What is Intent data? According to Statista, 70% of B2B technology vendors use Intent data for prospecting, followed by sales enablement support (53%) and targeting high-value accounts (52%). It’s a fairly new marketing tool but has the ability to increase alignment between your sales and marketing tactics, minimize campaign waste, and boost marketing ROI.
At Bombora, customer feedback acts as a guiding light when evaluating the true effectiveness of our Intent data solutions. What pain points are being solved? Which parts of our product are most challenging to our users? And one of the most important considerations, how are we helping marketing leaders accelerate growth in their ABM pipeline?
Instead of writing hypothetical ways Intent data can drive more warm leads to your ABM pipeline, I’ve picked 9 ABM strategies (tried and proven) that uniquely showcase the true value of how Intent can transform your marketing ROI using personalized B2B outreach. Let’s dive in.
1. Focus your sales and marketing effort to make the most of limited resources
While data can be intimidating and overwhelming to translate into actionable insights, it has the critical role of informing both sales and marketing teams of which audiences their campaigns should be tailored for to launch effective ABM programs. Intent data can help distill your target account lists by key interests so your marketing spend is directed where it has the best chance of engaging prospects who have a high propensity to convert.
2. Increase your acquisition pipeline with previously invisible accounts
In the awareness stage, 19% of buyers want to connect with a salesperson (Hubspot)—but what if your sales team doesn’t even know these accounts exist? Prospect visibility is one of the most powerful use cases of using Intent to influence how you connect with your audiences who have the highest likelihood of buying, at the time when they desire your attention. It helps you see those accounts actively interested in learning more about your value and what information they’re looking to access easily at their fingertips, so you can reach them first.
3. Target buyers with precision throughout the journey, across platforms
Today’s marketing world is loud; buyers are constantly inundated with digital noise and seemingly unlimited options. Intent data helps you capture their attention, no matter where they are in the funnel, and guide them with precision toward your solution.
4. Find more qualified leads, even if you’re uncertain who they are, or how to reach them.
According to Marketing Insider Group, 93% of companies “who exceed lead and revenue goals” use segmentation by buyer persona. However, 60 to 70% of B2B marketers don’t have a complete grasp on who their persona should be (Sirius Decisions). That’s where Intent can make all the difference. Allowing you to find those ‘needles in a haystack’ accounts so your campaigns can engage top prospects that matter the most, especially those in your blindspot.
5. Transition your cold outreach to a personal approach
Impersonal, ‘spray and pray’ outreach has, for lack of a better term, gone cold. A majority of marketers, 56% to be exact, believe you need personalized or humanized touchpoints to achieve campaign success (Hubspot). No one wants to see generic, templated content in their inbox or feed. Instantly agitated prospects and ignored outreach are the most likely outcomes of outdated tactics like these. We’ve built a diverse ecosystem of sales enablement and enterprise marketing partners such as Bombora’s integration with Outreach, Connect with target accounts, with tailored messaging that’s bound to pique their interest, through scalable, measurable campaigns.
6. Gain market advantage and speed through competitive insights
While solutions like Company Surge® do not necessarily provide direct competitive research, it can be a practical tool for understanding when your prospect’s focus is on other products in your marketscape. If you know who’s distracting your target audience from your own brand experience, it can provide insight into what’s grabbing their attention and help you quickly combat competitive threats.
7. Automate dynamic nurture emails with marketing automation integrations
The impact of content marketing cannot be overstated—but only if the right content gets to the right account at the right stage of the funnel. This can only be achieved when you’re aware of the prospect’s position and what they’re looking for. Intent data can help you write better nurture emails, refine digital advertising messaging, and fine tune your sales outreach with precision. Using solutions like Company Surge® with Hubspot, you’ll be able to generate greater impact from your marketing campaigns with the power of automation paired with Intent data.
8. Accelerate deal cycles using contextual insights
While Intent data is beneficial in driving targeted brand awareness with top of the funnel prospects, it isn’t just a tool to attract accounts currently in the research stage of their buying journey. We’ve found that intent-powered insights can enable marketers and sales leaders to increase content engagement and amplify their ability to personally connect with low-funnel prospects. We especially saw that with clients like Turbonomic who saw a 36% lift in email conversions with more qualified lead generation.
9. Increase sales and marketing alignment to beat your revenue goals
The impact of Intent data has the potential to influence your entire marketing program, especially if Account-based Everything (ABX) is a 2021 marketing objective. When integrated with existing CRM or marketing automation platforms such as Marketo, Salesforce, and Hubspot, Intent helps sales and marketing to build a unified view of the customer and design campaigns that’ll accelerate the goals of both teams.
Intent data can yield powerful results for your ABM strategy but can also be the foundation for a larger, more thoughtful growth mission.
This blog post is brought to you by Bombora.
To learn more about what Intent data is, how it’s built and what are the key ways to leverage it to accelerate your B2B pipeline, check out Bombora’s essential Intent data guide to learn more.
