Nov 8, 2024

4 min read

How To Grow Your Pipeline with Intent-Based Marketing

Navya M

Content Marketer

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Intent data is your audience’s digital footprints that show purchase intent.

When you act on these signals and reach the buyer at the right time, you'll also have better chances of shaping their decision criteria.

That's why around 55% of sales leaders see increased lead conversions when using intent data.

This happens when brands use intent data intelligence to improve their messaging across marketing channels.

If you aren’t on this bandwagon yet, here's our simple guide to making intent-based marketing work for you.

Let's dive in!

What is intent-based marketing?

Intent-based marketing is the practice of tailoring your marketing campaigns based on signals that indicate a prospect's likelihood to purchase.

Think of it as reading into your buyer's actions that suggest buying intent and acting on it, over waiting for prospects to book a demo or reach out to a sales rep.

What are some Key Sources of Intent Data?

Searching for the right intent marketing data can be the cheat code to a successful marketing campaign. It’s often broken down to three main sources:

1. First-party Data Sources

First-party data is basically the digital footprints your prospects leave directly on your website – from demo interactions to pricing page visits.

Examples include:

1. Interactive Demo Engagement

Your product demos are more than just feature showcases – they're intent goldmines. It’s essentially giving your audience a “test drive” of your product at the awareness, decision, and even the retention stage.

Here’s how it works:

Take a tour of product

So, what makes demo engagement particularly valuable?

The key is in the patterns. A prospect who spends 30 minutes sifting through demos on landing pages and exploring other features in your product demo is showing significantly higher intent than someone who briefly clicks through your knowledge base demo.

In fact, pay attention to:

Which demo steps they’re revisiting
How much time they spend in each section
Whether they're exploring advanced functions
If they're testing integration capabilities

Remember: A product demo interaction signals they're visualizing your solution in their environment – that's powerful intent data you can't ignore.

2. High-Intent Landing Pages

Not all website visit sessions have the same intent. Certain pages naturally attract serious buyers who are closer to making a decision. These high-intent pages include:

Pricing pages
Technical documentation, such as API references
Integration capabilities pages
Security and compliance information
ROI calculators

The key is tracking not just visits but engagement patterns. A prospect who spends 15 minutes on your pricing page and then immediately checks out your implementation guides is sending very different signals than someone who briefly glances at your features page.

2. Second-party Data Sources

These are intent signals collected by another brand’s first-party data and then shared with you, such as review platform activities or publisher data.

Some examples include:

1. Activity on Review Platforms

B2B review platforms like G2 and Trustradius have become the new battleground for purchase decisions.

These platforms offer crystal-clear intent signals because, let's face it – when prospects are comparing solutions, they mean business.

Look for these high-value actions:

Multiple visits to your competitor comparison pages
Looking at reviews in your category
Downloads of comparison reports
Feature-by-feature comparison activities
Engagement with pricing comparisons

Infact, recent data even shows that accounts driven by G2 intent signals typically generate higher form submission rates, with 61% higher MQL to SQL conversion rates and 20% higher win rate.

Reference

With this level of intent, you can act on it via email outreach, creating tailored landing pages or form submissions and move prospects down the funnel- increasing your chances of converting these visitors into paying customers.

2. LinkedIn Engagement

LinkedIn isn’t just a networking platform; rather, every reaction, comment, or share might just be a buying signal in disguise.

It’s also what Konstantin, CEO of Cascaddy, emphasizes:

Here's what makes LinkedIn engagement particularly valuable:

Multiple ad impressions and clicks from the same account
Engagement patterns across different ad copies
Content interaction with ads or posts
Company page visits combined with ad engagement

The magic happens when you see repeated patterns: A prospect who clicks on your ads multiple times, visits your company page, and engages with your content is showing clear buying intent.

3. Third-party Data Sources

These signals offer a broader view of buyer behavior and are combed from technographic, firmographic, and engagement signals to piece the buyer intent together.

Here’s an example:

1. Technographic Data

Technographic data gives a clear view of the tech stack your potential customers are using, including the tools, software, and platforms that they depend on.

This can be the blueprint for upselling your own tool or product.

When you see companies using CRMs or tools that your product has native integrations with- it’s an opportunity to seamlessly plug in your product into their existing workflow.

Pay attention to:

Which core systems they're heavily invested in (CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot)
Whether they’re existing free trial users and the size of their company (for budget readiness)
How sophisticated their current sales tech stack is
What their competitors in the same technographic segment are adopting

Ultimately, It's an opportunity to show them how your product could seamlessly plug into their existing workflow and amplify their ROI.

