What are intent signals?

Intent signals are the collective online behaviors and activities that indicate a potential customer's interest in a product or service. This data is gathered from various sources such as search engine queries, content consumption across the web, and website visits, allowing businesses to gauge a prospect's readiness to buy.

Why are intent signals important for sales and marketing?

Intent signals are crucial for efficient and effective go-to-market strategies as they allow marketing teams to target campaigns and content to audiences actively in market, increasing ROI. For sales, they help prioritize accounts and leads, ensuring efforts focus on prospects most likely to convert and shortening the sales cycle.

What are the different types of intent signals?

Intent signals come in many forms including first party signals collected from your own properties like website visits or email clicks, and third party signals gathered from across the web tracking topic based content consumption. They can also be categorized by behavior such as search intent, what prospects type into search engines, or engagement intent, how they interact with content.

What is the difference between research and engagement intent signals?

Research intent signals are behaviors indicating a prospect is in the early, information gathering stage of their journey, such as reading blog posts, industry reports, or analyst reviews. Engagement intent signals show active interaction with your brand like downloading a whitepaper, joining a webinar, or visiting a pricing page, suggesting they are further along the funnel and ready for a sales conversation.

How are intent signals used in sales and marketing?

In marketing, intent signals power account based marketing programs, personalized advertising, and content syndication to identify which accounts to target. In sales, intent data is used for lead scoring, prioritizing outreach, and personalizing communication, allowing salespeople to reference the topics a prospect has been researching to make their pitch more relevant and compelling.

What are some underrated intent signals for lead qualification?

Underrated intent signals include repeat visits to key website pages like pricing or case studies, high engagement with email campaigns through multiple opens and clicks, and questions asked in community forums or on social media about solving specific business problems. These behaviors often indicate strong purchase intent that may be overlooked.

What tools are used to monitor and manage intent signals?

A variety of platforms help manage intent signals including intent data providers like SalesIntel, Bombora, 6sense, and ZoomInfo that provide third party data. SalesIntel goes a step ahead and tracks the prime predictive signals that allow you to reach decision-makers earlier than your competitors.

How can intent signals be used for churn reduction?

Intent signals can predict churn when there's a decrease in product usage, visits to the cancellation page, or searches for competitor solutions. Proactive outreach, offering support, or providing incentives based on these signals can help retain customers by addressing concerns before they decide to leave.