The pace of modern B2B buyers is quickening. Buyers are conducting research in the background. By the time the buyer submits the form, they've researched dozens of vendors. How we grow our Pipelines has drastically changed as a result of this evolution. Traditional Lead-First Marketing can't keep up with these types of informed Buyers. However, Intent-Based Marketing can. With Intent-Based Marketing, the focus is on Buyer Behavior, not assumptions made by the seller. With Intent-Based Marketing, marketers can identify who is actively searching for comparison material on a specific topic and align their marketing efforts with the moment of Influence.This guide will walk you through the entire process of building a High-Performance B2B Pipeline Using Intent-Based Marketing. The approach is focused on Clarity, Timeliness, and Relevance and is designed to eliminate all noise from the marketing process.The Importance of Intent-Based Marketing to Today's B2B Buying ExperienceB2B purchases require more than one decision-maker. Purchasing typically begins with research across multiple online sources. According to Gartner, modern B2B buyers spend only 17% of their total buying journey engaging directly with sales representatives, while the remaining time is spent conducting independent research, validating options with peers, and consuming third-party content. This statistic means everything. Should B2B marketing and sales teams rely solely on inbound signals, they will have missed the opportunity to engage with potential purchasers by the time they identify their need. Conversely, intent-based marketing enables engagement of potential purchasers earlier in the process as soon as their interest begins.Understanding the Representation of Intent DataIntent data reflects observed behaviours that indicate purchasing intent, including:Keyword searches across publisher networksRegular content consumption of specific subjectsVisits to pricing and comparison pagesParticipation in peer-review platformsEach of these behaviours is an indicator of commercial interest; it does not indicate mere curiosity.When intent data is used correctly, it serves to align B2B pipeline activity with the degree of readiness of the B2B buyer.Improving Pipeline Quality through Intent-Based MarketingWhen discussing high-quality pipeline performance, three characteristics can be identified among top-performing pipelines:1) Predictable flow2) Higher conversion rates3) Shortened decision-making periods.Intent-based marketing facilitates each of those characteristics. According to Forrester Research, companies that utilize intent signals for Account Prioritization experience higher success rates than those that utilize demographic-based targeting. Intent-based marketing allows marketing teams to source the demand of today's buyers and perform outreach based on the buyer's current demand state. Sales organizations can leverage intent-based marketing to deliver more relevant, contextual information about the buyer and, therefore, create a more effective communication strategy.Step 1: Determine Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)The best way to utilize intent signals is to clarify your ICP.Before launching any intent-based marketing strategies, organizations must define their ICP. A strong ICP should include at least the following criteria:1) Industry Focus2) Company Size Range3) Geographic Scope4) Technology Environment5) Buying Committee RolesIntent signals should be viewed as a way to laser in on high-priority accounts versus general observations about general market demand. Without an ICP in place, marketing teams will observe movement but will not know how to prioritize the movement. Conversely, with an ICP defined, the usage of Intent Data will allow for the identification of priority accounts versus activity. A McKinsey & Company study highlights that B2B organizations with clearly defined customer segmentation and targeting models generate higher revenue efficiency and more predictable growth outcomes than peers with broad targeting approaches.Step 2: Choose the correct information sources There are two types of intent data:1st party - Data from your owned property's activity (website visits, PDF downloads, webinar attendance, product documentation views, etc.). 1st party intent indicates the level of engagement you have directly with a buyer.2nd party - data from research companies or other platforms that track buyers' research behaviors on other people's properties (industry publications, review sites, analyst platforms, comparison tools). 2nd party intent identifies the early stages of a buyer's research (before you have engaged with the buyer).Integrating both 1st and 2nd party intent will result in a complete view of your buyers and allow for the earliest and most accurate activation of your pipeline.The flow of intent insight is crucial and should be linked directly to your CRM and Marketing Automation to allow for immediate impact.Step 3: Map your intent signals to each buyer's stage of the Journey Buyers' intent signals do not all mean the same thing.A buyer who visited the pricing page has a different intent than a buyer who read an educational article.Mapping the intent signals to the stages of the buyer's journey allows for the organization of the signals for the buyers.Some of the main categories of intent signals are:1. Awareness signals - Broad topic research, trend identification, introductory content.2. Consideration signals - Solution comparisons, case studies, and feature exploration.3. Decision signals - Pricing page visits, demos, competitor alternatives.The structure provided by these categories will enable the marketing and sales teams to react to the signals in a more timely manner. There will be no guessing or generic responses. Prioritize and Grade Accounts Using Intent IntelligencePipeline results are improved through account prioritization. Intent scoring includes:FrequencyRecentnessRelevance of topicIdeal Customer Profile (ICP) alignmentYou should give priority to accounts that display consistent research behavior for important topics. The focus is not to acquire as many accounts as possible; it's to grow your likelihood of success with these accounts.Align Messaging with the Context of the BuyerIntent-based marketing has changed the way we communicate and market to prospects.Generic outreach becomes irrelevant quickly.Contextual outreach connects with prospects.Intent-driven successful messaging:Researched themesAddress specific use casesDeliver relevant content, not pressure to buy.Tone matched to respective buying stages.Typical outreach feels informative rather than intrusive-prospects value relevance.Step 4: Encourage Intent Across Multiple ChannelsThe most successful pipelines do not utilize a single type of communication. Intent signals help facilitate engagement through:Email CampaignsAccount-based AdsSales Development OutreachContent RecommendationsAccording to LinkedIn's B2B Institute, coordinated multi-channel engagements increase a buyer's ability to recall the brand and feel confident evaluating its product/service offering. Consistency is more important than frequency.Step 5: Provide Sales Teams with Access to Intent DataA successful Intent-Based Marketing program is only possible when Sales has complete transparency of the data and understands the importance of that information.Enabling Sales includes:Defining the intent stages clearlyProviding an Account-Level Intent SummaryRecommending