Got a Messy Marketing Funnel? Clean it Up and Boost Conversions With Intent Data

B2B marketing has changed drastically in recent years. Remember the days of cold calling and drop-in meetings? 

Those strategies have gotten less effective, and for good reason — nearly half of all B2B buyers make a decision before they even talk to a salesperson — and 70 percent already know what they want. 

Don't worry, sales isn't a dying profession, but it has changed — a lot. 

If your business is still relying on outdated methods and a cluttered marketing funnel, you might be losing leads to your competition. 😔

So what is the answer? Instead of leading leads through a twisting, turning marketing funnel, it's time to rely on something new — intent data. 

Leadfeeder is a powerful tool that identifies site visitors and collects intent data. Try it for yourself with a free 14-day trial.  

What is intent data anyway? 

Intent data is data that tells you that leads are ready to buy. They aren't just poking around looking for a solution — they know what they want and are ready to buy. 

At Leadfeeder, intent data can include information such as what pages a lead visited or how many times they've visited your site. Depending on your company and the tools you use, it might include demographic information, company size, revenue, etc. 

Here's how intent data works 

Let's say you work with enterprise companies to deliver online security solutions. What type of lead do you think would be more likely to convert?

1. A visitor who works for a small business and read one blog post about online security. 

2. A visitor who works for a major financial institution, read four blog posts for at least 1 minute each and viewed your pricing page. 

Most of us would choose lead number two, right? Because they are in the right demographic and spent a lot of time on your site. 

They know what they need, and they are already thinking about pricing.  

That is the power of intent data. 

How to use intent data to clean up your marketing funnel 

Think about the top of your sales funnel. It's pretty wide, right? 

That is how most businesses operate — they aim to attract as much attention to their brand as possible, then slowly weed out the leads that aren't a good fit before turning those leads over to the sales team. 

Buyer intent data helps streamline the funnel, so you start by targeting only the most qualified leads. 

Here are a few ways you can leverage intent data to improve your marketing efforts. 

Create highly targeted account lists 

Instead of targeting tons of leads, buyer intent data lets you zero in on the leads that are actually ready to buy. 

For example, in Leadfeeder you might look and see that 100 leads meet your target audience. 

That's a lot of leads, right? Instead of chasing down all 100 leads, you can use our feed filter and see, for example: 

• Only leads that viewed three or more pages. 

• Leads that read one blog post and visited your pricing page. 

• Leads where multiple people from the same company have come back to your site again and again. 

Now that list of a hundred leads might be just a dozen or so — but they are much closer to converting, so you waste less time. 

Better understand what content your leads like 

Tired of creating content marketing that doesn't seem to deliver ROI? With buyer intent data, you can see exactly what type of content leads are interested in. 

For example, maybe you notice more leads are reading your case studies or content that targets a specific vertical.

Armed with that information, you can focus your content marketing efforts on the content that drives action. #worksmarternotharder 

Improve ABM (account-based marketing) efforts 

Account-based marketing is a strategy that flips the marketing funnel upside down. Rather than targeting as many leads as possible, with ABM you target very specific companies with targeted (sometimes personalized) content. 

The problem? Sometimes it's hard to tell when ABM is working. 

Did the company you targeted read your carefully-crafted report? Did they share it with their director? 

Using intent data collection tools (like Leadfeeder!) you can see what content resonates and reach out at just the right time. 

Reach out at the perfect time 

We've already discussed that B2B buyers often make a decision before they reach out to a sales team. 

Does that mean your sales team should just hang out and wait for the phone to ring?

Nope. 

With intent data, sales can track lead behavior in real-time. So you can see that five people from company X visited your services page in the last week. 

Sounds like a good time to call, right? 

Or, you can see that a company that hasn't visited your site in a few weeks (maybe they were comparing their options) has visited three times in the last day — and spent a full two minutes on your pricing page. 

Or, you might see a company you've been targeting is visiting a product page you weren't expecting. Maybe you were targeting them for social media services, and they are looking at paid ad services. 

With buyer intent data you can tell when buyers are ready to buy and step in just in time to close the deal. 

Where do you get buyer intent data? 

Now that you understand how buyer intent data can streamline your marketing funnel, it's time to talk about what really matters — where in the world do you get this kind of data?

Leadfeeder is one of many buyer intent data tools. 

Other places to find this data include your CRM and email marketing platform. There's a good chance intent data is hiding in the tools you already use. 

One final bit of advice — don't let data get in the way of building connections. Intent data is powerful, but it should guide relationships, not reduce leads to data points on a spreadsheet.

Ready to find buyer intent data on your site? Sign up for a free 14-day trial of Leadfeeder today.