The Big Book of Intent

The Big Book of Intent 1 The Big Book of Intent How to grow revenue by identifying and targeting prospects when they’re ready to buy

Driving Intentional Demand Is a Modern-Day Must. Gary Halbert, widely considered one of the Imagine how effective your go-to-market most brilliant marketing minds of the modern campaigns could be if your marketing and era, gave a group of B2B professionals a sales teams knew precisely about the things thought experiment: that mattered most to your prospects. “If you were selling hamburgers, and you What if you had a crystal ball and not only could have ANY advantage, what would it be?” knew WHO was looking for your product but exactly WHEN they were looking? Some said they’d want the best-tasting burger in the world. Some said an ideal This is the purpose of intent data. location. Others said they’d want the lowest price available. Intent data is like having access to a live feed of what your prospects are looking to learn Gary said his advantage would sell more about throughout their buying journey. hamburgers than all of theirs combined. So…what was it? Collected in real time, intent data ensures Hungry customers. your brand is explicitly visible to current in-market buyers. It gives B2B growth Whether it’s hamburgers or software, the marketers the advantage they need to drive question that weighs heavily on every forward overwhelming growth goals in an organization is where do we find the people uncertain, competitive, and ever-changing who want need our product the most? digital landscape. This guide will help you understand how to gain that advantage Audiences are constantly by putting an end to “spray and pray” overwhelmed by blogs, social prospecting, cutting through the clutter, and media posts, TikTok videos, and endless ultimately smashing your quarterly targets digital noise. The irony is, many times after by knowing more about who your future being force-fed all this content, they’re still customers are, when they want to be found. left hungry for the information they’re looking for. 2

What’s Inside. 4 Part I: Intent Data 101 5 Intent Data, Simplified. 7 Who’s Ready for Intent Data? 13 How to Craft a Customer-focused Marketing Strategy with Intent. 20 How to Measure the Effectiveness of Intent Data. 22 Calculating the ROI of Intent Data. 23 Part II: How to win with G2 Buyer Intent 24 Understanding the Zero Moment of Truth. 28 The [Intent] Signal Matters. 31 How to Drive Intentional Demand with G2 Buyer Intent. 32 Additional Resources. DEMO ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 33

Part I: Intent Data 101 ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 44

Intent Data, Simplified. When teams are tasked with growing a more Intent data is a collection of precise data qualified demand pipeline, they look for points, or “signals,” that provide insights software that can help. Questions like “Can into prospects’ buying intentions. These we afford it? Will it integrate with our existing signals can show you where the prospect tech stack? What value will it add to our is in their buying process, competitive bottom line?” add to the anxiety of the search. intelligence on other solutions they’re They want to gather as much information considering, engagement activity with top as possible about the product experience, content, and more. key capabilities, and competing solutions to make the best choice for their team and We tend to trust our peers before we trust (technology) stack. a brand. And because of that, a growth advantage comes from using these Savvy sales and marketing teams know that actionable insights to drive efficiency and the buying journey starts with online research personalization in your prospecting and and content that helps cut through the noise. marketing outreach. Most buying journeys start familiarly: • Case-driven Google searches • Product/customer reviews and testimonials Since intent data provides an intuitive look • Educational (top-of-funnel) articles/ into real-time behavior, it allows your sales whitepapers/eBooks and marketing teams to make connections • Video content, including webinars, when they’re most influential—right at the recorded demos, and testimonials start of the prospect’s research journey. • Social media thought leadership, peer Suppose you sell an enterprise product reviews, and “nods of approval/dislikes” where your prospects are infrequently in-market. How valuable would it be to get That's where intent data comes in. an alert when a company searches your product, product category, or competitor? SOURCE: SALESFORCE ThThThe Big Book oe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intf Intent ent ent 555

