The power of buyer intent data for marketing and sales teams lies in the fact that this information captures signals indicating a customer's likelihood to purchase, allowing you to target the right leads at the perfect moment.

For marketers drowning in a sea of unqualified leads and salespeople tired of cold calling, intent data is a game-changer. When you understand different types of intent signals, you can prioritize your efforts more easily and spend more time with accounts with more potential to convert, which can dramatically improve conversion rates.

Imagine a world where you no longer waste resources on uninterested prospects. Sound good? Our guide will help you uncover the types of intent data that could significantly improve your strategy and the best tools to collect and analyze this data.

First-party intent data

First-party intent data refers to information collected directly from your owned channels and properties about your audience's behaviors, preferences, and interactions. Your owned channels include sources such as your website, mobile applications, customer relationship management (CRM) system, and official social media accounts.

First-party data is considered the most valuable type of intent data due to its high accuracy and direct relevance to your audience's engagement with your brand.

Key sources of first-party intent data

Website interactions

• Page visits and navigation patterns
• Content downloads (e.g., white papers, e-books)
• Time spent on specific pages
• Form submissions and inquiries

Email engagement

• Open rates — gauge initial interest in your messaging
• Click-through rates — identify which topics resonate most
• Email forwards — spot potential influencers within accounts

CRM Data

• Lead scores — quantify prospect engagement levels
• Purchase history — understand past behaviors and preferences
• Support interactions — identify pain points and opportunities

Social media interactions

• Likes and reactions — measure content relevance
• Comments — gather qualitative feedback
• Shares — track content reach and virality

Why you should collect and use first-party intent data

Below, we break down the key benefits of using first-party intent data in your marketing and sales strategies:

• High accuracy and reliability: Data comes directly from your audience's interactions.
• Deeper understanding of your audience: Gain insights into specific interests and behaviors.
• Greater control: Maintain ownership over data collection and usage.
• Improved personalization: Tailor experiences based on individual user behaviors.
• Enhanced customer experience: Create more relevant, timely interactions across the entire customer lifecycle.

Limitations of first-party intent data

While first-party intent data offers powerful insights, it's important to recognize its limitations. We explore these shortcomings below:

• Limited scale: Restricted to your existing audience and properties.
• Infrastructure requirements: Demands robust systems for data management.
• Early-stage blindspot: May miss initial research phases outside your properties.
• Potential for bias: Insights limited to those already engaged with your brand.
• Resource intensive: Requires ongoing maintenance and specialized skills.

How to use first-party intent data in sales and marketing

Now, let's dive into how sales and marketing teams can put this goldmine of information to work. Intent signals can help both departments sharpen their strategies and create more meaningful interactions with prospects and customers.

Here's how you can turn raw data into actionable insights:

Applications for sales teams

• Prioritize leads based on intent signals: For example, a prospect who has visited your pricing page three times in the past week and downloaded a product comparison guide should be prioritized over someone who only briefly viewed your homepage. Set up a lead scoring system that assigns higher points for high-intent activities like pricing page visits, demo requests, or specific content downloads.
• Adapt sales outreach and messaging: Let’s say a lead has spent significant time on your AI-powered analytics feature page, focus your initial outreach on how this feature solves specific pain points. You can create a library of email templates and talking points aligned with different intent signals, allowing sales reps to quickly personalize their approach.
• Identify upsell and cross-sell opportunities: A current customer who has been exploring your advanced features documentation might be ready for an upgrade. Set up alerts for account managers when existing customers exhibit high intent behavior for products or services they don't currently use.

Applications for marketing teams 

• Segment audiences for targeted campaigns: Create a segment of leads who have engaged with content about a specific industry challenge, then target them with a webinar addressing that challenge. Use your marketing automation platform to create dynamic segments based on content interactions, updating in real-time as prospects engage with your site.
• Personalize website content and recommendations: If a visitor has shown interest in cloud migration content, prominently feature related case studies or whitepapers on their next visit. Implement a content recommendation engine that dynamically adjusts based on each user's browsing history and intent signals.
• Trigger automated email workflows based on intent: For instance, when a prospect downloads a beginner's guide, trigger a nurture sequence that gradually introduces more advanced concepts over time. Design multi-step email workflows with branching logic based on how recipients interact with each message, ensuring the content remains relevant to their current stage in the buyer's journey.

