Addicted to Buyer Intent? Us Too – 4 Reasons We Just Can’t Stop

We admit it, we have a problem. That problem is an addiction to data, specifically buyer intent data. You may have caught the bug, too, and there’s no shame in it. We don’t plan on curtailing our intent data addiction any time soon, and neither should you.

Why not? Well, just think of all the good buyer intent data can do for your business! Who doesn’t want to know where their leads are in the sales funnel and what their interests are? It’s a sales team’s dream come true. Here are the reasons we don’t plan to quit buyer intent.

First, What is Buyer Intent Data?

Wait just a minute, you might be thinking. I’ve heard lots of people talking about buyer intent recently, but I’m not 100 percent sure I know what it is and how it’s generated. We’re here to help you sort through how buyer intent data works and how joining us in our buyer intent data usage can help your company. Buyer intent data is just one type of data within the large family of intent data, and by understanding what it is and where it fits into this family, you can use these data to optimize your sales process.

Intent Data

Intent data, according to G2, is data that indicates the probability that a customer will purchase a product or service. These data points come from the time an individual spends researching a product. Companies can use intent data to segment their market and tailor their outreach to individual customers. 

You may be thinking that cookies already exist to fulfill this service, but the way cookies improve customer experience is different from the tailoring methods intent data makes available. This is because cookie-based services focus on identity, while intent data makes identity secondary. What exactly does this mean?

When a customer signs onto a website that uses cookies, the first task of the website is to identify the user’s identity. Once identity is verified, the website will determine whether the user fits into a demographic and what the user’s intent is on the website. There are two main issues with this method: 98% of website users are anonymous, and search engines are slowly phasing out cookies to improve user experience. 

Because users are anonymous, websites are never able to get past the first step of this process with 98 percent of their prospects. Furthermore, cookies are becoming less popular as customers become warier about what companies are doing with their data. By switching from cookies to buyer intent data, you can attain goodwill with customers and improve your customer experience. 

On the other hand, websites that use intent data focus on determining the intent of their users before they determine whether the customers fit into a demographic mold or determine the identity of their customers. This allows companies to use data to improve user experience, even if the user is anonymous.  More and more companies are realizing that intent is so much more informative than identity and switching to buyer intent data for good. 

Types of Intent Data

Now, when we talk about intent data, it is important to clarify that not all intent data is created equal. There are three main types of intent data that companies use to tailor user experience. By describing these three types, you can see why intent data is so useful.

In-market intent data is data on a specific company looking at your services. When multiple members of a company visit your site, it creates a cluster of intent data that you can analyze to figure out which services a company is interested in and tailor your outreach for that company. 

Conversational intent data is data from a chat that a customer has with a chatbot on your website. These data are very useful and specific, but unfortunately, they are difficult to obtain since only about 2 percent of customers that visit a website interact with a chatbot. That makes this rare type of data usage, but not worth counting on. 

Buyer intent data is real-time customer intent data based on the customer’s digital signature. These data are generated for all customers, whether or not they are anonymous, which makes them incredibly valuable and plentiful.

How Intent Data Is Generated

As we mentioned above, intent data is created when individuals spend time doing product research. The data consists of the time that individuals spend on different pages, what they do on the pages, and how often they interact with a topic. The data is generated for all users, but it becomes useful when the algorithm can find out company information and trends.

The data generated using these methods are less invasive for customers than traditional cookie tracking, so you don’t have to worry about scaring customers away by asking them to accept cookie tracking.

What Can Buyer Intent Data Help You Do?

All companies use buyer intent data in slightly different ways. Some companies choose to use it as they redesign their website, while others use it in real-time to ensure that they are optimizing the customer experience for each customer. 

Here are just a few uses for buyer intent data.

More Sales and Better Customer Service

Perhaps you’ve heard of the “67%” statistic before. It states that, by the time a potential lead reaches out to you, they’re already 67% of the way through the buyer’s journey. This statistic isn’t quite what it’s wrapped up to be, but the basic idea still stands — your leads are not reaching out to you at the beginning of the buying process, but rather towards the end. By this time, they may have already developed steadfast ideas about what kind of service or product they’re looking for and what parameters constitute a “good deal” for them.

However, you likely know that these preconceived notions often lead buyers astray, leaving them with unsatisfactory experiences. Whereas, if you were just able to reach out to them earlier in their journey, you might be able to give them the 5-star service they’re looking for.

You Can Become a Mind Reader

Have you ever spent hours searching online, hoping someone somewhere might have a solution to you or your business’ problems? Have you felt the frustration of clicking through tab after tab, only to come up with nothing? Wouldn’t it be nice if someone had been able to point you in the right direction?

With external buyer intent data, you can do just that. You’ll be able to find leads based on their searches, even if they haven’t managed to find you or your competitors’ websites. You can be that magic mind reader that reaches out saying, “I know just what you need.”

Retain More Customers

Often, when a business or customer is at the point of canceling services, there’s little you can do to convince them otherwise. Their mind is made up, but what if you could find out who’s considering canceling before they reach for that “Cancel Subscription” page? With buyer intent data, you can do exactly that.

When To Use Buyer Intent Data

We use buyer intent data in all stages of the customer journey. This allows us to constantly follow clients throughout their journey and ensure that we are giving them the best experience possible. 

Here are some ideas for how to use buyer intent data throughout the client journey.

At First Contact

The average customer interaction with a website lasts only a few seconds, so it is essential to track customers on your website to figure out what is making them stay and what is making them click away. 

In the Research Process

As your customer reads reviews, scans different pages, and asks questions, they generate the richest buyer intent data that you can find. These data tell you a lot about what catches their eye, who they trust, and what they ultimately hope to purchase. 

With Active Customers

Once you’ve landed a client, some might think that buyer intent would become obsolete. On the contrary, tracking the behavior of your current customers is one of the best ways you can ensure that your customers stay happy for the longest time. By monitoring these customers, you can look at the types of searches they are making and the services that they are looking for. This will help you keep customers on by directing them toward the resources they need. 

But what company should you use to cure your buyer intent data cravings? There are many ways you can make this decision since there are many useful metrics to use for your calculation. Return on investment (ROI) can be a great place to start this calculation and Bombora’s Company Surge® Intent data has the best ROI in the business.

Up to 300% Marketing ROI

You heard us right: 300%. That’s what Bombora’s Company Surge® Intent data can do for you and why it’s provided as part of SalesIntel’s data offerings. By taking the guesswork out of analyzing buyer intent data, providing research on demand, and a 95% accuracy rate, you’ll be able to capitalize on SalesIntel’s Buyer Intent data. What’s more, we offer intent signals for over 8500 categories, ensuring that your data is not only accurate but also specific. That, more than anything else, is why we’ll never give it up.