Use intent data to anticipate your customers’ needs

Historically, B2B marketers have tailored and targeted their campaigns to specific job titles or seniority levels. Early on, it made some sense from an efficiency standpoint to focus on those titles high enough up the corporate ladder to control purse strings, but job titles and seniority only tell part of the story as to how decision makers carry out the consideration and purchase process.

Awash in data, predictive models, charts, and graphs, it can be easy for marketers to forget that those data points -- those dots on the graph -- are actually people as well as key B2B targets. They have their own personal predispositions that can have great influence over the decisions they make in a business setting. In many ways, it's remembering the people behind the decision-makers that can help B2B marketers harness the right data to engage and nurture those customers through the funnel.

Now, intent data can be used to gain insight about decision-makers and their spheres of influence, enabling B2B marketers to take advantage of opportunities to engage those targets at every stage of the customer journey. The problem is that B2B marketing tech is evolving at such a pace that it's difficult for data-driven marketers to understand what they have at their disposal. So how can marketers ensure they are actually reaching the audiences they're paying for?

Intent data is derived from multiple sources including search, social, email, and transactions, and can be utilized to find out who the people behind the prospects are, what their interests are, what their needs are, and how they want to engage. Intent data is also derived from the content your customers consume -- such as blogs and online publications read, videos watched, games played, and more.
Read more at iMedia Connection.