Ultimate Guide to B2B Buyer Intent

What is B2B buyer intent?

B2B buyer intent refers to the likelihood of a potential customer purchasing a product or service based on their actions indicating readiness to buy. It’s essentially gauging how interested a business is in your offering by looking at their online behavior.

B2B buyer intent is crucial for several reasons. It acts like a spotlight for marketing and sales teams, allowing them to target the most promising leads and optimize their efforts. Here’s how it makes a big difference:

• Sharper Targeting: B2B landscapes are vast. Buyer intent data helps cut through the noise by pinpointing companies actively researching solutions like yours. This lets you target high-potential leads, maximizing your return on investment (ROI) for marketing campaigns.
• Personalized Engagement: Imagine reaching out to a prospect who’s already considering your product category. B2B buyer intent data provides insights into their specific needs and interests. With this knowledge, you can craft personalized messages that resonate deeply, increasing engagement and conversion rates.
• Faster Sales Cycles: The traditional B2B sales funnel can be lengthy. Buyer intent data helps identify prospects earlier in their buying journey, when they’re just starting to research. By reaching out at this opportune time, you can shorten the sales cycle and get ahead of competitors.
• Content Marketing Magic: Understanding buyer intent goes hand-in-hand with crafting effective content. By knowing what topics and solutions prospects are actively searching for, you can tailor your content strategy to directly address their needs. This attracts high-quality leads and positions you as a thought leader in your industry.
• Overall Efficiency: B2B marketing and sales can involve a lot of chasing after unqualified leads. Buyer intent data acts as a filter, saving time and resources by focusing efforts on the most promising opportunities. This translates into a more efficient and cost-effective approach to B2B sales and marketing.

B2B buyer intent can be categorized into four main types based on the prospect’s search behavior and actions. These categories represent a progression through the buyer’s journey, indicating a rising level of purchase readiness:

1. Informational Intent: This is the initial stage where potential customers are actively researching a problem or topic. They might be using broad keywords and consuming general educational content like blog posts, industry reports, or webinars.

For example, a company looking to improve their marketing automation might search for terms like “marketing automation challenges” or “benefits of marketing automation software.” This indicates they’re in the early stages of learning and haven’t identified specific solutions yet.

2. Navigational Intent: Here, prospects have a clearer idea of their needs and are starting to explore potential solutions. They might search for brand names or specific product categories. This indicates a move towards shortlisting vendors.

An example would be someone searching for “[Your Company Name] marketing automation” or “Top CRM software for B2B companies.” This signifies they’re familiar with your brand or similar players and are actively researching specific solutions.

3. Commercial Intent: This stage indicates a strong purchase intent. Prospects are actively comparing different vendors and solutions. They might be downloading product brochures, case studies, white papers that directly address their needs, or even engaging in price comparisons.

For instance, a prospect downloading your white paper titled “A Comparison of Leading Marketing Automation Solutions” or visiting your pricing page suggests they’re seriously considering your product and evaluating its value proposition against competitors.

4. Transactional Intent: This is the final stage where prospects are ready to make a purchase. They might be requesting free trials, demos, quotes, or contacting your sales team directly. Actions like signing up for a free trial or scheduling a product demo signify a very high level of purchase intent.

By understanding these different types of B2B buyer intent, businesses can tailor their marketing and sales outreach accordingly. They can prioritize leads with higher purchase intent and nurture those in the earlier stages with informative content that addresses their specific needs.

What are examples of B2B buyer intent?

Here are some scenarios where B2B buyer intent data can be incredibly insightful:

1. The Downloader:

• Company: Let’s say you sell a project management software solution.
• Data: You notice a company from your target industry downloads your latest white paper titled “Boosting Team Productivity in the Remote Era.” They also spend significant time on your pricing page.
• Intent: This download and website behavior indicate a high level of B2B buyer intent. The company is likely experiencing challenges with remote team productivity and actively researching solutions.

Action: This is a prime lead for your sales team. They can reach out with a personalized email referencing the white paper download and offering a free consultation to discuss their specific needs.

2. The Social Media Buzz:

• Company: You monitor social media and see several decision-makers from a potential client company engaging with your posts about a new product launch related to data security.
• Data: Social media interactions, especially from high-level individuals, can signal B2B buyer intent.
• Intent: These decision-makers are likely interested in learning more about your new data security product and might be facing internal data security concerns.

Action: Your marketing team can send them targeted content such as a case study showcasing how a similar company addressed their data security challenges with your product. You can also send a personalized LinkedIn message inviting them to a webinar on the new product.

3. The Website Visitor:

• Company: An IT manager from a company in your target market visits several pages on your website related to customer relationship management (CRM) software, including your product comparison chart and free trial offer.
• Data: Website behavior focused on solution-specific pages indicates a strong interest in exploring potential CRM options.
• Intent: This IT manager is likely in the research phase of the buying journey, actively comparing CRM solutions.

Action: Your marketing automation system can trigger a nurture email campaign with valuable CRM resources and highlight your free trial offer. The sales team can also follow up with a non-intrusive email offering a demo to showcase your CRM’s unique features.

These are just a few examples, but they demonstrate how B2B buyer intent data can provide valuable insights into a prospect’s needs and buying stage. By leveraging this data, businesses can target their marketing and sales efforts more effectively, leading to higher conversion rates and increased sales.

What are B2B buyer intent data?

