Aberdeen’s Judith Niederschelp talks about honing proven B2B marketing techniques using buyer intent signals
B2B marketers know timing is critical in the digital age. Choosing the optimum time of day, month or year for specific marketing tactics and messages can maximise standout and resonance with audiences. Getting it right is an art and a science, and it can mean the difference between significant ROI or considerable waste of resources.
But despite marketers’ best efforts in this space, the truth is that perfect timing transcends the marketing calendar. It’s not just about time of day, it’s also about reaching audiences at a time when they’re in-market for a product like yours. That means targeting them when they’re actively preparing to purchase as opposed to (possibly) having a propensity to purchase.
Marketers who get this right have a better chance to make the transition from engaging prospects to driving sales conversions. But how do you know who’s in-market when? This is where third-party intent data comes into play. With insight into the behaviour of actual buyers, you can accurately predict who’s considering, or about to consider, products and services that you offer. This knowledge can be harnessed to improve tried and tested marketing techniques for greater success in the digital economy.
Supercharge segmentation
Today’s B2B marketers are highly skilled in the segmentation of audiences according to buyer journey phase. It’s common practice to target top-of-funnel prospects with things like educational blog posts and eBooks as opposed to sales demos. And all marketers know that getting a powerful case study into the hands of a potential buyer who’s weighing up your solution versus that of a competitor could tip the scales in your favour.
However, knowing which content belongs at which stage of the funnel is quite different to getting the timing right in execution. Much of the time marketers lack the data necessary to target digital ads at the granular level in order to reach a buyer right at the point of highest purchase intent.
Adding intent data to the equation can help ensure you get the right people to click on digital ads. Not just people who match your target demographics and buyer personas, but those who have exhibited purchase intent and are statistically more likely to convert.
Pay-to-play
With an avalanche of content published every day, you can’t simply create quality whitepapers, blogs and the like then expect consumers to find you. The world of digital marketing has become pay-to-play and the effectiveness of your ad strategy can make all the difference when it comes to sales conversions.
Knowing exactly where target customers stand in the buyer journey will help you devise digital ads for all stages, optimising costs per click and increasing the velocity of your sales funnel. Pinpointing the right quarter, month, week, day and time to run your digital ads is just the first step. To win the pay-to-play game you need to go one step further, leveraging intent data to properly target your digital ads.
Accounting for both these aspects of timing enables marketing to work precisely and purposefully to identify, engage, nurture and convert leads.
In the post-GDPR world, intent data offers a powerful new way to optimise and integrate digital advertising and content strategies, driving tangible commercial success.
