Intent data has been the talk of the town in recent years owing to its potential in lead generation. It has been regarded as one of the most efficient tools of lead generation across the globe. So what is intent data and how does it work?

Do you know who is looking for your products and services right now? Now imagine if you could reach out to these prospective buyers and secure the deal almost as if you read their mind. With B2B intent data, this power can be yours. Intent data is any information about the willingness and readiness of an account to buy a product of service. This data is based on the three factors below.

1. Intent type – what is the account actually looking to buy
2. Intent strength – how ready the account is to buy the product or service
3. Regency – how long ago was it?

This links to how the data was collected. If you imagine this from a buyer’s perspective, first the prospect is going to realize that they need a different product or service. Then they are going to do some research, which could include signing up to webinars, downloading whitepapers, etc. As the business progresses, they move to the comparison stage where they start checking out service/product providers and explore pricing.  When someone reaches the comparison stage, it is considered the best time to reach out to them.

When you are ensuring the quality of your B2B intent data, it’s basically just assuring that you are getting the strongest quality signal from your target market. Intent data is highly useful in planning outbound, paid and inbound campaigns for your business as it helps focus on prospects that are already looking for your services or products.

Running a successful Accounts based marketing campaign at the  basic level may seem simple – as long you have your targeting and content sorted you are good to go. However in order to get the most out of your accounts based marketing campaigns here are the top 5 things you should keep in mind.

1. Database.  Although you can start with as low as 1000 contacts, it is recommended to have at least 10000 contacts in your marketing list before starting ABM campaigns. This is because a comprehensive list of contacts or companies can help generate the required volume where as if your targeting list is too small you might struggle with ad impressions and conversions. For email campaigns  it is necessary to have their email address but you can also chose to create a list with just company names and target specific functions, job titles or seniority level in an organization during campaign creation.
2. Content – Now this is where you need to start working on the customer’s journey and build buyer persona to outline the base of content creation. This includes everything from a fascinating ad copy to an enriching landing page with instant rewards for the users like a PDF or a whitepaper download, Try and make your ads engaging first and informative second. Also ensure that you are not using your website’s homepage or your products and services page as your landing page as this can lower your conversion. Make sure you have landing pages dedicated to each marketing campaign and you should have multiple campaigns with multiple landing pages to split test ideas. Ensure that your landing pages for paid campaigns have no navigation and a clear call to action.
3. Distribute – Because your target market is already so well defined with your database its now time to shoot them across using various channels like Google, Search and display network, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter etc. During your trial phase pick a segment from your database and run ads on multiple platforms to collect statistics and optimize your campaigns.
4. Track – While you are advertising on multiple platforms it is important for all the leads to be collected on a unified platform like a CRM. Ensure that the same conversion form appears across all the landing pages to avoid tracking complexities. Most CRMs with some custom set up can also track the source of the leads which is an important attribute in optimizing campaigns for business conversion rather than just leads. You also need to set up conversion tracking on your advertising platform as well as analytics to compare stats.
5. Nurture – This is where you need to be setting up marketing automation to ensure seamless flow of communication at different stages of interaction with the customer For example once a lead form is filled, you might want to  send an automated email with more information about your business. You can add them to your marketing list and send reminders when required. It is also essential to create multiple remarketing lists for MQLs, SQLs, website visitors, lookalike audiences, to serve relevant ads.  

Lead generation is often considered complex involving several steps which can be a cumbersome process.  So in this article I will help condense the entire lead generation campaigns process into two aspects only – namely targeting and content. If you can get the right pitch in form of an engaging content before your target audience through effective mediums, then you have hit the nail on the head.

Targeting

There are two basic ways you are target your audience – accounts based or profile based.

Accounts based marketing or, database marketing is a technique where you first build a list of customers you want to target which could include contact details, company details and any other piece of information important for you to segment your customer. One disadvantage of this technique is that the list needs to be refreshed every time you want to run a campaign. Also the worthiness of the list reduces over time as people switch jobs making their contact emails and perhaps phone number redundant. Therefore you might also want to consider building a list of just the companies, without any contact details and using advanced targeting tools to target the right designation in your chosen list of companies.

Profile based targeting on the other hand does not require a list and works on setting the criteria to target your audience based on demographic and professional attributes such as job title, industry, company size, seniority etc. While working with profile based targeting it is important to create multiple segments of your prospects based on industry, etc. and split test them regularly to explore the best performing set of audience.

Content

Content mainly refers to the ad copy format but can also include landing pages, whitepapers or any other promotional material that you might want to use. The content format mostly depends on your marketing message, product positioning, audience awareness etc. For example, if you have developed a new tool which can help HR professional reduce their recruitment time, then explainer videos with a lead generation form is a must.  Videos work well for most of the ad types. Also care for the video format thinking about whether you want to target people on desktop or mobile as vertical videos work better on mobile while landscape videos work better on desktop.

Depending on your campaign you might also want to build a landing page with more information for your customers. A good converting landing page has micro / macro conversion points and triggers that indicate purchase intent of the visitor.

The wider spectrum of lead generation can be a more complex long term strategy driven by SEO, and social media marketing. Email marketing is usually used to nurture leads rather an as an acquisition tool and must be used to supplement all lead generation or otherwise campaigns. However if you are focused on a short term campaign to drive leads to your business then the above two things will suffice provided you have the basic social and web hygiene in place.