Buyer intent marketing is the process of setting up an advertising campaign specific to not only a demographic but a demographic that is showing an intent to buy your product or service. When used as part of your overall strategy, buyer intent is a powerful addition to any marketing strategy. Let me show you why.
Start With Defining Your Best Customer
Intent marketing is an artificial intelligence assisted identification of your prime customer. Initially, demographics such as geographic, gender, estimated income, and other preferences are used to identify your best customer. To do this, you’ll need to look at purchase history records, surveys, and possibly some more in-depth investigation from your agency to look at demographic characteristics that define who you want to do business with. Of note, you can have more than one profile. In marketing we often use the term persona to group similar demographics into one entity. Like the “college student” persona or “DINKs” persona. You may have your own name to identify. Once this profile, or profiles, are built, you can look at intent.
Identifying an Intent
An intent is really a pattern of behavior online that shows someone has an intent to do something. The “something” could be take a vacation, buy a house, or purchase a product. To identify the intent, we use machine-learning AI to find that pattern. Think about this. Let’s pretend our friend “Sam” is thinking of buying a house. So, Sam starts browsing for neighborhoods. Maybe a school district or amenity like a golf course are important. So you Sam keeps searching. From there Sam starts looking for available homes and pricing. Maybe next Sam is researching mortgage options. You get the picture.
If you were in the mortgage business, you’d want to start capturing Sam’s attention before they start looking at homes. As a great mortgage company, you’ll give great advice and show Sam how to use his money most effectively. In short, Sam needs your help! Enter intent marketing.
Talking to Your Prospect at the Right Time
When one of your best personas is showing intent, that’s when the marketing kicks in. Using display ads, you begin to talk to that prospect. You start answering questions you know they’ll have in the research process. You offer advice, downloads, or discounts. Maybe you comfort someone that you know will be stressed at this time. In short, you start talking to them as if they were sitting at the table with you and you were guiding them along. You can do this because with intent marketing you know where they are at in their research, and your expertise allows you to help in the best way.
How Do You Get the Data?
Intent marketing is the result of third party cookies that gather surfing patterns and history from your web browser. Often times, multiple devices can share these same cookies so we gather as much data as possible for an individual. This gathered data is anonymized so no personal information is gathered, just the behavior and the device IDs of that individual. This cookie data is what the AI program uses to look for cues around a behavior. All the data collected is agreed to from website cookie consent and other add-on opt-ins to ensure there is nothing illegal or invasive.
Putting It All Together
When you identify personas and link that with intent, you have a powerful marketing tool. Having the ability to talk to your best customers at the time they would need you most allows you to separate your message from the noise. When done well, you establish your brand as a trusted resource for the journey, and that leads to increased sales. Even if you are not the ultimate vendor of choice, being a resource increases your chances to be referred by someone when they hear a friend looking for what you do.
As the world of digital behavior grows, you can expect to see more and more directed targeting. Content can change dynamically, ad choices presented are updated, and even pricing online may adjust. At Element 502 we work with companies to keep their message in front of the best prospect every day. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to contact us and start a conversation.
