Do you use intent data in your ABM model?

I'd love to, but we have yet to find an intent vendor that has data rich enough for our specific segment that would indicate readiness to buy. For other companies, I've seen this to be really effective, especially when 10s or 100s of people might start researching something the moment a problem is faced. In my current role, our ABM approach is primarily successful in an outbound manner, and there's not a strong enough inbound signal to leverage to guide our efforts. 

I have used intent data to varying degrees of success as part of the ABM program. The key thing to remember is that intent is a misleading word. It does not mean BANT qualified. You have to nurture them like any other lead. My experience has been mixed when we have tried to use intent data to drive conversions. However, it is a good temperature check mechanism for the overall account and helps to keep prospects engaged and shorten sales cycle over a period of time.

We do! We use 6Sense, which includes an integration to Bombora, and have identified key keywords and topics that are relevant for our business. We track intent data through these topics and keywords and include them in our account segments. Someone showing no intent data and no marketing activity is in our top stage, whereas someone showing a small amount of intent or marketing activity would move down one stage farther,

There is no other way. If you’re not going to invest in intent data, then don’t try to do ABM, you’ll waste money and employee calories. I’ve heard companies say “oh we will just focus our efforts on our ICP” Yes, of course, knowing what accounts have  the most propensity to buy is critical. But where they are in their journey is just as critical.  

Intent data in your Account-Based Marketing (ABM) model is like having a crystal ball that helps you see which potential customers are genuinely interested in what you offer. Here's why it's important

• Relevance: It helps you find and focus on businesses that are actively looking for products or solutions like yours. So, you're not wasting your time on those who aren't interested. This is why I love tools like 6Sense and Qualified. 

• Personalization and customization: Customize for your audiences! With intent data, you can customize your messages and content to fit exactly what these companies are looking for. It's giving them exactly what they want. Messaging for emails, ads, Outreach snippets, landing pages, all of it.

• Priority: It lets you know which businesses are most likely to buy soon, so you can put your energy into them first.

• The words that matter: It guides you on what to write and talk about. You create content that speaks to their needs and questions, making them more likely to choose you.

• Timing: It tells you when they're most ready to hear from you, increasing your chances of making a sale.

• Smart Decisions: You're not just guessing; you're using data to make your ABM strategy better, helping you make your marketing and sales work even smarter and work better together.

In simple terms, intent data is the best kept secret that shouldn't be a secret in ABM, helping you find the right customers, talk to them in a way they like, and make your business grow faster.

Yes. Intent data plays an important role in three areas:

1. Developing your ICP

2. Building a target account list

3. Feeding insights into the funnel to trigger marketing or sales activities

If you're going to use intent, think about what else you can use those intent signals for besides at the point of acquisition. A lot of intent vendors want to sell you leads with intent, ask if you can get just the intent and then think about where that intent can drive marketing or sales activity.

Intent data is vital to leverage within an ABM strategy because it can help marketers identify in-market accounts. 6Sense recently shared that 78% of high-intent accounts they surface to clients weren’t even in their CRM. That means without leveraging intent data, we are missing out of SO many potential target accounts (and ultimately revenue left on the table for competitors). This data needs to be brought into the foundational step of crafting the target account list with sales. They bring their list, you bring the intent-data and you work together to map out the final target account list.

Through intent data we can also tailor messaging, adjust spend and shift priorities for those accounts that are in-market for your organizations solution. It allows us to work smarter, not harder. I believe understanding how to use this data and the importance of it will set you apart in the job market as an ABM marketer as well.

For my own ABM strategy I have used first-party (my own org's data - web visits, form fills, etc.), second-party (sourced from another organization’s first-party data ex: G2, TrustRadius) and third-party (more below) intent data. I suggest researching each, but for a high level summary -

To drill in on third-party intent data - this is owned by organizations outside of your own and allows access to information within the market you'd otherwise be blind to.

For example, I have used both 6sense and Bombora to see what topics my target accounts are researching. If a target account is actively researching keywords that tie into business challenges that my company solves for - that's gold. I now know that they are aware of their business problem and that they are further into the buyer's journey than other target accounts. This is low hanging fruit compared to an account that is totally cold on relevant keyword research / unaware of the business problem your company solves for. Now you can tailor messaging, adjust spend and shift priorities for those accounts that are in-market for your organization's offering. Overall, it's a game changer to leverage and makes your GTM motion more strategic.

I'll be blunt, if you're not using intent I believe you're wasting money. Yes, intent data is expensive. I know it seems counter intuitive how often we have to spend money (buying intent data) just for the right to spend some more money (marketing to those accounts). I look at it this way. If I took you to a place that does paintball, paintballs cost $0.10 and the room will be pitch black. BUT you could spend an extra $20 to get glasses that let you see exactly which players are on the other team, would you buy them? (ok also imagine you win $1000 if you win at said paintball). Of course you would. You need to see who you're targeting or you're just shooting blind. Paintballs might be cheap but they're not that cheap.

This does not mean you should break your budget buying intent data tomorrow. I do believe you can get a lot done and a good marketing machine going on basic fundamentals and low hanging fruit at the start, so wait until the time is right. But for most companies I mean the time was two years ago and they've been pushing this off for too long.

Currently, I do not use intent data. However, there are solutions such as Clearbit, 6sense, and Demandbase, among others, that are typically recommended for this application. The goal is to create personalized and tailored messages for your target account list. This enriched approach can be highly effective if you identify the right sources for your business. The objective is to combine this data with other signals to enhance your outreach.