Buying intent data in 2023 – How to boost revenue growth for your SaaS?
SaaS GTM teams are constantly looking to engage in conversations with qualified leads, and hence, buying intent data is an extremely valuable asset. With the diminishing effectiveness of traditional sales and marketing methods due to a lack of context, and the rapid evolution of customer behaviour, businesses must stay ahead of their competition. Merely relying on existing customer data stored in CRM is no longer sufficient. To enhance sales efficiency and drive business growth, it is essential to identify customers who are prepared to make a purchase. This is where buyer intent tools come into play.
In this blog post, we will highlight the top 6 buyer intent tools that can assist you in easily identifying potential customers. These tools offer priceless insights into the online behaviour of potential customers, enabling you to identify those who are actively searching for products or services similar to yours. Now that we understand the significance of gathering buyer intent data, let’s delve deeper into its definition to gain a better understanding of your customers.
What is buyer intent data?
Buyer intent data comprises data points derived from user behaviour across the internet. By utilizing this data, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your target audience’s purchasing journey and determine the most effective way to engage them and sustain their interest in your product.
This comprehensive information is crucial for making well-informed decisions and optimizing your sales strategies to achieve better outcomes. Furthermore, the data provide insights on how to convert highly qualified leads into paying customers. Consequently, buyer intent data plays a paramount role in the success of your sales outreach efforts.
What are the different types of intent for different prospects?
Prospects possess varying mindsets and motivations when searching for your product. It is crucial to tailor your approach to each prospect based on their buying intent. This personalized approach enables you to engage with them effectively and maximize your desired outcomes. Let’s check out the 3 different types of user intent.
a. Active buying intent: When a person actively conducts research on your website or searches for your product category on different product listings platforms or scouts for your product or your competitor’s product on social media platforms, it indicates a strong likelihood that they are preparing to make a purchase.
b. Passive buying intent: These individuals are currently using a product or service that is somewhat unsatisfactory for them, unaware that there are superior alternatives available, such as your product, that would better meet their needs. Interestingly, if they become aware of another option, they are more likely to make a purchase faster than someone who exhibits active intent.
c. Awareness intent: In this scenario, the buyer is contemplating a personal challenge that necessitates the purchase of a product similar to yours. They are in search of the best option and engage in activities like signing up for webinars and downloading case studies and data sheets. They possess an open mindset, actively absorb information, and are receptive to discovering new products.
What is the significance of tracking buying intent?
Through the collection and analysis of buyer intent, you can enhance your sales and marketing campaigns. By avoiding less relevant buyers and relying on unreliable metrics, you can narrow your target audience to those with clear intentions. This approach will help decrease your bounce rate, improve your return on investment (ROI), and achieve better results. Let’s dive into some more benefits of tracking your target prospects’ buying intent.
a. Efficient Allocation of Expenses & Resources.
Having knowledge of which individuals are more inclined to purchase your product enables you to optimize your advertising budget and allocate sales resources effectively. By leveraging intent signals, your Sales Development Representatives can precisely target the right prospects from the outset, rather than adopting a scattergun approach.
b. Enhancing Conversion Rates.
Gaining an understanding of your prospect’s intention to purchase your product allows you to engage with them at the right moment when they are ready to make a buying decision. This targeted approach increases the likelihood of closing successful deals, thereby improving your team’s overall conversion rate from leads to closed deals.
c. Intent-Based Marketing
Knowing your prospects’ buying intent enables you to deliver smarter and more personalized messages targeted directly to them. By tailoring your advertisements and marketing campaigns based on comprehensive customer information, such as their company details, job role, pain points, and stage in the buying process, you can maximize the impact of your outreach.
Engaging in outbound sales without insights into buying intent data is akin to aimlessly shooting in the dark. Without awareness of the right prospects to target, you risk approaching the wrong leads and wasting valuable resources. Conversely, leveraging buying intent data is like shooting arrows at a visible target during daylight. While you may not reach every ideal prospect, you have a clear aim and direction, allowing you to conserve resources and achieve greater efficiency in hitting the mark.
d. Enhancing the Relevance of Your Interactions
By utilizing intent data, you gain access to valuable information that enables you to engage in meaningful conversations that drive conversions. With the insights provided by intent data, your conversations, interactions, and messaging can be personalized and customized to suit the needs and preferences of your prospects and target audiences. Just imagine your SDR entering every conversation with a prospect equipped with comprehensive context and background knowledge about their industry, challenges, and specific requirements.
