In a crowded market, understanding and leveraging intent data is like having a crystal ball for your business. Intent data can be a powerful tool that offers insights into potential customers’ interests and purchase intentions. But where does this valuable data come from, and how can it be used both ethically and effectively? Let’s dive in.
Understanding Intent Data
Intent data is behavioral information collected about individuals or businesses based on their online interactions, which shows their potential interest or intention to make a purchase. This data comes from a range of sources, including:
- Web behavior (time on page, bounce rate, page views)
- Interaction with different types of content (blogs, social posts, eBooks, etc.)
- Digital ad engagement
In its most effective form, this data provides insights not just into what a customer is interested in, but their readiness to buy.
There are three primary sources of intent data:
- Data Scraping. Automated tools collect publicly available information (that doesn’t violate data privacy regulations) from web pages to inform consumer intent.
- Customer Data. These insights drill down a layer deeper, tracking specific customer interactions with your website or marketing campaigns. By viewing customer actions, businesses can take informed steps to engage with those individuals.
- Third-Party Providers. Companies like Bombora and Cognism aggregate data from various B2B websites and platforms, providing company-level insights into which organizations might be increasing their spend or showing interest in specific solutions. This data offers a more comprehensive view of market behavior.
When sourcing intent data, keep in mind the distinction between third-party and first-party data. First-party data is collected directly from your audience that has already opted in to sharing information with you. It’s generally considered to be more reliable and valuable. Third-party data are insights that are sourced externally. While this date can extend further insights, it also comes with greater privacy considerations.
The Legalities of Intent Data
Compliance with data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA is crucial. Ethical use of this type of data requires transparency in data collection and usage, as well as obtaining proper consent. When considering how and when to use intent data, plus where to source it from, it’s important to be aware of several things:
- Understanding Data Privacy. Data privacy is different from data security and involves ethical and legal obligations to protect access to the personally identifiable information (PII) of your customers. This includes considerations around what data is collected, how it’s stored, and who can access it. Ensuring the privacy of sensitive data may involve de-identifying datasets to remove PII and prevent re-identification risks.
- Ethical Data Collection. Ethical considerations in data collection include acquiring informed consent from individuals, maintaining transparency about data usage, and complying with privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA. Using anonymized data that cannot be traced back to individuals is a recommended practice in ethical data collection.
- Compliance with Privacy Regulations. When purchasing third-party sales intelligence software, make sure to check that the provider complies with relevant data privacy regulations. Ask potential data providers about their compliance practices, data sourcing methods, and the legal frameworks they adhere to.
- Assessment of Third-Party Providers. Before choosing a third-party data provider, conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis that considers factors like data quality, compliance, and scalability. Make sure that the provider’s methods for ensuring data accuracy and relevancy, and their policies for data privacy and security, align with your organization’s own standards.
LeadLander’s Commitment to Data Privacy
As a website visitor identification software, we take a firm stand when it comes to data privacy. At LeadLander, we prioritize the security and privacy of your data and any data that you collect. We do not scrape your data and we ensure full compliance with international privacy standards. Our platform provides insights without compromising your corporate privacy. So when you choose LeadLander, you can rest assured that our practices align with ethical data collection methods.
Intent Data in Sales and Marketing
Intent data has become a staple in sales and marketing, specifically in the areas of sales development, strategic account management, and account-based marketing (ABM). Here are five steps your business can take to effectively use intent data to refine your sales and marketing efforts:
- Identify Early Opportunities. Use it to tap into prospects earlier in their buying process. Research shows that buyers often prefer to engage with the business that communicates with them first. By identifying and approaching prospects who are actively searching for solutions in your domain, you can gain a competitive edge.
- Lead Scoring. Incorporate this data to refine your lead scoring process. This involves distinguishing between prospects actively researching a solution and those who are simply browsing. By integrating intent data, you can identify leads that fit your ideal customer profile, helping your sales team better prioritize high-intent leads and refining your targeting process.
- Level Up Your ABM. Use it to enhance your ABM strategy. This involves gathering information about prospective accounts to take a more focused and personalized approach. Intent data helps in identifying in-market customers and refining your campaign messaging to align with their specific needs and interests.
- Refine Your Content Strategy. Leverage this data to craft a content strategy that resonates with your target audience’s needs and interests. This can involve creating content based on the topics and solutions your ideal customers are actively seeking, helping improve engagement and conversion rates. For example, if your blog article on IoT manufacturing receives a lot of traffic, you might develop a series of articles that dive deeper into that topic, or even create a landing page that helps nurture visitors based on that interest.
- Targeted Advertising. Use it to make your advertising campaigns more focused and effective. By targeting prospects who show specific buying signals, you can design your advertising efforts to attract leads with a higher likelihood of conversion, helping optimize your advertising spend and improving ROI.
The Power of Intent Data
When used strategically, this type of data can be transformative for your business. It enables hyper-personalized marketing campaigns, improves sales prioritization, allows for proactive outreach, and can increase sales conversions. The key is to integrate intent data with sales intelligence for a more nuanced, effective approach.
With tools like LeadLander, businesses can leverage the power of intent data while ensuring compliance and data privacy. Start a free trial today, no credit card needed.