Outreach NarrativesProviding Real-Time Alerts of Spikes in High-Intent ActivitySales reps who know why it's essential for a particular account to engage at this time can have more natural conversations with the buyer.Understanding the context eliminates friction in conversations.Step 6: Focus on Measuring Impact on the Pipeline as Opposed to Volume of ActivityIntent-Based Marketing has changed how we measure performance and what we will measure in the future. Focus needs to be more on the following:Value of the Intent-Sourced PipelineConversion Rates by Intent tierLength of the Sales CycleMagnitude of Engagement by AccountTracking gives marketing teams a strong foundation for the strategy.How to Leverage Research Signals to Generate a Revenue StreamLet's look at an example of how this can work. A mid-sized company conducts research on \"cloud security automation\" through multiple sources over two weeks. As a result, initiating engagement across a number of comparison-type content pieces and integration-type content pieces has increased significantly. Intent monitoring tools identify this account as one of interest. Marketing will be able to deliver targeted content related to automation frameworks. Sales will initiate a sales conversation based on their knowledge of context and integration needs, rather than cold calling.No cold pitch.No repeated discovery calls.Just relevance.This is what intent does: it allows marketers to take someone who has shown interest and turn that interest into urgency to purchase.Why Intent-Based Marketing Feels HumanIntent-based marketing mirrors the behavior of humans. People research before they talk to you, compare before they buy, and value timeliness over the amount of material presented. When marketing reflects the way that people operate naturally, engagement can take place more easily. Having a little humor in the process can be helpful, too.No one likes to receive a demo invite from someone they have never interacted with, before they know what the product is.Intent data ensures that people never receive a demo invite until they understand what the product does.SEO and Readability FactorsThe strategy mentioned will also enhance the visibility of your website within search engines.Intent-driven content corresponds with:The Search Behavior of a BuyerThe Strategy of Clustering TopicsThe Intent of a Long-Tail KeywordWith a well-structured, concise narrative and natural writing styles, longer session durations and increased user engagement can result. These factors are important because search engines reward sites that exhibit this behavior. Readable content will have a higher ranking than that of non-readable content, as readers will remain on your page longer.How Intent-Based Marketing Can Enhance Predictability in Revenue ForecastingAs the number of \"pipeline inputs\" increases, so too does the ability for companies to accurately predict future revenues. Intent-Based Marketing gives the opportunity to base forecasting on objective buyer behaviour (what they say they want), rather than relying solely on a company's opinions, assumptions, or reliance on historical data and averages (which could lead to predictions being made based on 'guesswork'). The engagement, frequency of engagement, and the way in which buyers are increasing or decreasing their interest over time in the products or services a company has to offer can be determined by using intent data, because intent signals provide this information. When revenue teams have this information about the amount of pipeline creation, they can accurately predict when they will have pipeline using the intent data. When intent data is used with forecasting, this gives leadership the ability to look forward and see what is happening rather than only using historical data. This leads to accurate projections, based on the actions that buyers are taking today to purchase a company's product or service.Content Strategy's Irradiation on Intent-Based PipelinesContent Strategies and Intent-Based Marketing thrive together.Intent can create content.Content can create Intent.To maximize pipeline performance, companies should have content that aligns with intent-driven topics that deliver higher buyer relevance and engagement.Companies can provide Intent-oriented content through:Educational documents covering the early research phaseComparative documents covering the evaluation phaseSolutions covering the last phase of IntentBy aligning content with Intent-oriented topics, you'll be delivering the right content to potential buyers at the right moment, not weeks later. Additionally, aligning Intent-oriented content can result in increased ROI from the content you create. Intent-based marketing and content strategy work together to create an ever-evolving engagement system that supports pipeline growth in the background.Importance of Timeliness over Personalization AloneWe are often drawn to personalisation. However, timeliness has the greatest effect. Timing in intent-based marketing is when to reach out and connect, versus how. A perfectly personalised message may seem irrelevant if sent too soon, but if you send that same message at just the right time, it is seen as helpful. Intent Signals are indicative of that time. They show you when buyers have moved from curiosity to consideration and, again, from consideration to evaluation. Therefore, this allows you to engage that buyer without intruding or pressuring them. Buyers value the relevance of information that respects their pace. When your outreach aligns with the intent timing of potential B2B customers, your outreach is more valuable because the outreach process reflects the natural progression of their decision-making. When both timing and intent align in B2B, trust compounds very quickly.Increasing the Scale of an Intent-Based Marketing Program without Sacrificing PrecisionAs organizations expand, they will often experience more complexity with their growth and scale. Intent-Based Marketing will only scale efficiently when there is clarity around processes and systems to govern. The efficient scaling of intent-based marketing is concentrated on the following:1. Intent definitions are consistently defined across the different teams2. The use of a unified dashboard for sales and marketing3. Providing a clear point of ownership for the different activation workflows4. Conducting regular reviews of signal qualityPrecision is more important than volume. When you are scaling, you should not be chasing every signal. You should focus on identifying patterns of repeatable intent that have been shown to correlate with pipeline success, and consistently apply those to all of your new business generation efforts.When intent frameworks are maintained in a disciplined manner, insight will be strengthened as growth occurs and not diluted.This balance will allow for the continued efficiency of pipelines, as well as increased account coverage.ConclusionBy identifying your target audience with a clear ideal customer profile and utilizing data indicating where to focus your intent-driven marketing efforts, marketers can develop B2B pipeline growth based on buyer behavior instead of on existing assumptions, based on large numbers of leads, and by developing early engagement rather than the last minute of the sales cycle. The definition of a pipeline that performs successfully is not one that chases attention but one that answers it. 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