Harness the Power of Buyer Intent Data: A Guide for Marketers

Hey there! As a fellow data geek, I‘m excited to dive into the world of buyer intent data and how it can transform your marketing. I‘ve been analyzing these platforms for a while, and trust me, the insights you can unlock are a total game-changer.

Let me walk you through everything intent data has to offer. I‘ll explain what it is, why it‘s valuable, and most importantly, how the right platform can help you use it to its full potential. Sound good? Then let‘s get started!

What is Buyer Intent Data?

In simple terms, buyer intent data shows you which prospects are in the market for solutions like yours. It gives you a window into the early and middle stages of their buyer‘s journey, before they ever raise their hand as a lead.

Here‘s a quick example…

Imagine a Director of Operations at ACME Corporation starts researching new HR software solutions online. She downloads a few whitepapers from your site and keeps visiting your pricing page.

Your marketing team would have no way of knowing this person is interested unless you were tracking buyer intent data. Those anonymous website visits and content downloads are signals of high intent!

Intent data tracks these types of early research activities across the web. It identifies companies and contacts doing the research and scores them based on level of interest.

This gives you the power to engage serious prospects way before your competitors. Pretty cool, right?

But how does this data get generated in the first place? Let‘s quickly cover that.

Where Does Buyer Intent Data Come From?

There are two main sources of intent data:

First-party data comes from your own website, content, and marketing automation platform. This shows you users who are engaging with your brand specifically.

Third-party data is captured from prospects‘ online activity outside your website – things like visiting competitor sites, reading relevant articles, or searching intent-driven keywords.

Third-party data gives you the fuller picture of prospects‘ interests across the web. And collecting all these digital footprints is no small feat!

Sophisticated intent platforms use advanced tracking methods to gather terabytes of raw data across millions of touchpoints. Machine learning models then analyze the data to identify and score accounts with the strongest buying signals.

For you, the marketer, this data gets packaged into an easy-to-use dashboard highlighting accounts to target. Pretty powerful stuff!

Now let‘s get into the real meat and potatoes – how can intent data take your marketing to the next level?

4 Superpowers Intent Data Unlocks for Marketers

As a fellow marketing geek, I get excited about data-driven strategies with proven ROI. And make no mistake – buyer intent data has immense power to transform your marketing performance.

Here are a few of the superpowers it can unlock:

1. Fuel New Revenue Growth

Recent research by Demandbase shows B2B marketers using intent data achieve 13% faster revenue growth over a 2 year period compared to those who don‘t. That‘s a huge boost to the bottom line!

Intent data lets you identify the accounts that will drive this growth way before your CRM has any record of them. You can turn cold anonymous companies into hot new opportunities faster than ever.

2. Hyper Target Your Best Prospects

Trying to fish for leads in a giant ocean is tough. Intent data gives you the GPS coordinates to find the richest fishing spots with less effort.

By seeing exactly which companies are researching competitors or topics related to your offerings, you can hyper target the prospects that are primed to buy. No more wasting budget on cold outreach to the wrong accounts.

This surgical precision generates up to 50% higher conversion rates on campaigns, based on research from Demandbase. Now that‘s what I call effective spend!

3. Shorten the Buyer‘s Journey

New data reveals the average B2B buyer‘s journey has stretched out to a full year before purchase decisions are made. That‘s a loooong time for prospects to sit in your pipeline.

Intent data lets you engage serious buyers much earlier in their journey – when they‘re just 60% or 70% of the way through. You can nurture them more quickly and pull forward revenue.

According to SiriusDecisions, 74% of high performing marketing teams are reaching prospects earlier thanks to intent data. Talk about a competitive advantage!

4. Demonstrate Marketing‘s Value

As marketers, we‘re increasingly tasked with proving the ROI of what we do. Tall order, right?

Well, intent data gives you an awesome opportunity here. You can directly showcase how many new, high-value prospects you‘ve uncovered for sales – a tangible impact on revenue.

Bombora research found marketers leveraging intent data provide sales reps with 47% more opportunities on average. Now that will get the C-Suite‘s attention!

Clearly, intent data packs a serious punch. But you‘ll need the right platform to start leveraging it. Let‘s explore the top options.

9 Powerful Intent Data Platforms for Marketers

Alright, time for the exciting part – reviewing the top intent data platforms out there! I‘ve used many of these first-hand and want to share an inside look at their key features and value.

ZoomInfo

If you‘re looking for robust contact data enrichment, it doesn‘t get better than ZoomInfo in my experience. Their intent data clues you into which contacts are researching from 300,000+ company domains.

