What is intent-based marketing in B2B?

Intent-based marketing in B2B is the practice of using buyer intent signals -- data that indicates a company is actively researching a specific product category or solution -- to prioritise which accounts to target and when to engage them. The intent signal is the digital footprint left when a company's employees research a topic: reading industry content on third-party publisher sites, comparing products on review sites like G2 or Capterra, searching for specific keywords on Google, or visiting a vendor's website and viewing pricing or comparison content. Intent data providers (primarily Bombora, G2, TechTarget, and 6sense) aggregate these signals from thousands of content sources and surface them to vendors as "accounts showing intent for [your category] this week." The appeal of intent-based marketing is the ability to reach accounts at the precise moment they are most receptive to outreach -- when they are actively in the market. A company that is not yet researching CRM alternatives will not respond well to CRM vendor outreach no matter how well-targeted it is. A company that is actively comparing three CRM options will be far more receptive to a well-timed, relevant outreach from a fourth CRM vendor. Intent data allows the sales and marketing team to shift resources from spraying outreach across a broad account list toward concentrating on the accounts most likely to engage and convert in the near term.

What are the main B2B intent data providers?

The main B2B intent data providers and their primary use cases: Bombora (bombora.com): the largest third-party B2B intent data provider, with a "data cooperative" that aggregates content consumption signals from 5,000+ B2B content publisher sites. Bombora's "Company Surge" data scores accounts on their level of research activity for specific topics. Bombora data powers the intent signals in many other platforms (6sense, Terminus, and some CRM native intent features integrate Bombora data). G2 Buyer Intent (g2.com/products/buyer-intent): identifies companies that are actively visiting your G2 profile, comparing you with competitors on G2, and reading your category's G2 grid. G2 Buyer Intent is particularly valuable because the accounts viewing a vendor's G2 profile are extremely far along in their evaluation -- they are actively comparing vendors in the category. Available as part of G2 vendor subscriptions. 6sense (6sense.com): an integrated ABM and revenue intelligence platform that combines Bombora intent data with first-party data, account identification (identifying which companies are visiting your website anonymously), predictive scoring, and advertising activation. 6sense aims to be a complete "account-based experience" platform rather than just a data provider. TechTarget Priority Engine (techtarget.com): intent data from TechTarget's network of B2B technology content sites (specific to IT, infrastructure, security, and enterprise software buyers). Strong for vendors targeting technical IT buyers and CISOs.

How should SDRs use buyer intent data in B2B prospecting?

Intent data integration into the SDR workflow: (1) Configure intent alerts: set up the intent data provider (Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent, 6sense) to push daily or weekly alerts when accounts on your target account list (TAL) show elevated intent scores for your category. These alerts can be delivered via email, via Slack, or as a filtered view in the CRM. (2) Prioritise outreach sequence: SDRs using intent data should organise their outreach queue by intent signal strength. Accounts with the highest intent scores (multiple signals, recent spike in activity, specific intent topics directly matching the vendor's product) get the first outreach attempt on the first day of the signal. Accounts with moderate intent scores are contacted within the first week. Accounts with low or no intent are contacted in a lower-priority background cadence. (3) Reference the category signal in outreach: when crafting outreach messages to intent-identified accounts, reference the timing and the category in a way that makes the outreach feel relevant rather than generic. For example: "Given the number of companies in [industry] that are revisiting their RevOps stack right now, I wanted to share a quick comparison we put together of the main options -- specifically how we approach [specific pain point] differently." The intent signal tells you that they are in-market; the message references the market context without revealing the surveillance. (4) Shorten follow-up cycles: for intent-identified accounts, compress the outreach cadence. Intent signals are time-sensitive (most intent spikes last 60-90 days before subsiding); an SDR who contacts an intent account 6 weeks after the signal peaks is far less likely to convert than one who contacts within the first 2 weeks of the spike.

