Intent data is information that reveals a prospect's interest in a product or service based on their online behavior. It encompasses the digital footprint left by users, including the web pages they visit, the content they engage with, and their search queries. By analyzing these signals, companies can gauge a potential customer's readiness to buy, enabling more targeted and timely outreach.
Intent data offers a strategic advantage across the entire go-to-market team, from marketing to sales and customer success. It provides a window into a prospect's interests and buying stage, allowing teams to move from broad outreach to highly targeted engagement.
Integrating intent data into your outbound strategy gives your team a significant competitive edge. It allows you to move beyond guesswork, focusing your efforts on prospects who are already demonstrating purchase intent. This data-driven approach leads to several key advantages.
While both data types inform marketing strategies, they represent different stages of the buyer's journey.
Implementing intent data presents several key challenges. The primary hurdle is data quality, as information is often noisy, inaccurate, or irrelevant. Integrating this data into existing tech stacks also creates technical difficulties like data silos and platform incompatibility.
Beyond technical issues, ensuring privacy and compliance with regulations is critical. It is also difficult to align vague intent signals with specific sales strategies, complicating the process of turning raw data into actionable insights.
The future of intent data will be shaped by advanced AI and predictive analytics. These technologies will enable more accurate forecasting of buyer needs and automate hyper-personalized outreach. As privacy regulations evolve, expect a greater focus on ethically sourced, first-party data to power these sophisticated, real-time engagement strategies.
How is intent data collected?
Intent data is gathered by tracking online user behavior, such as content downloads, website visits, and search queries across a network of B2B sites. This digital footprint is then aggregated and analyzed to identify buying signals from specific companies.
Is intent data GDPR/CCPA compliant?
Reputable providers adhere to privacy regulations by collecting data with user consent, often through cookie policies on publisher websites. Always verify your provider's compliance standards to ensure ethical data sourcing and usage for your campaigns.
How can I verify the accuracy of intent data?
Accuracy depends on the provider. High-quality data is verified through multiple sources and contextual analysis to filter out noise. Look for providers that offer transparency into their data collection methods and how they validate signals.
Voice broadcasting is an automated system that delivers a pre-recorded voice message to a large list of phone numbers simultaneously.
No Cold Calls is a sales strategy that replaces unsolicited calls with warm outreach to prospects who have already demonstrated interest.
Revenue Operations (RevOps) is a business function that aligns a company's sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive predictable revenue.
A Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) API is a web service that uses XML to exchange structured information between different applications.
Event marketing is a strategy where brands engage directly with target audiences through live events like trade shows, conferences, or webinars.
Psychographics categorizes people by their attitudes, interests, and lifestyles, revealing the 'why' behind their purchasing decisions.
Firmographics are descriptive attributes of organizations, used to segment companies by characteristics like industry, size, and location.
A sandbox is an isolated testing environment where new or untrusted code can be run safely without affecting the host device or network.
A commission is a service charge paid to an agent for a transaction. It's typically a percentage of the sale, rewarding performance directly.
A cold email is an initial outreach sent to a potential customer with whom you've had no prior contact, aiming to introduce your business.
Marketo is a marketing automation platform used by B2B marketers to manage lead generation, nurturing, email marketing, and analytics.
A System of Record (SoR) is the authoritative data source for a specific type of data. It acts as the single source of truth for an organization.
Lead generation software helps businesses automate finding and capturing potential customers' contact information to build sales pipelines.
Customer relationship marketing is a strategy for building lasting connections with customers to foster long-term loyalty and engagement.
Learn about buyer intent data, including sourcing and interpreting buyer intent data, & key metrics in buyer intent analysis.
An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that manages your entire hiring and recruitment process from a single dashboard.
Responsive design is an approach where a website's layout adapts to the user's screen size, providing an optimal experience on any device.
Lead scoring is the process of assigning points to leads based on their attributes and actions to determine their sales-readiness.
Learn about B2B marketing attribution, including challenges in B2B marketing attribution, & key metrics for effective attribution.
“End of Quarter” (EOQ) refers to the final weeks of a business quarter when sales teams rush to meet quotas, often leading to a flurry of deals.
SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search results.
Sales automation uses software to streamline and automate repetitive, manual sales tasks, freeing up reps to focus on selling.
Learn about buyer intent, including understanding buyer intent signals, strategies to capture buyer intent, & buyer intent vs. customer interest.
End of Day (EOD) refers to the close of business hours. It's a common deadline for tasks and reports to be completed before the workday ends.
CRM enrichment is the process of adding third-party data to your existing customer profiles to make them more complete and accurate.
Docker is a tool that packages applications and their dependencies into isolated environments called containers for easy deployment and scaling.
Network monitoring is the continuous process of tracking a computer network's performance and health to detect and resolve issues proactively.
Buyer’s remorse is the sense of regret or anxiety that can arise after making a purchase, often questioning if it was the right decision.
Learn about B2B, including what is it, its key elements, the benefits of B2B partnerships, the differences between B2B and B2C, and strategies for effective marketing.
Pipeline coverage is a key sales metric. It's the ratio of your total open pipeline value to your sales quota for a specific period.
Sales enablement provides sales teams with the necessary tools, content, and information to help them sell more effectively and efficiently.
Single Sign-On (SSO) is an authentication method allowing users to access multiple applications with one set of login credentials.
Closed Won is a CRM status for a sales deal that has been successfully concluded, resulting in a signed contract and a new customer.
Cohort analysis is a behavioral analytics tool that groups users with common traits to track their actions and engagement over time.
Chatbots are AI-powered programs that simulate human conversation. They interact with users via text or voice, typically for customer support.
Learn about brag book, including crafting your outstanding brag book, essential components of a brag book, & brag book vs. resume: unveiling the differences.
Hadoop is an open-source framework designed for the distributed storage and processing of extremely large data sets across clusters of computers.
ABM orchestration aligns marketing and sales actions across channels to deliver seamless, personalized experiences to high-value accounts.
A marketing automation platform is software that automates marketing actions. It helps manage tasks like email campaigns and lead nurturing.
A Salesforce Administrator is a certified professional who manages and customizes the Salesforce platform to meet a company's specific business needs.
Firmographic data is information used to classify firms. It includes attributes like industry, employee count, location, and annual revenue.
A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is a tool that centralizes customer data to help manage interactions and nurture relationships.
Personalization in sales means tailoring outreach to a prospect's specific needs, interests, and context to make communication more relevant.
An Operational CRM is a system that automates and improves customer-facing business processes like sales, marketing, and customer service.
Cross-selling is a sales tactic of encouraging customers to purchase products or services that are related to what they're already buying.
Audience targeting is the process of segmenting consumers into specific groups to deliver more personalized and relevant marketing messages.
The marketing mix is the set of marketing tools a company uses to sell products, defined by the 4Ps: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
White labeling is when a company puts its own branding on a product or service that was actually produced by a different company.
The lead qualification process is how you determine which prospects are most likely to become customers by evaluating them against specific criteria.
Intent leads are prospects who show buying signals through their online actions, indicating they're actively looking to make a purchase.
Event tracking is the method of collecting data on specific user actions, or 'events,' on a website or app, such as clicks or downloads.
Sales metrics are quantifiable data points that track and measure a sales team's performance against specific goals and objectives.
A performance plan is a formal document outlining an employee's goals, expectations, and metrics for success over a specific period.
Stress testing is a type of software testing that determines a system's robustness by pushing it beyond its normal operational capacity.
An email cadence is a scheduled sequence of emails sent to prospects over a specific period to nurture leads and drive engagement.
Lookalike audiences are groups of potential customers who share similar characteristics and behaviors with your existing, high-value customers.
Contact discovery is the process of finding accurate contact details for potential leads, including names, emails, phone numbers, and job titles.
Sales partnerships are strategic alliances where two companies co-sell products to expand their reach, generate new leads, and increase revenue.
Webhooks are automated messages sent by an app when a specific event occurs. They push real-time data to another app's unique URL.
Accounts Payable (AP) is the money a company owes its suppliers for goods or services bought on credit. It's listed as a current liability.
