Our industry is niche. How will Intent Data work for us?

Intent data is certainly making waves in the B2B space. Specialists across the globe have said that Intent Data and 'being informed by data' is a necessity in this world of constant digital transformation.

Keeping up with trends is much more difficult than ever before. Intent Data allows us to stay ahead of the game.

Proactivity is key to growth. However, so far only 25% of B2B businesses are leveraging buyer intent, a small percentage if you ask us…

Further to that, if you work in what is defined as a niche industry, you may have struggled to find a prospecting strategy quite difficult, overwhelming, and time-consuming.

Modern marketing and sales approaches make up the bulk of lead generation and ultimately new business. In today’s world, we must do better at being one step ahead of the game. Even more reason to consider using buyer intent data.

What is Buyer Intent?

Buyer intent in its simplest terms, is data that indicates the purchasing intentions of your potential customers.

By using Buyer Intent data, you are able to scope out the signals given off by your ideal prospects so you can understand how actively they are engaging with your product or service online.

These “signals” are triggered by a prospect’s activity – whether it be their engagement with a competitor, website visits or research into your product – and are happening long before your prospects have visited your website, submitted a form, or got in contact!

What are the challenges of the B2B buying journey in niche industries?

Firstly, longer buying cycles present an opportunity for potential buyers to review, compare and trial all of the products and services that are available within very crowded marketplaces. Often giving the upper hand to the well-established dominators, particularly in SaaS sectors.

This is where Buyer Intent comes in and why it is important that the niche industries leverage this kind of data.

Many companies will exhaust all avenues in terms of marketing and sales efforts, often expensive with a little and slow output.

Marketing and sales teams spend so much time preparing strategies and executing campaigns hoping for a flurry of leads and new business. Intent data is the missing layer of these efforts, fueling Top of the Funnel marketing activity.

Lead Onion has magic tools, designed to turbo boost sales enablement activity.

Intent data will allow you to track organisations who are engaging with your competitors, keywords, or topics that indicate a particular buying signal.

The good news for niche industries is that although having few competitors might seem like a great thing in theory, finding quality leads can be tricky which is why the signals that intent data provide are invaluable. Knowledge is power.

1. Social, Public & Topic Data = Marketing Fuel
2. Website Intent & Surge Data = Sales Fuel

Data utilization for marketers in a modern world

Data is the epicentre of all modern marketing objectives and strategies, so segmentation assets such as demographics alone will no longer meet the needs as they used to.

Monitoring Buyer Intent Data with buyer signals will help marketers be more productive and achieve better results in the new decade. ABM Benchmark Survey shows that only 25% of B2B Companies are using Intent Data currently which is even for reason for B2B organisations to get ahead of the game, by using Buyer Intent Data.

Imagine having companies and key prospects who have engaged with a specific buying signal and having them pour into the top of your marketing and sales funnels. However niche or broad your industry is, Intent Data will certainly serve you well.

Getting ahead of the game

62% of marketing professionals view hyper-personalization as crucial and when I say personalization I don’t mean someone’s first name or company name embedded in the text of an email. I'm talking about marketing campaigns and messaging designed around the terms they are searching online, making relevance in the content you are serving them, rather than trying to predict what your prospects will engage with.

Buyer Intent Data fuelling your marketing campaigns at the strategy layer and the execution layer will get you better results.

For decades marketers have spent a relentless amount of time prepping marketing strategies months/quarters in advance with the hope of casting a wide net and pulling in leads.

The momentum has now shifted.

Buyer Intent Data allows you to leverage data in real time which means you're informed by data as opposed to creating content blindly. Your content is now structured around what your buyers are engaging with, at the time they are engaging.

You work in a niche industry? Great, you’ll need a shorter buying cycle and Intent Data is a sure way to start.

Another shift in momentum is the need for Marketing and Sales teams to work together rather than against each other. Marketing and Sales alignment is crucial for revenue growth.

What does this have to do with Intent Data?

Statistics show that when businesses are deploying core alignment between Marketing and Sales teams they become 67% better at closing deals. Intent Data is a bridge for the communication gap between these two teams creating a common goal to work towards.

So, in answer to your question, “Our industry is niche. How will Intent Data work for us?”

Firstly, what are the main challenges of marketing in a niche industry?

Smaller markets can oftentimes make growth difficult as the demand isn’t as large. This also means that all competitors are a threat and it’s imperative to work smarter and not harder to get ahead of the game. This is where Intent Data comes into play.

Competitive engagements, understanding who is in the market for your product or services by analyzing who is researching your competitors online. If you know a company is considering a competitor then that is a sure sign they are in the market for your product. This knowledge coupled with being able to filter by your specific target persona allows you to quickly reach out to the relevant decision makers and ensure you don’t miss any opportunities in a small market. This knowledge is power for niche industries.

Considering the benefits for obtaining new business in niche markets, return on investment is higher, customer loyalty is much more likely and less competition. Harnessing the mindset of “Informed by data” allows you to make the most of every opportunity, strategy and objective. Having access to online triggers, keywords, announcements, topics, website engagements. All of these tools give niche organisations great insights to how outreach campaigns are orchestrated and if you let the data lead you it may just open doors for you that you were otherwise unaware of.

Intent data could give you ideas outside of what normal looks like and where the opportunity is smaller due to market size, if you unlock the power of intent data to fuel your marketing and sales efforts you won’t miss those opportunities any longer.

Download our Guide to Buyer Intent to learn how you can use Intent Data to supercharge your results!