Not all Intent Data is created equal by Jon Clarke, Founder & CPO, Cyance
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hen it comes to intent data, it’s quality, not quantity, that really matters. Intent data has the potential to transform sales pipelines and create meaningful, lasting connections with customers and prospects, but only - and this is the crucial point - when it is really accurate and relevant. Lately, I’ve seen an influx of agencies and vendors floating the term ‘Intent Data’ around the marketplace. They claim to be offering intent data services, but they are providing very little clarity about what type of data they are delivering and where it’s coming from, nor any real detail on how it can be applied by businesses. The longer this goes on and the more often the term is used without any clear definition, the more confused
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sales and marketing professionals will become. And unfortunately that means the real value that intent data can and should be delivering for B2B businesses will be lost on some people. With this in mind, I think there are three key elements that need to be clarified. Firstly, what intent actually is and the different types of intent available. Once those two pieces are understood then marketers need to understand that some intent data is more effective than others, most often dependent on the geography of your business, where you are based and what you are trying to achieve. Before investing in intent data, it’s important for businesses to have clear, specific and measurable needs and objectives. This enables them to have a defined brief against which to evaluate the ever-growing number of available options.
What is intent data? In broad terms, intent data works with predefined keywords and taxonomies that give a level of behavioural signals to indicate buyer intent. Intent data providers generally fall into one of three categories: 1. Third party intent data vendors, such as Cyance - they will pick up on behaviour across a series of general websites that exist and are relevant to your business. They will collate all of this information, attribute that to companies and make it available in either a data feed or online platform. 2. Second party vendors - these tend to be quite limited and ‘walled’ solutions that have their own set of websites and they only track behaviour across those specific sites. Quite often this is based upon known users that are filling