The Different Types of Intent Data
Similar to any other data, buyer intent data necessitates a customized approach to attract the appropriate customers. In essence, there is no universal solution that applies to all instances of buyer intent data. To make optimal use of buyer intent data, it is vital to recognize that it can be categorized into three distinct types of intent data. These types include:
1. First-Party Intent
The intent data that is directly acquired through sources under your business’s control is referred to as first-party intent data. This encompasses various elements, including:
a. Tracking user interactions on your website through form fills & other marketing automation tools.
b. Interactions within email & nurture campaigns.
c. Registrations for webinars.
d. Interactions with cookies & ads.
e. Direct engagements with your sales team.
f. Interactions on social media platforms.
Collecting first-party intent data presents a highly efficient method of capturing prospects with strong intentions, as they demonstrate an active interest in your product. By ensuring your website and campaigns are well-optimized to collect this data, you can nurture these prospects and influence them towards making a purchase.
2. Second-Party Intent
Second-party intent data is obtained from external sources, such as review sites and other platforms specifically designed to gather intent data. This type of data may encompass contact information and other interaction data that has been recorded on the second party’s platform with the users’ consent.
However, a limitation of both first- and second-party intent data is that they are confined to the data collected by a single website or a group of websites. This implies that you would solely rely on a limited number of sources, which may only provide a certain level of insight and effectiveness.
3. Third-Party Intent
The vast number of web users generates an immense volume of data points. Every interaction made by users across various digital touchpoints contributes to the generation of such data. Third-party intent tools consolidate these extensive digital footprints and data points into actionable buyer intent data, which businesses can utilize to identify and attract customers.
There exist multiple approaches to collecting third-party intent data, including:
a. Gathering behavioural actions and interests from a collaborative network of publishers, websites, & apps within the digital landscape.
b. Utilizing bid stream data originating from your website or app, which transmits on-site visitor and page-level data during the real-time bidding process for programmatic advertising.
What are the primary indicators of buying intent?
1. Content Engagement:
The way people interact with content can tell us if they’re likely to make a purchase. When someone downloads ebooks, reads reviews, compares products, or does online research of products similar to what you are offering, it shows they’re actively searching for a solution like yours.
2. Buying Patterns:
A company’s buying patterns can also show its intent to buy. You can discover this by looking at their technology tools, upcoming contract renewals, or funding information. For example, the software a company uses can give you an idea of how much they spend on purchases. You can also find prospects who currently use a competitor’s product and will soon need to renew. By showing them how your solution is better for them, it is possible to convince them to choose your product/services instead of renewing with the competitor.
3. Psychographics:
You can understand your prospects’ activities, interests, opinions, & values by studying their psychographic information. For instance, if you learn about a company’s philanthropic efforts or community involvement, you can understand what they care about. This helps in having a meaningful conversation when you position your product as a solution that meets their needs and aligns with their values.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Buyer Intent Tools
When selecting the ideal buying intent data tool for your business, it is important to consider the following characteristics:
1. Coverage
The extent of buying intent data is covered by different tools can vary. First-party buying intent data tools focus on data within your own website’s scope. Second-party intent tools provide data within the scope of a specific website or network. Third-party intent tools offer data that encompass a wide range of technological interactions. This includes passive intent buyers that may not be captured by other solutions. It’s important to assess how much of these three types of data can be tracked by the buying intent data tool you are considering implementing.
2. Data Precision
When investing in a tool, it must deliver on its promised functionality. However, the accuracy of data provided by various buying intent data tools can be a significant concern. You need to focus on tools that utilize AI and machine learning-driven algorithms leveraging a diverse set of indicators that can offer data accuracy rates of over 90%.
3. Contact Details
For contemporary businesses, effectively reaching the appropriate individuals through the most suitable channels is essential. Seek out buying intent data tools that not only identify the decision-makers within an organization based on their level of authority but also offer contact information to facilitate engaging conversations with them. This enables you to have highly relevant interactions with the right people.
