At BumbleBee Marketing, we consider intent data a powerful, critical component of every marketing initiative. Intent data, purchase intent data, and data intelligence all describe insights that can be gathered about a company’s intention to purchase a particular solution. There are smart approaches to leveraging intent data that can make a significant difference in its value and to using it for maximum impact in a campaign.

Here are 4 strategies to help you maximize your intent data value:

1. Get trending intent data.

While many companies promise to deliver the intent data you want, the information represents a single moment in time when your provider pulled the data. But data for a single moment may not accurately or completely depict how companies are searching for your product or solution. To understand when and how to engage prospective companies to generate opportunities, you need to fully understand the exact solutions in your industry portfolio that companies are evaluating over several weeks or months. Look for a solution that includes trending purchase intent data over weeks and months. With a clear view of where a company is in its buying cycle and how its purchase decisions are trending over time, you’ll also know when to engage them throughout the sales journey and have the insights to eventually help you close the deal.

2. Build a list of contacts within your intent data targeted accounts.

Based on your keywords, an intent data provider like BumbleBee can identify accounts that are actively searching for your solutions. Then, based on your ideal buyer persona, we can append the list with your “inferred contacts.” These are the individuals who are most likely to either make the purchase decision directly or greatly influence the process. Don’t skip this step or you may never realize the full value of your intent data—identifying the companies that are in the buying cycle for your solution and the specific individuals you need to contact—to complete a sale.

3. Deliver a targeted content nurturing approach.

After you have your targeted list of companies that are trending toward making a purchase, and your list of decision-makers and influencers and their contact information, you need a consistent, response-generating approach to engage them. This is an opportunity to help prospects better understand the value of your technology solution. To do this most effectively, use different content depending on where the prospect is in their buying journey and your sales funnel. For top-of-funnel (TOFU) content, build awareness of who you are and how you can help through short, elevator-pitch videos and infographics. For your middle-of-funnel (MOFU) account contacts, provide deeper content through white papers and webinars. Your bottom-of-funnel (BOFU) content strategy may include sending invitations to prospects to view live demos or offering them a free trial.

4. Keep intent data and contacts fresh.

Intent data is always changing, and your contacts are constantly moving and changing jobs—so their contact information changes often. Data decays quickly. With so much movement, your contact database can rapidly lose its value. Remember to renew contact with dormant accounts, which may lead organically to new business. We also recommend reviewing your intent data intelligence every few weeks, or as often as you can, and reaching out to those companies and contacts who enter the right stage of the buying cycle. Finally, to maintain good data hygiene, be sure to dump your contacts that bounce or unsubscribe regularly, too.