Marketers want a single answer – why buyers buy. They require an in-depth window into consumer behavior and patterns. Can intent signals prove fruitful?

In the pre-digital age, traditional forms of marketing used to depend on a single thread between sellers and buyers. The marketing messages were printed in newspapers or broadcast on radios – quite a “see-what-sticks” formula. The broader the audience, the higher the possibility of reaching potential buyers.

At least, this was their underlying hope.

Marketing has taken a huge step forward – by using what is already available. In this case, it is the buyer data called intent signals. They are mini digital crumbs left behind by potential buyers while researching a brand or products, especially in the initial stages.

It highlights what the prospect is in the market (search engine) for, and considerably, their level of interest.

How did intent signals gain such rapid significance in B2B?

Jon Clark, the CEO of a B2B intent organization named Cyance, outlines how marketers such as them began leveraging the data (firmographic and contact information) already in hand. Especially when the consumer dynamics are transforming, they chose to pivot towards the trails left on the trails.

When businesses ask themselves – what does our best buyer look like? How does one describe them? – Move towards behavior-based marketing.

The rapidity of digital transformation has shifted control and influence into the marketer’s hands. Leveraging these innovations has empowered marketers with the unique means to modify their marketing efforts and, most significantly, study buyer behavior.

Modern marketing has become an enclosed loop – changing buyer patterns transform marketing efforts, and on the other hand, marketing also influences buying decisions.

Marketers are intrigued to find a solution to the growing pains of the customers – understanding their buyers. Meanwhile, marketing studies leverage this conversation to outline fresher consumption models.

This has remained the epicenter of the consumption-purchasing process – especially as an answer to the age-old question – why do buyers buy?

Consider the Black Box model.

This contemporary consumer behavior structure links consumer’s actions to the effect of external stimuli. Remember that these actions should be observable to map their route to the final purchasing decision. They are trackable and offer ideas as to why the buyer took a specific step towards dropping off or closing the buy.

The relationship between marketers and buyers used to be a tug-of-war. But it’s all over now. And the buyers have now come out on top – they dominate the decision-making process.

But there is a black box that hides the thoughts, right?

How do external stimuli such as personalized marketing messages influence a specific behavior – a gap between the stimuli and action emerges.

The black box in the middle has the potential to pinpoint the consumer’s next step.

The selling experience used to be easy, at least to the naked eye. However, the increasing divide between decision-makers and buyers has complicated this. So, organizations have shifted to behavioral models and data analytics. They invest more and more resources and time to gauge this and simplify the purchasing decision.

What leads buyers to make a decision and settle the purchase? Modern marketing has one answer – intent signals.

At the base of leveraging intent signals is the need to highlight specific behaviors influencing buyers in their decision-making process. This translates to digital body language telling marketers if a prospect is currently searching through the market for solutions that exactly mimic theirs.

To understand buyers, marketers wish to understand the pre-thought before buying a product/service. In simpler terms, there are various gradations of buying intent.

How broad is this spectrum?

In a marketing journal article titled “The New Theory of Consumer Buying Intent” (1964), all business offerings fall into the spectrum of buying intent, ranging from the absence of any pre-thought to the highest degree of pre-thought.

Source: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1249152

Consumers whose purchasing process involves impulse buying are present on the extreme left, whereas those whose decision-making process requires prolonged pre-planning are on the extreme right. Quite frankly, the different degrees of buying intent shade into each other.

This journal piece was penned in 1964, almost six decades ago. While this consumer buying intent model has undergone multiple transformations and birthed several other models, its relevance has remained.

Consumer buying intent continues to be the foundational determiner of crucial marketing activities.

The changing market dynamics reveal that each buyer is different. An external stimulus influences each of their buying intent.

It’s about understanding the prospective buyer’s interests, preferences, and purchasing intent. The theoretical understanding behind buying intent stems from psychology, but in the digital world, it stems from data.

