B2B Behavioral Targeting with Intent (Signals)

Old martial arts masters are often able to dominate younger opponents by leveraging their experience to read the intent of their energetic foes and react accordingly. Since B2B marketers don’t exactly have decades to reach that tier of understanding, they need a shortcut, a way to ascertain the reason people are undertaking an action and then provide them with a helpful marketing response. When the prospect is conducting the online research that typically precedes a purchase, then assisting them by providing relevant information that helps them choose our own product is not only valet-level service, it is a classic win-win.

What are Intent Signals™?

First, a definition: intent signals data is the information created when people take behavioral actions online, such as visiting a web page related to a certain product type or registering for a webinar on this topic.

Anteriad is a data aggregator pulling data from thousands of sites across the web, along with an array of publisher networks. Our supply chain of 30 data providers has allowed us to build a data repository of over 30 billion behavioral insights (with more than 250 million new signals daily) and associate those with over 4 million companies. We also aggregate contact data (names, titles, email addresses, phone) from dozens of the world’s premier B2B data suppliers and curate it for accuracy.

How do I better target with intent?

When presented properly, that kind of information gives marketers insight into the intent of an prospect, his or her purpose. In other words, intent signals data is a valuable method of identifying prospect interest in a product very early. If someone is spending a lot of time researching the prices of widgets, the data would suggest that the organization is interested in getting some new widgets. If a widgets marketer or his colleagues in sales know this, they can move to get in front of the organization before their competitors do.

B2B behavioral targeting

This data has existed for some time, but thus far has been impossible for marketers to use directly – it was only available in a raw feed meant for data scientists. Now that intent signals have been productized with a marketer-friendly user interface and a built-in mechanism for identifying surges in interest (the proprietary Relevance Engine), B2B marketers finally have access to the power of intent.

A B2B marketing breakthrough

Intent signals data is a breakthrough capability and one that holds the key to unlocking substantial benefits for marketers. It lets us know when it is appropriate to send prospects in a given target organization our valuable mid-funnel content and to differentiate ourselves from our competition. Empowered with intent signals data, marketers gain a competitive advantage and find it easy to position themselves positively, long before competitors are aware or involved. Intent signals data may not be Mr. Miyagi, but it helps marketers get close.