Intent-based targeting isn’t a buzzword; it’s a very real method for turning buying signals into cold hard sales. The secret is knowing how to squeeze every last bit of potential intelligence out of all the data out there. This way, go-to-market teams can identify prospects who are serious about making a purchase and optimize their conversions. How does it all work? We’ve broken down how you can make the most of this now-essential sales tool.
What Is Intent-Based Targeting?
Intent-based targeting uses intent data to figure out ways of identifying sales prospects. You can think of intent-based targeting as the end of the “intent value chain,” which goes like this:
- Intent signals are gathered by your company or by second/third-party intent data providers
- A system of intent classification is applied so that you can separate buying signals from other types of data
- A process to derive data insights allows your team to build intent-based marketing strategies
This process results in a list of targets grouped according to stronger buying signals versus those weaker, more general types of intent. The strategy for each group is adjusted according to the level of intent that it shows.
What Are the Benefits of Intent-Based Targeting?
The ultimate goal of marketing is to support sales. Salespeople dream of being handed lists of warmed-up prospects by their marketing friends, where all they have to do is make a call and close a sale.
But salespeople have nightmares about prospect lists that are full of uninterested contacts, or worse, needing to go out there with no lead information at all.
The goal of intent-based targeting is to get the quality of prospects as close as possible to that “dream” state. By gathering info from a lot of viable sources, a marketer or salesperson will get a good quantity of prospects. By filtering with intent, they will get quality prospects as well. The salesperson can then minimize dead-end pitches, meaning that less time, resources, and energy are spent nurturing prospects that don’t convert.
This is particularly true for B2B sales. Any large company has a complex buying process that takes a lot of effort to understand. These companies also have annual budgets to deal with – and if they’ve already spent their allotted amount on the kind of product that you sell, then there’s no chance of converting them anytime soon. As yet another hurdle, larger companies also often employ gatekeepers who will screen out salespeople.
All of this proves the value of intent signals; they allow us to see what companies are looking for at this very moment. Plus, when you combine this with a platform that gives specific contact details, you can avoid the whole process of digging for the right number. If you can tell who in a company is looking for a certain product, it helps you understand the purchasing process of the target organization.
Using intent-based targeting also prevents missing out on significant numbers of leads. Due to the popularity of omnichannel, you never can tell where a specific prospect might be doing their shopping. For example, more than half of B2B purchasers look at social media content as part of their decision-making process. If your organization is looking at a wide range of intent signals – and it should be – you’ll notice relevant activity and adjust your marketing and sales techniques accordingly.
How to Use Intent-Based Marketing
At all stages of the funnel, intent signals can be used to fuel actions for marketing and sales. Exactly which technique to use depends on the type of signal and how it’s received (the medium). To give some more context, here’s a few examples of marketing moves and the data signals that trigger them.
Signal: Downloads a brand-neutral white paper
Medium: Website sign-up page to receive emails and new content notices
The key here is “brand-neutral.” Someone who is interested in general information and just happens to pick it up from your content is not necessarily in a rush to buy something. Instead, there’s a good chance that they are simply researching a topic, perhaps months ahead of actually deciding to purchase. However, the fact that they’re researching the topic at all means there’s some interest, even if the purchase is still a long way off.
Under this assumption, marketers should continue sending targeted content that doesn’t push a sale to the prospect. The objective here is to establish your company as a subject matter expert (while subliminally building your brand). That way, when the time comes to buy, they’ll think of you first.
Signal: Fits the ideal customer profile
Medium: Third-party intent data provider
Third-party data can really perform well if you filter it properly. Sometimes, especially if you have a specialized product, you can use this kind of data to identify exactly what companies make up your market (the downside being that you might end up with a pretty short list).
In this situation, account-based marketing might do the trick. By targeting a few high-potential leads, your sales team can focus on these top prospects with a good chance of closing deals. For example, LiveRamp used the Lattice Predictive Insights Platform to build a prospect list of 15 companies. It actually sold to every one of those prospects and earned $50 million as a result. How’s that for effective targeting?
Signal: Attends webinar
Medium: Second-party data provider
Webinars can be fantastic sources for generating leads. It’s all there: obvious interest in what you do, the willingness to attend, and even the supply of contact data.
But what is often missing is a large enough audience. Start-ups in particular can have a tough time getting the word out to a significant number of people.
Luckily, there are second-party data providers who have realized this need. They generally establish themselves as a subject matter expert in a certain industry, advertise webinars to the most relevant audience, and provide contact details to clients. This makes it easy to meet people during the event and even interact with them, followed by additional post-event contact.
For example, ActualTech Media is a technology-oriented provider that supports webinars and sells the resulting intent data.
Key Takeaways:
- Intent-based targeting leverages intent signals and the resulting data to target sales leads.
- Through analyzing data across various marketing channels, targeting gives salespeople a larger number of qualified contacts and makes it easier to perform in a B2B environment.
- The exact way you should apply intent-based targeting depends on the action that the prospect takes and whether the signal is received through a first-, second-, or third-party medium.
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