Second-party intent data

Second-party intent data refers to the information you collect through another organization about behaviors, preferences, and interactions from their target audience (which is, at the same time, your broader audience). This data is then shared directly with you through a mutually beneficial partnership or agreement.

Second-party data type is particularly useful as it bridges the gap between the limited scope of your own first-party data and the broader reach of third-party data (which we’ll talk about later on).

Key sources of second-party intent data

• Strategic partnerships. Data shared between complementary businesses, like a software company and a consulting firm exchanging lead data.
• Co-marketing campaigns. Data collected jointly through collaborative marketing efforts, like two brands partnering on a webinar and sharing attendee information.
• Data co-ops or alliances. Groups of companies pooling their anonymized data, such as industry-specific alliances sharing market trend data.
• Publisher partnerships. Arrangements with media companies or content platforms, such as accessing reader behavior data from a relevant industry publication.

Why you should collect and use second-party intent data

Below are the key reasons why companies should gather and analyze second-party data:

• Access to a broader audience: Tap into new potential customer bases through partner networks.
• Higher quality and relevance: More reliable than third-party data, as it comes from a known, trusted source.
• Niche market targeting: Opportunity to reach specific, hard-to-access audience segments through strategic partnerships.
• Cost-effective data expansion: Broaden your data insights without the expense of large-scale data acquisition.
• Complementary insights: Gain perspectives that enhance and validate your first-party data.

Limitations of second-party intent data

Just like with first-party intent data, there are some constraints you may stumble upon when working with second-party data:

• Partnership dependency: Requires establishing and maintaining strong, trustworthy partnerships.
• Legal and privacy concerns: Data-sharing agreements must be carefully crafted to ensure compliance and protect user privacy.
• Limited control: Less oversight on data collection methods and quality compared to first-party data.
• Potential data overlap: Risk of redundancy if partnering with companies targeting similar audiences.
• Integration challenges: May require significant effort to merge and reconcile data from different sources.

How to use second-party intent data in sales and marketing

Shared intelligence can dramatically improve your sales and marketing strategies, letting you extend your reach and refine your approach to potential customers at different stages of their buying journey, in ways that complement your first-party data efforts.

Let's explore some use cases of how sales and marketing teams can turn these valuable second-party insights into tangible results.

Applications for sales teams

• Identify warm leads from your partner audiences: Cross-reference partner data with your ICP to prioritize outreach. For instance, a marketing agency using a software partner's usage data to identify companies potentially in need of marketing services.
• Collaborate on account-based marketing (ABM) strategies: Combine insights to create more comprehensive account profiles and personalized approaches. For example, a cloud services provider and a cybersecurity firm sharing data to create tailored security solutions for specific industries.
• Leverage partner insights for personalized outreach: Use partner-provided behavioral data to tailor your sales pitches and demonstrations. An example is a sales rep referencing a prospect's engagement with a partner's related product to demonstrate the value of an integrated solution.

Applications for marketing teams

• Co-create targeted campaigns: Develop joint marketing initiatives that leverage both partners' audience insights. An email marketing platform and a CRM system could collaborate on a campaign or a resource targeting e-commerce businesses, using combined data to refine messaging and offers.
• Expand reach through partner channels: Use partner distribution networks to amplify your content and offers. A B2B software company may feature guest posts on a partner's well-trafficked blog, gaining exposure to a new, relevant audience.
• Gain insights into new customer segments: Analyze partner data to identify emerging market opportunities or underserved segments. For instance, a fitness equipment manufacturer could consider partnering with a nutrition app to understand cross-over interests and develop new product lines.

Third-party intent data

Third-party intent data refers to information collected and aggregated from different external sources across the web about online behaviors, preferences, and interactions of a broad audience. This data provides insights into potential customers' interests and buying intentions, even those not directly engaging with your brand.