Intent data involves a prospect’s digital behavior – from whitepaper downloads and social media activity to clicks and searches. The objective of leveraging this data is straightforward – curate targeted and personalized marketing messages and solutions.

A rapid increase in prospects searching for solutions online has not necessarily led to a boost in conversion rates. According to Foundry research, merely 2% of website visitors fill in the forms. The buying patterns are becoming quite complicated to grasp because today’s buyers, with millennials and Gen-Zs on their teams, are wary of interacting with sales.

So, marketers follow these tiny digital breadcrumbs to measure consumer actions and behavior across diverse channels, from email to social media. The diversity in marketing channels and prospect interaction with a brand alludes to two different types of intent signals:

First-party Intent Signals: Direct Engagement and Proactive Search

The first sign that someone is interested in a brand is noticeable through their engagement patterns. These actions undertaken by the prospect illustrate active interest in a brand’s solutions or similar ones available in the market. It could be as small as a like or comment or as significant as signing up for a newsletter.

Every small interaction is a form of communicating interest.

But engagement and interest don’t always mean or translate to purchasing intent. A user might publicly comment on a LinkedIn post but might not want to make a purchase. Meanwhile, selected engagement data are not evident to everyone. This private interaction, only undertaken on the brand’s website, such as downloading a whitepaper, might translate into actual interest in the company’s offerings.

It’s the same for searches.

Marketers leverage the data illustrating which different types of search keywords the prospects are entering into search engines. This helps them highlight the types of queries the user is searching for and offer them the most ideal response.

The proprietary intent signals carry higher value because the prospect actively visits the brand’s website and showcases an interest in their proprietary data – content syndication programs and other digital content.

For example, after downloading an eBook, the prospect tunes into the brand’s podcast and signs up for an online event. These are bright signals that demonstrate their interest in the brand. For a marketing team, these prospects are ideal for nurturing. This consumer action is highly intentional compared to an impulsive like a LinkedIn post in front of them because they are willing to share their contact details. It’s like saying out loud – “I’m giving you my contact details so that it’s easier for you to reach out.”

The latter intent signals concretize a positive connection between the brand and a potential customer – they are aware of you, and your solutions are at the top of their mind.

By following the brand’s carefully laid out content path, they are giving out clues for how marketing can personalize their communication and communicate with the prospect, such that the interaction is engaging and focuses on demonstrated areas of interest.

In short, this leads to effective and fruitful sales conversations.

Third-party Intent Signals: Understand Client Companies and Competition

For a B2B solutions provider, the prospective client is another business, not an individual. While the priority is to enhance the quality of the offerings, how can an organization ensure its marketing efforts are streamlined to address other high-level decision-makers?

Third-party intent signals, especially firmographic and technographic data, play a significant role here.

These signals make it easier to understand the prospective client company – their revenue size, industry, demographic, employee size, etc. When a brand customizes its offerings, firmographic data ensures it considers the entire organizational objective rather than focusing on an individual’s vision.

Further, technographic data alludes to the technological advancements the prospect is leveraging. This is beneficial if the brand targeting them offers technological solutions. This also highlights where the competition stands in the market and the tools they utilize to enhance their services.

Third-party signals can be found in business directories, websites, whitepapers, etc., but are often accessible through intent data providers and publishers. These intent signals are a window, offering a glimpse into the organization, its market standing, and the challenges they are facing.

Intent signals provide an entrance into the mind of a prospective buyer.

Appropriately leveraging intent signals can help paint the entire picture of the buyer’s journey. Intent doesn’t just gauge interest but demonstrates that the buying process is constantly taking place, even before a concrete decision.

Different intent signals can be put together, like nerves of the nervous system or puzzle pieces, to understand the whole picture. It creates a roadmap of the customer journey for the brand that intends to leverage them. A single click might not mean anything when studied in isolation but within a long timeline of significant events. It might just help the brand understand who their buyer is.

The priority should be understanding the right time and context.

Understanding what intent signals are, is quite an easy task. It’s mapping when and how to use intent signals that miss the mark for most brands.