GDPR compliance means following the EU's strict data protection laws to ensure the secure and lawful handling of personal data.
An account is a company or organization that you're targeting for sales. It can be a prospective, current, or even a past customer.
Lead nurturing is the process of developing and reinforcing relationships with buyers at every stage of the sales funnel.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is the total cost a business spends to gain a new customer. It includes all sales and marketing expenses.
Process Builder is a Salesforce automation tool that lets you create 'if/then' business processes with a user-friendly visual interface.
Scrum is an agile framework that helps teams structure and manage their work through a set of values, principles, and practices.
Closed Lost is a sales term for a deal that didn't go through. The prospect decided not to buy, or the sales team disqualified them.
Lead qualification is the process of determining which prospects are most likely to become paying customers based on predefined criteria.
Sales Engineers blend deep technical knowledge with sales acumen, demonstrating a product's value and solving customer problems to drive revenue.
The awareness stage is the first step in the buyer's journey, where a potential customer realizes they have a problem or an opportunity to explore.
Lead generation is the process of identifying and cultivating potential customers for a business's products or services.
A Call for Proposal (CFP) is a document that solicits proposals, often through a bidding process, for a specific project or service.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) are websites that look and feel like native mobile apps, offering features like offline access and push notifications.
A marketing attribution model is a framework for assigning credit to the marketing touchpoints that lead a customer to convert.
Learn about business development representative, including skills and qualifications for BDRs, & roles and responsibilities of a BDR.
The Dark Funnel describes customer buying activities that are untrackable by companies, such as private chats and word-of-mouth referrals.
A canary release is a deployment strategy where new software is rolled out to a small user group first, minimizing risk before a full release.
Digital advertising is the practice of delivering promotional content to users through various online and digital channels like social media or search engines.
An enterprise is a large-scale organization, often a corporation, defined by its complex structure and substantial number of employees.
Microservices is an architecture where apps are built as a collection of small, independent services that communicate with each other over APIs.
Sales objections are reasons or concerns raised by a potential customer as to why they are hesitant or unwilling to make a purchase.
Average Revenue per User (ARPU) is a key performance indicator that calculates the average revenue generated from each user or subscriber.
Video selling uses personalized video messages to engage prospects, build rapport, and guide them through the sales funnel to close more deals.
Lead enrichment tools are platforms that automatically add missing data to your leads, like contact info, firmographics, and buying signals.
Technographics is data that outlines a company’s technology stack, helping B2B teams identify prospects based on the software and hardware they use.
Rollback procedures are a set of steps to restore a system to a previous, stable version after a failed update, ensuring minimal disruption.
A headless CMS is a back-end content repository that delivers content via API to any front-end, decoupling the content from its presentation layer.
A Sales Development Representative (SDR) is a sales specialist who finds and qualifies new leads, building a pipeline for the sales team.
Objection handling in sales is the process of responding to a prospect's concerns about a product or service to move the deal forward.
A channel partner is a company that works with a manufacturer or producer to market and sell their products, software, or services to customers.
Lead scraping is the process of automatically extracting contact information and other relevant data about potential customers from online sources.
Data security protects digital information from unauthorized access, corruption, or theft throughout its entire lifecycle.
A custom API integration is a bespoke connection between software, enabling them to communicate and share data to meet unique business requirements.
A Single Page Application (SPA) is a web app that interacts with the user by dynamically rewriting the current page rather than loading new pages.
Sales workflows are a set of automated actions that streamline the sales process, helping teams engage leads consistently and close deals faster.
Closed opportunities are potential deals that have concluded. They are categorized as either 'closed-won' (a sale was made) or 'closed-lost'.
Copyright compliance is adhering to laws that protect creative works. It involves legally using content by obtaining permission or licenses.
A persona map visually outlines a target customer, detailing their goals, behaviors, and pain points to help your team build genuine empathy.
Account-Based Selling is a B2B strategy where sales and marketing treat high-value accounts as markets of one, using personalized outreach.
Expansion revenue is the extra money a business makes from its current customers via upgrades, new products, or additional services.