Intent Signals and How to Use Them

Intent signals are an essential part of any B2B marketing and sales toolkit.

Not only do they power precise targeting and personalized content, but they help shorten sales cycles and optimize spend.

Here’s a closer look at specific intent signals in AiSDR and how they support better sales and marketing.

What is buyer intent?

Buyer intent (also known as purchase intent) is a way for sales and marketing teams to model the chances a prospect will make a purchase. 

If you’re trying to estimate a prospect’s buyer intent, you might try to find the answers to these questions:

• Are your potential customers only casually browsing and shopping around? Or are they looking for the best product to solve a problem?
• What’s their level of interest? 
• Which sources are they looking at to find information? Google search? Blogs? Downloadable guides?
• Do they seem ready to become paying customers? Or are they in the early stages of the customer journey?

Answering these questions allows you to create content and engage with them according to the level of buyer intent.

What are intent signals?

Intent signals help you approximate a person’s buyer intent. 

There are several different options available for gathering data:

• First-party sources like your CRM, website analytics, and internal forms/content
• Second-party sources like G2 and Capterra customer review websites
• Third-party sources like lead databases, social media, and Google analytics 

Intent signals can also be classified as low intent or high intent.

Reading blog posts and opening emails are typically considered low intent while actions like requesting a demo and visits to your pricing page would be high intent. 

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How intent signals help sales and marketing

Here are a few ways high-intent buyer signals can drive sales and boost your conversion rate.

Prioritize leads using intent signals

Intent data allows you to prioritize leads based on their level of engagement and interest. As a result, your sales team will be able to shift resources to focus on high-intent leads who are closer to making a purchase.

For instance, 93% of marketers say that intent data boosts their conversion rates while 82% add that it helps their sales teams convert leads faster. 

Personalize messages based on buyer intent

The more you know your prospects, the better you can personalize your messaging. 62% of marketers revealed that intent data helped them improve their personalization and nurturing workflows. 

That’s because intent data lets you create effective buyer personas, craft messages that resonate, and address specific needs and pains. Consequently, your sales team will be more capable of closing deals since they’ll know which selling points to highlight.

Create relevant content for different stages of the buyer journey

Intent data makes it easier to draft and optimize a content strategy that attracts leads. In addition to personalization, intent data reveals which topics and keywords your audience is actively searching for, allowing you to create content that targets such topics.

You can also use intent data to improve lead nurturing and content distribution. For example, 91% of marketers rely on intent data to determine the best content to send to specific account lists. 

Intent signals in AiSDR and how to use them

AiSDR combines different types of intent data and search filters to find leads in its Lead Discovery engine and automatically add them to outreach campaigns.

Here are some of the types and filters you can use in AiSDR.

Funding round

Looking for companies that recently closed a successful funding round is an effective way to find high-intent leads. 

This is for several reasons:

• Companies that recently secured funding are generally in good financial health and may be willing to invest in new products or services.
• Funding rounds typically indicate that companies are in a phase of growth or expansion, and are looking to scale or enter new markets.
• Targeting companies after they received funding allows you to engage them when they’re actively planning on executing their growth strategy.

Hiring intent

New job vacancies and hiring intent signals that a company is expanding or open to bringing in new resources. Aside from indicating growth and increased budgets, hiring intent shows a clear operational need, making it a good time to offer your products and services. 

Here’s a quick sales tip: You can suggest your solution as a cost-effective alternative to hiring additional staff.

As an example, AiSDR can fill the role of a sales development representative, allowing companies to save on the cost of hiring an SDR.

LinkedIn social signals

LinkedIn is a gold mine of B2B lead data since potential prospects engage daily with companies and people they’re interested in through likes, comments, and follows.

AiSDR allows you to scrape all leads that engage with a personal profile, such as:

• Your own profile
• Your CEO’s (or some other vocal member)
• A thought leader in your industry
• Your competitor’s founder (if they have an active following)

Not only does this allow you to engage your own network, you can engage someone else’s. This comes in especially handy if you don’t have your own network and don’t want to invest the time and energy required into building one.

Technology stack

Targeting companies that use specific tech or software is a smart move if you built your company’s product to align with it. 

For instance, if you offer software for data migration, you’d want to find companies with a help desk system in place. Alternatively, you might target companies that use HubSpot if you built your product to integrate with HubSpot software. 

Web search

Using web searches for intent data leverages online activity to spot potential customers.

In most cases, companies or people searching the web are potentially in the research phase of the purchase process. And based on the search queries and clicks, you can determine which leads are a stronger chance for a sale.

For example, frequent searches for “hire SDR” suggest that the person is looking to scale sales.

News search

By searching the news, you leverage media coverage to identify companies that are in the spotlight or undergoing changes (and thus representing an opportunity).

Some common news events that suggest a sales opportunity include:

• Current events and trends (e.g. artificial intelligence)
• Announcements (e.g. expansions, mergers, acquisitions)
• Funding rounds (see above)
• Changing leadership
• Regulatory changes

FAQ

What are intent signals?

Intent signals are actions or data points that help you approximate a person’s buyer intent. They can come from first-party sources like your CRM and website analytics, second-party sources like review sites, or third-party sources like lead databases and social media. Examples include reading blog posts, opening emails, requesting demos, or visiting pricing pages.

Why do intent signals matter?

Intent signals let sales and marketing teams prioritize leads, personalize messages, and create relevant content for each stage of the buyer journey. High-intent signals help focus resources on prospects who are closer to making a purchase.

How can I track intent signals?

You can track buying intent from two sources: first-party engagement signals captured in your own systems (CRM, website or product analytics, email/chat logs) and third-party intent-data platforms such as 6sense that monitor millions of external sites and enrich your account list with surge scores. Blending these internal and external signals shows which accounts are actively researching solutions and when to reach out.

What actions follow different signal types?

Actions depend on the type of signal. For example, content downloads may prompt a targeted follow-up, website revisits could be met with a relevant testimonial, email clicks might move a lead to a warmer list, and demo requests should be handled by assigning an SDR promptly.

Can AI SDRs act on intent signals?

Yes. AiSDR uses intent data from multiple sources to find leads, add them to outreach campaigns, and tailor messages based on the specific signal type. It can automatically act on high-intent signals to engage leads at the right moment