4. Customer Support
Securing a buying intent data tool that prioritizes customer satisfaction is of utmost importance. It is essential to choose a provider that views its customers as partners and continually enhances its solution based on their requirements.
Top 6 Buyer Intent Tools & Software
Discover the top five buyer intent tools and software solutions for identifying in-market leads. These powerful tools are designed to help you find potential customers who are actively researching and considering purchasing products or services in your industry.
1. G2 Intent
G2, renowned for its extensive B2B software directory, has expanded its offerings by utilizing website visitor data to deliver valuable intent insights. This segmented data is highly actionable and enables you to receive notifications when an existing customer is contemplating a switch to a competitor. Armed with this knowledge, you can proactively address their concerns and strengthen your relationship to retain their loyalty.
Moreover, G2’s directory provides insights into the common competitors that your prospects are considering. This valuable information empowers you to personalize your sales pitches and effectively prepare for potential objections. Additionally, the tool seamlessly integrates with your sales stack, enabling automation features such as retargeting warm prospects with LinkedIn ads or synchronizing intent data with your HubSpot CRM.
Highlighted Features –
a. G2 provides extensive access to a database filled with B2B information.
b. You can track and monitor when potential customers are actively searching for your competitors.
c. It offers visibility into accounts that are actively conducting research and comparing different solutions within your industry.
Pricing –
After scheduling a demonstration call, you can inquire about the pricing of the tool.
2. Cognism
Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that utilizes intent data to assist you in identifying companies that fit your ideal customer profile. By augmenting this intent data with the inclusion of key decision-makers and their contact details, it enables highly targeted prospecting. The integrated intent data empowers you to develop buyer personas and generate curated lead lists.
The data operates by evaluating a prospect’s current level of interest in a particular topic compared to their past interest. This approach is beneficial as it filters out any non-genuine intent, ensuring that you exclusively engage with prospects who are actively interested in your market offerings.
Cognism obtains its data from popular websites through partnerships with data providers, delivering the collected data to your dashboard. Rest assured, the data is fully compliant with GDPR regulations.
To streamline your prospecting process and enhance the information you have on potential customers, you have the option to seamlessly integrate the platform with your current sales tools such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Zapier. This integration allows you to create customized workflows that enable your team to gather prospect data more efficiently and enrich your contact records with valuable intent data that can be acted upon.
Highlighted Features –
a. By integrating with your CRM and sales tools, you can establish efficient workflows that seamlessly incorporate intent data into the tools you frequently use.
b. This allows you to gather valuable intent data from B2B websites that buyers commonly explore during their research phase.
c. With unlimited access to both individual and company data, you gain comprehensive insights into your prospects.
d. Additionally, the platform offers an impressive 98% precision in mobile phone numbers, ensuring accurate contact information.
e. It provides global coverage, including EMEA, NAM, and APAC regions, catering to a wide range of markets.
f. Rest assured, the data sourcing process is fully GDPR-compliant, ensuring the protection of personal data.
Pricing –
The exact price of this tool is not disclosed publicly; therefore, you need to request it to obtain specific pricing information. However, as a trial, you can avail yourself of 25 free leads to experience the tool’s capabilities.
3. Bombora
Bombora is an outstanding choice in the market, and many other intent data tools rely on Bombora’s primary data to power their tools. It is a B2B buyer intent data tool that offers high-quality buyer intent data obtained through consent. The tool utilizes a cooperative system that does not involve unauthorized data collection or scraping. It tracks a prospect’s online journey across a vast network of over 4,000 B2B websites. What sets Bombora apart is its unique dataset, which contains 70% exclusive data that considers a prospect’s typical content consumption. If there is a significant increase in content consumption, Bombora identifies it as a potential indication of intent.
The tool’s Topic Surge feature offers valuable insights into how prospects adapt their search behaviour throughout different stages of the business lifecycle. Additionally, you have access to filtering options for topics and keywords, allowing you to narrow down and focus your data even further.
Similar to other intent data platforms, this tool is specifically tailored for teams implementing Account-Based Marketing programs. While it may require a substantial investment, especially considering its price, if your average deal size is significant, the returns are likely to be realized rapidly.
Highlighted Features –
a. Observe the trending subjects that your target accounts are actively exploring.
b. Connect with a vast array of sales and marketing technology tools seamlessly.
c. Filter through a selection of over 8,000 topics to locate your preferred searchers.
