review websites. This information might then be utilized to adapt marketing campaigns and outreach efforts to those prospects, thereby enhancing conversion rates.
What Makes Intent Data more Valuable than Regular Data?
B2B intent data is highly significant for lead generation and marketing operations because it gives insights into potential clients' specific demands and interests at various phases of the purchase process. This information may assist businesses in more successfully targeting and engaging with their target audience, resulting in greater conversions and revenues.
On the other hand, regular data may need to be more detailed and timely and give more insight into potential consumers' interests and wants. A corporation, for example, may have demographic data on its target audience, such as age, gender, and geography. Still, more than this information is needed to target and engage potential consumers properly.
B2B intent data, being more particular and fast, may also be more thorough than normal data. It can give a full picture of a potential customer's online activity and interests, allowing firms to personalize their marketing efforts more effectively.
Overall, B2B intent data may be valuable for companies trying to improve their lead generation and marketing effectiveness. Businesses may more effectively target and interact with their audience by knowing their individual requirements and interests, resulting in greater conversions and sales.
Types of Intent Data and How to Collect It?
Search Intent Data
Search intent data is information gathered by evaluating potential consumers' search queries. It can give useful insights into these persons' interests and requirements, as search searches frequently mirror a person's objectives, wants, and interests. Informational, navigational, and transactional data all fall under search intent.
For example, if a potential client performs informative searches, a company may give instructional content or tools to assist them in purchasing. If a potential consumer does transactional searches, a company may contact them with a related solution or offer.
Engagement Intent Data
Engagement intent data is gathered by monitoring a potential customer's interactions with content. This can involve reading, sharing, commenting, and other activities. Engagement intent data may give significant insights into potential consumers' interests and wants because it represents their level of interest in a specific issue.
Social networking networks, email marketing platforms, and blogs are all sources of engagement intent data. A company, for example, may examine the number of likes, shares, and comments on a social media post to determine the level of engagement among its followers.
Firmographic Intent Data
Firmographic intent data is information on the firm or organization of a potential client, such as its size, industry, location, and revenue. Because it gives insights into the qualities and demands of potential clients, this sort of data can be beneficial for targeting certain types of organizations or sectors.
Firmographic intent data may be obtained from various sources, including company directories, online forms, and third-party intent data suppliers. A firm, for example, may utilize a business directory to learn about a potential customer's company's size, industry, and location.
Technographic Data
Technographic intent data is information on a potential customer's technological infrastructure, such as the software, hardware, and networks they employ. This data may give important insights into potential clients' technical skills and demands, informing marketing and sales operations.
Surveys and questionnaires are two common sources of technographic intent data. A survey, for example, might be used by a company to obtain information on a potential customer's technology which helps understand their technical demands and skills, allowing marketing and sales activities to be tailored accordingly.
Collecting Intent Data
There are several ways to collect intent data, including first-party, second-party, and third-party data.
First-Party
Website, apps, and other platforms provide valuable information as the first-party intent data source. This can include logs of website views, clicks, time spent on the site, information from contact forms, CRM systems, subscription-based newsletters, and consumer feedback. It is especially beneficial for enhancing the content, approach, and performance of a company's website or platform. Google Analytics is a popular tool for collecting and tracking first-party intent data.
Second-Party
The data obtained from a partner or collaborator comes under the second-party data source. This sort of data is frequently obtained through shared data agreements or partnerships and may be utilized to get insights into the interests and wants of future clients. Glassdoor.com is a famous second-party source that provides information on employees at competitors or the sentiment of employees across the industry.
Third-Party
Third-party source contains data from outside sources such as news portals, blogs, product review sites, social media platforms, and rival websites. This data may be beneficial for recognizing patterns and spikes in interest in a specific product or service and informing a company's response to these trends. Sources like BrightData provide intent data for companies to gain insights into the market.
Businesses may acquire a more thorough picture of potential consumers' wants and interests by gathering and evaluating intent data from these many sources and customizing their marketing and sales activities appropriately.