B2B Intent-Based Marketing: How to Use Buyer Intent Data to Target In-Market B2B Accounts

B2B intent-based marketing is a demand generation and sales prioritisation approach that uses buyer intent data -- signals of active research behaviour collected from third-party content consumption, search activity, and product review site engagement -- to identify which accounts are currently in-market for a specific product or category, and to focus sales and marketing resources on those accounts above others that show no in-market signals. Intent data has become a standard component of ABM programmes, SDR prospecting workflows, and paid advertising targeting in B2B marketing.

Types of B2B buyer intent data

First-party intent data: signals generated by a company's own digital properties -- website visits, content downloads, demo requests, webinar registrations, email clicks, and pricing page visits. First-party intent data is highly reliable (you know exactly who visited your website and what they looked at) but has limited reach (it only captures companies that have already found your website or content, which is a small fraction of the total in-market audience). CRM systems and marketing automation platforms like HubSpot, Marketo, and Pardot capture and score first-party intent signals; website visitor identification tools like Clearbit Reveal, Leadfeeder, and 6sense identify the company behind anonymous website visits.
Third-party intent data: signals aggregated from thousands of B2B content publishers, technology news sites, and review platforms across the internet. When a company's employees repeatedly read articles about cloud migration, or compare ERP vendors on G2, or download multiple whitepapers about CRM selection criteria, these content consumption signals are captured by third-party intent data providers and sold to vendors in the relevant categories as intent signals. The major third-party B2B intent data providers include Bombora (the largest; powers intent signals in 6sense, G2 Buyer Intent, and many other platforms), TechTarget Priority Engine, and G2 Buyer Intent. Third-party intent data extends the reach of intent-based targeting to accounts that are actively researching the category but have not yet visited the vendor's own website.
In-product intent signals: for companies that have a free tier or a trial of their product, in-product usage patterns (which features are being explored, how deep into the product a user has gone, whether they have invited team members) are strong intent signals for conversion and expansion. In-product intent data is the most reliable indicator of purchase intent because it reflects actual product evaluation, not just category research.

How to implement intent-based marketing

Select an intent data provider and integrate with your CRM: the intent data workflow starts with choosing a data provider (Bombora for broad coverage, G2 Buyer Intent for accounts actively visiting your G2 profile, 6sense or Demandbase for an integrated intent platform) and integrating the intent signals into your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot) or ABM platform. Once integrated, accounts showing intent signals can be automatically assigned to the SDR outreach queue or added to targeted advertising audiences.
Layer intent data over your ICP filter: intent data is most valuable when filtered through your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) criteria. An account showing strong intent signals but outside your ICP (wrong industry, wrong company size, wrong geography) is not a good lead. Prioritise the intersection of high intent + strong ICP fit. This intersection -- accounts that match your target profile AND are actively researching your category -- is the highest-priority outreach tier for the SDR team and the most efficient audience for ABM advertising.
Personalise outreach based on the intent signal: when outreach to an intent-identified account is triggered, reference the intent signal in the opening of the outreach (without revealing that you have surveillance-level knowledge of the account's research behaviour). Generic: "I'm reaching out because companies like yours often struggle with CRM adoption." Intent-informed: "I noticed that [category research signal -- phrased as: companies with your profile are often evaluating CRM alternatives at this stage of growth] -- and wanted to share how other [industry] companies have solved this." The personalisation does not need to explicitly say "we know you are researching us" -- referencing the timing and the category is sufficient to make the outreach feel highly relevant.
Use intent data for advertising audience targeting: intent data providers integrate with LinkedIn, Google, and programmatic advertising platforms to allow vendors to serve targeted ads exclusively to accounts showing intent signals for their category. This means a CRM vendor can show LinkedIn ads specifically to the 200 companies that are currently showing strong research intent for CRM solutions, rather than to a broad audience of all potential CRM buyers. Intent-targeted advertising generates significantly higher click rates and conversion rates than category-level targeting because the audience is pre-qualified by their research behaviour.

