Intent Marketing Tools

Intent marketing has been around in many forms through the years. The concept really took off with the advent of search engines, and the nearly simultaneous realization that when people searched for a type of product, they were ready to buy it right then. Sellers that were able to gain top search positions got easy sales from these searchers.

This let many types of companies know that it was a great idea to identify people who were ready to buy right away, not just when they searched for something, but when they came to company sites or responded to other corporate offerings. Once enough interest arose, intent marketing tools came to be.

These tools come in three different general formats: intent marketing platforms, B2B intent data providers, and hybrids of the two. In many cases, the lines between them are blurred, making it somewhat difficult to decide which buyer intent software you need. There are also plenty of options that work with other platforms, allowing you to combine the functionality of multiple tools to create your own hybrid solution.

Some well-known intent data sources are Bombora, ZoomInfo, EverString, KickFire, and 180byTwo’s eCHO. Wider intent marketing tools such as Terminus integrate with these platforms to provide multiple ways to work with the information.

Another interesting company is G2. Unlike the others, which mostly focus on getting new prospects or upselling current customers, G2 intent data identifies which of your current customers are checking out your competition. This gives you a chance to initiate aggressive customer retention efforts. Many people add G2 buyer intent data to their intent marketing platforms to gain this ability.

Typically, an intent platform like Terminus will integrate with intent data software such as Bombora to allow you to identify those who have shown interest in your product, whether by coming to your site, initiating contact, or through other means. With this combination, you can sometimes pinpoint exactly who a prospect is, what they want to buy, and what they want to hear from you. This gives you a huge boost in marketing effectiveness.

Intent software also allows you to sort your prospects according to their position in the sales funnel, keep track of sales effectiveness and efficiency, and much more. This is why you should get a full platform like Terminus, rather than just using buyer intent data tools by themselves. The best intent data tools, on their own, just can’t compete with an integrated solution.

ZoomInfo Competitors

ZoomInfo Technologies, Inc., like all other platforms in this space, has plenty of competitors. Some of the top ZoomInfo competitors are Adapt, Lusha, Clearbit Enrich, Datanyze, Lead411, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and HubSpot. All of these are slightly different from each other, and range from being pure data providers to wider platforms. Some, like LinkedIn’s product, only work with specific social media and advertising platforms.

ZoomInfo itself is a SaaS (software-as-a-service) provider, which means you have to pay a subscription fee to keep using it. However, this format gives you the advantage of never having to worry about doing your own updates and patches. Most, if not all, platforms in this space also use the SaaS model.

If you look for information about ZoomInfo stock or a ZoomInfo IPO, you’ll find that the IPO happened in 2020, and the stock is still traded. This may be a surprise since the company was acquired by DiscoverOrg. Because of the takeover, the full name of the company is now ZoomInfo Powered by DiscoverOrg.

ZoomInfo revenue is strong, and enough to have warranted DiscoverOrg paying over $500 million for the company.

A free trial is available at ZoomInfo, and ongoing ZoomInfo pricing is available by contacting the company through its site. ZoomInfo reviews are high on a number of review sites, and this shows that it is worth checking out.

Bombora Competitors

Bombora competitors include ZoomInfo, Demandbase, 6sense, InsideView Sales, G2 Marketing Solutions, and many more. Its focus is on data and analytics, but it doesn’t offer the same functionality as a full-featured intent marketing platform. It solves this by integrating with a large number of such platforms so that you can fully use the data it provides. Because of this, there is no single answer to the question “how does Bombora work?”. Your experience with the product will depend on the platform you integrate it with.

Despite what may come to mind at first, the name “Bombora” isn’t intended to imply bombs. Instead, it’s an Australian Aboriginal word that refers to a specific type of wave – one that forms over a submerged reef or rock, and can create dangerous stretches of broken water. The company says that this is a good analogy for the sea of data it harnesses, as well as the challenge of doing so.

