What Is Intent Data? Visualizing Customer Interests Through Behavioral Data

What Is Intent Data?

Intent data refers to information that indicates the current intentions or interests of a user.

Intent data is used as a clue to determine whether a user is interested in a specific product or service, or whether they are considering a purchase. For marketers, it serves as a valuable source of information for understanding market needs and trends, and for planning strategies tailored to target audiences.

What Is Behavioral Data?

Behavioral data is information regarding the specific actions or activities a user has taken in the past.

This includes past purchase history, time spent on a website, number of pages viewed, and clicked advertisements or content. By leveraging behavioral data, it becomes possible to perform segmentation and targeting based on a user's past preferences and actions.

The Relationship Between Intent Data and Behavioral Data

Intent data and behavioral data are closely related. While intent data provides information on what a user is currently interested in or intending to do, behavioral data provides information on the actions and activities a user has taken in the past.

By combining these two types of data, you can build a more precise user profile.

For example, if intent data detects that a user is currently showing interest in a specific product, analyzing that user's past purchase history and behavioral data allows you to determine whether that interest is recent or a continuous one.

Furthermore, by creating customer segments based on past behavioral data and then analyzing the intent data (current intentions) shown by users in those segments, you can gain a deeper understanding of the specific needs and interests of your target users.

The Importance of Intent Data and Its Background

In recent years, the importance of intent data has been increasing in the field of digital marketing. This is because user purchasing behavior has become more diverse, making it difficult to achieve effective results using only traditional marketing methods.
The fact that intent data has become available for purchase is also a contributing factor. With the development of digital technology, many methods for collecting intent data have emerged, and companies that sell this data have been established.
In summary, the sequence is: Development of digital technology → Diversification of user behavior → Creation of a market → Increased importance.

By utilizing intent data, you can accurately capture the true needs and interests of users and improve the precision of your targeting.

There are several factors behind the rapidly increasing importance of intent data.

Evolution and Proliferation of Digital Technology

Due to the evolution and proliferation of digital technology, consumers now frequently perform online searches, shopping, and information gathering. By aggregating data on such online consumer behavior, it has become possible to infer their intentions and interests.

Personalization of Marketing

There is a shift from uniform mass marketing to personalized marketing tailored to individual consumers. Intent data provides the information necessary for this personalization.

Intensifying Competition

With competition intensifying in many markets and industries, accurately capturing and responding quickly to the true needs and interests of consumers has become essential for maintaining and strengthening a company's competitiveness.

Data-Driven Decision Making

With the technological advancement of big data and AI, many companies have come to prioritize data-based decision making. Intent data serves as a crucial source of information for reflecting consumer intentions within such data-driven decision-making processes.

Utilizing Intent Data

Intent data can be utilized in various scenarios within marketing and sales activities.

Personalized Activities

Based on intent data, you can personalize marketing activities to match the interests and concerns of users.

For example, you can provide relevant content or offers to users who show interest in a specific product. This is expected to enhance marketing effectiveness and improve conversion rates.

Lead Scoring

Intent data is also useful in the process of scoring to evaluate the quality and enthusiasm of leads. By assigning points according to the degree of intention or interest shown by a user and prioritizing high-scoring leads for the sales team, you can support more efficient sales activities.

Competitive Analysis

Through intent data, you can analyze how much interest consumers have in your competitors. This allows you to understand your company's position in the market and gain a strategic perspective to clarify points of differentiation from competitors.

Development of New Products and Services

Based on search queries and online behavior identified from intent data, you can pinpoint potential needs and challenges existing in the market. Using this information, you can generate ideas for new products or services and proceed with development.

Customer Lifecycle Management

By utilizing intent data, you can identify which stage of the customer lifecycle a user is in.

The necessary approach differs between a user considering their first purchase and a loyal repeat customer. By grasping the user's stage based on intent data, it becomes possible to provide communication and services tailored to their respective needs and interests.

Methods for Acquiring Intent Data

Intent data is classified into "first-party data" and "third-party data," and the methods and tools used to acquire them differ for each.

First-Party Data

Intent data that indicates user behavior and intent collected directly by a company through its own channels, such as its website, applications, or CRM systems.

Because this data is collected directly by the company, it offers high accuracy and reliability. Furthermore, as it is not shared with other companies, it possesses a high degree of uniqueness.

The data is derived from sources such as website visitor page view history, lead information from form submissions and downloads, and email DM click-through rates.

This is intent data that can be acquired through web analytics tools like Google Analytics or CRM tools like Salesforce and HubSpot, and it has been collected in traditional web marketing as well.

