The question “who are your customers?” is important, but understanding further what do they want and when are they more likely to buy is more important.
Intent data is what can answer those further questions. You can identify signals that point out intention into buying, and how you can turn these signals into real marketing elements, sales pitches and customer success strategies.
We explored intent data providers and tools that allow us to identify and interpret buying signals. Here to share 10 best of them:
- UserMotion
- ZoomInfo
- Flywheel
- Koala
- Demandbase
- Cognism
- Lusha
- MadKudu
- Salespanel
- 6sense
What is Intent Data?
Intent data – or buyer intent signals – are the underlying data that customers leave behind as they engage with your product and business. It points you in the direction of potential customers who are already journeying towards a purchase, with useable data into their intent.
This data is a collection of signals that reveal:
- customer needs
- interests
- and purchasing behaviors
With insights based on this data, you can adjust your marketing and sales strategies, identify, engage and convert warm leads in the pipeline.
What is Intent Data Provider?
Intent data providers collect and analyze these signals of buyer activity. They use a variety of sources such as website visits, in-app activities and custom events to analyze a potential customer’s level of interest.
While these tools differ in terms of value proposition and market, at some point they serve to identify signals of intent in different ways and for different purposes. Therefore, I wanted to list here products with different product-market fit so you can choose the best one for your needs.
10 Intent Data Providers
1. UserMotion
UserMotion positions itself as a predictive AI lead scoring software, that analyzes intent data to help you get a clear view of your warm leads, how to engage with them and not miss out on good revenue opportunities. It also embeds intent data into HubSpot and Intercom.
Basically, it collect all intent data received from your lead as signals, and calculate an intent score. The algorithm send you notifications when a lead shows high intention, defined based on your specific product milestones, and helps you act fast on that conversion opportunity.
This platform also prioritize the lead with high intention in a customer segment so that you can prioritize your efforts and get extra leads for your sales and marketing team.
2. ZoomInfo
ZoomInfo is a B2B database software that provides detailed business information on companies and professionals.
Unlike intent data, which is calculated based on product usage and customer behavior, ZoomInfo enables businesses to identify and target companies that show interest in specific topics.
This is done through “intent signal targeting,” where users can set up workflows within ZoomInfo to capture and act upon intent signals from potential leads.
Intent signal targeting involves setting up triggers and actions within ZoomInfo to identify companies showing interest in topics like sales software and lead generation.
Real-time intent signal targeting is a more immediate form of intent signal targeting that allows users to capture and act upon intent signals with virtually no lag time.
In both standard and real-time intent signal targeting, users can target leads by specifying the intensity of interest (signal score), the number of people in the company researching the topics, and various company attributes. But it does not contain product usage data.
3. Flywheel
Flywheel is an all-in-one growth platform designed for B2B companies. It enables these companies to understand, engage, and convert accounts.
It assists businesses in capturing customer intent data by tracking and analyzing user behavior and interactions with a product or website. This includes monitoring key actions such as button clicks, page views, feature usage, and more.
The platform works by setting alerts for specific user behaviors that indicate interest or intent.
For example, if a user visits a pricing page multiple times or clicks on a “Try Free” button, Flywheel can send real-time notifications to the appropriate teams via Slack, email, or other integrations.
The platform can provide asset engagement insights into feature adoption, milestones, account scoring, user analytics, and account analytics.
4. Koala
Koala is a pipeline management platform that enables finding engaged leads, revealing buying signals and delivering insights across the entire buyer journey.
The platform allows users to create ‘Intent Signals’, which are custom triggers set up to detect specific user actions.
In Intent Signals dashboard, you can highlight the important moments in customer journey by defining rules and conditions.
When a predefined intent signal is performed, GetKoala identifies this action in real-time and notifies the business. For example, if a user submits a demo request or views pricing information on a website, GetKoala can capture these high-intent activities as they happen.
5. Demandbase
Demandbase is a go-to-market platform that helps sales, marketing and customer success teams with their operations and strategies.
It provides insights into which accounts are actively in the market for you service, even before they express interest directly.
The platform allows users to create intent signals based on a wide array of keywords and criteria. These signals are designed to capture the behavior that indicates a potential interest in a company’s offerings.
It gives context around page views and keyword interactions to ensure the activity is relevant. And it also rates the intent strength and quality of keywords to determine how closely aligned a prospective buyer’s activities are with the product offered.
In addition, Demandbase allows the importation of intent data from other providers, such as Bombora and G2, to offer a comprehensive view of the market and buyer intent.
6. Cognism
Cognism is another intent data provider that is actually a sales intelligence platform that helps you identify accounts actively searching for your service.
Cognism allows users to create and customize intent signals based on topics that are relevant to their products or services.
These signals are generated through Cognism’s partnership with Bombora, an intent data leader, providing insight into which accounts are actively searching for solutions.
Once intent signals are established, Cognism can capture warm opportunities by identifying key contacts within accounts that show buying intent.
7. Lusha
Lusha is a sales intelligence platform that provides data-enrichment services that enhance the sales process by offering accurate and compliant data on potential B2B contacts and companies.
It lets sales teams create intent signals by selecting relevant topics that are indicative of a buyer’s interest. This is likely done through an admin or manager within an organization who sets these topics for the account users.
Sales teams can use intent topics as filters when searching for contacts or companies, allowing them to refine their prospecting lists to those showing high intent.
8. MadKudu
MadKudu is another intent data provider, stands out as a revenue intelligence platform that promises to turn intent data signals into actions. It helps businesses understand and act on buyer intent data by processing signals.
The platform can collect and process various types of intent data, such as: first-party intent data: visitors’ activities on your website. And third-party intent data: acquired from external data providers like G2, 6sense, or Demandbase.
Buyer intent allows for better segmentation of accounts. You can use this data to identify and prioritize accounts showing a high likelihood of purchasing.
9. Salespanel
Salespanel is a visitor intelligence and data-driven marketing software for businesses. It helps identifying, tracking, and qualifying your leads.
It identifies ‘high-ticket’ leads, which are prospects likely to have a higher deal value, based on factors like company size, decision-making role, and behaviors such as viewing specific content or pricing information.
The platform can assign scores to each behavior that indicates buying intent. This scoring helps in quantifying a lead’s interest level, allowing for segmentation and prioritization based on their score.
10. 6sense
6sense has been a customer success platform for years, now it positions itself as ABM platform powered by revenue AI.
By analyzing multiple data points and combines signals of intent, 6sense track and interpret online behavior and looks at companies’ usage patterns to calculate interest levels on a variety of topics.
The platform’s intent data timeline showcases the journey of a buyer’s interest and activity, allowing teams to engage more strategically.
How to Choose?
Platforms like UserMotion, MadKudu, Koala and 6sense are great if you want to understand how customers use your product and predict who might buy next.
Others like ZoomInfo, Cognism, and Demandbase are more about spotting which businesses are looking up topics related to what you sell, even if they haven’t used your product yet.
So if you’re focusing on how people interact with your product, go for the first group. If you’re looking at who’s searching for what you offer, the second group might be what you need. It’s all about matching the tool to your approach for finding high-potential customers.
