In recent years, Account-based Marketing has gained traction among B2B marketers. A Sirius Decisions survey shows that more than 90% of B2B marketers consider it an important part of the marketing strategy of their company.

For B2B businesses that embrace the ABM approach, intent data is the most critical tool they have at their door. Recently, intent data has become a popular tool for supporting Account-Based Marketing programs, and with good reason. Sales and marketing teams utilize intent data to prioritize target accounts on the basis of actual data showing which accounts are researching their products and services. Users as well as businesses are becoming increasingly dependent on the internet as a research portal. This has led to changes in the ways in which brands market their products and services.

The reality is that customers around the world are constantly generating intent data. IBM estimates that over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are consumed every day. This data includes actions that users take online, updates they make on their social media platforms, videos they watch online, and much more.

Steps to use intent data in ABM
Fusing intent data into your ABM strategy empowers you to further personalize your marketing efforts on account to account basis. Through expanded knowledge, intent data offers valuable insights to B2B companies on what matters the most to their potential customers. This has many benefits, the key among them is opening the way for informed marketing campaigns.

1. Collect Intent Data
The process of utilizing intent data in ABM programmes begins with gathering it from different sources, that is owned by a company and also those owned by third parties.
The best way for B2B companies to know who is interested in their offerings is to look at who is contacting it. To understand this, you need to pay attention to the first party intent data. This is the data that users generate when they contact your company.
First party intent data is looked upon as a high standard ABM data as long as the prospects that reach out to B2B companies fit their ideal customer profile. The only thing that the company needs to do with such prospects is to contact them and close sales.

2. Categorize Intent Data
While all intent data is crucial for a company, it is important to note that prospects will contact your company for different reasons. Some will be seeking information on how to resolve an issue, others will want to purchase while others will be needing technical support.
Classifying inbound contacts and accounts on the basis of context and any other criteria that you utilize to identify ideal customers enables you to narrow down to prospects that are interested in purchasing your offering. The purpose of classifying intent data is to make sure that the signal’s prospects send do not misrepresent their genuine intent.

3. Uplift Content Marketing Strategy
Customizing your marketing content to the requirement of specific target accounts is critical to driving ABM programme success. To effectively do this, B2B companies have to integrate first party and third intent data to get a wider perspective of the needs that prospects have.
The reality of the matter is that first-party intent data only gives a picture of the onsite behavior of the prospect. Third-party data, on the other hand, captures a broader data range involving giving insights on research activities that prospects undertake on other sites.
Further, opportunities for personalizing content are recognized and implemented early in the purchasing process. This enables B2B companies to maximize the impact of their content marketing strategy.

4. Recognize High-Value Prospects
After classifying your intent data, it’s time to recognize the most valuable prospects. With 74% of marketers acknowledging that intent data offers them the greatest insights about customers, there are several methods in which your intent data will fit into your ABM strategy.

Even so, the highest impact that intent data will have on your ABM programme is empowering your sales and marketing teams to identify high-value accounts. Utilizing intent data, B2B marketers can recognize accounts that are already engaging in a proactive search for solutions that their business is offering.

5. Nurture Leads
Identification of marketing and sales qualified leads majorly depends on the ability of B2B marketers to understand prospect intent. This places intent data in the middle of identifying qualified leads. Since intent data plays an important role in helping marketers understand their prospects, it makes it possible for businesses to target prospects effectively throughout their buying journey.

As per a Sirius Decisions report, 67% of the B2B buyer’s journey is completed online.

6. Make the Sales Process Shorter
The B2B buying process includes different decision-makers, this makes it long and complex. As such, sales and marketing teams have to put in a lot of effort and time to push prospects down the sales funnel.

Intent data helps in shortening this process by eliminating calls and emails to prospects that have less chance to make purchases in the short term. The data can also enable businesses to avoid cold outreaches that extend the sales process and waste resources.

Instead of focusing on low-value prospectors, marketers can utilize indicators from intent data to nurture high-value accounts through effective pitching.

Final Take
In the present complex business environment, data enables businesses to make informed decisions. In marketing, intent data acts as a powerful tool that feeds the growth of ABM programmes in B2B marketers.