Intent data groups the clues that an account is interested in a topic, such as keyword searches or reading comparison pages. Vendors produce it by observing these behaviors across a network of sites, then attributing them to a company.
What it brings
On a large account list, it helps spot the accounts whose activity around your topic is increasing. So you use it to prioritize: which accounts to start with, which to watch more closely.
What it does not say
It doesn’t name the person searching or date the behavior precisely. You can’t verify it either: a high intent score may come from an intern writing a thesis, or from a competitor doing research. So a message can’t rely on it, since the prospect wouldn’t recognize the reason.
How to combine it with signals
The most useful combination chains three filters: the ideal customer profile delimits the accounts, intent data shows which ones are becoming active, and a public buying signal provides the reason for the message.
Example
A vendor reports that an account is reading a lot about sales onboarding, and the account matches the target. Rather than writing “we noticed your interest”, the salesperson looks for a public fact and finds an SDR job ad the company has just published. The message cites that ad.
See also: Buying signal, Ideal customer profile (ICP), Lead scoring, and Data enrichment.