Intent Marketing

Intent marketing, sometimes called interest based marketing, is a type of marketing that’s based on a prospect’s signaled intention to actually buy the product or service in question. It came to the forefront thanks to the internet, where people routinely use search engines to find the things they want to buy – at the time they want to buy them. Those who learned how to rank highly in the search engines soon learned that these prospects were much more likely to convert than those that came from less-targeted sources.

While this was originally mistaken for luck by those who were used to older methods, it wasn’t long before the truth couldn’t be denied. This, of course, has led many businesses to focus on intent driven marketing and look for ways to expand it beyond the search engines. Some other intent marketing examples include focusing on those who have at least shown some interest in their products or services, such as by downloading white papers, starting transactions without completing them, or posting on social media that they want to buy something.

At some companies, intent based marketing has become such a big focus of attention that there are positions for intent careers. You can search for “intent Glassdoor” and find plenty of options, as well as reviews on what it’s like to work at various companies. These careers are often closely related to those in account based marketing.

Intent based marketing B2B has converged with its pioneering B2C cousin in many ways. This is because more and more, B2B buyers turn to the internet – and search engines – rather than waiting for salespeople to come and make pitches. For them, it’s a great way to speed up the buying process. On the seller’s side, it means that a new level of nimbleness is required in order to meet modern buyers’ demands.

Bombora

Thanks to companies like Bombora, there is no need to do your own research to find B2B intent data. Bombora buyer intent data is based on internet content consumption. This information provides insight into the interests of content consumers and their potential intent to take action.

This company also provides several other related products and services. Its Company Surge analytics helps you make sense of its intent data, allowing you to determine who wants to hear from your company right now. Another offering, Audience Solutions, helps you with account based marketing strategies.

Bombora also integrates with several account based marketing platforms, such as Terminus. This allows you to work with Bombora data and other products without the need to switch between platforms or websites. Just click on the Bombora logo within your Terminus dashboard to pull in data from your Bombora account. This makes it much easier to plan your marketing efforts and decide who to target for further attention.

As Bombora pricing shows, this is a tool for companies that are serious about their intent based marketing efforts. For startups and SMBs, prices start at $25,000 per year. There are also enterprise packages and media agency packages. These require businesses to call in to get prices.

Out of all of the intent data companies, Bombora is the most well-known. It has been in business for 4 years, and has 80 channel partners. If your company is ready to put serious data behind its B2B intent marketing efforts, this is the one to check out.

Buyer Intent

There are several types of data that can be used to determine buyer intent, and thereby, who you should focus your marketing efforts on. Since it’s so easy to track online activity, especially when it takes place on your company’s site, most of the data will originate from the internet.

What is B2B intent data? Key buyer intent data includes interactions with your brand, what visitors are searching for, which pages of your site they visit, and whether or not prospects have looked at reviews for your company.

Not all of this information comes directly from your site, though much of it will. This is why it helps to get buyer intent data from intent data companies as well as from your own log files. These companies can tell if a buyer has looked for information about your company from other sources, such as Google Reviews. They may also be able to track search terms used in search engines, rather than just your own site’s search bar.

When you use data like this, one thing you will need to decide on is just what is buyer intent data. Some data points, such as the ones already mentioned, are almost always correlated strongly with intent. However, you may find that something else, such as which prospects have downloaded your white paper, is just as important. Then, you should make sure to include it in the metrics you outline in your marketing software account.

Intent Company

There are many B2B intent data providers, and this means that it’s worth taking some time to decide on which one to use. Some of them are good all-arounders, while others are focused on a narrower band of industries. A company like Bombora will often position itself as an internet data science company, but some call themselves intent based marketing companies instead. It’s important to note that they don’t actually market anything except their own services, and perhaps, those of their partners. Instead, they’re in business to help you do marketing.

Data providers in this niche include TrustRadius, ZoomInfo, Demandbase, 6sense, TechTarget Priority Engine, and the aptly-named Intent Marketing LLC, which provides a mortgage CRM. The Motivator intent CRM is another mortgage-centric intent data science company.

Most of these intent company options often have overlapping foci rather than only handling intent data. This is because many customers want to use multiple indicator types to determine which accounts should get the most attention.

Several of these integrate intent marketing tools into their platforms. One such company is Terminus, which has a main focus of account based marketing. In this case, intent data is used to further pinpoint which accounts or prospects should get the most attention. Terminus partners with Bombora, the intent marketing company, to provide this information as one of its intent based marketing tools.

When choosing one of these intent based marketing companies, be sure to check if it has a focus on a specific industry, and if so, that the industry matches yours. After all, even the best mortgage CRM won’t be a help if your business has nothing to do with lending or real estate. In that case, you’re better off with one of the less-specific, but more adaptable, offerings.

Customer Intent Data

If you can get data for your current customers, you’ll have a huge head start if you can capture their customer intent data. This will help you secure renewals for subscription services, get them to buy more of your products, or take steps to stop them from hopping to a competitor.

One important metric to look for is their Google search intent, sometimes referred to as SERP intent. Often, those who are thinking of going to another company will search for alternatives to check out their offerings. If your sales team can capture this information, it can take steps to beat the competition. This information can also expose new sales opportunities by highlighting your customers’ current pain points.

It is important to distinguish between types of search intent. Sometimes, a customer may search something out of idle curiosity or basic information gathering, while at other times, a search should wave a flag of urgency. Because of this, search intent analysis is an important part of intent based marketing Google.

Search intent marketing is also good for discovering the goals of current and potential customers. Some searches have nothing to do with pain points as such, but give clues as to which moves a customer is considering. Then, you can uncover new opportunities to pursue.

A good search intent tool is a key component of a successful strategy for working with current customers. Those in the mortgage industry often rely on Motivator Marketing since people tend to do a lot of searching before committing to buying a house. Others find that a more general search intent tool is a better bet. It’s a good idea to look at some search intent examples from each offering to see if what they provide will meet your needs.

Intent Advertising

What is intent based targeting? This type of advertising is based on the perceived intent of prospects or current customers. It goes by many names, of which intent advertising is just one. Some others include “retargeting ads” and “behavioral retargeting.” In a nutshell, once a prospect does something specific to trigger these digital ads, they keep being shown to that person for some time afterward.

Intent based advertising often kicks in after a customer interacts with your brand in some way, such as visiting your website. Usually, the goal is to get the person to come back and complete a sale, but the ads can also be used as intent based branding.

Currently, many of these ads aren’t very fine-tuned. For example, they may appear to someone who has just made a purchase from you because the trigger is simply a “website visit.” It’s better to only advertise items that the person didn’t just buy from you.

With some ad networks, you can set triggers for intent targeting that don’t involve visits to your site. For example, you may be able to trigger ads based on visits to related sites instead. This is often more subtle, and can be less likely to annoy prospects.

In some cases, you can choose to only start up intent based advertising if the target has increased interactions with your brand. This helps to build momentum versus trying to use ads to start momentum. Such fine-tuning is available through tools and platforms that provide above-average capabilities.