New Survey Report: The B2B Marketer’s State of Intent Data

I’ve always found a lot of value in B2B marketing surveys. Done well, they capture the pulse of today’s trends, concerns, opportunities, etc.

And there have been some decent intent data surveys over the past few years. Though, they’ve mostly just scratched the surface of important questions, remaining quite high level. This is somewhat understandable. Intent data and intent-related technology are still new. So, plunging into the weeds may have been premature in the past.

A few months back, Todd Lebo, CEO of Ascend2, and I were discussing this issue. We both agreed that with so many B2B marketing orgs now using or intending to adopt intent data (90%), the time was right to drill deeper than the typical “Are you using intent data?” and “Do you like it?” questions.

So, we got to work. The result is a new report surveying B2B marketing leaders regarding the ways they use intent data as well as their successes and challenges as they relate to specific use cases. Further, we made sure to connect these insights to their more general marketing priorities, and even compared these intent-user results to those of non-intent users who were also surveyed. What we found was pretty insightful.

A Few Report Findings 

• Intent data users perceive their overall B2B marketing strategy to be more successful than those who do not yet use intent data (70% vs 33%, respectively).
• Marketers who reported the active use of intent data are most concerned with growth and fine-tuning strategies and tactics (e.g., scaling program results) while intent non-users continue to deal with more basic issues like cross-functional collaboration and trying to reach target audiences.
• While respondents overwhelmingly find intent data to be effective (93%), nearly 6 out of 10 B2B marketers experience wasted resources and staff time as a result of new challenges associated with using intent data.

The new report, titled “The B2B Marketer’s State of Intent Data,” covers a lot more than that, though. Gathering and analyzing the insights of 289 B2B marketing professionals at businesses operating in the U.S. with over $10M in annual revenue and seniority levels from manager to C-level, the report’s findings highlight:

• Strategic successes of intent users vs non-intent users
• Today’s critical challenges for B2B marketers and intent data’s efficacy in solving these challenges
• The specific ways B2B marketers are using intent data—including number and types of intent sources
• The most impactful use cases for intent data
• The biggest challenges in leveraging intent as well as the associate costs of these challenges
• Typical time required to see ROI on intent data—measured against expectations
• Feedback from sales colleagues regarding the use of intent

…and more.

You can get your free copy of the new “The B2B Marketer’s State of Intent Data” report here.