Demand Generation for Cybersecurity is Redefined by Intent Data.

Demand Generation for Cybersecurity is Redefined by Intent Data.

Demand generation marketing may be a strategy in both passive and outbound marketing that refers to a comprehensive program of initiatives and touchpoints designed to generate awareness of your products or services as a solution to customer pain points. 

It also encompasses not only the generation of leads from a segmented audience, but the nurturing of in-market prospects into customers, and therefore the retention of those customers for long-term brand loyalty and repeats business. This very definition is why demand gen within the cybersecurity space has become so challenging. 

More often than not, you discover yourself pitted against multiple competitors offering the same products as you, or maybe resellers that package your product with other pieces of software. Needless to mention, generating leads from IT buyers is tough.

About six years ago, intent-based marketing data broke into the SaaS and B2B spaces and ultimately changed how marketers examine prospects. Now, in lieu of making high-quantity email campaigns, B2B sales and marketing teams can better prioritize purchase-ready prospects supported by their individual behavior and online activity. 

The IT and security industries were the primary SaaS segments to pick up this trend, but since then, an explosion of third-party data sources and collection methodologies has commoditized many firmographic, demographic, and behavioral data collection products and services.

How Intent Data is Changing.

Thankfully, there are tech companies looking to vary the way intent data is perceived and delivered to their customers. One major way the method is changing is that it no longer relies heavily on cookie traffic or website visits. 

Instead, marketers can implement AI software to trace buyers’ activity on a more personalized level. Options like behavioral analytics and decisional data both help to guide marketers within the right direction toward purchase-intent prospects.

In the cybersecurity space, this is often extremely valuable, as you’ll presumably engage with people who have already purchased many different solutions and variations of software similar to yours. Not only are you able to concentrate demand marketing efforts toward those who have engaged more with your services, but you'll also gather valuable data points uncovering why and how those specific buyers make final purchase decisions. Moving forward, intent marketing data are going to be extremely crucial to full-funnel lead generation campaigns.

Challenges with Lead Generation.

This might sound obvious, but intent data isn’t the “fix-all” solution to your lead generation woes. In fact, if done poorly, it are often a huge waste of time and resources. this is often why it’s crucial to have a strong plan put in place for the entire life of your marketing campaign and beyond. Here’s an honest start to a campaign roadmap that integrates intent data:

• Identify your targeted set of buyers from your database.
• Research, gather, and apply custom data points that will allow you to personalize your marketing.
• Evaluate the common needs those buyers face.
• Create a multi-channel outbound campaign that specializes in the personalized data points, the requirements of your buyers, and an honest set of value props.
• Remarket to your most engaged buyers from that campaign.
• Have the sales team echo your intent data marketing in their prospecting outreach.

The key takeaway here is, that no matter what channel you use to market products, your goal should be to get leads based on a specific set of needs that your security solution overcomes. You’ve probably noticed a key part of this strategy is to have your sales team buy-in and work alongside you. 

Intent data marketing, especially during a competitive space like cyber security, must be leveraged in a proactive way with a variety of outreach tactics. the simplest time to convert a lead to an opportunity is when they’re in the middle of their research. Intent data, if used correctly, are able to do that exact goal.

Thought Leadership in Cybersecurity.

As stated previously, the cybersecurity industry could be one of the most competitive spaces to market in, which makes standing out as an idea leader extremely difficult. 

It’s safe to assume intent data can facilitate your create stickier marketing campaigns for your buyers, but how? To answer that, let’s examine some commonly used intent data metrics applied that can be applied to thought leadership as a practice.

Social Triggers.

Most intent data solutions nowadays utilize some kind of social listening AI to better understand company positioning and buyer engagement. 

As a requirement generation marketer, you'll leverage this information in campaigns to help address or even mimic the most engaged prospects with pieces of content. Thought leadership, especially in highly transactional B2B purchases, is heavily reliant on keeping prospects engaged.

Content Tracking.

Analytics software is employed in a lot of intent data research initiatives to help gain an understanding of who’s reading which pieces of content the most. even as B2B marketing can be best summarized as a method of segmenting your audience into various demographics, content engagement tracking is yet one more segmentation strategy. 

Understanding why select prospects read certain pieces of content is crucial in developing your marketing campaigns.

Search Keywords.

SEO shapes such a lot of how B2B marketers do their jobs. It’s no different with data allocation. If you disregard looking into the topics that trend as most meaningful among your buyer set, you’ll presumably miss out on new opportunities. 

Thankfully, this is often a core part of what defines intent data as a solution. the simplest way to leverage this information in your campaigns is to create a cohesive narrative explaining why a certain trending topic applies to the cybersecurity needs of your target audience.