Digital marketing is a constant battle of trying to understand why consumers make purchase decisions and how to leverage on intent data to optimise future marketing campaigns. At this point, you may be wondering, what is intent data? To put it simply, intent data is the data that indicates your buyers’ likelihood to make a purchase soon. This could include consumer’s behaviour such as viewing product detail pages, or even abandoning their cart. All these information are going to be really helpful when it comes to figuring out what they’re thinking and how to use it to drive ROI & sales. We now know that intent data is highly valuable for digital marketing, so let’s discuss 3 ways how it impact marketing teams.

Map the Customer Journey

With an aggregated view of intent data and analytics, marketers can predict and respond to their consumer’s intent in a proactive, contextually relevant manner — regardless of where customers are in the journey. That’s why it is recommended that brands map intent data to specific points along the customer journey. Thereafter, marketers should make use of artificial intelligence and other advanced analytical models to cultivate value generating behaviours and extend the customer’s lifetime value.

Hyper-Personalised Digital Experience

Digital marketers can use this data to trigger a hyper-personalised marketing campaigns. If someone visits the same product detail page multiple times, for example, this signals that they may be interested in this product. It’s worthwhile, therefore, to have a system in place so that this automatically triggers a cross-channel campaign to push for a conversion. However, none of this is possible without accurate and detailed intent data.

Uncover Patterns for Long-Term Customer Value

Since the customer journey doesn’t end when the customer purchases your products/services, the use of intent data and analytics can help you uncover your customer’s usage behaviour patterns. Additionally, intent data can be used to further drive customer engagement in the post-purchase phase of the customer journey. This is especially important as customer retention is critical for maximising the ROI of marketing efforts. You can apply these intent data to identify churn rates by your customers, preempt defection early and work on push out retention offers, promotions or freebies to keep them loyal.

Today’s brands can’t afford to ignore customer intent data when they’re developing their digital marketing strategies. For the brands that can see the world as their customers do — and shape the customer journey accordingly with data and analytics — will be rewarded with greater brand preference, revenue, cost improvements, and a lasting competitive advantage.