INTENT DATA: SHADY SHELL GAME, OR A CMO’S SECRET WEAPON?

The pitch for intent data sure is seductive. 

You’re told that only 5% of your target market is in play at any given time. Yet here’s a chance to get some precious intel on their wants, needs, habits, intentions. Would you like it, yes or no?

Yes. Obviously, yes. Especially if the other option is flying blind.

Used right, insights can help you spot leads long before your rivals. Fine-tune your marketing. Then focus your time and budget on people so ready to buy that their cash may as well bear your firm’s logo. 

With that in mind, it’s easy to see why 7 in 10 B2B teams use intent data for digital marketing. 

Except, despite the many promises of supercharged lead gen and reliable ROI, intent data is seldom this straight-forward.

Not all intent data is equal. 

Because leafy greens and packet noodles are both ‘food’, but offer very different outcomes for your insides. Likewise, carefully decoding your audience’s interests from in-house analytics, or buying a boatload of aggregated info from a vendor (aka first-party vs. third-party)—it’s all intent data.

That said, no matter where the info comes from, the resulting buyer signals can sometimes be the exact opposite of science. False positives are real, and a flurry of website visits, comparisons and content downloads do not equal intent by default.

Not only that, while zooming in on the 5% of folk who are ‘in-market’ seems sensible, don’t forget this means snubbing 19 in 20 people. Are they ready to buy? No. But refuse them a customer journey, and you’ll make sure they never will be.

Also, for all the noise about the power of intent data, there’s a risk it comes too late to even make a dent. Gartner research says buyers mull 4 to 6 options before they pick a provider. Given this process takes months (years, even), and mixes research with marketing and social nudges, the idea you’ll swoop in at the last-second to scoop up all their dollars is… gotta say, quite ambitious. 

That’s not all. Third-party intent data is often out-of-date, puddle deep, or just plain wrong. Descend into a battle royale among companies. And, if you’re not careful, fall the wrong side of ethics or the law. 

Put this all together, and you start to see why more and more CMOs lack confidence in intent data. 

Lots of noise for little impact. Why bother adding it to your balance sheet?

Well. If you look down a few mere millimeters, it’s at last time to find out.

Got this far without hurling the very notion of intent data into the sea? Well done you. As this is when the whole thing gets exciting.  

Forget the hype, swerve the stress, and park the pitfalls for just one second. Fact is, intent data is only as powerful as the information itself. Yet even A+ data is pointless if you don’t know what it means—for engagement, pipeline and conversion, or how to improve each of them. 

Despite all the scare stories (most of them 100% justified, too), it is possible to harness intent data to drive revenue through content. You simply need to pick the correct tech tools. 

Amid the flotsam and jetsam of the recent intent data culture war, it’s the power of AI platforms that’s been lost. Back when data vendors first flooded the market with half-baked ‘solutions’ that promised lots but delivered little, these didn’t exist. 

Sadly, that first wave of weak, third-party ‘answers’ burned a fleet of CMOs, and lost their trust. Yet the right AI platform can really (like really) do the business, and deliver on the original big pitch of intent data.

Imagine seeing how your campaigns perform in real time, as part of a treasure chest of behavioral data that’s as digestible as it is actionable. 

Flowing that same data into your CRM to pinpoint what’s working, what’s not, and exactly when to reach out to prospects (based on their own actions). 

Then guiding them through the funnel with confidence—right content at the right time, based on what you already know will work, and personalized around their unique interests.

This is the future of intent data, and the future of content too. Data that informs strategy—in every sense of the word. 

Content that actually converts. 

Performance that powers performance. 

Insights that drive revenue.

Now that right there is a seductive pitch. And one worthy of your undivided intention.