How to use Intent Data for B2B Lead Generation
Intent data may be helpful for B2B marketing efforts since it gives insights into potential clients' interests and wants. Here are four ways that firms may improve their sales and marketing operations by using intent data:
Identifying Potential Leads
The intent data assists in analyzing and identifying patterns and trends in customer behavior. This may be accomplished with specialist software and analytics tools, which can assist firms in understanding the interests and demands of potential consumers.
Businesses may then find prospective leads by searching for patterns of interaction and interest using the insights gathered from data analysis. A company, for example, may seek prospects who are actively investigating its goods or services or who have demonstrated a high degree of interaction with its website or social media material.
Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is breaking a customer base into smaller groups with similar characteristics. It may be an efficient strategy to customize marketing and sales activities to the individual requirements and interests of distinct groups of potential clients. Intent data makes customer segmentation easier by identifying cluster patterns of similar customer behaviors.
Businesses may then identify distinct groups of their consumer base based on similar qualities and demands using the insights gathered through intent data analysis. A firm, for example, may designate several segments depending on the industry, company size, geography, or technological infrastructure. Segmentation aids in designing marketing and sales efforts that are specially customized to these needs.
Personalized Marketing
Personalized marketing is an effective means of contacting and converting leads. Companies may design highly targeted advertisements that appeal directly to the needs and interests of their audience by using data about a prospect's intentions.
Having sufficient data on prospects assist in creating targeted email campaigns, personalized landing pages, or customized sales pitches, providing a better possibility of converting potential consumers into real customers by following these steps. Intent data also benefits retargeting campaigns to ensure you bring the lost interest of customers back to the brand.
Account-Based Marketing
Account-based marketing (ABM) is a B2B marketing strategy focusing on targeted campaigns to particular accounts rather than large audience groupings. Companies may design highly customized campaigns that speak directly to the needs and interests of their target audience by employing intent data.
Intent data may be a helpful tool for ABM since it gives information about the requirements and interests of certain enterprises or organizations. For example, a company may utilize intent data to identify key accounts actively investigating its products or services and generate customized marketing campaigns for these accounts. In addition to establishing focused marketing efforts, intent data may be utilized to detect possible upsell or cross-sell possibilities inside important accounts.
Website Optimization
Employing intent data for website optimization enables businesses to provide visitors with a more targeted and effective online experience. Understanding their audience's wants and interests allows them to make modifications to the site that are more likely to increase engagement and conversions.
Businesses may design targeted landing pages and improve their website content to better match the demands of potential consumers. For example, a company may utilize intent data to find frequent queries or worries of its target audience and then develop content that answers these issues. This material may include blog entries, articles, or FAQs that give useful information and satisfy the audience's requirements.
The Future of Intent Data in B2B Sales and Marketing
Using intent data in B2B sales and marketing is anticipated to grow more prevalent and sophisticated as technology advances.
One trend that is likely to continue is the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence to analyze and interpret intent data. Businesses will be able to construct more targeted marketing campaigns by harnessing these technologies, allowing them to more quickly and correctly identify the interests and demands of their target audience.
Another emerging trend is real-time intent data to aid marketing and sales activities. Businesses can spot possibilities for interaction and respond more quickly and efficiently if they follow the online behavior of potential consumers in real-time.
Finally, the usage of intent data is anticipated to become more connected with other marketing and sales technology, such as CRM systems and marketing automation platforms. Businesses will be able to track and analyze the effect of their marketing and sales activities more readily, allowing them to make more educated decisions about how to maximize their efforts.
Reach Out To Your Leads through Nymblr's Verified Contact Information
In today’s competitive B2B industry, reaching out to potential clients and creating leads utilizing real and correct contact information is more necessary than ever. This includes phone numbers and email addresses, as these are the primary means businesses engage with prospects and consumers.
However, acquiring accurate contact information can be difficult since data might become obsolete or wrong over time. This might result in email bounces or phone calls to the incorrect number, wasting time and money and harming the company's reputation.
To assist organizations in overcoming these problems, Nymblr, a B2B data provider, provides real-time verification services to guarantee that contact information is valid and up to date. Its aim is to assist businesses in developing more focused and individualized marketing and sales activities, enhancing conversion rates and overall effectiveness.
