How to use intent data for better ABM results

Part One: Qualify Your Pipeline

1. Expand your account base from individuals to buying groups 

Traditionally, sales teams rely on demographic and firmographic data as the basis for prospecting, which unfortunately offers no sign of readiness to buy in complex B2B sales. However, intent monitoring enables brands to expand their account base by bringing in leads who have self-identified through online behaviors. Essentially, these buyers send a signal of intent to solve a problem that’s related to a brand’s specific product or service.  

In addition, when a brand has access to and knowledge about a target’s activity history, intensity, location (such as headquarters versus a regional branch), and spiking behaviors, a brand can judge whether targets are just beginning the research process or are approaching a purchase decision. 

2. Find Accounts That Are Ready to Buy

With the insights that come from intent signals, companies can determine which accounts (both prospect and current accounts) are ready to buy. Also, oftentimes, trained intent marketers can tell when a buyer is approaching a decision based on their search behavior, content consumption, frequency, and other factors. At this point, brands are likely to move conversions through their funnel faster and drive better campaign ROI by optimizing for the best-performing channels and content. 

3. Gain a Broader Audience View

Additionally, brands can use global insights to explore various keywords and key phrases, industries, and domain insight reports. These insights are known to offer a broad view of which industries and how many companies in each industry have recently exhibited an interest in a brand’s specific keyword category. 

Fortunately, intent data can enhance a brand’s marketing strategy in target market identification and sizing. Before launching marketing campaigns to new industries or segments though, minor investigative intent monitoring can save money and frustration from sales representatives.  

Also, with the use of intent data, brands can automate ad personalization for both leads and anonymous prospects. It’s common to identify quality leads on the basis of parameters like device IDs and domains. This information can then be leveraged in order to make and share personalized ads on various user devices.

Part Two: Craft an ABM Strategy That Converts 

1. Prioritize Your Existing Account List 

Nowadays, the average B2B enterprise sales manager is responsible for dozens of accounts, and there’s often a fair amount of guesswork when deciding which accounts to focus on. By looking at the intent signals of various accounts on your brand’s current list, you can see which ones are most likely to approach a buying decision, and then place those organizations at the top of your call list.  

In general, intent monitoring helps brands and their sales team prioritize their existing account list. If, for example, you offer multiple products or services, the next step is to monitor current customer activity for spikes within categories that are related to the ones customers already use. These could be signals that are used to engage customers with add-on solutions for up-selling or cross-selling purposes. 

2. Know Your Accounts Inside and Out 

On the same note, it’s important for brands to use intent and interest insights to increase their deal size and overall revenue. The more your company knows, the better the outcome in most cases. Also, it’s vital to determine whether a target account might have an available budget or not. This can be done by creating campaigns about other solutions that certain target accounts would likely research if they had money to spend.  

Additionally, remember to focus on understanding your accounts’ topics of interest in depth. Fortunately, intent signals can make a large difference in a pitch that’s well-received and a pitch that falls flat. Also, intent intelligence about your accounts can help sales directors identify new opportunities and better prepare for future pitch meetings.

3. Marketing and Sales Alignment 

Last but not least, it’s crucial to align sales and marketing together. With buyer insights gathered from intent, marketing teams can focus on specific approaches that produce strong results. As a result, sales teams are likely to play less phone tag with uninterested prospects since their undivided attention and concentration is focused on serious buyers. 

Looking forward

Intent data is an incredible tool for building, understanding and targeting your audience. Incorporating intent data into your ABM strategy is a tried and true way to gain insight into your prospects and focus your efforts on the accounts most likely to convert.