I like fresh flowers. So, when I recently went in search of a company that could send me flowers on a subscription basis, I found several good options. I abandoned my search, however, when I got distracted by issues more pressing than beautiful blooms. But then, right there in my Facebook feed the next day was an ad from a small flower company.
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The company’s presentation was stylish, and its messaging was resonant: hand-picked, hand-tied, fair-trade and sustainably farmed flowers, with several flexible subscription plans. I signed up on the spot.
The company may have been a small startup, but it had a strong understanding of online marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). And when it retargeted me with a message of style and substance, following my initial search, I was a pretty easy convert. The company already knew I was interested in what was otherwise a pretty straightforward transaction. All it needed to do was close the deal.
If only business-to-business (B2B) marketing was that easy.
There are challenges with collecting B2B consumer insights.
When B2B buyers go in search of a service or a solution, just like business-to-consumer (B2C) buyers, they conduct searches, visit websites, read articles and examine reviews. They may even download reports and listen to webinars. They create a digital footprint as they consume content across the web.
In theory, the digital footprint that B2B buyers create may actually be bigger — or at least have more depth and breadth. So, why is it easier for a small floral delivery service to target a B2C buyer online than, say, a 1,000-person data security company that provides its services exclusively to financial services companies based in the United States?
Primarily, it’s because only one person is involved in the B2C purchase, and snagging those flowers is just a click away. Engaging a security firm for a multibillion-dollar financial services business involves many decision makers and a process that goes beyond the ability of any one person to make that call.
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In order for a B2B vendor to replicate the targeting capability of a B2C company, the vendor would have to identify everyone across the web doing research on a particular solution, idea or topic. They would have to somehow identify if there was a group of these searches that originated from a specific company. Only then would the vendor be able to target that prospect with effective sales and marketing tactics.
But while B2B vendors have traditionally been able to anonymously track individuals coming to their websites and see pages being visited, they have not been able to determine whether those visits are isolated instances of fleeting curiosity or concerted efforts by several individuals at an organization doing a more methodical, wide-scale search for the kinds of services the vendor provides.
Intent data can help guide B2B marketing toward the right sales prospects.
The past few years have seen the emergence of “intent data” — data collected, anonymized and aggregated from thousands of B2B websites and media publishers that are part of a cooperative that shares data about online research activity. Each week, intent data providers aggregate billions of individual activities in order to profile the content consumption of a company. Over time, they can establish a baseline that enables them to understand when consumption spikes and the topics that are causing it. While the individual activity is anonymous, the resulting profile is not.
These data providers keep track of various activities including topic-driven content consumption, downloads of white papers and case studies, webinar attendance, website visits, time on industry-related pages, online subscriptions to newsletters and updates, and product reviews. When consumption spikes, that activity is a strong indicator that a company may be interested in certain products or services related to the topics that are causing the increase.
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Among the factors that an intent algorithm takes into account are the volume and type of content consumed, the number of individuals at the company consuming the content, the time they spent on a page and their scrolling speed. All these factors help generate a score for each company on each topic.
What does the future of intent data look like?
According to Demand Gen Report’s “2017 ABM Benchmark Survey Report,” which surveyed 248 marketers, only 25% of B2B companies say they are currently using intent data and monitoring tools.
Based on my experience at DiscoverOrg, which incorporates intent data into our data offerings for our B2B clients, I have learned that companies are using the data in three primary ways:
1. To gain insights into which companies are researching their solutions, prior to contacting the sales team or filling out a contact form online.
2. To weigh their lead-scoring models and reach companies that have taken an active interest in their solutions.
3. To gain an understanding of what customers are doing in order to identify upsell opportunities or implement retention strategies.
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I believe that, in the future, intent data will be able to deliver what seemed impossible just a few years ago: a go-to-market operating system that identifies for organizations the target prospects that should be reached that day, week, month or quarter based specifically on buying signals that indicate a higher level of purchase intent and interest. It will come from more sources and potentially even include personal activity away from the office. Once aggregated, this blending of personal and professional identities will ultimately allow B2B companies to, for example, target ads directly to the CEOs of companies of a specific size and in a specific sector and region.
In five years, it’s likely the best sales and marketing teams will have figured out how to leverage this type of data to direct their sales and marketing campaigns. Early entrants will clearly have an advantage. In fact, one company I know recently secured a seven-figure deal in its first week of using intent data from a company it would have never targeted otherwise. That’s the game, right there.