Frequently asked questions

What is intent-based marketing in B2B?: Intent-based marketing in B2B is the practice of using buyer intent signals -- data that indicates a company is actively researching a specific product category or solution -- to prioritise which accounts to target and when to engage them. The intent signal is the digital footprint left when a company's employees research a topic: reading industry content on third-party publisher sites, comparing products on review sites like G2 or Capterra, searching for specific keywords on Google, or visiting a vendor's website and viewing pricing or comparison content. Intent data providers (primarily Bombora, G2, TechTarget, and 6sense) aggregate these signals from thousands of content sources and surface them to vendors as "accounts showing intent for [your category] this week." The appeal of intent-based marketing is the ability to reach accounts at the precise moment they are most receptive to outreach -- when they are actively in the market. A company that is not yet researching CRM alternatives will not respond well to CRM vendor outreach no matter how well-targeted it is. A company that is actively comparing three CRM options will be far more receptive to a well-timed, relevant outreach from a fourth CRM vendor. Intent data allows the sales and marketing team to shift resources from spraying outreach across a broad account list toward concentrating on the accounts most likely to engage and convert in the near term.
What are the main B2B intent data providers?: The main B2B intent data providers and their primary use cases: Bombora (bombora.com): the largest third-party B2B intent data provider, with a "data cooperative" that aggregates content consumption signals from 5,000+ B2B content publisher sites. Bombora's "Company Surge" data scores accounts on their level of research activity for specific topics. Bombora data powers the intent signals in many other platforms (6sense, Terminus, and some CRM native intent features integrate Bombora data). G2 Buyer Intent (g2.com/products/buyer-intent): identifies companies that are actively visiting your G2 profile, comparing you with competitors on G2, and reading your category's G2 grid. G2 Buyer Intent is particularly valuable because the accounts viewing a vendor's G2 profile are extremely far along in their evaluation -- they are actively comparing vendors in the category. Available as part of G2 vendor subscriptions. 6sense (6sense.com): an integrated ABM and revenue intelligence platform that combines Bombora intent data with first-party data, account identification (identifying which companies are visiting your website anonymously), predictive scoring, and advertising activation. 6sense aims to be a complete "account-based experience" platform rather than just a data provider. TechTarget Priority Engine (techtarget.com): intent data from TechTarget's network of B2B technology content sites (specific to IT, infrastructure, security, and enterprise software buyers). Strong for vendors targeting technical IT buyers and CISOs.
How should SDRs use buyer intent data in B2B prospecting?: Intent data integration into the SDR workflow: (1) Configure intent alerts: set up the intent data provider (Bombora, G2 Buyer Intent, 6sense) to push daily or weekly alerts when accounts on your target account list (TAL) show elevated intent scores for your category. These alerts can be delivered via email, via Slack, or as a filtered view in the CRM. (2) Prioritise outreach sequence: SDRs using intent data should organise their outreach queue by intent signal strength. Accounts with the highest intent scores (multiple signals, recent spike in activity, specific intent topics directly matching the vendor's product) get the first outreach attempt on the first day of the signal. Accounts with moderate intent scores are contacted within the first week. Accounts with low or no intent are contacted in a lower-priority background cadence. (3) Reference the category signal in outreach: when crafting outreach messages to intent-identified accounts, reference the timing and the category in a way that makes the outreach feel relevant rather than generic. For example: "Given the number of companies in [industry] that are revisiting their RevOps stack right now, I wanted to share a quick comparison we put together of the main options -- specifically how we approach [specific pain point] differently." The intent signal tells you that they are in-market; the message references the market context without revealing the surveillance. (4) Shorten follow-up cycles: for intent-identified accounts, compress the outreach cadence. Intent signals are time-sensitive (most intent spikes last 60-90 days before subsiding); an SDR who contacts an intent account 6 weeks after the signal peaks is far less likely to convert than one who contacts within the first 2 weeks of the spike.

Keep reading

B2B Intent-Based Marketing: How to Use Buyer Intent Data to Target In-Market Accounts

Types of B2B buyer intent data

How to implement intent-based marketing

Frequently asked questions

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