Intent data transforms the way brands acquire, nurture and convert leads by bringing facts to the revenue funnel. It shortens the guessing game by quickly showcasing buyer purchase motivations and needs. Speed matters, and intent streamlines the process of guiding prospects throughout your revenue funnel.

How Intent Data Enriches B2B Marketing Funnel

With intent monitoring, B2B marketers track buyer behavior across the entire marketing funnel. Marketers learn what target accounts are engaging with online, which key influencers they follow on social platforms, which blogs they read, or what content they choose to download. When several people pop up at the same account, a buying group focus can kick in to the intent strategy. 

Intent Data for Better Sales Prospecting

Advanced intent solutions (that is, those that offer more than a data stream) help revenue teams use big data analytics to accelerate sales processes in smarter ways without unnecessary expenditures. There’s also the value of faster response and getting engaged around buyer needs sooner. By learning buyer behavior details nearly as they happen in the sales funnel, you can promptly position yourself with prospects as an expert advisor. Be prepared to offer business insights that buyers don’t get otherwise.

Keep an Eye on Current Customers

Knowing your current customers’ digital behavior is another value intent brings to B2B brands. Some intent solutions can alert you to actions to take (or trigger automatically) to head off attrition rates. The data could also be useful in spotting cross-selling and upselling opportunities if searchers are engaging online with other relevant solutions.

From Observation to Action: Identify Well-Performing Channels

Intent data offers a new take on the B2B playbook for active, engaged selling. From connecting with in-market prospects appropriately in the funnel, to determining what digital sales channels meet buyer needs, intent signals bring actionable insights. They take you from observation to action.

Prioritize accounts: From observation comes wisdom in this scientific, data-driven approach to B2B marketing and sales. For instance, intent data tells you which topics are surging in real time. Sales professionals use wisdom from this data to prioritize accounts to call on and what ideas to bring.

Automate engagement: You can create automated, relevant campaigns when someone at a prospective account begins researching your product. The person will automatically receive your email that guides them to the next stage in the sales funnel.

With the most valuable intent data by your side, you can better prioritize time for channels and sales activities.

Integrate Intent with Existing Marketing Infrastructure

B2B demand generators can bring intent-based intelligence into many solutions they may already have in place to serve buyers across the funnel:

• Marketing automation
• Content marketing
• Email marketing
• Programmatic advertising
• Buyer data platforms
• Multi-channel marketing

Many sales teams depend on platforms like the Salesforce CRM. Instead of logging in and out of different environments, users access and use data they need from inside of Salesforce.

Pump Intent Intelligence into Sales and Marketing Platforms

By feeding intent data into a CRM system, salespeople can act on insights it delivers. For example, intent intelligence alerts reps via push notification if an account might be ready to upgrade, or worse, looking for another provider.

Similarly, by integrating intent signals into marketing automation platforms, you could receive spike alerts in application dashboards. This prompts immediate outreach when a prospect’s intent to purchase appears high, based on their behavior.

Integration with CRM and MAP systems brings a much-needed holistic approach to B2B demand generation. This capability triggers intelligent workflows and targets engagement at all stages of the funnel. AND it is possible to capture metrics and KPIs.

Of course, the data from an intent monitoring service must integrate well and easily with the most popular digital demand gen channels. Some providers use customer success managers to guide brands as they bring in more and more intent uses. 

How Intent Data Contributes to Sales and Marketing Alignment 

Marketing and sales have more power when they align around the same target. Intent data supports such alignment by letting marketers pass only the most credible leads to the sales team.

Over time, this results in greater trust in marketing’s contribution and more effective sales engagement. Having a proper infrastructure in place only helps smooth this path.

The Contribution of the Marketing Cloud

Merging the power of intent data with an integrated marketing cloud makes broader intent use possible. If you’re already using an intent data source or just exploring the idea, consider leveraging a marketing cloud to get you there.

It puts actionable data in front of users, along with the means to activate it, all in one place, leading to better resourcing and campaign decisions. Sales teams will know more about behavior at target accounts they’re working, and marketing teams will know when and how accounts are engaging.

In short, an integrated marketing cloud brings more value and ROI to your business.

Action Intent Data for Revenue in 2021

If you’re not yet thinking about actioning intent data in your marketing and sales funnel, the 2021 Anteriad Summit will have you rethinking that. Thought leaders and interactive panels of experts share examples of sales, marketing, and data alignment in action. Several will take you through their own stories of building B2B selling and data teams and programs.

Register for this high-caliber, half-day virtual gathering today.