'Intent -Driven' Sales & Marketing Campaigns – The New B2B Buzz Word!

Marketing Automation as an industry has witnessed some phenomenal growth in the recent years. The existing solutions have changed the way B2B companies do business today. Traditional, B2B marketing techniques like  cold calls, direct mails etc. now have more data and insight to support. Also, the B2B websites have transformed into a fertile ground for companies to find interested prospects.

In many ways marketing automation solutions have added the much needed momentum to a sector which has a lot at stake, when it comes to making a sale.

The other area in which marketing automation solutions have added value to B2B companies are by helping them measure some aspects of their marketing ROI – especially the contribution marketing makes towards the sales in an organization.

In the last two decades, the marketing automation industry has evolved and found solutions for many problems faced by the B2B sector. Finding more qualified Leads, deploying customized Lead nurturing programs and overall better Lead management is now a reality.

However, the advent of social media and the availability of content rich information has changed the way people buy and sell these days. Marketing itself has undergone a sea change with marketers engaging prospects on a one-on-one basis. B2C companies quickly adapted to this change and have thrived on their new found closeness with their customers – but B2B companies are still not there. They need a more substantial solution to deepen their engagement with their prospects and customers which in turn will generate more business opportunities.

LeadForce1 Offering an Integrated Marketing Automation2.0 platform

LeadForce1 a marketing automation2.0 solution which was launched today,  is a solution which will help B2B companies cope with the changing dynamics of B2B marketing.

LeadForce1 offers the unique benefit of being able to determine an online visitor’s interests and intent, using advanced behavioral analysis. Marketing and sales teams can now precisely manage lead nurturing programs and effectively target messages and offers that are customized around the interests of each individual lead. The result is marketing campaigns with greater impact, larger sales pipelines, and improved sales productivity.

LeadForce1′s greatest differentiator is its ability to find the intent of a website visitor – this information and deep insight into a prospect’s mind, challenges – the existing process of generating, qualifying and nurturing Leads. With the intent of the visitor known, each of these processes take lesser time, are more accurate and customized and promise better results and higher conversions.

The other problem LeadForce1 tries to address is the marketing & sales divide. It provides both the sales and marketing teams with a single opportunity or ‘Lead View’. Giving ‘intent’ – driven insights on individual Leads and Enterprise Leads (gives single view of the behavior patterns of different visitors from the same enterprise).

The solution also offers elements of Web2.0 by incorporating the benefits of social networking and single platform collaboration – allowing all stake holders in a company – the marketing guys, the sales guys and other decision makers to collaborate, share, discuss, deliberate and decide, in real-time – ensuring shorter sales cycles and perusal of only qualified business opportunities – thereby maximizing the ROI.

As a PR & Marketing professional, what I personally liked about LeadForce1, is the fact it can accurately measure not only the ROI on marketing spends but also provide enough data on which marketing channels, what kind of marketing content is bringing in the Leads. This is a great add on for those B2B companies whose marketing spends are focussed on attracting Leads and prospects to their sales funnel. Also, knowing which channels of communication best serve my Company’s needs is great information to have – not only to optimize my reach but also to ensure I achieve my end goals as a marketer.

There are many players in the Marketing Automation space, each offering something – LeadForce1 – is a platform which integrates all – ‘from identifying a visitor to making the live connect’. How the new solution and the 2.0 platform will change the marketing automation industry is yet to be seen, but one thing is guaranteed, B2B companies can now think of engaging with their elusive prospects on a one-on-one basis. Reading their minds, and providing them with sales pitches and lead nurturing materials which will be relevant and truly assist in the decision making process.

How to use 'intent marketing' – to win a customer!!

Pick on a customer’s ‘intent’

In marketing and public relations, identifying the INTENT of a customer can give a whole new dimension to your campaigns and also bring you success since the campaigns are more informative and focused.

A regular marketing or PR plan focuses on creating mass awareness or creating an intent. While an intent driven marketing and PR plan focuses on reaching out to those who already have the ’intent’ with the exact information they are seeking. 

A successful marketing/PR campaign would be one, that’s a mix of both these techniques. 

Identifying the intent of a person might be a long and tedious process in the offline world but online –there are many techniques which help you know, understand and use the intent of a possible customer to your advantage. 

In a recent study Ruder Finn a public Relations agency, focused on surveying the users’ intent when going online. It found – the seven most important reasons that people go online today in order of priority are- 

1. To learn
2. To have fun
3. To socialize
4. To express themselves
5. To advocate
6. To do business
7. To shop 

Intent Idex

From a marketing point of view, this result broadly sheds light on four things

-  The reason why a person would be reading up about your client or using his product online

- Where possibly you can find your target customers

- The channels you can use to reach out to them with information on your client and

- The approach you should use for each of these segments, because they are here with a certain intent

However, to build a detailed plan around this would require some deeper analysis on an individual client level. Certain processes that can help you understand the intent of a person online with respect to a specific client could be - 

-  The search keywords he used when looking for your product or something similar

- Details given on the source of the link which brought him to your site – for example – if it is after reading some content you posted on an article site, then probably you need to evaluate the content to find out what exactly the visitor was looking for. The content was close to his query which is why he came to your site seeking more information on the same

- Today there are very many tools available online, which help you evaluate the behaviour of a visitor to your site. For eg: Which were the pages where he spent most of his time? Did he watch the webinar or video on your site or download a whitepaper document? These behavioral patterns in most cases indicate the stage of decision making a person is in. It could be the research stage, it could be the price comparison stage or it could be the purchase stage. 

To turn a prospect into a sale it is important to identify at what stage of decision making he is and provide him with the right information, using the right approach. 

Now that you have some idea on what is the intent of your customer how do you incorporate this input to build a successful marketing campaign? 

Here are a few simple steps 

Step 1 

Find out where is your target audience present – where is it that they look for information the most. It could differ from segment to segment – if your target are teens – the kind of sites they visit for information are very different from the kind of sites a boomer would go to seek information. So research the places your target customer haunts and device a plan to share your information there. This process might involve all measures from press releases to creating social network profiles to getting traditional/online media coverage

Step 2 

Based on the intent research done by your team (you can use methods suggested on top), zero in on keywords that imply a stage of decision making. Create a grid 

Researched keyword	Stage of Decision making implied	The kind of information to be shared	The page URL to be linked to on your site	How will you engage the user once on this page
‘The best Blue ray player’	Research stage	Positive reviews for your product	Page where the user can read this information	There could be Q&A to know his exact preference, some video etc.

Step 3 

Now use this grid to plan all your content push activities – ensure you use these researched keywords and phrases and link them to different content pages on your website or other places (review sites, forums) which will provide a prospect with the right information (he is looking for) about your product and help the customer with his decision making process. 

Step 4

Ensure your website is optimized to answer all the queries, a prospective customer may seek information on. Keep him interested in your site by engaging and intriguing him at the onset, with third party endorsements (product reviews, testimonial, news coverage etc.)

Give him the impression that you want him to get unbiased information – you will have a more convinced customer. 

Step 5

Ask the customer to participate – Ask him to leave comments on your product offerings, any feedbacks to improve, his view on the product, ask him if he is seeking any more information, product updates – it all gives a better idea on his intent and also connects him to your brand.  You can use some of this information (if good) to woo other customers.

Follow –up on email (if shared) to nurture the lead.. 

Intent marketing does not require drastic changes in your marketing or PR plan. All it requires is some change in your approach.

If done properly, intent marketing helps you understand your customers and their wants better. It helps you relate to them at an individual level and make a personalized sales pitch in the virtual world.

So go for it, surprise your customer with this psychic phenomenon