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3 Ways to Use Intent Data in Multichannel Orchestrations

Author: Kirsten Yee

3 ways to use intent data
Intent data, account based marketing, and orchestration are on (almost) every marketer’s “to-do” list, and all of these things work best in tandem with one another. A lot of marketers are using intent data, have an ABM platform and may even have some level of orchestrated campaigns. Marketers are missing the mark when it comes to taking that intent data and using it to fuel orchestrated ABM campaigns that can move prospects (based on intent signals) to different stages of the campaign. If you find yourself with intent data and an ABM platform – here are three ways you can start using those things together to create an orchestrated campaign.
Still unsure about how to use your intent data? Try our Definitive Guide to Activating Intent Data. 

Intent-Based Targeting

Dynamic audiences

One of the biggest challenges marketers face every day (besides overwhelming expectations with limited budget and resources) is knowing what accounts should be nurtured at what time. Intent-based targeting fills that gap. Marketing teams now have the power to create dynamic audiences based on intent-data that can fuel orchestrated campaigns. Intent scores can change daily, and utilizing dynamic audiences ensures you’re never missing out on accounts with high propensity to buy. 

 

While it is common to see intent-based audiences in regular ABM campaigns, it’s not as often found in ABM orchestrated/multichannel campaigns. This is a missed opportunity because the value of intent is that it tells you who is interested in your product now. If you rely on a human to manually upload accounts/contacts and push them through stages, you will likely be a few steps behind where the prospect is in their purchase journey. ABM orchestrated campaigns can map accounts based on intent topics and then move them through a personalized buying experience, without the constant involvement from marketing.

Create and enrich actual leads

While creating dynamic audiences based on intent is a great way to begin targeting personas quickly within an account, getting to the individual decision-makers or contacts demonstrating intent to buy is the next piece of the puzzle. Knowing what accounts are looking to make a purchase can only take you so far – using intent to identify the actual buying group is what builds pipeline with a higher chance of revenue.

 

While you may already have an intent data provider that gives you visibility into what accounts are in a buying cycle, you will need to determine the people you need to reach. You’ve found the building, but now you need to find the people inside. 

Intent-Based Personalization

Website overlays + pop-ups

One of the best ways to start using intent data is by personalizing your website with overlays and pop-ups based on known topics of interest. If an account is showing intent on one of the many offerings you have, segment the account and personalize the site so the next time they come to your website they are met with relevant messaging that guides them to the next step in their purchase journey. Intent is also a great way to choose who sees what type of pop-up CTA based on topics of interest. 

Onsite messaging

Similarly to the website overlays and pop-ups, onsite messaging can and should be adjusted for prospects showing intent. Account behavior can be flagged before the account ever comes to your website. Based on their behavior, accounts can be categorized into different audiences based on topics or solutions of interest. Then when the accounts do come to your website the website content is altered to fit their needs and goals. Pro tip: even without intent you can use this tactic to change out content and imagery based on industry.

See more ways you can use intent-based personalization.

Intent-Based Sales Actions

Custom landing pages

Knowing the best time to reach out is one thing, but knowing what to say when you reach out is the second piece of the puzzle. With intent-based orchestrations, you can see those signals and automatically trigger custom outreach resources like Triblio’s 1 to 1 landing pages (Triblio Smart Pages). Sales and Business Development teams can use those materials, customize them and reach out with information that is relevant to the prospect’s goals. Another thing to remember is as the intent signals change, it’s important to respond by adjusting content to the new needs of the prospects. Pro tip: Across the Triblio customer base, outreach containing Smart Pages are 3x more likely to elicit a response than those without.

Trigger next best action for sales reps

Intent-based orchestrations can support your sales team by flagging when accounts are researching your product and service (or your competitors). When intent signals come in, it can send notifications to your sales team via email or CRM. So your sales team is getting a fuller picture of where prospects are in their buyer’s journey, even if they are not sharing that information. For example, sometimes prospects go cold and ghost your sales team. It may seem like the deal is lost, but other times intent signals show that they are still interacting with content on their Triblio Smart Page, or on your website. That is when an intent-based orchestration would identify that signal and push the prospect to another set of messaging that is aligned with where they are in their buyer’s journey.

Go Beyond Identifying New Accounts

Intent data is only powerful if you know how to utilize it throughout the entire funnel, beyond just identifying new accounts. It plays a key part in taking that a step further in ABM orchestrated campaigns by revealing what topics and solutions are of interest and should be prioritized with personalized content, and actions by the sales team. Intent data paired with ABM orchestration can be the foundation for a successful demand generation strategy. While both intent data and ABM orchestration are important on their own, together is where you see the multiplier effect. 

A Guide to Intent Data for Customer Retention

A Guide to Intent Data for Customer Retention

Everyone would like more leads.

Companies dedicate significant resources to improving their lead generation, trying to get as many potential customers into the top of their funnel as possible. It makes sense; after all, the more leads you have, the more customers you’ll end up with, right? 

However, lead generation is only half the story. After all, a million new customers won’t do you any good if they stop using your product/service the very next day. 

Instead, smart companies realize the importance of reducing churn and retaining their existing customers. Unfortunately, that’s often easier said than done. What causes customers to stop using your product/service, and how can you minimize this? 

What is churn?

When people talk about losing customers, they will often refer to their churn rate. This is the number of customers, as a percentage of your total customers, that stop using your product/service in a certain period.  

So, if you started the month with 1,000 customers, but 50 decided to quit, your churn rate at the end of the month would be 5%. 

The lower the number, the better you are at retaining customers.

It sounds simple, but it has big implications for your business.

Why you need to prioritize reducing churn

With 82% of companies agreeing that it costs more to acquire new customers compared to retaining their current ones, it makes far more sense to prioritize your existing customer base.