Types of Intent Data. There are three main sources of intent data: First-party This is the data you collect directly from your customers and your owned web properties. If you track email campaigns or use website cookies, marketing automation workflows, or social listening tools, congrats! You’re already collecting first-party intent data. Second-party This is first-party data owned or used by a company other than the original entity that sourced the information. For example, insurance companies have data on when someone’s been in an accident. They then sell their first-party data to a car dealership so the dealership knows the prospect may be looking to buy a new car. That’s second-party data. Third-party Third-party data comes from companies that focus on selling data, which means it comes from various digital sources, such as web engagement, ad impressions, events, and intelligence across multiple digital channels. It can also be sourced from a data co-op, where publishers offer privacy- compliant audience data gathered from browsing and purchase activity of online prospects. While it can give you a broader scope of web activities to pull audience insights from, you risk collecting a very high volume of signals, raising the volume on your campaign noise dial, and using data that’s non- compliant with privacy standards and global regulations. Buyer beware! Using data gathered from web activity without due consent—intentionally or unintentionally—goes against GDPR and CCPA regulations and can result in heavy fines. If you aren’t completely sure about the validity of where your data is coming from, proceed with extreme caution. According to a recent Dun & Bradstreet report, 62% of surveyed marketing leaders said good data and good data governance allow them to accurately identify target audiences for sales and marketing campaigns. SOURCE: (DNB) The Big Book of Intent 66

Who’s Ready for Intent Data? Intent data is most commonly used by It takes teams and leaders focused on growth companies that take an account-based and retention day in and day out to keep up marketing (ABM) approach to sales and with the ever-evolving needs of their target marketing. While it’s helpful to have high- personas. So who should hold the main velocity sales outreach and a well-oiled responsibility of optimizing their marketing marketing machine, intent data and ABM can and sales intelligence with intent data? be layered in with a traditional MQL waterfall model. Regardless of MarTech stack, intent Since it’s a team effort, let’s dive into a few roles. data can drive sales and marketing alignment and contribute to building quality pipeline. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 77

The Growth Marketer a.k.a the Demand Generation Marketer Chief challenge • Keeping the pipeline pumped with quality leads, connecting with a larger addressable market, and increasing marketing ROI Goals Key metrics • Build brand presence and trust • Marketing qualified lead in a crowded marketplace (MQL) volume • Intelligently grow a profitable • Marketing-sourced pipeline pipeline with quality prospects • Content/brand engagement • Maximize conversion opportunities • Deal velocity • Lower cost per acquisition • Marketing’s contribution to closed/won revenue Winning with intent data As a growth marketer, insight into your prospects’ intent can help you create meaningful content to help influence their purchase decisions. By identifying what stage of the sales funnel they’re in, you can increase your MQL to sales- qualified lead (SQL) conversion rates because you'll be serving the right message at the right time, leading to faster sales cycles. Not to mention, effective budgeting is always a challenge. Intent data can help by focusing your budget on accounts that are most likely to buy, which reduces wasted revenue. You can also have greater influence on the buyers’ journey with real-time data about in-market buyers when they start ramping up their research activity at the Zero Moment of Truth (but more on that later). ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 88

The Customer Marketer Chief challenge • Reducing churn while maintaining a strong competitive advantage, and brand trust validated by customer success Goals Key metrics • Build customer advocacy • Net retention rate and a library of user- generated content • Customer adoption • Increase lifetime value (LTV) • Community engagement of retained customers • Number of referrals • Upsell new capabilities and maintain an exceptional customer experience Winning with intent data Intent data helps you better understand your customers and create programs that deepen their engagement with your product. With G2 Buyer Intent, you can receive signals in real time indicating that a customer is researching one of your competitors. Use these insights to check in on your accounts, reduce churn, and increase stickiness and value from your product. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 99

