Can you relate to this digital marketing problem? 67% of the buyer’s journey happens digitally with little to no involvement from a Sales Team. How do you engage during this period and drive buyers towards your solution? How can you help them solve a painpoint? These are challenges B2B marketers face, and ones that intent data can help solve for.

What Digital Marketing Challenges Hold Brands Back? 

Intent data is a solution to core digital marketing challenges like:

1. Scoring accounts for outreach
2. Engaging with prospects at the right time
3. Creating relevant content to deliver to the right prospect

What is intent data? Intent data analyzes billions of data points in real-time across the internet to attribute topical intent to accounts and contacts, leveraging algorithms and Artificial Intelligence. Intent monitoring identifies patterns, spots solution preferences, and can help determine what stage a prospect and account might be in the buyer journey. 

For most organizations, there’s value in leveraging Intent Data across multiple use cases. Here are a few that can help most Marketers: 

1. Activate data for multiple use cases – Can you leverage the same data for account-based marketing (ABM), remarketing/retargeting, paid social and display ads, event marketing, campaigns, content syndication, competitive intelligence, target account sales, churn reduction, and other purposes? A marketing cloud is one solution to help normalize and ready data for different purposes. 
2. Highlight data to the right people (and systems) – One of the biggest problems for B2B marketing today is data overload, and the opposite end of the spectrum – lack of timely information.  The goal is to get intent data in front of the right teams to help them succeed. Through an intent-driven marketing cloud, users can share intent intelligence thoughtfully via reports and alerts. Notify sales of target account activity and give success teams upsell suggestions. 
3. Treat data as a valuable asset – Data is a valuable asset. Start treating it that way! Fully exploring the potential of intent data requires well-designed and secure data practices for protection and action. Remember it’s also a perishable asset, so don’t let it go to waste. 
4. Alignment and collaboration around data – One of the most overlooked benefits of working with data in a Marketing Cloud is how it eliminates silos and brings departments together. Intent data help sales get insights to draft messages to decision-makers based on Purchase Intent. Marketing can personalize outreach messages and grab your prospect’s attention. After all, we are doing business in the era of the attention economy. Make efforts to align teams by proactively collaborating around data. 
5. Find C-suite support – Getting C-suite support is critical for operationalizing intent data intelligence across marketing and sales. Having buy-in from leaders who understand the full potential of Intent will ensure it’s adopted across processes with less resistance.
6. Keep an eye on competitors – You can monitor when and where current customers and in-market buyers engage with competitors’ content. Follow competitors on the basis of topics and search terms. Note when competitor content sees a lot of action.  
7. Setting a process is not enough – Intent data is a valuable asset, but it takes motivation to unleash its full potential. Intent intelligence activated and analyzed via a marketing cloud brings B2B sellers closer to their goals faster, especially when combined with the support of an involved intent partner.

Intent Intelligence Solves Tough Digital Marketing Challenges

If you want to get better ROI on your digital marketing efforts, intent data may be the answer. It’s often the go-to solution for core digital marketing challenges. 

To make maximum use of intent data, take the whole customer life cycle into account and look at various journey touch access points. An intent partner who’s experienced in data use cases can be a good route to faster launches of new intent applications.

What if you are first knocking on buyers’ doors when they’re looking for a solution? That’s what intent data is all about! When the student is ready, the teacher appears. Use intent data, so when the buyer is ready, the seller appears. To grow your business, discover the intent of your prospects today.