Intent marketing has seen explosive growth over the last decade as companies race to unlock buyer intent signals hidden in search queries, website engagement, social media, and other digital body language. Once the domain of search engine marketers, intent data is now being woven into omnichannel strategies at forward-thinking organizations.
So what exactly is intent marketing? Put simply, it’s about understanding customer motivations during the purchase process and delivering tailored messages and experiences designed to guide them on their journey.
This guide will explore intent marketing concepts, emerging trends, tips and best practices, software solutions, and real-world examples of brands winning with intent-driven campaigns.
A Crash Course on Intent Marketing
Intent marketing relies on identifying signals that indicate what products and services consumers want or need during a given timeframe. It aims to deliver the right content and messaging to move customers closer to a conversion event.
Intent data reflects users’ digital footprints — the sites they visit, content they consume, queries they search, and more. This data powers intent marketing strategies.
Armed with intent insights, marketers can determine:
- Which audiences are in-market for their offerings
- Who is actively researching and comparing options
- When buyers are closest to making a purchase
Intent is dynamic, not static. It shifts for every customer throughout their journey. Tracking this changing landscape is crucial for engagement and conversions.
That’s why intent marketing is much more effective than relying solely on demographic or firmographic profiling. Just because consumers match an “ideal customer” mold doesn’t mean they have intent. And buyers outside target segments may develop unexpected intent.
According to a survey from Invoca, nearly half of respondents said their highest converting leads came from anonymous prospects not yet in their CRM. Intent data helps sales identify and capture this “proactive demand”.
The Surprising Breadth of Intent Data Sources
Many organizations still equate intent solely with search data. But intent seeps out of nearly every customer touchpoint, online and offline.
“The buyer environment is 20 times bigger than Google search data,” explains Tony Marlow, CMO at IntentIQ. Other rich intent data streams include:
Site analytics like pages visited, content consumption metrics, and exit rates signal rising or waning interest levels. Drops in engagement could expose gaps in supporting the buyer’s journey.
Social media listening captures interest-based discussions and direct queries across platforms like Twitter and Reddit. Brand mentions often spike around key life events tied to major purchases.
"We listen on social to identify changes – like new parents talking about college savings plans for the first time,” says Marlow.
Retail partner data shares point-of-sale and inventory signals. Buyers may research a product online well before that first in-store visit. Store traffic trends uncover localized demand shifts.
“When Walmart buys more warm winter clothing for certain regions, we can tell consumer intent is increasing there for travel to warmer climates,” Marlow explains.
CRM activity includes leads and funnels. Intent markers here might be whitepaper downloads, email open metrics, form completions, and other sales pipeline signals. Identifying rising stars helps prioritize high-intent accounts.
Site search analytics provide a goldmine of product-specific queries entered directly on ecommerce merchants and other sites. These high-funnel signals showcase direct comparison shopping behavior.
According to a Bombora study, site search visitors demonstrate 39x higher conversion rates compared to other site traffic. Unearthing these golden nuggets means more revenue.
Connecting Intent Data to AI and Predictive Marketing
Marketers are now taking intent intelligence to the next level by plugging these data streams into machine learning models. The goal is to uncover predictive intent signals and prescribe hyper-personalized next best actions.
For example, Terminus feeds intent data from ads, chat, email, and the website into its AI engine. It then scores accounts and surfaces recommendations to sales reps like “Send Template A” or “Book a meeting.”
IntentBase also applies AI to surface “proactive demand” – anonymized buyers exhibiting known buying signals who sales may be missing. Their system can score 50 attributes per account to uncover overlaps with current high-value customers.
The end game is building individualized journey maps reflecting where each contact stands in their unique path to purchase. Intent intelligence gives a lift at every twist and turn.
“Our roadmaps prescribe appropriate sales plays, personalized email triggers, custom landing pages, and more to influence each buyer,” explains IntentBase CEO Patrick Morrissey.
While AI unlocks new intent insights, marketers must also establish strong data governance and compliance procedures to ensure responsible usage. Consumer trust depends on ethical handling of personal information.
