Your Guide to Intent for the Full Funnel

With a full-funnel approach, you can be relevant to your customers all the way from awareness to purchase (and beyond). Knowing what your potential customers want makes it easier to connect with them at every stage of the buying cycle. So what’s the key to unlocking the power of personalization for your whole funnel?

Intent data. Let’s get into all the ways Intent can be valuable to your go-to-market strategy from top to bottom.

Uncovering customer Intent at each stage of the buyer journey 

First things first: if you want to personalize the potential of intent data all across the customer funnel, you should make sure you know what your prospects are doing at each stage. That way, you can meet them where they are with personalized content and outreach. 

Jo Reyes, Vice President of Segment Marketing at Bombora, had some great insight about this during our webinar on buying signal secrets: 

“What we actually do with our intent data is we do a historical look back on what success actually looks like. We can actually see and map that buyer’s journey when specific intent topics are spiking, when it’s a lull, and  when it spikes again. There’s normally three spikes of surge intent that happen throughout the journey.

What happens is the first surge comes from someone that’s doing the research, that has bought in on this technology or this product that’s going to help them increase their efficiency. And then the second one is normally where more decision makers are coming in. Now they’ve heard what the research said. Now they’re doing their research and perhaps aligning it to the overall company goal. And then normally that last piece of surge happens with all of the departments that need to cross the t’s and c’s – the legal, the finance. I think it’s really important to align your marketing efforts to a historical look-back.”

This step is a great way to understand your funnel from start to finish. And once you understand how your funnel actually flows, you can catch your prospects before that wave of interest surges. And you can use this to personalize your marketing and sales by persona. 

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Personalize at the top of the funnel (TOFU) 

At the top of the funnel your prospects are just starting to become aware of their needs and challenges, but they probably don’t know you exist yet. You might not even be a blip on their radar. This is where you can come in with TOFU content that’s relevant to them. 

With intent data, you don’t have to assume what your audience is interested in – you get to know for sure. You can come up with strategies based on facts, not guesses. 

So what does that look like on a practical level?

Take a look at companies that fit your ideal customer profile (ICP). What relevant topics are they surging for? On the Lusha platform, you can figure this out by going to the Intent tab and adding filters like location, company size, and industry to narrow the results down to your ICP. Check which topics are  on the rise for these companies.

Come at them with content

Armed with insights from intent data, you can now create top of funnel content that speaks to your prospects’ interests. You can create educational resources like whitepapers and blogs based on these topics and become a thought leader in your prospects’ favorite spaces. Remember that good top of funnel content is supposed to inform or entertain, but not sell. Marketing leader Joe Chernov famously said, “Your top of the funnel content must be intellectually divorced from your product but emotionally wed to it.” Let’s put it another way. TOFU content should be related to ideas that are relevant to your product but not actually about your product.

Add value to ads

You can also create eye-catching ads that focus on the specific areas of interest for your target market. Your market is showing surging interest around a specific solution you offer? Time to create an advertising campaign focused on that offering. 

Even events benefit from Intent

This also works for other brand awareness initiatives like trade shows and other event marketing. You can use intent data to engage with your prospects using personalized information before, during, and after the trade show.

When your prospects stumble upon your perfectly-targeted TOFU activities, they’ll feel like you’re reading their minds. 

Engage prospects in the middle of the funnel (MOFU)

Here’s where intent data takes personalization to the next level. Your prospects are actively considering solutions now, and you might even be one of the intent topics they’re looking for. 

You’ve got email E.S.P.

This is where your go-to-market team has the opportunity to really go ham with email strategies. Here’s just some of what you can do. Your marketing team can create segmented lists based on intent data, sending emails based on your prospects’ topic interests. Sales teams get a boost to email strategies too. Intent helps you identify who to reach out to. The prospects who’ve been actively looking for your solution get to be priority number one, since they’re more likely to be open to outreach.  And since intent data can show you what those target prospects have been researching, your SDRs can reach out with specific messaging. Sending out a personalized email instead of something generic and ignorable means your SDRs have a much higher chance of success. 

Reveal opportunities for relevant resources

But email isn’t the only place that all the fun is happening. A closer look at intent data means you can whip up messaging that hits the sweet spot. And that messaging can be more than just emails. This is a great opportunity for targeted content offers. Just like in other stages of the funnel, you can use Intent to figure out the active interests or pain points of your ICP. Then you can create valuable resources your prospects will love, like compelling case studies and industry reports that showcase your expertise.  

Win at workshops and webinars

The middle of the funnel is also an ideal spot to place a unique, nuanced webinar or workshop with a topic perfectly matched to your prospects. When you look at your intent data, what topics are your audience surging for? If that’s what they find interesting right now, then you know exactly what you should cover in your next webinar. 

Hyper-focus to close the sale at the bottom of the funnel (BOFU)

You’ve reached the decision-making stage – now it’s time to seal the deal. Intent can help you push that sale across the finish line. Here’s how: 

Summon super-special offers

The bottom of the funnel is where things like product demonstrations and free trials come in real handy. But you don’t want them to be same-old, same-old for everyone. Use intent data to give these offerings an extra-personalized touch. Depending on the topics your prospect shows intent for, you can make personalized demos and trials based on their specific needs. And you know what that means – an increased chance of conversion.

Be pitch perfect

This is where the sales team can use Intent to make the best pitch possible. If you assume that one prospect is interested in the exact same things as all the others, you’re missing out on the opportunity to really win them over. Use intent data to identify what topics they’re most concerned about, and shape your pitch around that. When you focus on the problems, products, and solutions that your prospect really cares about, you’ll hit all the right notes — and increase your chance of a closed-won deal.

Score!

If you’re like most companies, you don’t just shoot your shot with any prospect, you lead score. Well, guess what – Intent helps with that too. Add intent data to your lead scoring by assigning higher scores to the prospects who show strong intent for certain topics. That way, your team can focus on the leads who show a high level of interest in what you’re offering.

Don’t forget about Intent post-purchase

The fun doesn’t stop just because a prospect becomes a customer. Intent data helps you build (and continue) long-lasting relationships. You can deliver personalized experiences, show them you understand their evolving needs, and offer delightful surprises along the way– turning them into your most loyal fans and advocates. So while Intent can help turn prospects into customers,  keep an eye on the intent interests of your current customers, too. 

Are your customers showing intent for an offering that’s not in the package they purchased from you? There’s your opportunity for a cross-sell or upsell, depending on how that topic fits into your product offerings. 

And if they start showing intent for the same problem you solve or even –gasp– one of your competitors, that might mean that they’re not super satisfied. Prevent potential churn by sending their account manager or customer support manager swooping in to figure out what the problem might be. 

So there you have it – Intent is a secret weapon that helps you understand your prospects, personalize your messaging, optimize conversions, and build long-lasting relationships at every stage of the funnel. It’s a valuable — and versatile–  addition to your GTM tool belt. Which is why Lusha offers it as part of our warm outbound suite. With our super easy-to-use platform and dynamic data, you can get started with Intent and start dazzling your prospects in no time. 

Key takeaways

• At the top of the funnel, Intent can help you identify trending topics for content and ads and will level up your trade show strategy. 
• At the middle of the funnel, you can use intent to personalize emails and identify relevant topics for webinars and high-value resources like whitepapers. 
• At the bottom of the funnel, intent data helps with lead scoring and with personalization of pitches and product demos. 
• The Intent fun doesn’t stop at purchase; intent data also helps with customer loyalty, identifying opportunities for upselling, cross-selling, and churn prevention.