What Is Intent Data?
Intent data is information that indicates when a company or potential buyer is showing increased interest in a topic, product category, or business solution.
Intent Data, Explained Simply
Most B2B marketers know who they want to reach. Intent data adds another question:
Which of those companies may be showing signs that they are interested right now?
Intent signals can come from behaviors such as researching topics, consuming relevant content, visiting websites, or demonstrating increased activity around particular business subjects.
Rather than treating every target account as equally likely to engage, marketers can use intent data to identify organizations showing stronger signs of interest.
Why Intent Data Matters
Intent data can enable marketing and sales teams to:
- Prioritize accounts showing increased interest
- Identify potential buyers earlier in the research process
- Focus outreach on more relevant opportunities
- Improve account-based marketing strategies
- Inform audience segmentation and campaign timing
- Give sales teams additional context for prioritization
PAULA'S PERSPECTIVE
Intent data is most useful as a prioritization signal, not a crystal ball.
A spike in activity does not automatically mean a company is ready to purchase. It means something may be happening that deserves attention.
The strongest strategy combines intent with accurate company and contact data. Knowing that an organization is researching a topic becomes much more actionable when you also know which people inside that organization are relevant to the conversation.
— Paula Chiocchi
Intent Data in Practice
- Step 15,000 Target Companies
- Step 2Intent Monitoring
- Step 3High-Interest Accounts
- Step 4Security & IT Contacts
- Step 5Prioritized Outreach
Imagine a technology provider has a target list of 5,000 companies.
Intent monitoring identifies a smaller group showing increased activity around topics related to cloud security.
Instead of treating all 5,000 companies equally, the marketing team can prioritize those showing stronger signals and identify the appropriate security and IT professionals within those organizations.
Intent has helped answer when to prioritize, while B2B data helps answer who to reach.
KEY TAKEAWAY
Intent data helps B2B marketers prioritize accounts showing increased interest, making outreach more timely and relevant.
Related Glossary Terms
- Buyer Intent
- In-Market Accounts
- Account-Based Marketing (ABM)
- B2B Data
- Audience Segmentation
About Paula Chiocchi
Paula Chiocchi is the Founder and CEO of Outward Media, Inc. and host of B2B Influence: Spotlight on Industry Game-Changers, with decades of experience in data-driven marketing.