The Revenue Operations (RevOps) Leader Chief challenge • Gaining reliable intelligence to drive optimal strategies and playbooks, mapping sales segment targets to market need Goals Key metrics • Inform effective pricing • Cost per acquisition strategies to accelerate acquisition and retention • Annual recurring revenue targets • Total contract value • Inform the revenue organization on win/loss • Sales team and individual AE trends and conversion rates goal achievement • Use automation and customer • Meeting SLAs across intelligence to inform new pipeline-generating teams for commercial strategies and optimized growth revenue opportunities Winning with intent data As a RevOps pro, you can gain insights for account and territory mapping, and help inform playbooks. Integrate intent signals with your CRM and other sales tools to help prioritize accounts. You can even structure a tiering system of "best bet" accounts for sales and marketing to align on. Tier A accounts, for example, can include the ideal firmographic profile, along with intent signals that indicate the account is in-market for a solution like yours. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 1010

The Sales Development Representative (SDR) Chief challenge • Prioritizing higher quality leads, optimizing speed to lead, and consistently hitting SLAs Goals Key metrics • Follow up with inbound leads • Speed to lead with the right message at the right time • Meetings set and held • Set meetings with qualified • Meeting to pipe conversion leads rates • Ensure meetings are held • Contribution to total pipe • Follow lead lifecycle process sourced by SDRs Winning with intent data As an SDR, you can leverage intent to improve the efficacy of your outreach and your team’s ability to source pipeline with in-market accounts. If you have a large volume of inbound interest, knowing which accounts have high intent will change your focus and help you set meetings with more qualified accounts. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 1111

The Business Development Manager (BDM) Chief challenge • Onboarding new reps quickly while continually optimizing outreach and aligning with account executives (AEs) Goals Key metrics • Increase rep performance and • Amount of sourced pipeline outbound lead performance • Conversion from pipeline to • Obtain accurate intelligence on revenue (win rate) top accounts • Contribution of total pipeline • Perform optimal outreach that maps to the prospect’s specific • Average opportunity value persona and challenge Winning with intent data By leveraging intent signals, you can identify in-market accounts, align with AEs, and pursue outreach with a customized, more meaningful approach. The real win? A reduced sales cycle, a better experience for your prospects, and ultimately, more wins for the revenue organization. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 1212

How to Craft a Customer- focused Marketing Strategy with Intent. It doesn’t take much convincing that understanding the intent of your prospects’ actions can be beneficial in multiple areas of sales and marketing. Still, few understand how to operationalize and scale the data across the buyer journey. In a recently G2-hosted webinar, B2B marketers were asked what their biggest challenge was when implementing intent data for their business. Overwhelmingly, 68.2% of respondents said creating a strategy around using intent data. It’s clear that the No.1 question on many marketing minds is: “How do you actually get started using intent data to grow qualified pipeline and, ultimately, top-line revenue?” Let’s find out. ThThThe Big Book oe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intf Intent ent ent 131313

Full-funnel marketing Building brand presence (and trust) is a tall With G2 Buyer Intent, for example, you might order for any organization. It's a long game see an account returning to your category and takes a measured, intentional approach time and again. Use the intel to retarget that among marketing, sales, and customer account with content that differentiates your success leadership. product from others in the category—keeping your offering front-and-center along the As marketers, we run omni-channel buyer's journey. campaigns to target, engage, and convert— constantly looking for new levers and channels to reach our target audience with the right message at the right time. Intent data allows you to market with purpose, refining your messaging and improving funnel performance at every stage. Awareness Consideration Loyalty Blog posts Case studies Social media Peer/industry FAQ resources promotions reviews Technical guides Paid campaigns Landing pages Customer success Calls to action Sales outreach stories Newsletters (email workflows, Cross/upselling eBooks personalized SMS, landing pages Webinars outbound calls) Intent-powered marketing, across the buyer journey The Big Book of Intent 14

Competitive positioning Intent signals can alert you when target accounts compare your software to a competitor. More specifically, G2 Buyer Intent can reveal the companies comparing your software to other vendors in your category. Your competitor may have a feature or two that your software doesn't, which provides competitive intelligence and an opportunity to align with your product team to influence the roadmap. You could also leverage these insights by promoting access to a full comparison report, answering the questions your prospects have before they even ask them. What about letting your prospects know that while competitors may have new features, your existing solution takes care of their key goals with different capabilities? Intent gives you the data you need to combat objections with laser precision, and equip your frontline teams with the talking points that matter to your prospects. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 1515