Challenges With Scaling Intent Marketing
Intent marketing promises big lifts but also comes with hurdles, especially as strategies expand. Common challenges include:
Data quality – More inputs mean more noise. It takes work to aggregate, structure, clean, and consolidate intent feeds from myriad sources. Leveraging an insights partner helps.
Integration complexity – Tying new intent streams into legacy martech and sales tools gets increasingly intricate. Siloed data hampers analysis and activation.
Timing optimization – Brand messages must align with fluctuating intent signals to drive conversions instead of annoance. Frequency, personalization and context should all shift dynamically.
Measurement difficulty – As campaigns scale across channels, accurately attributing incremental business value to intent data alone grows more difficult. Control groups help isolate lift.
“We constantly balance scale with our ability to measure marketing effectiveness,” says Paige Dodson, Director, Global Digital Marketing, Artisan Vehicle Systems. “Analyzing multi-touch attribution is an important focus for ensuring intent programs deliver value.”
Despite these barriers, leading organizations forge ahead. When implemented effectively, they achieve viral growth by reinvesting intent marketing gains into further optimization.
According to Winterberry Group research, 65% of brands using intent data have expanded their spending by over 20% annually. And those budgets continue swelling each year as performance accelerates.
An Intent Marketing Game Plan for Extraordinary Results
Transforming intent data overload into executable strategies is the next frontier. Consider this step-by-step blueprint for intent marketing success:
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Audit existing data – Mine past campaigns, web analytics, CRM and other platforms for intent signals you may already have. Measure baseline conversions to benchmark improvement.
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Map buyer journeys – Outline average path-to-purchase steps, decision stakeholders, and existing content assets across key segments. Identify major gaps.
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Buy or build intent streams – Evaluate potential new intent sources from search to social, sigmas to surveys. Prioritize breadth then depth of signals.
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Consolidate intent analytics – Bring together insights from new and legacy sources via a customer data platform or specialized tool like PathFactory or Everstring.
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Activate channels – Develop data-driven playbooks prescribing actions across email, sales automation, ads, chat, and beyond. Content personalization is key.
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Measure. Learn. Optimize – Connect intent feeds to campaign analytics and attribution modeling. Double down on high-converting areas to accelerate performance.
Looking to implement intent marketing across your tech stack? See how leading martech vendors have embedded actionable intent data feeds into their platforms with [AIMultiple’s intent partner directory.](https://aimultiple.com/intent-data)
Real-World Intent Marketing Success Stories
Now that we’ve explored key concepts, trends and tips, let’s spotlight two brands finding tremendous value from intent intelligence:
DocuSign Turbocharges Performance With Intent-Based Account Selection
The digital transaction management leader analyzed site activity to identify accounts exhibiting signals correlated with past high-value customers, an intent data strategy known as “lookalike modeling”.
They then activated:
- Tailored ads to high-intent accounts predicted to convert
- Alerts to sales on rising stars demonstrating increased propensity
- New self-service options to capture more inbound demand
Results:
- 27% sales lift from high-intent accounts
- 19% lower CPL from intent-informed ad campaigns
- 8-10x higher conversion rates for high-propensity accounts
DocuSign continues to feed performance data back into their intent analytics engines to fuel a virtuous cycle of optimization.
Lenovo Gets 38% Faster Sales Cycles With “Momentum Monitoring”
The computer giant deployed “momentum monitoring” powered by Demandbase to track accounts showing increased digital body language engagement across their website and other touchpoints.
They then triggered multi-channel nurture campaigns when signals surfaced – like email opens, page views, or event sign-ups – to strike while interest was high.
Targeted plays sent to these high-intent contacts generated:
- 33% larger deal sizes
- 38% faster sales cycles
- 151% higher contract renewal rates
It pays dividends to not just spot intent signals but activate the next best actions across channels when interest and consideration peak.
Intent marketing delivers an x-ray view into the minds of buyers throughout their winding journey to purchase. New AI capabilities unlock even more powerful intent predictions and prescriptions.
Leading growth marketers now regard intent intelligence as an essential ingredient for orchestrating relevant messaging amidst the digital noise.
Are you looking to take the next step towards intent-driven marketing? Request a demo from veteran intent solution providers to diagnose areas to improve performance across your personalization, engagement, analytics and conversions.
