When customers walk into a physical store, they give store associates cues like searching for help or casually glancing at the shelves of products. These indicators tell the associates whether the buyer has a specific purpose or is just window shopping. You don’t have physical cues to gauge buyer intent online. Instead, you have much more reliable methods that will help you know which leads are interested in making a purchase and who are just browsing.
Learn where to collect data and how to analyze customer information to find who is most likely to purchase your products and services to help you focus on the highest quality leads.
Key Takeaways:
- Buyer intent saves you time and resources by identifying the most valuable leads
- It allows you to personalize your sales interactions according to their position in the sales funnel
- You can attract more active buyers through buyer intent keywords that target searches for specific product solutions
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Understanding the Use of Buyer Intent Data
The data you collect on your leads will tell you whether they’re a good fit for your products, their intent to buy, and whether there’s a unique opportunity to leverage.
Finding the right data to identify your lead’s intent isn’t straightforward. However, going through the steps to find and analyze buyer intent data is worth the rewards as they will help you find and convert quality leads.
Some other ways buying intent will help you include:
- Identifying buyers sooner to reach them before your competition
- Prioritizing high-value accounts by using buyer intent data in lead scoring
- Personalizing your sales tactics by engaging them at the specific point they’re at in their sales journey
Active Buyer Intent vs. Passive Buyer Intent
There are generally two types of purchase intent. The active buyer knows their problem and is proactively seeking a solution. They may even have a specific product or service in mind when performing their product research. They are your highest quality leads because they’re often ready to buy immediately.
The passive buyer may recognize their challenges or problems, but don’t realize there are solutions available. However, they can become an active buyer with the right type of nurturing.
5 Ways To Identify Your Buyer’s Intent in Tech Marketing
How do you find buyers’ intent in tech marketing? Use these five strategies to accurately discover how interested your leads are in purchasing your products and services.
1. Collect Data from Third-Party Sources
Over 50% of the buyer’s journey is with third-party sources. By the time you first contact a potential customer, they’ve already spent half their sales journey on other websites, books, videos, and content from potential competitors.
This often means buyers that come to your business are close to purchasing, which leaves you a shorter sales cycle. Unfortunately, it also means that you may lose dozens of potential buyers with a high interest in your products because your competition found them before they found your website.
Third-party sources are crucial for increasing your conversions by finding consumers with active buyer intent. Instead of waiting for those buyers to contact you, identify interested consumers from third-party sources and proactively reach out to those leads.
2. Research Buyer Intent Keywords
The keywords a buyer uses to find your content will tell you part of their intent. They will let you know what consumers are looking for when coming to your website, and those keywords are a way to reach buyers in the last stages of the customer journey.
Here are examples of potential buyer intent keywords for a consumer looking for CRM software:
- Awareness stage: “Understanding customer data”
- Research stage: “CRM platforms”
- Comparison stage: “HubSpot vs. Salesforce”
- Buying stage: “HubSpot pricing”
Visitors who come to your website from search inquiries in the last two stages are most likely to purchase from your company. Some other examples of buyer intent keywords are search phrases that include:
- Discounts, coupons, or deals
- Buy
- Stores near me
- Best price for XYZ
Instead of guessing buyer intent from keywords, you can use keyword research tools like Semrush’s keyword intent analysis tool, which ranks keywords by their buyer intent. You can use the keywords you discover in your buyer intent marketing by optimizing your SEO content marketing strategies around keywords with high buyer intent.
3. Use Lead Magnets
Lead magnets are free offerings or deals visitors can access in exchange for their information. Half of the marketers that use lead magnets also see higher conversion rates. They’re effective for converting leads because they alert you to visitors with active buyer intent.
For example, a visitor who signs up for a discount or free trial shows a high interest in purchasing that product, whereas someone who downloads an industry guide might still be in the research stage of their journey.
4. Analyze Lead Interactions
Your website and social media reports will give you insights into your visitors' readiness to buy your products. Gather data on page visits, returning visits, comments, likes, shares, and other customer engagement across your platform to improve your lead scoring and identify those with high buyer intent.
Communication with your customer service, past purchase activity, and direct feedback are some of your most valuable sources of buyer intent data about your contacts database. For instance, a loyal customer is 50% more likely to buy a new service or product, which will make them some of your highest quality leads.
5. Reach Out to Buyers
Asking buyers directly about their intention is the most straightforward way of finding someone’s interest level. However, not all buyers will be entirely transparent. An effective way of indirectly finding their intent would be asking strategic questions like their current needs, budget, and purchase power, which will alert you to whether they can buy at that time.
You can find this information through feedback requests, customer surveys, live chats on your website, social media, or sales and marketing phone calls.
Get More of the Right Leads
Don’t waste any more time on leads with low buyer intent. Instead, you can take advantage of the steps you learned for attracting and identifying active buyers. You’ll see more conversions and waste fewer resources on weak leads through these strategies.
Contact ActualTech Media to learn about our lead generation programs and attract more leads with active buyer intent.