Demand intelligence In every marketplace, growth opportunities are hiding in plain sight. Intent data shines a light on them, allowing you to see which audiences may have been overlooked. If you notice a spike in intent signals from prospects in an industry outside of your ideal customer profile (ICP), that could indicate a vertical with product/market fit—opening possibilities for new revenue streams. Intent signals that can influence pipeline growth Demographic Firmographic Buyer Intent Engagement Company Social media Role Company profile views shares Level of revenue Sponsored seniority Competitors content visits Email marketing Geographic No. of Competitor clicks location employees page visits Paid social Age Industry Category page media Gender Org. structure visits campaign Alt. page visits performance The sources of intent data represented in this graphic are not exhaustive but are mentioned to showcase the main types of intent data used by organizations today. The Big Book of Intent 16

Revenue intelligence Building and maintaining profitable revenue That being said, customer adoption and requires seemingly superhero levels of satisfaction scores have become key metrics agility. Prospects are buried in claims of for tracking long-term success. personalized product experiences, but even when you’ve won them over, they need to be Intent data is empathy. It allows you to wooed and won again and again for as long understand your customer, what’s important as you want to retain them. The goalposts for to them, and, ultimately, how to create an acquisition (net new business) and customer intentional buying journey that optimizes growth (upselling, cross-selling, and acquisition and retention. retention) seem constantly moving. RevOps before intent data insights: “We’ve got to reduce our churn rate by 10% this year. Do we have any customer insights that can help us pivot our go-to-market tactics, upsell some of our lesser-known products and improve our new business win rate?” RevOps after using intent data insights: “It seems like those accounts keep returning to our add-on product pages. They may be looking to leverage more of our suite rather than point solutions. Let’s also look at the alternatives they’re viewing in the same product category. Let's align sales and marketing to create playbooks that amplify our value." The Big Book of Intent 17

Increasing marketing and sales alignment Fundamentally, sales and marketing teams in any organization share the same main goal: Fill this out and to grow customers, pipeline, and revenue. save as a snapshot! But as with any work environment where metrics matter, friction can arise when both Key questions sales and teams are experiencing pressure to be more marketing can solve with productive and increase performance at intent data: challenging rates. With shared insights, intent data can Do we have an idea of what our diminish challenges for both teams. It allows typical sales cycle looks like? BDRs to understand who they should be Have we gotten our buyer calling, emailing, and engaging (faster) with. personas right based on the Meanwhile, it’ll also point growth marketers latest conversion numbers? to what topics the client is most interested in learning about. It also gives them the i.e., Are we converting incentive to create educational content to prospects who fit our address those pain points across the funnel. target criteria, or are we missing key traits of their Essentially, intent data provides teams with ideal customer profile the laser precision to build personalized (ICP)? messaging and go-to-market tactics that Which campaigns are getting speak directly to the prospects who have the us the most qualified leads? highest propensity to buy. It helps guide them effortlessly from "I think I know a bit about Why are we losing 15% of our this product" to "This is the solution I need for MQLs when they’re passed our team and stack." over to sales? How many sales and marketing interactions is it taking to convert a prospect into a customer? The Big Book of Intent 18

The Intent Buyer Cheat Sheet Now that you're ready to incorporate intent data into your sales & marketing playbook, it's time to evaluate options. Here’s a list of questions that will ensure the data you’re getting is reliable, verifiable, and will work for your specific needs. 1. Do you collect first-, second-, and/or 5. Do your intent signals provide real-time third-party data, and how do you ensure insights into buyers’ behaviors when it’s privacy compliant? researching potential solutions? 2. Do you know who is researching and 6. Can you track and collect signals when using my competitors’ products? buyers are engaged in active research? 3. What capabilities do you have to 7. How smoothly can the data and insights optimize the delivery of net-new in- be used in existing workflows and other market accounts? marketing automation software? 4. How does your intent data help fill the 8. What level of customization can you offer gaps and enrich my existing data? for our marketing operations? Now save this page and share with your team to ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent compare research notes! 1919