Pricing –
You can readily request Bombora’s pricing to receive a customized quote that suits your specific requirements.
4. KickFire
KickFire is a buyer intent data tool that utilizes first-party data to collect information on companies that interact with your marketing website or content. It achieves this by comparing data from your Analytics tools with a company IP database, enabling the identification of visiting companies and generating reports on actively engaged accounts as well as the pages viewed by potential customers. KickFire further accelerates outreach efforts by offering a B2B contact database and facilitating targeted communication with interested prospects.
In addition, the tool offers location details to assist in pinpointing the particular employee who accessed your website, proving beneficial for sales-related activities. KickFire can also be employed by customer support teams to track customer visits to your website and identify indications that may point out the need for additional assistance.
Highlighted Features –
a. KickFire offers seamless integration with your analytics platform, allowing you to connect quickly using its native integrations or API.
b. With this, you can determine the key decision-makers who are actively visiting and engaging with your website.
c. Additionally, KickFire enables you to promptly retrieve contact details for these decision-makers, which are associated with the company IP addresses identified through website visits & interactions.
Pricing –
The price of KickFire is not openly stated, which means you need to contact the company directly to inquire about it. The pricing can differ based on the particular analytics platform you are utilizing.
5. ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo, a renowned global provider of valuable sales intelligence, stands out with its exceptional data quality and extensive coverage. The platform combines timely intent data with streamlined and automated processes, leading to shorter sales cycles and overall business expansion. Through effective orchestration, user-friendly software, and seamless integration, ZoomInfo offers enhanced visibility and enables access to your target audience. With partnerships exceeding 300,000 content publishers, ZoomInfo gathers over a trillion intent signals from B2B buyers monthly, making it one of the largest intent data networks in the market.
With ZoomInfo, you can construct keyword clusters encompassing topics relevant to your business. Whenever an account that aligns with your target criteria is actively searching for those topics, you will receive notifications, allowing you to reach out at the optimal moment. Furthermore, the tool enables you to enhance your existing customer records by integrating firmographics & intent data. This integrated approach not only maximizes the effectiveness of your outreach endeavours but also promotes sales alignment. Rest assured, ZoomInfo holds all the essential certifications, including SOC2 & ISO27001, guaranteeing compliance and the integrity of the sourced data.
Highlighted Features –
a. Provides a comprehensive email verification process to maintain a high level of accuracy in the data.
b. Ensures the freshness of the data through rigorous testing, updating, and continuous monitoring of each data point.
c. Offers various data access solutions, including APIs, Webhooks, and the Data Brick feature.
d. Enhances intent data by appending contact information and provides recommendations on the most promising prospects to engage with.
e. Implements a real-time tracking and notification system for monitoring buyer intent in real-time.
Pricing –
ZoomInfo offers a variety of customizable packages tailored to different data-driven solutions & premium applications. To obtain pricing information, you need to provide your business address to their team.
6. DemandScience
DemandScience is a B2B data platform that seamlessly integrates intent data into its comprehensive database. With its extensive dataset, you can easily search for prospects using various criteria such as technographic, demographics, and firmographics. The platform enables you to identify companies that are actively searching for topics relevant to your industry. With real-time updates, you’ll receive timely notifications when key prospects are making decisions, ensuring a steady stream of potential leads in your pipeline who are primed for conversion.
Moreover, the tool effortlessly integrates with a wide range of sales tools, allowing you to transfer data from the platform to your CRM. This seamless integration ensures that you maintain full visibility and control over your sales pipeline, enabling you to stay organized and proactive at all times.
Highlighted Features –
a. Effortlessly monitor intent signals and gain instant access to validated B2B contact details.
b. Keep a close watch on over 6,000 topics that signify purchase intent.
c. Smoothly integrate the collected data directly into your CRM, streamlining its management and tracking for enhanced efficiency.
Pricing –
To obtain their pricing information, you can contact their sales team directly.
By now, you may have recognized the importance of procuring a buying intent data tool. However, it is crucial to select the appropriate tool that aligns with your business needs and utilize it effectively. Reach out to our B2B Buyer Intent Specialist who can assist you throughout this process and ensure a smooth experience for you.