Today, I’m joined by Misha Salkinder, our Director of Customer Data Strategy, and Nic Zangre, our VP of Customer Success. We’re discussing how to use B2B intent and engagement data to shine a light on the dark funnel. In other words, how do we figure out who’s in the market but not yet talking to us?
Setting the Stage: Why Intent Data Matters
First, let’s define why intent data is so important. In the old-school B2B marketing world, we relied heavily on people filling out forms to announce their interest. Today, it’s much harder to pin down a buyer’s journey. Prospects do much of their research on other websites before even considering contacting a vendor. Meanwhile, digital privacy changes and stricter cookie policies make tracking people’s activities on our site trickier.
That’s where intent data comes in. Companies like Bombora and G2 gather signals about who’s searching for your solution (or your competitor’s solution) on third-party sites. When you match those signals to your target account list, you’ll know which companies are looking to buy, even if they haven’t reached out to you. This is how you illuminate the dark funnel.
Defining Intent Data
Nic points out that intent data gets used in different ways. There are top-of-funnel signals, like Bombora topics or G2 category interest, and first-party signals, like a website visit or a demo form fill. They all represent intent, just at different stages of the buyer journey. Nic underscores that the real goal is to identify accounts that might be open to hearing your pitch—and to do it sooner rather than later.
Misha draws a line between third-party signals and first-party engagement signals. He typically associates “intent” with third-party data, which shows interest in your problem space but not necessarily your brand. Meanwhile, your own website visits or email engagements can be categorized as “engagement data.” The synergy between these two is where the magic happens—bridging unknown interest with real brand-level engagement.
Why Intent Data Now?
Misha and Nic agree that marketing is dealing with a more and more opaque top-of-funnel. Previously, you could rely on forms and cookies for direct attribution. Now, with privacy changes and the buyer’s inclination to do research under the radar, that’s no longer the case. Prospects are reading reviews on G2, googling your competitor’s name, or discussing solutions in Slack communities—without leaving a trace in your systems.
Intent data gives you a shot at seeing where your name or your competitor’s name might be popping up. If you get an alert that Company X has been searching for “multi-touch attribution” or “marketing analytics solutions,” that might be your cue to run a top-of-funnel marketing or sales campaign.
The Biggest Challenges in Deploying Intent
Misha sees two immediate challenges:
- Signal Noise: Not every topic is a good indicator for your brand, even if it’s tangentially related. Some topics get flagged constantly, like “marketing ROI”, which might not be relevant for your solution or might be relevant for everyone, offering no real advantage.
- Timing: If you’re only discovering that a company was surging last week, you might already be behind. Or, conversely, you might jump on them too early when they’re not ready. Balancing the “window of activation” is key.
At CaliberMind, we run correlation analysis. We examine which topics consistently appear before an actual opportunity emerges. Because, sure, “ROI analysis” might be relevant, but if we never see it show up for real deals in the pipeline, it’s not that useful.
Operationalizing Intent Data
“If you only have so many hours in the day, you don’t want to chase random surges. You want to chase the ones that matter,” said Nic. In an ideal scenario, you pair your intent signals with your ABM or ABX approach, refining your account list to those who are actually in-market.
An interesting approach for top-of-funnel is to treat intent like you would content syndication leads. Use it to warm them up with relevant ads or educational content—“Hey, you’re looking for multi-touch attribution? Here’s a guide.” After they click through or engage, you can pass them to sales for a deeper conversation.
Example: The Matrix of First-Party vs. Third-Party Intent
Misha offers an interesting mental model: a 2×2 matrix. One axis is first-party signals and the other axis is third-party signals. If a prospect is high on both, guess what? They’re probably already in your funnel and you should call them yesterday. If they’re high in third-party but low in first-party, it’s time for marketing to build brand awareness because they’re in the market but don’t know your brand.
If they’re high in first-party but low in third-party, maybe one champion at the company is interested, but the rest of the organization isn’t involved. That’s when marketing can help build brand awareness or pass the baton to sales for multi-threaded outreach.
Tool Time: A Peek Inside CaliberMind’s Intent Setup
To bring it home, I walk the audience through how we handle intent data inside CaliberMind itself.
- Consolidated Buyer Journeys: We tie together G2’s data on who’s browsing us, Bombora’s surging topics, plus any first-party hits in our system. So if Company Y surges on “ROI analytics” in Bombora, we can cross-check that with their site visits, LinkedIn ad clicks, or email opens. If we see a flurry of such activity, we know there’s genuine interest.
- Trending Topics: We watch how certain topics trend over time. Some are overactive (like “ROI analysis”), providing limited insight. Others pop up occasionally but heavily correlate with a decision cycle. We discovered some surprising topics this way that turned out to be big deals for us.
- Activation: We slice and dice our surging accounts, apply an ICP filter, and pass them along to marketing for ads and top-of-funnel nurturing. Once they get more engaged, or if they’re from a high-value segment, we pass them to sales.
Instead of guesswork, we have a more systematic approach. We see the surging accounts, cross-check if they fit our target, and if they do, we start some brand-oriented ads or email campaigns. Meanwhile, the sales team can run a more personal outreach if we see enough signals to move them further down the funnel.
The Beauty of Combining Intent with First-Party Data
Combining a robust ICP or fit score with intent signals can be huge. A low-value account that’s surging isn’t necessarily the best bet for your limited resources. Meanwhile, a top-tier account with modest surging might be worth a more proactive approach.
At the end of today’s Funnel Lab Friday, Misha, Nic, and I agree—the “dark funnel” is real, but it’s not a dead end. Intent data helps us pierce that darkness. By thoughtfully setting up triggers, filtering out the noise, and enlisting the right marketing and sales plays at the right time, we can find brand-new prospects before they’ve ever knocked on our door.
For me, that’s the big game-changer: bridging the gap between unknown interest and first-party engagement. We’re no longer waiting passively for inbound leads or crossing our fingers that our ads hit someone who’s in-market. Instead, we’re actively scanning for signals that say, “Hey, these guys are reading up on multi-touch attribution.”
Thanks for tuning in to Funnel Lab Fridays. Until next week, this is Eric signing off.