Key features:

Real-Time Alerts: Get notifications when target accounts visit your site or download content for instant follow-up.
Chrome Extension: See org charts, contact details, and intent data for prospects as you browse LinkedIn and news sites.
CRM Integration: Sync intent data directly into Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo and other platforms.

Ideal for: Mid-size and enterprise B2B companies who want strong contact-level insights coupled with firmographic data.

Bombora

Bombora takes a unique “surround sound” approach to intent data. They analyze content consumption across the web to identify prospects researching topics relevant to your business.

Key features:

Comprehensive Coverage: Monitors 50B+ daily web interactions across news, case studies, blogs and more.
Audience Explorer: See all companies consuming content for any keyword – e.g. “project management software.”
Predictive Scoring: Uses machine learning to score accounts based on likely buying stage and time to purchase.

Ideal for: Companies who want broad intent insights from public web activity outside their website.

Demandbase

Demandbase is considered the pioneer in account-based intent data. Their platform offers robust segmentation and personalization capabilities.

Key features:

Intent Monitoring: Analyze interest on and off your site with 5 levels of intent scoring.
Dynamic Audiences: Build and export lists of accounts with predictive purchase signals.
Journey Stage Analysis: Understand the buyer‘s journey stage of each account to optimize messaging.

Ideal for: Mid-market and enterprise ABM programs looking for deep intent insights and orchestration.

Leadfeeder

For a lightweight, low-cost option, Leadfeeder is a great choice. You get real-time visitor tracking by simply adding their script to your website code.

Key features:

Visitor Profiles: See every individual that hits your site, their company, location, pages visited, etc.
Instant Notifications: Get real-time alerts when target companies or contacts visit your site.
Easy Export: Download your qualified visitor data into your CRM for follow-up in one click.

Ideal for: Smaller B2B companies who want affordable real-time tracking of their website traffic and engagement.

Cognism

Cognism takes an interesting approach of sourcing first-party intent data directly from premium publishers. This ensures high quality signals tied to business topics.

Key features:

Natural Language Processing: Understands content semantics to detect meaningful intent, not just keywords.
Lookalike Modeling: Identifies net new companies similar to your best accounts that have strong intent.
Publisher Inventory: Leads segmented by 20k+ premium B2B publisher segments like WSJ and Fortune.

Ideal for: B2B Brands who want direct access to intent data collected from leading business publications.

eCHO by 180byTwo

180byTwo specializes in engagement-based intent data surrounding topics, industries, and accounts. Their eCHO platform helps build highly targeted account lists.

Key Features:

Account Profiling: Analyzes interest and engagement for specific companies across thousands of topics.
List Segmentation: Get dynamic, tiered account lists based on active engagement levels.
Cross-Channel Insights: Tracks search, content downloads, event attendance and more for full view.

Ideal for: ABM programs wanting to segment and tier accounts using multi-channel engagement metrics and trends.

Insly by HG Insights

One unique offering I really like from HG Insights is Insly – an AI-powered platform to evaluate account-specific tech stacks. This reveals intent around new solutions they may be exploring.

Key Features:

Installed Tech: Reveals all software and apps each company currently uses across departments.
Market Insights: Maps accounts to technology lifecycles, growth trends, and forecasts.
Churn Analysis: Detects clients who may be replacing solutions and flags renewal risks.

Ideal for: Tech companies who want to identify needs and gaps in an account‘s existing martech stack.

Everstring

Everstring takes a data science-based approach to intent. Their platform is built on proprietary machine learning algorithms to decipher signals.

Key Features:

Evidence Based Scoring: Combines thousands of data dimensions to score interest level and fit.
Predictive Analytics: Determines likelihood that accounts will respond and convert based on historical patterns.
Dynamic List Builder: Segment your universe and build custom prospect lists automatically updated with new intent.

Ideal for: Data-driven marketing teams who want AI-powered intent modeling and forecasting.

Bluebird

Looking for more hands-on social media monitoring? Bluebird serves up buyer conversations detected across social platforms to uncover interest.

Key Features:

Social Studio: Listen into relevant social conversations in one unified platform.
Competitive Tracking: Monitor discussions of competitor brands to find shared audiences.
Influencer Mapping: Analyze conversations and connections between prospects and influencers.

Ideal for: Consumer marketers who want social conversations for broader audience insights beyond web activity alone.

Start Unlocking Your Marketing Superpowers!

Well, there you have it – everything you need to get started with buyer intent data! I don‘t know about you, but I‘m pumped to put these platforms into action.

Just imagine reaching the right prospects at the right time with the right message. You‘ll be tracking down more deals and leading growth, faster than ever before!

So don‘t wait around. Dive into the world of intent data and let the fun begin. When you‘re ready to chat platforms or campaign ideas, hit me up! This stuff gets me excited.

Talk soon,
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