How to Market Based on Intent Signals

Let's get practical about turning these intent signals into marketing gold. Here's how to craft campaigns that respond to different levels of intent:

1. Segment and Personalize

Think of intent signals as your prospect's digital body language. Just as you'd adjust your conversation based on someone's verbal and non-verbal cues, your marketing should adapt to digital intent signals.

Here’s an example:

Choose content based on prospect interest

Reference

For High Intent Prospects:

Skip the basics and go straight to the meat – detailed case studies, custom ROI calculations, and specific solution demonstrations
Enable your sales team with intent data so they can have more relevant conversations
Create personalized content based on the specific features or use cases they've shown interest in

For Medium Intent Prospects:

Focus on differentiation – why you're the best choice in the category
Provide comparative content that positions your solution effectively
Offer "try before you buy" experiences like interactive demos

For Low Intent Prospects:

Build awareness through thought leadership and educational content
Share industry insights and trend analysis
Keep them in the loop with newsletter content and general updates

2. Choose the Right Channels to Engage Prospects

Here's the thing about B2B buyers today – they're already 75% through their buying journey before they ever want to talk to sales.

That's why your channel strategy needs to align with their intent signals.

When someone's showing strong buying signals – like extensively testing your product demo or comparing you with competitors on G2 – that’s when you need to act fast but smart.

For a prospect with high intent, you could:

Use targeted LinkedIn ad campaigns that speak directly to their use case
Reach out with personalized email sequences
Equip your SDR team with context-rich insights about the prospect's journey
Use retargeting with bottom-funnel content like customer success stories and ROI studies

Think about it –Your prospect might start their research on G2, move to your website, and then check out your LinkedIn presence. Your job is to be present with the right information across every channel they might use for research.

3. Customize Content based on Prospect Interest

Here's where some B2B brands get it wrong- they treat content as a one-size-fits-all solution.

But your prospects are telling you exactly what they need through their intent signals.

Here’s how you can align the right content based on prospect interest:

For Business Decision Makers:

When intent signals show focus on business impact (like time spent on pricing pages or ROI calculators):

Highlight ROI case studies from similar companies in their industry
Create business value assessments tailored to their company size
Share market analysis showing the cost of delayed decisions
Provide competitive intelligence reports

For End Users:

When intent signals indicate product usage research:

Offer interactive product tours
Share workflow automation examples relevant to their role
Create comparison guides focusing
Develop adoption guides and best practices

If someone's heavily researching your integration capabilities, sending them a general product brochure isn't helpful. But a detailed integration guide comparing your API flexibility with competitors? Now, that's valuable.

4. The Timing Factor

Content customization isn't just about what you send – it's also about when you send it.

“If you've reached a buyer at the right time with the right content, you'll typically see win rates improve- as you were the first to shape their decision criteria,” says Paul Gilhooly from G2.

For high-intent signals like demo requests or pricing page visits, your speed to lead should be shorter.

However, for medium- and early-stage intent signals such as blog post engagement or newsletter subscriptions, keeping them in the loop with the right content is essential.

The goal isn't to overwhelm prospects with content – it's to provide exactly what they need when they need it.

What are the Benefits of Intent-Based Marketing?

Higher Conversion Rates: By focusing on prospects showing genuine interest, you naturally increase conversion probability.
Optimized Marketing Spend: Resources are directed toward accounts most likely to convert.
Shorter Sales Cycles: When you engage prospects at the right moment with relevant content, decisions happen faster.
Better Sales-Marketing Alignment: Shared intent data helps both teams work together more effectively

What are the Limitations of Intent-Based Marketing?

While powerful, intent-based marketing isn't without its challenges:

Data Quality: Not all signals accurately reflect true buying intent.
Integration Complexity: Combining data from multiple sources can be technically challenging.
Signal Interpretation: Different industries and products require different intent frameworks.

How Storylane Can Make Intent-Based Marketing Work for You

For over 56% B2B brands, data quality is among the top challenges when using intent signals.

This is why having data sources that you can trust and validate is key when it comes to intent signals.

And what better than first-party data that lets you know what product features your audience is most interested in, their engagement rates, and even firmographic data?

With Storylane, you can get demo intent data that helps prioritize accounts, letting your sales reps target the right accounts at the right time.

Curious how Storylane fits in your tech stack? Start a free trial or book a demo today to know more!

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