How to Measure the Effectiveness of Intent Data. Measuring the effectiveness of intent data on your demand strategy and sales cycle might seem intimidating, but it’s reasonably straightforward. So how can you get started driving a performance-driven mindset? SALs QTD MQL Generated WoW ThThThThe Big Book oe Big Book oe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intf Intf Intent ent ent ent 20202020

1. Establish a baseline Take a look at an existing campaign and pick specific KPIs you want to track, e.g., lowering customer acquisition costs and social media advertising spend. Now you have a starting point to measure performance after intent data has been gathered and incorporated into your strategy. Hot tip! An intent-driven strategy is not transactional—it’s a long game. Don’t approach it as a one-off activity. Instead, consider using intent signals to inform your targeting, content, and offers, and incorporate them through your funnel. 2. Run A/B tests on both your organic and paid campaigns By split-testing paid ads (for example, one with messaging informed by intent data and one without), you can see what influence it has on performance. Not to mention you can use intent signals to tailor your 1:1 outreach, test different messaging, and employ new campaign methods to drive engagement. For instance, this can be a great opportunity to send a personalized gift to a high-value contact who’s also showing intent! Hot tip! Align messaging to the intent signal. Signals imply different things about your buyers and where they are in the journey. Make sure your messaging meets your buyer where they are. 3. Strengthen sales and marketing alignment Align sales and marketing and reduce cross-team friction. For organizations that have adopted ABM, intent data can help define your top accounts and focus your attention and resources to your best bets. For customer retention and growth, intent can help you identify churn-risk and ensure you're delivering greater value to your customers. Hot tip! Organizations big and small can harness intent data. No matter where your company sits in its maturity model or level of sophistication, intent data can be a game-changer. Intent data can help you craft the right messaging to win target accounts, even if you’re a smaller player. Note: Even savvy teams struggle with how to capture and report the impact of intent on pipeline and revenue. G2 Buyer Intent integrations allow you to pull this data into your CRM and reporting tools so you can see which accounts have an intent signal associated with them. The Big Book of Intent 21

Calculating the ROI of Intent Data. Return on investment is a priority for any growth marketer, but in an uncertain economy, budgets tighten and marketing teams often feel the squeeze. When you have to make every dollar count, you don’t want to make the wrong choice about where to spend it. So how will an investment in intent data pay off? G2 Buyer Intent is about efficiency and smart growth. It enables your marketing team to run faster, work smarter, and spend valued time on the accounts that can impact your pipeline and revenue. Intent-powered impact at a glance • You can create a more effective content strategy to resonate with your in-market audience. • Drive smarter growth by increasing your return on ad spend with campaigns that meet your prospect where they are. • Build trust with the revenue organization by delivering higher-quality leads. • Increase funnel velocity and impact marketing's influence on closed/won revenue. • Gain a deeper understanding of your prospects and how to differentiate your product as they compare solutions. • Leverage insights from intent data to drive marketing and sales alignment and to partner with your customer success team. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 2222

Part II: How to win with G2 Buyer Intent ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 2323

Understanding the Zero Moment of Truth. And we’re finally here! The more education you provide in the ZMOT stage, the stronger the connection to The internet hasn’t just changed the way your prospect’s pain points and desired use people buy—it’s changed the way people cases. Conversely, if the information you’re think about buying. So how do you use providing is hard to find or not relevant, intent-powered growth tactics and signal you’re creating friction in the buyers’ interpretation when it matters most? journey that might send them straight to the competition. By now, you understand Traditionally, people would have their the overarching advantages intent data can initial interaction with a product in what have on your business’s bottom line. marketers call the first “Moment of Truth.” Now, long before a prospect interacts with Let’s take a closer look at real-world ways a product, or is willing to take a call with you can incorporate and operationalize sales, they arrive at the “Zero Moment of G2 Buyer Intent. Truth” (ZMOT). ZMOT is a term coined by Jim Lecinski, Vice President of Sales for Google, that describes the change in the consumer’s buying decision journey following the advent of digital media. During this stage, prospects are performing Google searches, comparing products, and reading verified peer reviews. It’s the ideal time for your brand to step up and demonstrate its explicit value to claim your prospects’ attention. When retargeting audiences with G2 Buyer Intent, our customers typically see the ROI down funnel: as MQLs convert to pipeline and revenue. Check out the case studies on page 30 for real-world examples of how marketing teams drive smarter growth with intent- fueled campaigns. 2424 ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 2424

