Just look at the possibilities if your sales team could get a buzz every time one of your prospects was waiting to be sold to. Which in turn sounds like something out of a marketing fairy tale, doesn’t it? Well, it is not exactly ‘as a matter of fact’. B2B firms are already using intent signals to grow their revenue even more by targeting them accurately at the right time. Now let us see how you can do the same.
What Are Intent Signals, Anyway?
Okay where do we begin? They are like the bread crumbs you follow on the social media platforms to find out when the accounts are getting engaged with your products or services. You can think of them as an internet user checking out your website, and although they don’t enter your store, they are definitely interested.
Such signals may include the traffic coming from your web site, downloading of a white paper or even searches on your product related keywords. Gathering and analyzing these signals you will be able to rank current accounts according to their readiness to purchase. It is for this reason that you can be able to arrange your contacts in order to gain maximum benefits where you think your efforts will bring the best results.
Tip 1: Prioritize High-Intent Accounts for Sales Outreach
Picture this: You have your customer prospect list and some of them just prospectively browsed through your site while there are some who are practically flamboyantly waving their credit cards. They work to determine the interlocutor’s identity so that you could focus on their intent.
That is why, using intent data, you can find out which accounts are actively considering your industry or your products. These are the leads that should be ranked; these are the leads that you should be targeting your sales team on.
For instance, if an account is viewing or engaging in a pricing page or downloading complicated guides regarding your products it can be very obvious that they are interested. That way, these leads are ranked based on their activity and you can ensure your salespeople are concerning the right prospects at the right time. Like this, you will not spend time with those people who are not ready to make up their mind and buy your product.
But here’s the kicker: It is not as simple as deciding who should be reached out to. It also consists of understanding how to get to them. There are few things as precise as intent data for outreach messages. They are also eager to listen to everything that you have to say because you can give them a perspective that they are not able to see due to focusing on their specific problems.
For instance, a prospect may be investigating how your software can work with your current systems for example. Your sales rep can then point at how easy it would be to integrate that into their workflow, thus going for your product. The result? Higher amounts of conversion as well as happier clients.
Tip 2: Personalize Your Marketing Campaigns
We’ve all heard it before: Expertise, relevance and targeting as the key principles of personalisation. That’s in complete contrast to what B2B marketing entails; it is not merely a case of slamming the first name to an email. Today’s B2B buyer is very picky and highly demands to be presented with the content and the offer of their interest. And intent signals provide the lever you need to offer such a high level of personalization.
Here’s how it works. For instance, you have five products all distinct from each other, but all designed to solve different problems. This way you can see that topic or specific product, an account is more interesting compared to the others. Perhaps they’ve recently read a lot about one of your products in magazines or newspapers or on the internet. Notice that’s your chance to click the “Send” button and send your contacts an email with more details on that certain product.
But it doesn’t stop there. What you tell them should depend on where they are in the buyers’ journey cycle or the consumer decision-making process. If they’re still newcomers you may send them a link to the latest blog post, or even a white paper for more detailed information. If they are more advanced then probably a case study or even a product launch presentation may be more suitable.
This way every exchange that takes place is going to be deemed as material by the potential customer. And when you get this right, it feels like they’re talking to friends who understand all the things they need, so they are more likely to go for your product whenever the time comes.
Tip 3: Deliver the Right Message at the Right Time
Timing is everything. You see, the expression of interest does not always mean that the account is already ready for the purchase at the soonest time possible. This is where intent signals can be a total game changer.
Let’s break it down. Let’s assume an account is scrolling through your product pages and is reading through especially a feature. It may be interpreted that they would like to know how exactly your product can be implemented in their company. In this case, the best thing that could be done is to provide them with more information, which can include additional information about that particular feature, use case study from other customers.
Still on the lighter side, if an account is downloading pricing guides or is inspecting ROI calculators, then one is pretty sure that the account is more_makeConstraints and is in the process of sifting through options. At this point, your sales team may wish to contact potential clients directly with the view to answering any queries there may be or to provide a personal demonstration.
The key here is to ensure that the message that one wants to pass has the right intent with it. This way, it’s not just that you are feeding them with information, which might be irrelevant at the time, you are taking them through the entire process of decision making and giving them exactly what they want at any one point. It also helps create an opportunity to sell more and at the same time, establish rapport with the customer.
That is, intent data is not only limited to one-on-one situations or interactions. It can be applied to its full extent within your whole marketing approach, from ads to emails and even content marketing. Just think that it is great to reach a person who, for instance, has been researching your competitors. And as you can see, that’s the power of intent signals.
Tip 4: Align Marketing and Sales with a Customer Data Platform (CDP)
Now, let’s talk about the secret sauce that makes all of this work seamlessly: specific type of software – a Customer Data Platform, or CDP. CDP can be compared to the very center, to which all specific pieces of information are connected. This means that it captures data from your website, the CRM, marketing automation tools and even third party intent data solutions to provide a single customer journey map.
This way your marketing and sales teams will have a clear vision about what is going on. This alignment is important for the reason that making certain everybody is working within agreement. It’s when marketing knows what sales is doing (and vice versa) that the two functions can then align their strategies more closely.
As such, the teams that could benefit from CDP include the content creation crews who may use the insights derived from the CDP to craft better campaigns, as well as the sales teams, particularly when estimating the potential buyers’ intention level to buy. Such cooperation results in improved quality of the work done in every aspect.
And it is not only about defining the strategies to attract new spectators. A CDP can also assist sharpen an organization’s focus on long-standing clients by monitoring interactions at different strata and identifying when a specific customer may likely require a sales pitch, renewal or additional service.
In other words, a CDP helps with collection, organization, analysis and utilization of intent data thus enhancing the delivery of timely and personalized experiences en-masse.
Wrapping It Up:
That’s it, in a nutshell, your guide to leveraging intent signals in your B2B marketing plan. Through prioritizing those high-intent and anonymous accounts, making your campaigns personal, providing the right message at the right time, and getting your teams aligned with a CDP, one can revolutionize how companies approach potential customers.
Just bear in mind that in today’s highly saturated market environment, simple identification of the potential customers does not suffice. It may be because you have to know their needs, think of what next move they are going to make and then be prepared to solve their problem at the right time. Intent signals provide you with all the knowledge for just that.
Well, still, based on the above vision statements of various companies, what is the next move? The need to start paying attention to those little signs that users leave online and figuring out how to actually make them work in our favor. Looking for the proof? Let’s get started with Sprouts.ai
