Within the world of B2B these days intent data is a frequent point for discussion. In the blog post below our RevOps and Demand generation specialist, Sergi Cheishvili, is breaking down what intent data is all about and how your business can benefit from using it. For using the intent data approach there are several different providers to choose from, and without knowing their pros and cons it can be rather difficult to make a well-informed decision. Therefore, Sergi will be presenting his review of four intent data providers, to make this choice easier. Keep on reading to learn more about intent data!
What is intent data?
B2B Intent data is a tool for marketers that helps us discover our potential prospects' buying intentions based on their digital behaviour. From its definition, it is a pretty exciting tool in the B2B sphere. It allows you to get information about companies that are reading content on the product/service you provide.
How to leverage intent data?
With this powerful instrument, you can create more aggressive marketing and sales campaigns for accounts with higher buying intent for your service/product.
For example, you can start running campaigns for accounts that fit your prime target audience and have a high purchase intent. So you can show them your ads and content before you outreach them through Email, Linkedin or cold call.
It helps you Strike at the Right Moment
Intent data can also help you run long-term campaigns for prospects with low buying intent now but with an ideal customer profile. This way, you can see how their intent changes from time to time, which will give you the ability to strike at the right moment.
It helps you Prioritize and Score Target Accounts
Intent data can be beneficial in creating near-perfect workflows for your marketing and sales teams. For example, intent data will ease the prioritization and account scoring process; with it, your teams will have 360° views of the situation on the market and have the upper hand compared to competitors.
It helps you Retain your Customers
Intent data can be crucial in customer maintenance too. For example, you can target your competitor's keywords and see which of your customer's buying intent rises for their keywords. This way, you can concentrate your customer success managers on accounts with the highest purchasing intent for your competitor's keywords and change their minds before they stop working with you.
Review of Intent Data Providers
There are a couple of intent data providers on the market; Demandbase, Bombora, 6sense and Zoominfo, to name a few. I will be discussing how they work and their key pros and cons.
Demandbase is an Account-Based Marketing software that also provides users' with third-party intent data. According to them, Demandbase has its proprietary technology to collect intent. In addition, they claim to collect 30x more signals than their nearest competition through their custom-built DSP (advertising technology), where they can harvest intent signals through the bid stream.
Demandbase makes the intent signals actionable. It has dozens of integrations with Oracle, Hubspot, Salesforce, Drift, etc. which helps you to be proactive on all platforms both in inbound and outbound marketing. Demandbase's unique intent data from G2 can be a really powerful tool for SAAS businesses cause it will give you unique insight into the real-time situation on market.
Bombora is one of the leaders in the intent data market. According to customer reviews, they provide one of the highest quality data used to generate revenue for hundreds of companies.
A key feature which makes Bombora stand out is Bombora Surge, which notifies you when your client or prospect starts researching your/your competitor's target keywords.
Bombora also has one of the best customer support teams on the market; they reply to you in a flash.
The only drawback of Bombora is that they do not provide contact-level information. But to be honest, this is a minor issue compared to a value which Bombora puts on the table.
Zoominfo is a widely recognized powerhouse in the B2B data market. Mostly it is famous for contact and account data, but they also stand firm in intent data. Their seamless workflows and easiest UI/UX will help your sales and marketing teams use given data effectively.
Compared to Bombora, which lacks some features and capabilities, Zoominfo offers you the complete package—from intent data to mobile phone numbers and emails. It has leverage over other software to be one super app for B2B marketers. So instead of using and learning a couple of software, you will be able to work on only one and integrate it into any marketing and sales automation platform.
The only major drawback of Zoominfo is its data quality. Many customers say that intent data is sometimes outdated or irrelevant.
There are a couple of features which make 6sense unique. A few of them are the usage of G2 intent with Bombora's data, customization capabilities of their marketing campaigns, and omnichannel tracking. Being a jack of all trades also comes with cons; according to customer reviews, they are much better than average in everything they do, but not the best. We also have to mention that it has a pretty complex UI and not a good enough knowledge bank on how to use its software. Because of this time needed to master 6sense is the longest of the three.
Conclusion
To sum up, intent data is one of the most critical topics in B2B marketing. It is already changing the market, and it will only continue to improve and develop in the future. These processes, which are happening in the last couple of years regarding intent data, will shape shift and transform the B2B marketing sector forever. And demand for this kind of service will only grow.
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Would you like to learn more about Brightvision and how we work as an agency? If you are a B2B tech company and need support with ABM, marketing, lead generation and sales, book a meeting and we can chat!
You can also check out Sergi's own blog, at https://sergi.digital/, where he shares more exciting content and thoughts within the world of marketing.
