4 key things you need to know about intent data

1. Not all intent data is equal

Whilst Intent data can be valuable in detecting buying signals, irrelevant intent signals can also exist. Intent signals need to be correctly categorised into specific topic areas relevant to your product or service. Ensuring your intent solution is segmenting intent signals correctly and accurately will help provide you with more accurate signals

2. Intent data is the destination, not the GPS

What we mean by this is that intent data alone should not guide your campaigns. Some Intent or ‘predictive’ intent platforms claim to offer predictive buying data that can result in greater revenue. Whilst intent data and insights can help influence revenue, the insights from intent signals are only one part of the marketing outreach. Accurate intent data is only reliable when benchmarked against recent marketing activity (webinars, downloads, site visits, etc) to fully establish if an account is ready to talk to sales or discuss pricing/buying options.

3. False Positives

Having non-segmented, wholly aggregated data provides inaccurate intent signals and insights. Your target accounts may have multiple business units within the organisation searching for different products and solutions at any given time. Not having these signals properly mapped and segmented means that an account with an IT buyer signal could actually be the finance department searching for an entirely different solution to what you offer. These false positives create frustration within marketing teams when they discover, usually post-campaign that the IT buyer intent did not match the intent signals provided.

4. Intent drives more revenue post campaign

What sets great demand gen campaigns apart is the steps taken once your campaign is mid-flight or has just ended. Let’s take webinars as an example:

Webinar Campaign Goal: Drive registrations to have 200 IT decision Markers attend the webinar

Post-webinar usually involves serving the on-demand recording as standard practice. However, by taking it a step further and continuing to target the non-attendees and cross-matching their engagement with web visits, display, and other demand gen tactics you have running in parallel, you are able to develop and gather more real-time intent from your original camping. These additional layers of intent signals help you uncover any potential lost leads or opportunities from the originating webinar campaign.

In summary, intent data can come in many forms and the quality of true intent can widely vary, depending on the platform you use. At B2B Media group we’ve been working with intent data for our client campaigns for over 10 years so understand the nuances that are required to provide quality intent data signals that drive better marketing outcomes. If you are struggling with intent data or want to learn how to identify quality intent data and the type to avoid, contact the team at B2Bmedia Group for a conversation.