T I H W O G T 2 W O Power on-demand personalization H with real-time alerts Does your team use Slack, Marketo, HubSpot, immediately and inform CSMs that it Zapier, or other leading integrations to might be time to check on the health of get real-time alerts on account activity? the account can be a game changer when Now with G2’s Buyer Intent, your sales and optimizing opportunity wins on your daily marketing teams can watch real-time intent to-do list. activity and receive immediate alerts for page views, category views, and competitive comparisons. Having visibility into the Check out G2’s Partner Hub for more accounts that are viewing those pages info on integrating Buyer Intent with can be powerful for sales and marketing your tech stack, and the tools you alignment, but having the power to initiate already know and love. personalized outreach for top accounts Identify high-value accounts by adding intent to a lead scoring model By integrating G2 Buyer Intent with Marketo and other marketing automation platforms, you can add intent signals to your scoring model. For G2 category views, for example, you might raise a contact's score by 5 points. For views of your product page on G2, you might increase by 10. Some G2 customers consider a G2 intent signal valuable enough to create an MQL and route the contact to an inbound SDR for follow up. Fuel demand with always-on, triggered campaigns Marketers can leverage G2 Buyer Intent signals to create custom workflows to nurture smart lists, trigger engagement events, and add net-new accounts to existing smart lists to keep your pipeline pumped with qualified demand. For instance, when an account hits your product or category page on G2.com, you can trigger a promotional campaign to register for your latest on-demand webinar. Then you can watch your lead scores kick up a notch for the accounts showing they’re a few steps closer to picking your product over the rest. The Big Book of Intent 25

T I H W O G T 2 W O Create customer-first workflows H to stop churn before it starts When a current customer is looking at alternatives to your product or comparing you against a competitor on G2.com, a G2 Buyer Intent signal is created. You can now use this account-level information within your CRM to set up content workflows and automation rules across your email, web, and social channels to stay ahead in your customer’s buyer journey. Take action immediately when it comes to checking in with key decision-makers within your account, measuring the health of the account’s engagement activity, and making a difference with differentiated outreach when it’s you or your competitor on the line. Accelerate your performance marketing ROI Using intent data is an effective way to ensure your paid marketing campaigns are helping you connect faster with target audiences in your ideal customer profile (ICP). For example, integrating LinkedIn Matched Audiences with G2 Buyer Intent can be a great start. By focusing on the criteria and timelines that matter most to your business and creating buyer-first performance campaigns informed by intent signals in real time, getting granular in your targeting criteria with fields like job title or location can be done with the click of a button. When the criteria mix is just right, you can launch your campaign and watch real-time activity on how your narrowed audience performs in terms of engagement, as well as monitor their top activities every step in their buying journey. How to Use G2's LinkedIn Matched Audiences Integration The Big Book of Intent 26