Bombora pricing reflects its enterprise-level nature. The lowest price is $25,000 per year for the “growth” package, and to get the price of the two Bombora products above that, you have to contact the company. Many companies find Bombora buyer intent data worth that investment, and new ones ask for a Bombora demo every day.

The key to the company’s products is Bombora tracking, which provides highly-detailed information about prospects. This Bombora intent data lets you approach prospects when they’re the most interested in buying your products or services. Bombora Reno can give details about prospects right down to their names, company affiliations, and job categories.

This company is happy to talk to the press as well as potential customers. All media personnel need to do to get Bombora news is fill out a form on their site.

EverString Competitors

EverString claims to have the most reliable business data, but there are plenty of EverString competitors to challenge that claim. They include ZoomInfo, Clearbit Enrich, Marketo, Groove, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and several others. This company is more of a direct competitor to LinkedIn Sales Navigator than many others in this space thanks to EverString LinkedIn centric features.

In a practice that was once common, EverString pricing is not listed in any obvious place on its site. Instead, would-be customers have to call to find out this vital information.

Estimates of EverString revenue are quite widespread, with ZoomInfo claiming that this competitor makes $12 million per year, and Owler saying that it takes in $8.5 million. EverString reviews show its product getting 4 to 4.5 stars, indicating that it is a strong contender in its space.

EverString news is sparse, but a report from 2019 notes that it added 70 million verified contacts to its database at that time. It opened in 2014, and boasts of a powerful AI system for sorting out its data. The EverString logo appears to be a string with multiple points, likely referencing how many points of data can be connected.

To get an EverString log in, you can request a demo. Then, you’ll be able to test-drive the product and decide if you want to have a permanent account.

KickFire

KickFire identifies your site’s visitors by connecting their IP addresses with known information about those addresses and who uses them. It works with marketing platforms such as those provided by Google and Adobe. This information is then combined with buyer intent data to determine whether a particular visitor is likely to buy.

This IP information can be refined down to the company level. KickFire then adds information about the company, such as industry, number of employees, revenue, and more. By having this data, you can better determine whether or not a specific visitor is worth extra marketing efforts. You can also add CRM data to the visitor, deliver personalized content, or activate retargeting ads.

While some KickFire competitors overlap with those of the other platforms mentioned, it also has some that are unique. These include Leadfeeder, Lead Forensics, and SharpSpring. Those that overlap include ZoomInfo and HubSpot.

KickFire offers more product variations than many of its peers, including an API key, different versions for Google and Adobe, an option for real-time alerts when targeted visitors come to your site, and several more. This gives you many easy, customized presentations of their buyer intent information. Pricing for all of these options is only available by contacting the company.

While this company does business as KickFire, it is actually owned by VisiStat. It considers itself a market leader in the industry.

180byTwo

This uniquely-named company aims to provide a 360-degree view of your prospects and fill the gaps left by other intent data providers. It also states that it uses ethical sources for its data, and strives to be more accurate than the competition. That competition includes Bombora, Emodo, Webbula, ASL Marketing, and others.

Unlike some data providers, 180byTwo gives you a very close look at your prospects’ information. Along with basics like company affiliation and place of residence, it can give you extensive profiles of each person. This lets you create personalized campaigns that wouldn’t be possible without this level of detail.

This company uses advanced AI, predictive analytics, and advanced processing, combined with the “most extensive” collection of data to help its clients break down data silos and create seamless messaging across multiple channels. Since it can be hard to describe its product in just a few words, it offers a demo so you can see exactly what 180byTwo’s products can do for you.

Several data products are offered by 180byTwo. These include the eCHO B2B intent data product, which is meant to help you shorten your sales cycle; AccountLink, a B2B buyer intent data solution for unifying your marketing channels; and LOCi, a product for marketers that enables targeting based on brand affinity, demographics, and most-visited places. 180byTwo also offers several other options that have a laser focus on specific goals.

The company also offers an intent marketing platform called Unifi, which is meant to make it easier to use all of its data products. To see it, or any of the other 180byTwo products in action, contact the company to request a demo.