About 1 in 3 B2B Sales and Marketing Leaders Say They Use Intent Data in Their GTM Strategies

September 16, 2022

Research has shown that the primary goal of using intent data is to identify new accounts to target. A new study [download page] from Demand Gen Report and Demandbase indicates that some B2B marketers are putting intent data to use in their go-to-market (GTM) strategies, though other data types are more heavily relied on for this purpose.

The survey, fielded among more than 200 B2B marketing and sales leaders, reveals that the most common types of data used in GTM strategies are account history and contact data, each by 57% of respondents. There’s then a large drop-off to the proportion using website activity (38%), followed closely by marketing campaign activity (37%), intent data (35%), and social insights (33%).

Separate results contained in the report suggest an opportunity for revenue teams, according to the authors: only about one-quarter (26%) of respondents are using intent data to assist in timing their engagement. The analysts indicate that “this represents a huge opportunity for revenue teams to capitalize on, enabling them to be first to the party and therefore improve deal velocity.”

While few are using account data and intelligence to time their engagements, many use these types of data – such as intent and technographics – for account prioritization (59%), competitive intelligence (55%) and personalized messaging and outreach (49%).

Other Findings:

  • Some 40% share of respondents define GTM as “how you take a new product to market,” while about one-third (32%) define it as “all customer-facing activities, including marketing, sales, account retention, and growth.”
  • Respondents believe that the most critical element to driving growth in the coming year will be improving sales and marketing alignment. Last year, a similar survey found this to be the biggest GTM priority.
  • A majority (54%) of respondents track marketing influence on pipeline using multi-touch attribution, though 1 in 7 (14% share) don’t track marketing’s influence on pipeline at all.
  • The biggest data challenges for B2B marketing and sales leaders are missing or incomplete information (59%) and data quality (56%).
  • Asked how their GTM strategy is evolving to support increasing buyer preferences for “self-service,” respondents cited product tours (46%), interactive demos (45%) and online calculators (43%) first, followed by demo videos (39%) and free trials (23%).

About the Data: The results are based on a survey of 224 high-level B2B sales and marketing leaders. About two-thirds (68%) are from organizations making at least $100 million in annual revenues.

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