What is intent data?

B2B (business-to-business) intent data is information about the online behaviour of companies that indicate their interests and purchasing intentions.

This data is collected from:

Relationships with publishers, vendors and analysts that companies visit, that share their interactions with websites, online forms, chatbots, and other communication channels.
Anonymous browsing behaviour on your own website.
Interaction with community review websites.

B2B intent data can be used by sales and marketing teams to identify and target potential customers, prioritise leads, and tailor their outreach efforts based on the interests and needs of their target audience.

By understanding the B2B intent data of their prospects, businesses can more effectively engage and convert them into customers.

Benefits of Intent Data

The benefits of using intent data include:

Improved targeting:
B2B intent data can help sales and marketing teams identify and target potential customers based on their online behavior, allowing them to more effectively reach and engage the right prospects.
Prioritised leads:
By using B2B intent data to understand the interests and needs of potential customers, businesses can prioritise their leads and focus their efforts on the most promising opportunities.
Customised outreach:
B2B intent data can be used to tailor outreach efforts based on the specific interests and needs of individual prospects, increasing the chances of conversion.
Enhanced personalisation:
By using B2B intent data to understand the preferences and behaviours of their target audience, businesses can deliver more personalised and relevant messaging, improving the customer experience.
Increased efficiency:
By using B2B intent data to identify and target the most promising leads, businesses can save time and resources and increase their overall efficiency.

How do intent data platforms work?

By combining data points from various sources (for example, publishers, analysts, vendors, community review websites), the intent data platform can generate lists of companies showing intent for multiple topics at different levels.

This data can then be used by sales and marketing to drive pipeline.

This data can usually then be fed into marketing automation and CRM platforms to take action on. For example:

Integrate into CRM platforms for sales development teams to prioritise outreach to new prospects or old prospects that are showing intent again.
Integrate into marketing automation platforms to trigger advertising campaigns, send emails etc.

How can B2B intent data help?

Using B2B intent data can improve the effectiveness of a variety of tasks within a B2B sales and marketing team, including:

Lead generation: B2B intent data can help sales teams identify and prioritise potential customers based on their online behaviour, allowing them to focus their efforts on the most promising leads.
Account-based marketing: By using B2B intent data to understand the interests and needs of specific accounts, sales and/or marketing teams can tailor their outreach efforts and deliver more personalised and relevant messaging.
Lead nurturing: B2B intent data can be used to track the online behaviour of prospects over time and identify opportunities to engage with them and move them through the sales funnel.
Lead scoring: B2B intent data can be used to score leads based on their level of engagement and interest, allowing sales teams to prioritise their efforts and focus on the most promising opportunities.
Customer segmentation: B2B intent data can be used to segment customers based on their interests and needs, allowing sales teams to deliver more targeted and personalised messaging.

Where does B2B Intent Data come from?

B2B intent data is typically collected from a variety of sources, including:

Web tracking: B2B intent data platforms often use web tracking technologies that identify companies. These technologies gather information about the websites and content that companies visit.
Forms: B2B intent data can be collected through the use of online forms, such as contact forms, registration forms, and surveys.
Community Review websites: These websites share data with their clients to understand who is showing an interest in their particular industries.
Bidstream data: Advertising networks often see huge amounts of data about companies, used for advertising targeting. However, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has flagged this data to not meet GDPR laws in the UK and EU.

Getting Started with Intent Data

To get started with intent data, you should understand your ideal customer profile, your buyer personas and their typical buying journies.

What is an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the ideal customers for your business. You may have multiple if you have different products or target markets.

It includes information about:

The geography
The size of the company
Budget
Buying process
Job titles of decision makers and users
Technologies used
Business goals
Pain points
Characteristics of the company. For example their purchasing power, size of a specific team, growth and other factors that may be relevant to your business.

Defining your ICP

To ensure you create an accurate ideal customer profile, you should typically gather data from current customers, including demographics, behaviours, and purchasing patterns, and use this information to identify trends and common characteristics.

Further insight can also be obtained from market research, surveys, your internal teams, analysts and other sources.

The ICP allows you to filter out companies that may be showing intent but are not a fit for your organisations.

What is a buyer persona?

A B2B (business-to-business) buyer persona is a fictional character that represents the ideal customer for your business. It is based on real data and research about the characteristics, needs, and behaviours of your target audience.

A B2B buyer persona typically includes information such as the persona's job title, industry, company size, budget, pain points, and goals. It may also include details about the persona's decision-making process, purchasing cycle, and other factors that are relevant to your business.

B2B buyer personas are used by sales and marketing teams to better understand your target audience and tailor their outreach efforts accordingly. By creating a detailed and accurate buyer persona, you can deliver more personalised and relevant messaging and offers, improving your chances of conversion.

You use the buyer persona to better select topics to track and understand in advance the best way to approach companies showing intent for these topics.

How to create a B2B buyer persona?

To To create a B2B buyer persona, consider the following steps:

Gather data: Start by collecting data about your current and potential customers, including demographics, behaviours, and purchasing patterns. This can be done through market research, surveys, customer interviews, and other methods.
Identify common characteristics: Use the data you have collected to identify trends and common characteristics among your customers. This may include factors such as job title, industry, company size, budget, and other relevant characteristics.
Determine the needs and pain points of your target audience: Consider the needs and pain points of your target audience and how your products or services can address them.
Define the decision-making process: Consider the decision-making process of your target audience and the factors that influence their purchasing decisions.
Create a detailed description: Use the information you have gathered to create a detailed description of your B2B buyer persona. This should include information about the persona's characteristics, needs, pain points, and decision-making process.
Review and refine: Review and refine your buyer persona regularly to ensure that it remains accurate and relevant. This may involve gathering additional data and updating your persona as needed.

Selecting the right topics

While it is natural to immediately focus on your main industry topic as the key topic, this is often not the correct approach to selecting topics. The buyer will have different pain points or journies identified from your ideal customer profile(s) and buying personas that indicate how a buyer is thinking along their journey to selecting you as a customer.

If you have a search marketing programme, the themes of your search keywords often overlap here.

The key is to identify topics that match the thinking of the buyer at different stages in the buying process. You should then look for adjacent topics that also cover the solution you are providing as buyers will rarely research narrowly in the early phases of the buying cycle. This allows you to understand which companies are investing the most time in researching and are therefore showing the highest intent.