T I H W O G T 2 W O H Fill your pipeline with qualified leads Many organizations use their CRM to automate And even without a sophisticated tech stack and scale marketing programs, including email and dozens of integrations, you can still run campaigns, paid ad campaigns, and social powerful plays with G2 Buyer Intent. A simple media content management. With 65% of CSV download of the accounts viewing businesses adopting CRM technology within your product page, your competitors, or the first five years of launch, adding intent even your category, can provide you with a data into your stack will make it even easier to demand gen and biz dev playbook to drive prioritize the most valuable leads—especially pipeline and revenue. when you’re in critical stages of growth. It's like handing your SDRs a stack of "hot" From mapping existing leads, contacts, and leads to work until your automation has accounts to real-time intent signals, to building matured to include custom workflows and dynamic smart lists that trigger alerts, email sophisticated segmentation. campaigns, ABM workflows, and more, you're building a demand engine that fuels qualified pipeline for the revenue organization. Enable better prospecting in the tools that sales teams know and love Adoption across the rev org is always a challenge. Through G2's integration with ZoomInfo, sales can leverage G2 Buyer Intent from a prospecting platform they use every day. AEs and BDRs can see G2 Buyer Intent signals in their target account lists and prioritize accordingly. They can even set up notifications and trigger outreach within ZoomInfo's SalesOS, targeting in-market prospects seamlessly and at scale. Learn more about the G2 + ZoomInfo integration on G2's Partner Hub. The Big Book of Intent 27

The [Intent] Signal Matters. G2’s savviest customers know how to map their content and ad strategy to the G2 Buyer Intent signal. For example, category views on G2 offer an opportunity to serve thought leadership and education-focused content, while profile, comparison, and alternative visits are perfect for more middle-of-the-funnel engagement. If someone is researching your product or comparing you to your top competitors on G2, wouldn’t you want to know? And wouldn’t you want to retarget those companies with meaningful outreach? G2 Buyer Intent tells you the companies currently viewing and comparing your G2 profile so you can nail your outreach and be pointed to the content you’re serving up. Learn which companies are researching your product, category, and competitors—then use platforms like LinkedIn to find the right person at those companies to contact. MAPPING G2 INTENT TO THE BUYER JOURNEY Demand Generation G2 comparison views Consideration Prospects are comparing you to your competitors, G2 profile visits looking for product Prospects are reading differentiation, and reviews, downloading digging deeper into what content from your your users value most. product page, and Product discovery watching videos. G2 category views People are learning more about the category, including trends, top products, and viewing grids that show product placement and best-in-class software. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 2828

Did you know? Unlike third-party data, which can be noisy and offer too many signals to be meaningful, G2’s intent data comes from research taking place on the G2 platform. Signals come from people and businesses actively searching for your product, a competitor, or category. That means no vague, out-of-focus insights—just actionable second- party data (collected directly from G2 users) that’s relevant to your funnel. Drawing from a pool of more than 60 million software buyers annually, G2 provides precise intent signals and audience behavioral insights at scale, which can inform a stronger go-to- market position, more personalized connections with top prospects, and, ultimately, a reliable source of qualified demand. Types of G2 Buyer Intent signals: G2 Profile Visit A Buyer who visited G2.com and visited your profile page. Sponsored A Buyer who viewed your sponsored content on a competitor Content Visit profile on G2.com. Category Visit A Buyer who visited your category page. (The name of the category is available if you’re in multiple categories.) A Buyer who visited an alternatives page for someone Alternatives Visit in your category, where you were listed as one of the alternative options. (The name of the competitor is available in the data.) Comparison Visit A Buyer compared your product to up to four other products. The Big Book of Intent 29

