Using Intent Data to Identify and Target the Right B2B Audience

In the ever-changing world of B2B marketing, businesses must look for ways to stay ahead of their competitors, which can be challenging. B2B customers are also evolving, becoming more advanced, spending more time researching before buying products and services, and increasingly responding to marketing campaigns that are personalized to their preferences.

However, B2B marketers find it difficult to identify and target audiences for their marketing campaigns. In a recent survey of experienced B2B marketers, the Winterberry Group (in association with the ANA and Anteriad) found that B2B marketers believe customers expect to transact with brands that offer engaging, high-quality content including blogs, articles, whitepapers, and the like, that are not just optimized for search results, but also tailored to the specific needs and preferences of the target audience.

Further, the same survey found that when asked what their biggest challenges are for the next few years, the number one response (43%) was identifying and targeting the right audience for marketing campaigns. Fortunately, intent data seems helpful and may be one solution for finding the right prospects.   

Why Is B2B Intent Data Important?

B2B intent data represents the likelihood of a prospect making a purchase. It’s based on prospects’ digital footprints of their online behavior. For example, online searches, website visits, social media engagement, and content downloads are all data that look at users’ online behavior. When the data is analyzed, B2B marketers can obtain valuable insights into their target audience’s interests and purchasing intentions.

B2B marketers generally use two types of intent data: first-party and third-party intent data.

• First-party intent data is the information you gather through user interactions with your company (your website, social media posts, email campaigns, etc.).
• Third-party intent data is information collected by data providers from users browsing online. With this data, you will better understand when users interact by searching for the pain points that your product or service can mitigate, reading about your business on review sites, viewing your competitors’ social media content, and more.

Using both first-party and third-party intent data as part of your B2B marketing strategy will provide the best results.

Intent data is important because it allows marketers to see real-time information about users’ buying intentions, which makes it easier to target them with personalized and relevant content. Other types of data are also important (for example, demographics, purchasing history, etc.), but it doesn’t specifically indicate buying intent.

Using Intent Data to Boost B2B Marketing Efforts

B2B marketers can use intent data to enhance marketing strategies and find the right audience in the following ways:

Find users who are already interested in your B2B product or service. Suppose someone is reading reviews, watching videos, and sharing content related to the types of products or services you offer. In that case, it indicates that they might be interested in buying what you’re selling. Intent data allows you to reach out to potential customers who are beginning their research for making a purchase.

Prioritize leads by their likelihood of converting. When you know which prospects are more likely to convert because you already know they are looking at online content related to your products and services, you can move them to the top of your marketing outreach list.

Reach customers at the right time in their buyer journey. Intent data allows you to reach prospects at the appropriate stage of the buyer journey. Potential customers don’t actually hate to receive marketing content. They just want to receive it when it’s relevant right now. With intent data about potential leads, you can send the right content at the right time. For example, potential buyers at the top of the sales funnel will respond better to general information like blog posts, while those closer to the bottom will find things like product details and case studies more helpful.

Improve your content marketing efforts. If you’re posting or sending content that isn’t getting clicked on, viewed, or shared, the content isn’t meeting your needs. You can utilize intent data (for example, keywords that people are searching for) to learn which topics are important to your target audience right now and how they like to consume information.

Final Thoughts Using Intent Data for B2B Marketing

Intent data is a powerful tool for companies to identify and target potential customers who have a higher likelihood of buying their products or services. At Reliable Acorn, our team can help you develop a marketing strategy that uses intent marketing to reach your ideal customers. Let us help you with all your digital marketing needs. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.