Key sources of third-party intent data

• Data aggregators and providers. Specialized companies that collect, process, and sell intent data, like UserGems or Bombora.
• Publisher networks and ad exchanges. Data captured from website visits, ad impressions, and clicks across wide networks, such as Google's Display Network and Amazon's DSP.
• Social media platforms. Insights from user interactions and content consumption on social networks, like Facebook Audience Network or LinkedIn Audience Network
• Online communities and forums. Data gathered from discussions and conversations relevant to your industry, such as on Reddit and Quora or industry-specific forums
• Public records and databases. Information compiled from various public sources, like company registrations, government contracts, patents.

Why you should collect and use third-party intent data

Here’s how the benefits of using third-party data can complement first and second-party intent data and inform your strategies even further:

1. Massive scale and reach: Access to a vast pool of data, potentially uncovering new markets and opportunities.
2. Early-stage buying intent signals: Identify prospects showing interest in your industry or solutions before they engage with your brand.
3. Competitive intelligence: Gain insights into market trends and competitor activities.
4. Enhanced market research: Broaden your understanding of customer needs and behaviors across the industry.
5. Improved targeting: Refine your ideal customer profile and target accounts more effectively.

Limitations of third-party intent data

1. Variable data quality: Accuracy and reliability can fluctuate depending on the source and collection methods.
2. Privacy and compliance challenges: Navigating data regulations (like GDPR and CCPA) can be complex.
3. Limited control: Less oversight on data collection methods and granularity compared to first-party data.
4. Integration complexity: Can be resource-intensive to incorporate into existing systems and workflows.
5. Cost considerations: High-quality third-party data can be expensive to acquire and maintain.

How to use third-party intent data in sales and marketing

Now, let's dive into how sales and marketing teams can leverage this wealth of external information. Third-party intent data can help both departments expand their reach and refine their strategies for engaging prospects and customers.

Here's how you can turn this broad data into actionable insights:

Applications for sales teams

1. Identify and prioritize high-intent prospects: Use intent scoring models to focus on accounts showing strong buying signals. For example, a software company could prioritize outreach to companies that have been researching cloud migration solutions across various tech publications.
2. Tailor messaging based on observed interests: Customize your pitch using insights from prospects' online behavior. If your sales rep notices a prospect has been engaging with content about AI in healthcare, they can tailor outreach to highlight relevant use cases.
3. Expand into new markets and target accounts: Identify potential customers outside your current database showing interest in your solutions. Say a B2B service provider discovers a new vertical industry where companies are actively seeking similar services—it can then build a whole new content vertical catering to this new audience.

Applications for marketing teams

1. Target display advertising and programmatic campaigns: You can use third-party data to create and target lookalike audiences. A marketing team may use intent data to serve ads to professionals who match the profile of their best customers and are showing interest in related topics.
2. Identify trending topics and content opportunities: Analyze popular search terms and content engagement across your industry. A B2B blog could use third-party data to identify emerging topics of interest in their field and creates content to capitalize on these trends.
3. Enhance account-based marketing (ABM) strategies: Add third-party insights to your account profiles for more targeted campaigns. Let’s say a marketing team identifies key decision-makers and their interests within target accounts—they can then create personalized multi-channel campaigns.

Understanding the different types of intent data sources

To successfully use each type of intent data we explained above, it’s necessary to understand the sources—where the data comes from. Knowing the origin of your data helps you evaluate its reliability and accuracy and allows you to use it strategically and ethically. 

Below, we’ll provide more details on each source and tell you how exactly you can leverage each source.

Search intent data

Search intent data captures the keywords and phrases people use when searching online. It reveals what exactly they are looking for and their potential needs or interests.

For instance, a surge in searches for "vegan meal delivery services" signals growing interest, allowing a meal delivery company to create targeted ads and content to attract a specific, growing audience segment.

How to leverage this data:

• SEO: Optimize your website and content for relevant keywords to attract organic traffic
• Paid search: Bid on relevant keywords in search engine advertising to reach potential customers actively searching for your products or services
• Content marketing: Create content that addresses the questions and needs revealed by search intent data

Engagement data

Engagement data tracks how people interact with your website, content, or social media. It includes metrics like page views, time on page, clicks, downloads, and social media engagement.