And speaking of some of G2’s savviest customers, here are a few examples of how real marketers use G2 Buyer Intent to fuel demand and feed the funnel. Growth marketing Solutions driven by Performance challenge G2 Buyer Intent 12% increase in conversion rates for ads using G2 Buyer Intent Metadata leveraged G2 Buyer Metadata was reaching out to Intent to build targeted 18% increase in average deal cold audiences and had no way audiences with high buying size for ads using G2 Buyer to know if their target audience intent. Intent was in-market to buy. 114% higher click-to-open rate for ads using G2 Buyer Intent 14% conversion rate among high-Intent accounts from G2 Kibo leveraged G2 Buyer Intent Integrated Solutions with Kibo needed a way to scale data to identify in-market Demandbase to drive accounts their outbound outreach efforts buyers and help their SDRs down the sales funnel and drive pipeline— without book more effective meetings. 2.9x higher conversion rate sacrificing efficiency. in accounts identified as high Intent by G2 GoCardless ran G2 Review No. 1 ranking on 9 different GoCardless wanted to break Campaigns to solicit G2 reports, based on 97 new into the North American marketable user feedback, reviews market but had limited brand leveraged G2 Buyer Intent data awareness and was struggling to target high-Intent prospects, 28% lower bounce rate for to educate the market on pain- and used the G2 Content users who come from G2 to the point solutions. Subscription to build brand GoCardless site awareness. 280+ new top-of-funnel leads generated in one year Chargebee leveraged G2 to 3x growth YOY in ICP deals from Chargebee had no way to make the right information competitor campaigns capture missed opportunities available to high-Intent leads. from inbound searches against 4x growth YOY in leads for competitors. Europe-based competitor campaigns The Big Book of Intent 30

Drive Intentional Demand with G2 Buyer Intent. When Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about With G2 Buyer Intent you can integrate, the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes, he operationalize, and scale that engagement described a man with almost supernatural all the way through your sales and marketing abilities. He could deduce who committed funnel—ensuring your prospect becomes the crime, their methods, and the motivation your customer in shorter, more efficient behind their devious actions. His abilities, cycles. however, were not rooted in magic but in gathering evidence-based facts, i.e., Intent data gives you the clues you need to trustworthy data. reach them when the right signals indicate they want to be found. Your prospects can be just as elusive. Intent data gives you the clues you need to reach With G2, you get the opportunity to join them them on the buying journey, and meet them on that journey right from the start. Whether with meaningful engagement that can they’re diving into your product category, elevate your brand, differentiate your value, product page, or competitor pages, you’ll get and create demand. alerts in real time and the ability to activate these signals through integrations with your favorite tools. Meet prospects where they are—with the right message, in the right channel, at the right time. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 3131

Additional Resources. Reading Watching The Buyer Intent Playbook - Complete PDF How-To with G2- YouTube Playlist Intent-Driven Advertising Guide: How to Lower Your Why Integrated Full Funnel Intent Data is Critical for CAC on LinkedIn - Complete PDF Your Success - Webinar with G2’s CMO Amanda Malko and ZoomInfo’s CMO Bryan Law 5 Tips to Crush Your Intent Data Goals from G2 and ZoomInfo - Blog The Art and Science of Intent-Driven Campaigns - Webinar with G2’s VP of Revenue Marketing, Robin Lost in the Grid: How to Rise Above the Noise on G2 - Izsak-Tseng and ZoomInfo’s SVP of Special Projects, Blog Ben Salzman How to Turn Accounts into Contacts with Studying G2 Buyer Intent - Blog The Buyer Intent Playbook - Blog G2 University - Log in to my.g2.com and power your marketing strategy with G2 G2 Buyer Intent can be integrated with many of the popular tools in your stack, giving you the ability to operationalize intent at scale. Here are a few Talk to us! examples, but visit the G2 Partner Hub to learn more about each integration. G2 is a great place to market your software and services. Grab 15 minutes to learn more about G2 Marketing Solutions. Book a meeting Want to talk marketer-to-marketer? Email Robin and get ready to nerd out about all things G2, demand, and intent. Robin Izsak-Tseng VP Revenue Marketing, G2 Email Robin The Big Book of Intent 32

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hubspot.com

linkedin.com

outreach.io

6sense.com

marketo.com

slack.com

metadata.io

triblio.com

salesloft.com

rollworks.com

zoominfo.com

bombora.com

terminus.com

demandbase.com

G2 is the world's largest and most trusted software marketplace. More than 80 million people annually — including employees at all Fortune 500 companies — use G2 to make smarter software decisions based on authentic peer reviews. Thousands of software and services companies of all sizes partner with G2 to build their reputation, manage their software spend, and grow their business — including Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, and Adobe. To learn more about where you go for software, visit www.g2.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. ThThe Big Book oe Big Book of Intf Intent ent 3333