B2B buyer intent data is a collection of information that helps you understand the purchase intent of potential B2B customers. It essentially analyzes a prospect’s online behavior to gauge how interested they are in your products or services.

There are two main approaches to acquiring B2B buyer intent data:

1. Leveraging Your Own Data:

• Website Analytics: Utilize website analytics tools like Google Analytics to track website activity. Look for metrics like page views, time on page, and content downloads to identify high-engagement prospects.
• Marketing Automation Platforms: Many marketing automation platforms offer features that track prospect behavior and interactions with your marketing campaigns. This can reveal which leads are most interested in your offerings.
• CRM Systems: Your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide valuable insights into past interactions with prospects. This historical data can help you understand their pain points and buying behavior.

2. Third-Party B2B Buyer Intent Data Providers:

• Data Providers: Several companies specialize in collecting and analyzing B2B buyer intent data. These providers offer a wider range of data points beyond your website traffic, including search behavior, social media engagement, and firmographic information (company size, industry).

Choosing the Right Option:

The best approach depends on your budget and resources. Here’s a quick guide:

• Limited Budget: Start by analyzing your own website and marketing data. This can provide valuable insights without additional costs.
• Growing Business: Consider a combination of in-house data analysis and a limited subscription to a third-party provider to gain access to broader data sets.
• Established Businesses: Larger companies with dedicated marketing and sales teams can benefit from comprehensive B2B buyer intent data solutions offered by established providers.

Remember: When using B2B buyer intent data, ensure it complies with data privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA.

Benefits of B2B Buyer Intent Data

By understanding buyer intent, businesses can:

• Target High-Potential Leads: Focus marketing and sales efforts on those actively researching solutions, increasing efficiency and ROI.
• Personalize Outreach: Tailor messages to a prospect’s specific needs and interests, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
• Shorten Sales Cycles: Reach out to prospects earlier in their buying journey, potentially closing deals faster.
• Improve Content Marketing: Craft content that addresses topics prospects are actively searching for, attracting high-quality leads.

In essence, B2B buyer intent data is like a roadmap for your marketing and sales teams, guiding them towards the most promising leads and helping them close more deals.

8 best B2B intent data providers

B2B intent data providers are companies that specialize in collecting and analyzing data to identify businesses that are actively researching specific products, services, or solutions. This data, known as intent signals, is incredibly valuable for B2B marketers and salespeople because it helps them pinpoint prospects who are more likely to convert, allowing for much more targeted and effective outreach.

Here’s a breakdown of how B2B intent data providers work:

• Data Collection: These companies gather data from a variety of sources, such as web browsing activity, social media interactions, content downloads, and website visits.
• Data Analysis: Once collected, the data is analyzed to identify patterns and trends that indicate a company’s interest in a particular product or service. This analysis might involve looking at things like the type of content a company is consuming, the keywords they are searching for, and the websites they are visiting.
• Intent Scoring: B2B intent data providers typically assign a score to each company in their database. This score reflects the likelihood that the company is in the market for a particular solution.

By using B2B intent data, marketers and salespeople can:

• Focus on High-Quality Leads: Instead of wasting time and resources on unqualified leads, they can focus their efforts on companies that are already showing signs of interest.
• Personalize Outreach: With intent data, they can tailor their outreach messages to the specific needs and interests of each prospect.
• Improve Campaign Performance: Targeted campaigns that leverage intent data are more likely to generate a positive return on investment (ROI).

Here are some of the leading B2B intent data providers in 2024:

Provider	Type of Intent Data	Competitive Advantage	Popularity	Website
Bombora	Intent data based on B2B website behavior and business content consumption.	Provides intent data specifically focused on company buying committees, allowing for highly targeted outreach.	High	https://bombora.com/
G2 Buyer Intent	Leverages user activity data on G2 platform to identify companies researching specific product categories.	Offers intent data alongside verified business reviews and buyer insights, creating a comprehensive lead profile.	High	https://sell.g2.com/data
ZoomInfo	Extensive B2B contact and company data with intent signals based on website visits, search queries, and social media engagement.	Offers a massive data pool and integrates seamlessly with popular CRM and marketing automation platforms.	Very High	https://www.zoominfo.com/features/intent-data
SalesIntel	Provides in-depth firmographic, technographic, and demographic data with buyer intent insights.	Focuses on high-quality, accurate data and offers real-time lead scoring to prioritize outreach.	Medium	https://salesintel.io/
Demandbase	Delivers intent data based on website behavior, IP addresses, and declared purchase intent on their platform.	Specializes in account-based marketing (ABM) strategies with features to target specific ahttps://6sense.com/ccounts.	Medium	https://www.demandbase.com/products/account-intelligence/intent/
Terminus	Offers B2B intent data through website visitor identification and marketing campaign engagement tracking.	Provides website visitor intent data alongside account-based marketing (ABM) tools.	Medium	https://terminus.com/intent-data/
Lead Forensics	Identifies companies visiting your website and reveals their contact information and browsing behavior.	Ideal for businesses focused on website traffic conversion and lead generation.	Medium	https://www.leadforensics.com/
6sense	Uses website activity, account-based intelligence, and predictive analytics to identify buyer intent.	Offers a unique approach with a focus on predicting future buying behavior.	Medium	https://6sense.com/

By carefully evaluating these factors, you can select the B2B buyer intent data provider that empowers you to make the most informed marketing and sales decisions.