Just as technology has changed the way customers shop, the way businesses market their goods and services to the masses has changed drastically as well. With the use of first-party and third-party buyer intent data, companies have the ability to access a broad range of information that provides them with a thorough analysis of buyer behavior and customer engagement. Using this information, marketers can create campaigns that meet the needs of the customer better than ever before and increase revenue exponentially.

What is Buyer Intent?

Buyer intent is a broad term that describes a collection of analytics that pertain to the way a buyer shops online. Essentially, it helps marketers identify which prospects are more likely to buy. The buyer in this case, may be a business or a consumer, depending on the industry, and buyer intent data provides metrics including demographics, email open rates, engagement rates, behavioral data and keyword searches that can be used to determine how this person or business is shopping and using the internet.

How Can Buyer Intent Data Be Used to Drive Sales?

With the right information, such as buyer intent data, marketers have the ability to create customer-focused campaigns that create desire and urgency for consumers. Using this information takes the guesswork out of advertising and provides marketers with detailed information about their target audience and allows them to discover unknown sales leads.

Companies such as Marketo and Eloqua provide first-party intent data, which is data that specifically tracks your own website, while third-party intent data, provided by companies such as Bluekai and Bombara, provide detailed information about user behavior throughout the entire internet. Using a combination of first and third-party intent data, marketers have the information required to create new and innovative marketing tools that can increase sales when used correctly. Using this information, marketers have the opportunity to:

• Create personalized and targeted advertising campaigns
• Utilize account-based marketing strategies
• Build targeted account lists

In addition to the marketing strategies listed above, which are proven to be among the most successful, marketers can use buyer intent data to make an impression on new customers early and leave a lasting impression which, according to Forrester, a market research firm, is a significant advantage. A recent study conducted by the firm determined the first vendor to make contact with an interested consumer will get the sale 85 percent of the time.

Simply put, using buyer intent data gives companies a competitive edge that hasn’t previously existed in any marketplace. Using these statistics, companies can drive revenue using extensive customer insight and behavioral analytics to market their advertising campaigns to appeal to the specific needs and wants of their ideal customer at the right moment in the sales funnel.