B2B Intent Data—The What, Why, and How

A common challenge that most marketers face is chasing leads who never convert. You can never truly be certain whether a lead is ready to buy or not. That’s exactly what B2B intent data solves—it provides information on prospects who ARE ready to buy. 

So, what is intent data exactly, and how can businesses collect it? This guide will uncover all you need to know about B2B intent data and explain how you can leverage it and pair it with other marketing metrics to boost conversions. 

As a bonus, I’ll also introduce you to a free tool that lets you capture high-intent data and optimize your marketing efforts for better sales. 

What Is B2B Intent Data?

Intent data is information about your target audience’s online behavior. Every website visit and interaction with social media posts depict what your clients are currently looking for. 

Once you know what kind of a solution they’re seeking, your sales team can craft better, more personalized campaigns to meet their interests—that is, if you can provide it. You’ll encounter two main types of buyer intent data:

1. First-party data
2. Third-party data

First-Party Data

First-party data includes information about prospects visiting/interacting with your brand in various ways, such as:

• Clicking links
• Visiting your website
• Reading your blogs
• Filling out forms

First-party intent data only belongs to your company, and since it comes directly from users engaging with your website, it’s often considered the most reliable and accurate. The actions taken by users provide clear signals about their needs, interests, and stages in the buyer’s journey.

However, it can be limited because not every visitor will go as far as filling out a form or providing identifiable information. Many users may browse your website anonymously or may not take any action that would directly signal their intent. This results in less data overall compared to other forms of intent data.

Third-Party Data

Third-party intent data refers to information that you don’t personally collect. Rather, you buy it from vendors (e.g., Seamless or Lusha) that collect and sell data about potential prospects. Third-party data typically includes prospects visiting websites in the same industry as yours, such as a competitor’s website. 

These insights help you understand the type of content your prospects are interested in and optimize your website accordingly. However, it’s important to remember that third-party data isn’t exclusive to your company—it’s available for purchase by other businesses as well. Since it’s gathered from a variety of external sources, there’s a risk that it may not always comply with regulations like GDPR, especially if the data collection process doesn’t involve explicit consent from users.

How To Collect B2B Buyer Intent Data

There are different ways to collect B2B intent data—below are my four preferred methods:

1. Search intent
2. Company surveys
3. Social media analytics 
4. Firmographic data

Search Intent

Search intent refers to the actions and keywords potential buyers are using in search engines to find info related to your product or service (i.e., what B2B leads are typing in their search bar). If you run a SaaS firm that provides CRM solutions, you can benefit from searches like “How can I create a CRM strategy?” 

Once you know what your target audience is searching for, you can create content that aligns with their interests and offer your solution before others. Using tools like Google Analytics or Mixpanel will help you learn what solutions your prospects are currently seeking. 

Company Surveys

Industry reports and surveys often contain key insights about a company’s software and hardware. Check the table below for details:

Expanding on the previous CRM example, you can figure out if a company’s CRM system is outdated and optimize outreach marketing to present your tool as a modern tool or a better solution than competitors.

Additionally, knowing what technology a company is currently using helps you verify whether it is worth prospecting. In my experience, both Gartner and Forrester are great resources for retrieving company survey data. 

Social Media Analytics

Tracking engagement on social media also shows which of your prospects are interested in your posts. These include activities like: 

• Sharing
• Commenting
• Liking posts

Once you map out their interests, your marketing team can optimize sales outreach strategies to promote similar content. While social media platforms generally provide analytical data, you can take things one step further using tools like GetSocial that display dark social analytics—social media traffic not attributable to a known source.

‍Firmographic Data

Firmographic data refers to a company’s annual revenue, size, location, industry, etc. You can retrieve it via public directories or data providers like ZoomInfo. Using this information, you can identify companies that meet your ideal customer profile (ICP) and align your account-based marketing (ABM) efforts accordingly.

How To Use B2B Marketing Intent Data for Personalizing Outreach

To maximize your marketing efforts, you must know how to leverage sales intent data effectively. I’ve listed four simple ways to give you a little head start:

1. Combine data with other analytics
2. Craft ABM strategies
3. Build high-quality lists
4. Optimize marketing content

1. Combine Data With Other Analytics

When paired with analytics, B2B intent data can speed up your sales funnel by providing valuable insights into potential buyers’ behaviors and interests. See how it works below: 

Together, these insights can help your team prioritize hot leads and close deals faster.

2. Craft ABM Strategies

Account-based marketing (ABM) is a game-changer for boosting sales conversions, especially when paired with B2B intent data. 

It helps you identify which accounts are actively showing interest in your product. From there, your team can focus on the targets that will most likely convert and craft laser-focused content that speaks directly to them. 

This targeted approach improves lead nurturing and the efficiency of your sales team by directing their attention to accounts with the highest revenue potential. 

‍The result? You’re nurturing leads with serious revenue potential and spending less time in cold outreach.

3. Build High-Quality Lists 

In the world of B2B, identifying the right audience can be tricky, especially when you’re sifting through a sea of information. Think of intent data as your magnifying glass helping you spot users who are actively interested in what you offer.

With this insight, you can build targeted email lists and outreach campaigns that actually hit the mark instead of chasing cold leads. 

4. Optimize Marketing Content

Every buyer’s journey is different, and deciphering this is really important for B2B marketers. Tailoring content to match where a customer is in their decision-making process can make or break the deal. 

For example, hitting a new target with a detailed cost analysis too early could drive them away. They’re still exploring and need more basic information. On the other hand, that same content works for someone actively comparing options.

B2B intent data gives you in-depth insights about the buyer’s journey to discovering your product that can help you fine-tune your sales outreach strategy.

Make Intent B2B Data Collection Effortless With RB2B

Gaining data on leads who are truly interested in buying from your brand is essential to executing successful SMS and email marketing strategies. It’s kind of similar to entering a grocery store with a retail associate already knowing that you want a couple of hot pockets. However, while B2B intent data providers may help you generate leads, they often stop at company-level data.

Such information doesn’t help you learn a firm’s decision-makers or identify which of its members is interested in your brand. This can lead to you targeting the wrong people and losing out on potential conversions.

That’s where RB2B comes into the picture. Instead of providing company-level data, it goes a step beyond and lets you retrieve person-level identification data and engage with prospects who are ready to buy. 

Here are three main advantages of using RB2B’s Person-Level Visitor ID tool:

1. It allows you to obtain detailed information on prospects, such as their name, position, email address, LinkedIn profile, etc. 
2. It displays the specific landing or website page a visitor browsed, helping you initiate a personalized conversation. 
3. It sends high-intent data directly to your Slack in real time, ensuring you reach out to prospects while they’re still interested in your company. 

Setting Up RB2B

Ready to begin your RB2B journey? Follow the four simple steps listed below: 

1. Sign up 
2. Verify your email address
3. Add the RB2B tracking script to your website to start capturing person-level visitor data
4. Integrate RB2B with your Slack workspace and activate instant notifications about visitor activity

All users get FREE 30-day access to RB2B’s Pro plan features, which they can later upgrade to if needed. 

RB2B follows all CCPA and CPRA regulations, ensuring you don’t face compliance bottlenecks when using it. Since it only captures data from the U.S., GDPR does not apply!

Harness the potential of individual insights—sign up for RB2B’s Person-Level Website Visitor ID tool today and start optimizing your email campaigns with actionable, real-time data.

‍Keep reading: Want more expert tips on leveraging intent data and targeted outreach? Explore my other guides below: 

• How to use intent data to identify SQLs
• Buyer intent signals
• How to write an outreach email
• LinkedIn outreach strategy 

Featured image source: Claudio Schwarz