Third-Party Data

Intent data collected by other companies or organizations. This is primarily provided by external data vendors and providers.

Data is provided through each vendor's unique channels and methods, including visit data from industry-specific websites and forums, social media trend discussions, and research results or reports.

Because it allows for the comprehensive acquisition of information from multiple sources and platforms, it is useful for grasping broad market and industry trends.

By identifying users who have an interest or purchase intent for products or services despite having no prior contact with your company, you can expand your approach beyond the scope of your existing marketing and sales targets.

Therefore, the utilization of third-party data is receiving significant attention.

By effectively combining and using first-party data and third-party data, you can achieve more precise targeting, segmentation, and personalized marketing strategies.

Management Strategy Platform PLANSonar

PLANSonar is a management strategy platform equipped with features to identify and list prospective customers by leveraging intent data. Utilizing this tool allows for a significant improvement in the efficiency of sales and marketing activities.

By using this tool, AI can identify high-potential, uncontacted companies and automatically generate lists. This enables the streamlining of sales processes and the maximization of marketing effectiveness.

Types of Intent Data Integrated into PLANSonar

PLANSonar comes with the following intent data features implemented as standard. Each data type analyzes corporate intent from different perspectives to support high-precision targeting.

1. Live Access (First-Party Intent Data)

Live Access is a feature that identifies companies visiting your website in real time. By analyzing visiting IP addresses, it is possible to instantly acquire information such as company names, industries, and employee counts.

• Analyze website visit history to create sales lists.

- Verify the effectiveness of advertisements and landing pages.

- Enable real-time approaches to target companies.

2. Interest Signals (Third-Party Intent Data)

"Interest Signals" utilizes data from partner companies to generate company lists based on specified keywords. By leveraging external data sources, it enables the discovery of new target companies.

- Extract comprehensive company lists based on keywords.

- Refine attribute information by integrating with "LBC," one of Japan's largest corporate databases.

- Accurately identify the optimal timing for business negotiations.

3. Interest Sign (Extended Intent Data)

"Interest Sign" is a service that uses AI to expand upon Interest Signals, generating highly precise target lists.

- AI-Driven Company Estimation: AI automatically extracts companies with high similarity based on the Interest Signal list.

• Analysis Independent of Fixed IP: Covers over 1 million companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises.

• Filtering by Region and Employee Size: Further improves the precision of your target audience.

Other: Second-party intent data from B2B media is also included as a standard feature.

How to Utilize the Corporate Strategy Platform "PLANSonar"

"Interest Signal" and "Interest Sign" are implemented in the corporate strategy platform "PLANSonar," which can be used in conjunction with "Live Access" to identify companies browsing your website, delivering the following benefits:

• Clarification of Target Audience

Dynamically list target companies with high purchasing intent detected by "Interest Signal" and "Interest Sign" on PLANSonar. By instantly sharing high-priority companies with sales representatives, you can streamline sales activities.

• Approaching Potential Customers

Leverage "Interest Signal" and "Interest Sign" data to visualize the behavior and needs of target companies in real time. This information is provided on the PLANSonar dashboard in a format that facilitates easy management of your approach to potential customers.

• Registration, Attribute Assignment, and Analysis of Acquired Leads

Analyze lead information acquired through exhibitions or document requests by appending needs detected via Interest Signals and Interest Signs, combined with attribute data. This allows you to determine the optimal timing for priority approaches.

• Nurturing Promising Leads

Utilize various corporate attribute data, including Interest Signals and Interest Signs, with PLANSonar to achieve seamless data integration with Marketing Automation (MA) tools and CRM systems. We provide an environment that enables efficient and smooth identification of promising leads, campaign design, and nurturing activities.

• Efficient Sales Activities

Since corporate needs identified through Interest Signals and Interest Signs can be linked and extracted with business card information, sales representatives can formulate concrete approach strategies. This realizes streamlined sales activities and improves the probability of converting leads into business negotiations.

• Early Detection of Churn Risk

By leveraging Interest Signals and Interest Signs, you can identify potential churners who show interest in competitor products or services—behavior often overlooked by CS activities or internal Web site visit history alone. This enables the identification of hidden needs and supports early risk mitigation.

Leverage intent data to secure a competitive advantage in today's increasingly intense market. PLANSonar is an ABM tool that supports both sales and marketing with data, accelerating corporate growth. For more details, please visit our official website:

Click Here for Details on PLANSonar, Featuring Japan's First AI-Augmented Intent Data, "Interest Sign"

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