Buyer intent data tells your business when a lead is considering your products or services as a solution.
By collecting data from multiple sources, such as company websites, social media pages, and search engines, marketers can develop more persuasive campaigns to really hit home with target audiences and drive conversions.
This data makes Account-Based Marketing (ABM) more effective by customizing an already unique campaign with behavioral data on the account you wish to add to your portfolio.
ABM is an approach that targets specific accounts with personalized campaigns to drive sales. Usually, ABM strategies target accounts that fit an ideal customer profile (ICP) and are aligned and executed by marketing and sales teams.
Buyer intent data is not a single piece of data, but an aggregate database collected from many sources including social media, website analytics and content downloads.
And you gain insights from these pieces of data. For example, if your business features one of your products on a review website it will generate buyer intent data you can analyze.
Buyer intent data goes beyond regular ABM data since it can reveal what clients are considering your products or services, and when.
Relevant data categories:
Buyer intent data makes ABM strategies more personalized, so businesses can target clients precisely when they are interested in a solution.
Here are five ways to execute ABM campaigns with intent data:
#1 Optimize social media ads
Use buyer intent data to create ads with keywords that your potential clients are using and that specifically address their situation.
You can make a more convincing sales pitch by adopting the language of your target audience.
For example, a logistics company discovers with intent data that some leads are searching for “logistics KPI tools”. The marketing team then makes a social media ad with that exact phrase for those leads.
#2 Send emails to leads that demonstrate buyer intent
Use buyer intent data to create more impactful messaging. Use search engine keywords and highlight specific features that directly align with interests.
This is the time to be persuasive, so double-check your writing and ask yourself: “Does this answer my reader’s questions?”.
#3 Connect with decision makers in an organic way
If your potential client has already interacted with your brand then engage with them on LinkedIn and other social platforms.
Train your SDRs to adopt a conversational tone with leads instead of heading straight for the sale.
After breaking the ice, send content that will help with a common or stated problem. The goal is to be trusted as a viable partner, so focus on providing value rather than closing the sale right away.
#4 Invite potential clients to an exclusive event
Make your leads feel special by inviting them to a virtual or in-person event. It can be a course, webinar or even a conference.
Even if it is virtual, you can still emulate the feeling of a live event by acknowledging guests and showcasing their accomplishments to other attendees.
Clients will be switched on, social and attentive. A great time to talk about the services your business can offer, provide a demo or discuss contracts.
#5 Ask your leads to be a guest in a podcast, video or blog article
To strengthen ties with your company, invite your client, or one of their c-suite, to join a content marketing effort.
Highlight their expertize by giving them a platform to share their experience and knowledge.
This is a quid-pro-quo way to acknowledge the value of your lead, showcase their services and in doing so promote both brands.
Positive experience like this can be the difference in convincing the target account your company is worth doing business with.
Buyer intent data goes beyond your proprietary data collection channels such as ad platforms and WordPress dashboards, and is usually generated by third parties.
Sources of buyer intent data include:
Most consumers will search for reviews to guide their purchasing decisions, so review sites can work wonders when it comes to showcasing your brand to a large audience that is interested in the solutions your business provides.
For software companies, G2 is one of the most established review sites and a key source for the buying committee when evaluating services. If your business sells software and does not yet have a profile on G2, create a seller account today.
A post-sales step for your team should be asking clients for reviews on sites like G2. This will build social proof and provide invaluable testimonials for your future marketing campaigns.
If you host a webinar, the list of attendees can provide data on clients that are interested in that topic.
The key is to add fields in the signup form that signal buyer intent. For example: “Does your company suffer from X?” or “Is your company searching for X solutions to Y?”.
Your website can offer buyer intent data by analyzing the web pages that visitors are frequenting.
If you have written blog content following the inbound methodology, you can analyze the users that are reading articles in the “consideration” phase.
If the lead is spending most of their time on topics such as comparisons, case studies, whitepapers, and product/service pages, that signals they have buyer intent.
These readers are manifesting interest in your brand and can be targeted with ABM. It is also important to measure the time visitors spend on each webpage they visit to garner strength of interest in a particular topic.
The most effective website analytics come from third party data providers that crunch data on leads from multiple sources, instead of just your website.
Find out more about INFUSE’s intent driven marketing service today.
If a lead suddenly starts searching for certain keywords on Google or reading “consideration” phase content on your blog, that’s a signal of buyer intent.
A Google ranking checker can be very helpful in determining where you currently stand in the SERPs for any particular keyword.
This can happen out of the blue with sudden surges of interest in a specific topic. Increased engagement can also be nurtured slowly over time with email marketing, ad campaigns or events.
Leads that show more interest than usual in a certain aspect of your product or service deserve attention from your marketing team.
A whitepaper on a topic of interest to clients, or data and insights about the industry they operate in can help to generate leads.
Leads generated in this way usually have the intent to acquire products or services.
More information can be gleaned from sources like downloadable content where leads can be nurtured with detailed buyer intent data.
Infographics with data on your industry, from a poll or study, or even insights from your company can be used in your email marketing, blog posts and social media ad campaigns.
These are eye-catching and provide at-a-glimpse insights into your brand.
You can collect data on the views your infographics generate across digital channels to help your business target viewers with ABM.
Anybody that subscribes to your email newsletter, or to receive updates, is interested in your brand.
Usually, clients subscribe after discovering your content. A subscription means they would like to receive more information from you or your business, a clear sign of buyer intent.
ABM is a cost-efficient marketing strategy directed at select accounts instead of your whole audience.
It can be coupled with buyer intent data collected from websites and ad-platform analytics to create a highly personalized approach to accounts with more impactful messaging.
Leads that download content and search for your brand on review sites also signal intent.
Marketing and sales teams should leverage buyer intent data and data wrangling to personalize the nurturing process before making the sales pitch in the right language, incorporating keyword searches and other relevant client information.