A user repeatedly browsing hiking boots but not purchasing indicates high intent but hesitation, prompting, for example, a personalized discount offer.

How to leverage this data:

• Lead scoring: Assign scores to leads based on their level of engagement to prioritize sales outreach
• Personalized content: Recommend relevant content and offers based on past engagement behavior
• Email marketing: Segment your email list based on engagement to send targeted campaigns

Firmographic data

Firmographic data provides information about a company, such as industry, size, location, and revenue.

A cloud-based HR solution provider can use firmographic data to identify high-potential SMBs in the tech industry and tailor marketing efforts accordingly.

How to leverage this data:

• Account-based marketing strategies (ABM): Target high-value accounts with personalized campaigns based on their firmographic attributes
• Sales segmentation: Focus sales efforts on companies that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP)
• Market research: Analyze firmographic data to identify trends and opportunities in specific industries or regions

Technographic data

Technographic data details the technologies a company uses, such as their CRM, marketing automation platform, or e-commerce solution.

A marketing automation platform can leverage technographic data to identify companies using outdated tools and position itself as a superior alternative.

How to leverage this data:

• Targeted sales outreach: Tailor your sales pitch to companies already using complementary technologies
• Product development: Identify opportunities to develop integrations or partnerships with other technology providers
• Competitive analysis: Understand the technology landscape in your industry and identify potential competitors

Best intent data providers

Below, we’ll provide an overview of leading intent data providers, describe their key features, and explain what type of businesses may benefit from using them.

UserGems

UserGems is a comprehensive, end-to-end sales intelligence platform that leverages AI and proprietary data signals to maximize pipeline growth. It helps teams identify and prioritize the most valuable leads through real-time signals, automate follow-up actions, and personalize outreach. The platform’s main focus is pipeline generation and customer expansion through relationship intelligence.

Key features

• Champion tracking signals
• New hires & promotions signals
• Meeting assistant for CRM updates
• Automated playbooks for targeted campaigns
• Prioritization and ROI tracking
• Seamless CRM integration (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
• Integration with 50+ sales and marketing tools

What can you do with UserGems?

UserGem is ideal for account-based selling and upselling within the current customer base. Here’s what the platform lets you do:

• Signal tracking:
  • Monitors job changes of customers and champions
  • Identifies new hires and promotions in target accounts
  • Captures intent data and website visits
  • Tracks champion referrals
• Workflow automation:
  • Converts captured signals into automated, always-on workflows
  • Triggers pre-built or custom follow-up sequences
  • Automates CRM updates with new contact information
• Gem AI:
  • Captures and analyzes Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and target personas
  • Prioritizes best companies and buyers based on aggregated signals
  • Suggests relevant email messaging for effective outreach
• Data quality:
  • Uses proprietary people signals and partners with top-tier company signal providers
  • Refreshes and verifies data weekly
  • Maintains a bounce rate of less than 5%

‍

Why you should use UserGems

The benefits of leveraging UserGems include:

• Increased conversion rates by focusing on ideal customer profiles
• Accelerated deals and shortened sales cycles through enhanced engagement
• Reduced churn by multi-threading to other stakeholders
• Accurate and up-to-date CRM data
• Less time spent on prospecting and research
• Timely alerts for new opportunities

Here’s what real UserGems users say about these benefits:

• Easy-to-use, straightforward reports save time
• Additional contacts for existing opportunities & multithreading are highly beneficial
• Intuitive interface and comprehensive database make tracking and outreach easy

Customer success stories:

• Lattice achieved 40x ROI in closed won revenue
• Cobalt created 91 UserGems-influenced opportunities, reaching $1.7M in new business pipeline
• Tipalti generated $4M in pipeline with a 23x ROI in closed won revenue

ZoomInfo

ZoomInfo is a B2B data platform that integrates seamlessly with CRM, marketing, and sales operations and enables companies to discover and engage potential customers through real-time insights and automation capabilities. The platform's key focus is to provide comprehensive data and use AI-driven tools allow for precise targeting and prioritization, helping teams focus on high-value prospects and improve conversion rates.

