Acquiring quality data has always been a challenge for B2B marketers. People change jobs, businesses merge and lists degrade. All of this can make finding the right contacts at the right company extremely difficult. Additionally, reaching out to a cold prospect list can be extremely inefficient. Intent data provides you with contacts that have at least shown some kind of interest in what you offer. Here we take a look at what intent data is, both first and third party, as well as its value to B2B marketers.

What Is Intent Data?

Intent data consists of contacts that have given some indication through online channels that they may be interested in your products or services. This data is accumulated by looking into specific actions taken by prospects in your target audience. Some of those actions include:

• Website Visits
• Event Attendance
• Content Downloads
• Online Reviews
• Industry Website Visits
• Subscriptions To Industry Publications
• Social Media Engagement

First Party Intent Data – This is data that is accumulated from your own website. It considers who has visited your site, which pages they browsed, content they clicked on or downloaded as well as data sourced from email campaigns and your own events.

Third Party Intent Data – This is data that is gathered from external sources like social media, industry publications, major conferences or webinars and review sites.

What Is The Value To Marketers?

Intent data gives you the opportunity to reach out to prospects who are actively searching for a solution that lines up with what you offer. “Both first-party and third-party buyer intent data allow you to reach prospects who are starting their research. This puts your account-based sales process "on steroids" because sellers can better understand who the best accounts to reach out to are, when to reach out to them, what to say to them, and how to personalize your outreach.”

Knowing the interests of your prospects and the potential solutions they’re searching for can be a great advantage for your sales team. “With the right data, sales reps are armed with the details needed to tailor messaging to decision-makers that have different priorities or concerns throughout various stages in the sales funnel.” Since current research shows that the average B2B sale involves 11 decision makers, knowing the key players involved and being able to address their specific questions and concerns can go a long way toward making a sale, as well as shortening the sales cycle.

Contact Winn today to leverage our 30 years of experience and strategic partnerships to make your next campaign a success!