Intent data helps B2B sales and marketing professionals understand who within their target audience are showing behaviour that suggests an interest in a particular area or topic. This may include people researching or interested to buy and everything in between. But how do you find intent data?
Intent Data can be sourced from intent data platforms, like Radiate B2B, web analytics tools, hiring, community review websites, event attendance, social media monitoring, surveys, customer feedback, and more.
By identifying patterns in behaviour, you can gain valuable insights into what your audience is looking for and how to best serve them. In this post, we will discuss some of the ways to find intent data for B2B sales and marketing efforts to maximise pipeline generation and increase awareness and engagement within companies at the right time.
Intent Data Platforms
One of the most common and easiest ways to find intent data is through intent data platforms like Radiate B2B. This saves you building relationships with lots of publishers and analysing their data and your website activity to find the patterns you need to identify intent. These tools allow you to quickly identify which companies are worth focusing on because they are either open to a conversation now (for you to build a relationship) or are entering the buying cycle and so will be interested in a deeper conversation about your solution.
Monitoring website activity
You can also use web analytics tools which track either anonymous company activity or the activity of users who have previously converted on your website. This allows you to track behaviour on your website, including which pages they visit, how long they stay on the site, and which keywords they use in their searches. Analysing this data allows you to prioritise which companies are showing patterns and trends that suggest interest in your solution.
Using keyword research
Another way to find intent data is through keyword research. By analysing the keywords that people use in their searches, you can identify topics that match demand for keywords relating to your company. There are many keyword research tools available, which can help you to identify the most popular keywords in your industry. These include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.
Monitoring social media
Today, buyers are increasingly digitally savvy and indeed are more likely to have grown up using social media. This has led to increasing activity within social media for business requirements and an excellent source of intent data. By monitoring social media conversations, you can both identify companies indicating a need for your solution or understand which topics are important to your audience.
Purchasing event registrations
Another way to find intent data is by finding event registration data or a particular event stream at an event, which directly relates to your offering. This can indicate time is being prioritised to a particular area and that a company may be open to a conversation.
Partnering with publishers
Similar to event registrations, partnering with publishers to promote whitepaper or e-book downloads focused on a particular area of your solution can identify companies interested in a particular topic. Often intent data platforms will partner with publishers and use data from these downloads combined with website activity on the publishers themselves.
Hiring
One of the most popular ways to indicate there may be intent for your solution is when a new or replacement role becomes available. Change within a company often leads to conversations about new ways of solving problems or improving performance.
Conclusion
Overall, each of the sources above can indicate an opportunity to have a conversation with a company about your product or solution. Each source on its own, however, may not indicate significant intent. This is where intent data platforms can provide value as they combine multiple sources of intent to highlight companies that are spending much more time and effort than usual on a particular topic.
By understanding the intent behind customer behaviour across multiple sources, businesses can optimise their website to better serve their target audience and ultimately drive more sales and conversions.