In the ever-evolving landscape of B2B marketing, staying ahead of the competition requires more than just a catchy tagline and an appealing website; that’s where intent data comes in. Today, success hinges on understanding your audience’s intent – what they are searching for, what problems they need solving, and when they are most receptive to your message.

Understanding intent data

What is intent data?

Intent data is a powerful resource that provides insights into the online behavior of potential buyers and their intentions. It offers a glimpse into what prospects are actively researching, their pain points, and their readiness to engage with your brand.

Types of B2B intent data

First-party:
This data is gathered from your own digital properties, such as your website and email interactions, or with Turtl, through your Analytics Dashboard. It reveals how your audience engages with your content and products.
Third-party:
This data is collected from external sources, like publishers and data providers. It gives you insights into the broader market, including what topics are trending and which companies are actively researching solutions.

Why is intent data crucial in B2B marketing?

Personalization at scale

Intent data allows you to tailor your marketing efforts to each prospect’s specific needs and interests. With insights into their intent, you can deliver highly relevant content, increasing the chances of engagement. Personalization is becoming increasingly essential for B2B marketing and understanding how to best use the data collected to inform your marketing efforts will ensure greater numbers of converted leads.

Enhanced lead scoring

By analyzing your audience’s intent, you can assign lead scores more accurately. Prospects showing strong intent are likely to convert faster, allowing your sales team to prioritize their efforts effectively.

Check out our blog post all about lead scoring to see how you can close more deals with ease by focusing on the right leads.

Content strategy optimization

Intent data will inform your content strategy. It helps you identify the topics and formats that resonate most with your audience through engagement data, ensuring that your content is both valuable and timely. For example, if leads read your blog posts but don’t open your email, refocusing your efforts and nurturing the lead by answering their searched questions is more likely to result in a converted lead and capture any other leads with the same style of engagement.

How to use intent data for sales and marketing

Using intent data can seriously up your sales and marketing game. Here’s how to make the most of it:

Segment your audience better

Intent data helps you break down your audience into more precise segments. By looking at what they’re interested in and how they’re interacting with your content, you can group them in a way that makes your marketing more relevant.

Personalize your outreach

With intent data, you can move beyond just using someone’s name in your emails: you can actually address their specific pain points and needs. If a prospect is diving deep into your case studies, for instance, your sales team can follow up with content that highlights similar success stories and tackles their particular challenges.

Timing is everything

Knowing when your prospects are most engaged lets you hit them with your messages at just the right time. If you see they’re actively researching or engaging with your content, schedule your campaigns to coincide with these moments. This way, your messages are more likely to land and make an impact.

Improve lead nurturing

Intent data can show you where a prospect is in their buying journey. This means you can deliver content and messaging that’s just right for their current stage. For example, if a lead is checking out pricing pages, you might send them detailed comparisons or special offers to help nudge them toward a decision.

Create content that resonates

Use intent data to fine-tune your content strategy. By seeing what topics and formats your audience is into, you can make content that hits the mark. If you find that video content about industry trends gets a lot of attention, it might be time to ramp up your video production.

Manage accounts more strategically

Intent data is super useful for account management. It gives you deeper insights into what key accounts are up to and what they need. For instance, if an account is showing interest in a specific feature, your account manager can offer a personalized demo or a proposal focused on that feature.

Improve sales forecasting

Using intent data can make your sales forecasts more accurate. By understanding which leads and accounts are showing strong intent, you can prioritize your efforts and focus on the best opportunities. This helps you plan better and use your resources more effectively.

Keep refining your approach

Using intent data isn’t a one-time thing. Keep analyzing and tweaking your strategies based on what you learn. Regularly check how your content and campaigns are performing and adjust your tactics to stay in tune with your audience’s evolving needs and interests.

Sources of intent data

Website analytics

Monitoring website behavior, such as page views, time spent on specific pages, and downloads, can provide valuable first-party intent data about what is most important to your leads. For instance if you notice that people spend significantly more time looking at a page about analytics than use cases, you can push content focusing on analytics and data to help capture the attention of similar leads.

Social media listening

Social media platforms are treasure troves of intent data. Monitoring mentions, comments, and engagement with your brand can reveal customer sentiment and interests in regard to your product or service. You can also use this data when deciding how to set yourself apart from competitors; if their social media comments deal with a particular pain point you can solve, that’s an easy area to target in your marketing strategy.

Search data and SEO

Examining what keywords your audience is searching for can uncover their specific needs and pain points. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEO software can be invaluable for this purpose.

Practical applications of intent data

Account-based marketing (ABM)

Intent data is a cornerstone of an ABM strategy. It helps identify high-value target accounts and understand their needs, enabling you to create personalized campaigns that resonate with decision-makers.

Content marketing

Intent data guides your content strategy. By aligning your content with the topics your audience is actively researching, you can attract more qualified leads and establish thought leadership.

Sales enablement

Arming your sales team with intent data can significantly boost their effectiveness. They can reach out to prospects at the right moment, armed with insights into their specific pain points and interests.

Product development

Intent data can influence product development decisions. By understanding what problems your audience is trying to solve, you can innovate and tailor your offerings accordingly.

Turtl and intent data

Turtl’s Analytics Dashboard offers a view of your user’s data at a granular level. Understand how your readers engage with your content, from the time they spend on individual pages to how many links they click. Using Turtl’s interactive widgets, you can also collect data through polls, videos, and more. These not only increase engagement but provide an extra level of detail on how your readers interact with content best.

This can inform how you create future content with Turtl, for instance, if graphs really get your readers going, then make that next doc a data haven!

Turtl takeaway

In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, staying ahead means understanding your audience’s intent and delivering relevant, timely messages. Intent is the key to achieving this. Whether you’re fine-tuning your content strategy or supercharging your ABM efforts, harnessing the power of intent data can be the game-changer that propels your B2B marketing to new heights. Start leveraging this invaluable resource today, and watch your marketing campaigns soar.