If marketers could read minds, well, our job would be much easier. To know exactly what customers wanted to buy, and when they wanted to buy it, would effectively eliminate the guesswork from what we do, making it possible to always be ready with the right messaging and the right resource allocation.

While actual mind-reading isn’t possible, there is such a thing as intent marketing, which may be the next best thing. Intent marketing allows us to use data to identify patterns in consumer behavior and to predict what they’ll do next. In a sense, intent marketing really can help marketers understand what customers are thinking.

Intent Marketing at a Glance

The basic purpose of intent marketing is to use the available consumer data to predict customers’ upcoming needs, goals, and purchasing decisions. In doing so, marketers can accurately hone their messaging and increase their campaign efficacy. More specifically, intent marketing uses predictive analysis to identify qualified leads, allowing marketers to engage those leads on a hyper-targeted level with personalized content.

Intent marketing is beneficial since it provides greater clarity about the customer journey, allowing marketers to engage more effectively at each stage of the sales funnel.

How Does Intent Marketing Work?

With intent marketing, marketers track customer interactions across a range of different platforms, including apps, Internet searches, email, and more. They look specifically at product views, abandoned carts, and online purchases to assess customers’ upcoming buying intentions. Using this data, marketers create custom campaigns that align with their prospects’ interests, goals, and stages of brand awareness.

Intent Marketing Data Sources

Crucial to intent marketing is data availability, and there are a number of important data sources from which marketers can draw. These data sources include:

● Website visits
● Online searches
● Time spent on site
● Interactions on social media
● Content consumption, including blogs and videos
● Product views and shopping cart additions
● Online purchases
● Interactions on branded apps

Marketers may glean this data from many sources, including search engines and ad platforms. One of the great things about intent marketing is that it can rely pretty heavily on first-party data, like Google Analytics or insights from a CRM platform. Third-party data can also be used, but it’s important you understand your data sources and how they accumulate their information.

Categorizing Intent Marketing Data

The different types of data used in intent marketing can be further broken down into four basic categories. These four data types include:

1. Search intent data, including keywords or phrases that customers have entered into search bars. This data shows what kind of information people are seeking, which can provide direction for content production.
2. Engagement data, including things people have read, shared, or liked. This usually involves content from blogs, social media, or marketing emails.
3. Firmographic data, which entails the size, industry, and location of any B2B customers.
4. Technographic data, which explains the tech ecosystem of any B2B customers.

Intent Marketing: Weighing the Pros and Cons

There are a number of benefits to intent marketing, but really, it all boils down to one thing: Intent marketing makes it possible to make meaningful connections with potential customers, understanding their needs and goals so that you can provide them with the right messaging at the right moment. Helping consumers achieve their goals quickly and easily will make it much more likely that they will choose your brand over the competition. What’s more, a more personalized marketing experience can significantly improve brand loyalty and referrals.

With all of that said, it’s important to highlight a few downsides to intent marketing, as well. For one thing, when done unwisely, intent marketing data collection can strike many consumers as an invasion of privacy, something that’s increasingly anathema in today’s digital landscape. It’s also important to note that the data required for intent marketing can be difficult to gather, organize, and analyze. Getting started with intent marketing can be daunting and time-intensive for exactly this reason.

Intent Marketing: Where Should You Start?

For those who do want to give intent marketing a try, a good place to start is simply gleaning data from existing customer data, seeking patterns that can help explain individual buying preferences. Ask how your targeted customers seek information on the Web, and what pain points they are hoping to address.

Some basic market research, including things like surveys and focus groups, can also be helpful, providing a foundation for buyer personas and tailored audience segments.

Finally, we recommend working with a marketing agency that can assist you in establishing a robust data ecosystem, using the insights generated to direct your content pipeline. That’s where enCOMPASS comes in. We’d love to talk further about strategic ways to analyze your customers’ behavior, and to develop content that meets buyers where they are. With any questions, we invite you to contact the team at enCOMPASS Agency directly.