Mitigating churn can have a massive impact on the metrics and KPIs you use to measure your business’s performance. If you’re losing customers, you’re going to be losing the revenue they bring in too. As a result, monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and annual recurring revenue (ARR), two metrics commonly used to measure the health of SaaS businesses, are going to take a hit. 

If the churn rate is higher than customer acquisition, you’re in trouble. If they’re churning quickly and the customer lifetime value (LTV) is lower than the customer acquisition cost (CAC), you’re in serious trouble. 

It’s not just a matter of replacing those customers though. A 5% increase in customer retention can produce a 25% or more increase in profits. It’s even possible to achieve negative churn, where the revenue earned from existing customers (through upgrades, cross-sells, and so on) is higher than the revenue lost through customers leaving or downgrading. 

While there’s an obvious effect on revenue, a high churn rate is a warning, a symptom that something is seriously wrong with your service. Your brand reputation, maybe even your entire business, could be in danger. 

Why do customers churn?

It’s not enough to recognize that churn is bad for business; you have to identify why customers are churning in the first place. 

It might be a budgetary issue. As the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, companies cut any costs they could, restricting outgoings to just the bare essentials. UK marketing budgets were cut by their highest levels in over 20 years. While you might argue that your product is actually essential and provides a positive ROI, there’s not much you can do if the customer has no budget available. 

However, in many other cases, churn is completely preventable. If a lead hasn’t been properly qualified, then realize the product doesn’t do what they expected after signing up, chances are they’ll quickly churn. In this case, you might have an issue with your qualification process, either on the marketing or sales side, that you need to resolve. While it may seem great to close a new deal today, it’s no good if they churn tomorrow. It’s a waste of time and energy that could be spent pursuing leads that are a good fit. Instead, it’s better for your sales and marketing to focus on the leads who’ll get the most value out of your product. 

According to Retently, 53% of churn is due to a combination of poor onboarding, weak relationship building, and poor customer service. For example, customers who haven’t been properly onboarded may not see the value to their business. Customers who don’t feel cared for will look for a company that does nurture strong relationships. 

Of course, your product/service has to deliver the value your customer needs. If they’re getting a poor experience, whether that’s a clunky design or sub-par results, it won’t be long before they start looking for a better alternative. 

The good news is that, with intent data, it becomes a lot easier to anticipate when a customer is likely to churn, then put steps in place to resolve their issue.

Using intent data to prevent churn

Once you know the reasons people churn, it’s easier to prevent it. For example, many companies now have a Customer Success team in place. Rather than traditional Customer Support teams, who usually only jump into action when a customer reaches out in need of help, Customer Success proactively works with customers to ensure they’re getting the maximum value. 

One way they can do this is by leveraging intent data. 

While buyer intent data is an excellent way of finding potential customers who are looking at products like yours, it can also be used after prospects have converted to clients to see if they’re sending out signals that show they may be thinking of churning. 

For example, technographics are commonly used to see what technologies your prospective customers are using or trying out. However, if one of your existing customers has just signed up for a trial of a similar tool to yours, it’s a clear sign that they may be about to churn. 

Even before they start signing up for demos, they’ll likely be giving off other intent signals. If they’re searching for competitors, engaging with their content, or visiting review sites, those are other potential signals that they’re in danger of churning. 

Alternatively, their searches might indicate that they’re struggling with your product. If they’re having to Google how to do key tasks, then they’re likely confused or are struggling with your product, and it won’t be long before they start searching for another solution. This activity could even be happening on your site; if they’re spending an excessive amount of time on support pages or—even worse—looking up FAQs on how to cancel their contract, you need to know about it.

The knowledge gained from intent data can then be used to take appropriate action. In a post on CMSWire, Wilson Raj (global director of customer intelligence at SAS) shared how, when combined with analytics, intent data can be used to learn more about how your customers use your product/service and promote stronger engagement: “You can apply churn models such as uplift modeling and survival analysis to preempt customer defection with corrective actions, such as special offers or free upgrades.”

Beyond reaching out to the specific customers who are displaying the churn intent signals, the lessons you learn can be used to guide your overall product development, improving your service for all of your customers.

Achieving negative churn and increasing customer retention

Even when you address all of the potential customer satisfaction issues to minimize churn, you still might be missing out on opportunities. Even the happiest customer may look at other vendors for additional services if they don’t realize you can also provide them. If you offer a range of services, you must educate your customers on everything you can do to help them, a role usually handled by your Customer Success team. However, it’s likely that, despite your best efforts, some of your customers aren’t aware of all the services you offer.

By continuing to monitor buyer intent signals from your existing customers, you can see when your customers are looking for these extra services. At this point, you have an excellent opportunity to unlock additional revenue by cross-selling the service or helping them to upgrade. Companies like Amazon rely on cross-selling and product recommendations, which account for 35% of their overall revenue

If they’re a satisfied customer, they’re far more likely to spend the money with a provider they already know and trust. By selling to your existing customers, you can move closer to achieving negative churn.

You can also use data to keep track of your most valuable customers and build stronger relationships. For example, if you see your contact has been promoted, or the company opens a new location, you can send them a message congratulating them. If a new contact joins the company, you can take the initiative to introduce yourself and ensure they’re aware of all the ways you can help them. By taking an interest in your contact and their company, you can build a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship.

Conclusion

While it’s great to have a pipeline full of fresh new leads, it’s important not to neglect the customers you already have. Churn is an important metric to track and can have a huge effect on the health of your business. By using intent data wisely, you can see when customers are facing issues and anticipate when they’re in danger of churning. You can also help your satisfied customers by offering complementary services they’re searching for and engaging with them. By retaining more customers and providing more value, you can build a stronger business.

Stay ahead of your customer’s switching to a competitor. Get a custom intent report to see where you stand.