Key features:

• Provides extensive contact and company data with intent signals
• AI-driven sales insights through ZoomInfo Copilot for lead scoring and prioritization
• Integrated conversation intelligence for analyzing sales interactions

Ideal for: Sales and marketing teams seeking accurate data and intent signals for outbound efforts.

6sense

6sense is an AI-driven platform that uncovers hidden buying signals in the Dark Funnel™. It employs predictive analytics and a comprehensive B2B dataset to identify accounts ready to buy, craft appropriate messages, and automate meeting qualifications and bookings. By integrating with existing tech stacks like Salesforce and HubSpot, 6sense streamlines the go-to-market process, enabling teams to engage the right accounts at the optimal moment for higher conversion rates and faster deal closures.

Key features:

• AI-powered intent data capture and analysis across channels
• Predicts buyer behavior and prioritizes accounts
• Dark Funnel™ analysis to reveal anonymous buyers

Ideal for: Large enterprises seeking advanced analytics for sales and marketing optimization

Demandbase

Demandbase is an account-based marketing (ABM) and sales intelligence platform with AI-powered capabilities that let you create personalized campaigns across the buyer journey. It combines first-party and third-party data with machine learning to help businesses identify, prioritize, and engage high-value accounts. Demandbase provides B2B data and buying intent insights, essential for optimizing sales and marketing campaigns. Its comprehensive suite of tools enables users to create personalized, multi-channel ABM strategies that drive pipeline growth, close deals efficiently, and retain and expand customer relationships.

Key features:

• Comprehensive ABM tools for personalized, data-driven campaigns across multiple channels
• Buying intent signals and technographic data to prioritize in-market accounts
• Robust analytics and reporting tools for measuring engagement and optimizing the buyer journey

Ideal for: B2B marketers looking to orchestrate intent-driven ABM initiatives and sales teams seeking advanced intelligence for account prioritization and engagement.

TechTarget

With a focus on B2B technology, TechTarget’s platform helps you create better strategies that result in effective actions and higher revenues by capturing and leveraging purchase intent data from its network of technology-focused websites and communities. It collects information on potential buyers as they seek technology solutions, leveraging real purchase intent insights to achieve marketing objectives more quickly. TechTarget improves process clarity and team visibility and povides real-time insights on who is actively searching for specific technologies, also enabling precise targeting based on actual buyer intent rather than predictions.

Key features:

• Automatically prioritize accounts based on the level of need for your solution
• Leverage the Priority Engine tool to find active prospects from in-market accounts
• AI-driven content recommendations for prospects via email

Ideal for: B2B technology companies targeting highly engaged audiences actively researching solutions

KickFire (acquired by Foundry)

Recently acquired by Foundry, KickFire is a B2B intent data and website visitor identification platform. It helps businesses uncover anonymous website visitors, providing firmographic data and intent signals to support sales and marketing efforts. KickFire uncovers website visitors showing buying interest, segments and prioritizes engaged visitors, and discovers content resonating with the audience.

Key features:

• Company identification with firmographic data (name, website, industry, revenue, employee count, etc.)
• Real-time alerts for target account visits
• Integration with Google Marketing Platform (Analytics, Ads, Optimize, Data Studio)

Ideal for: Sales and marketing teams aiming to convert website traffic into leads and personalize outreach

Clearbit (acquired by HubSpot)

Clearbit, acquired by HubSpot in 2023, provides comprehensive B2B data enrichment to optimize CRM and salesforce workflows. Being integrated with HubSpot's CRM platform, it offers precise, standardized datasets that fuel better lead generation, segmentation, and automation efforts. The tool’s key focus is data enrichment.

Key features:

• Enhances existing contact and company data with firmographic, technographic, and intent signals
• Real-time lead scoring and routing
• IP intelligence for revealing buying intent from anonymous website traffic
• Dynamic form shortening to increase conversion rates

Ideal for: Companies seeking to improve their data quality and gain deeper insights for targeting.

How is UserGems intent data different?

UserGems takes a unique approach to intent data that sets it apart from traditional intent data providers. The platform focuses on existing relationships and champion tracking and offers a more targeted and personalized way to identify and act on high-value opportunities.

Focus on existing relationships

Unlike many providers that capture broader market intent signals, UserGems concentrates on leveraging your existing customer relationships to uncover growth opportunities. This approach allows you to tap into warm leads and familiar contacts, increasing your chances of success.

Champion tracking

UserGems specifically monitors when your "champions" – key contacts within customer accounts – change jobs or get promoted. This signals a potential opening to expand into their new company or deepen your engagement within their current one, increasing their lifetime value. By tracking these movements, you can:

• Proactively engage with decision-makers who already know and trust your brand
• Identify potential churn risks and take action to retain valuable customers
• Uncover new opportunities for expansion and cross-selling

Relationship-driven insights

By prioritizing established connections, UserGems enables you to build upon existing relationships rather than starting from scratch. This approach can lead to:

• Shorter sales cycles
• Higher conversion rates
• Increased customer lifetime value

Integration with existing intent data

UserGems doesn't replace your current intent data – it enhances it. By combining UserGems' relationship-based insights with your existing intent data, you can:

1. Identify high-intent accounts using your current tools
2. Leverage UserGems to find the best contacts within those accounts
3. Reach out with personalized, timely messages based on your existing relationships

This integrated approach allows you to maximize the value of both broad market intent signals and your existing customer relationships, creating a more effective and efficient sales process.

Benefits for sales teams

For sales representatives, UserGems transforms the often tedious process of working high-intent accounts:

• Eliminates the need to manually search for contacts across multiple tools
• Provides clear, actionable insights on who to contact and why
• Enables personalized outreach based on existing relationships
• Facilitates multi-threading by identifying multiple relevant contacts within an account

How other providers do it

Many intent data providers, such as ZoomInfo, 6sense, and Demandbase, focus on capturing a wide range of intent signals across the web, including:

• Search behavior
• Content consumption
• Social media engagement
• Website visits

While these broader intent signals can help you reach new prospects, they often lack the personal connection and warm introduction that UserGems provides.

Boost your pipeline with intent data signals

B2B intent data comes in various forms, each offering unique insights into potential customers' buying journey. From broad market signals to specific account-based activities, intent data has become an indispensable tool for modern sales and marketing teams.

However, the true power of intent data lies not just in its collection, but in how it's applied to drive meaningful interactions and close deals.

UserGems takes intent data to the next level by focusing on what matters most in B2B sales: relationships. Combining traditional intent signals with insights from your existing customer base allows UserGems to provide a more targeted, personalized approach to account-based marketing and sales.

As the B2B landscape continues to evolve, staying ahead means not just having data, but having the right data and knowing how to use it effectively.

Don't let valuable opportunities slip through the cracks. UserGems can help you transform your intent data into actionable, relationship-driven insights that drive real results. Schedule a demo to see UserGems in action.

Intent data FAQs

What are the benefits of using intent data in sales and marketing?

Intent data offers lots of benefits that can transform the way sales and marketing teams operate, driving more targeted and effective strategies. It lets you discover prospects actively demonstrating interest in your product or service through their online behavior and prioritize leads with the highest likelihood of conversion.

Also, understanding individual intent signals enables you to adapt your messaging and outreach, addressing the audience’s specific needs and pain points. This leads to a more relevant and engaging customer experience, fostering trust and loyalty. You can also segment your audience based on their intent data to deliver the right content and offers to the right people at the right time, which results in more effective campaigns with higher conversion rates and improved ROI.

Finally, with a clear picture of prospect priorities and buying intent, sales teams can prioritize their efforts, shortening sales cycles, and closing deals faster.

What’s the difference between intent data and relationship data?

Intent data captures online behaviors signaling a prospect's interest in a product or service, helping businesses identify and prioritize potential customers actively considering a purchase.

Relationship data, on the other hand, tracks connections and interactions between individuals and companies, offering insights into key decision-makers and potential advocates within target accounts. 

While different, these two data types complement each other and let you create more personalized campaigns, improve engagement effectiveness, and build stronger customer relationships.