Unveiling Buyer Intent: Your Demand Gen Superpower

Insights From G2 & PMG Session On Maximizing Revenue Efficiency

We all know G2 as the go-to review platform and software marketplace. But little do we know there are two facts that can be game-changers for us marketers:

1 - G2 offers an intent solution that lets you peek behind the curtain to see who's actively shopping for offerings like yours. You can activate those piping-hot intent signals with that intel to power hyper-targeted demand-gen campaigns.

2 - When a customer drops a review on G2, it gets syndicated far and wide across Amazon Web Services (AWS) , Microsoft Azure , and other top marketplaces. A single G2 review is a gift that keeps on giving (exposure).

Mind-blowing, right? ??

Let's zoom in on the first feature, as INTENT is what brought us all to the table:

The Four Types Of Intent

1. Zero-party intent comes straight from your product's usage and customer interactions. The ultimate insider intel.
2. First-party intent comes when you engage with your customers directly; it's a fraction of the engagement, and it includes your marketing automation, such as Adobe Marketo and HubSpot , and also tools like Gong - when communicating with prospects, you can gain valuable insights into their needs.
3. Second-party intent is the good stuff - it's when buyers hit up trustworthy sites like G2 to research, compare offerings, and build their shortlist.
4. Third-party intent is the early stage of the buyer's engagement when they are still researching and defining their challenge - that part is usually managed by ABM platforms like 6sense , Bombora , etc.

How to Squeeze the Most Second-Party Juice

Did you know that if you have a product on G2 you can tap into gold-like data? I am talking about intel such as:

• The accounts checking out your profile and their reviews.
• Prospects actively researching and evaluating solutions in your category.
• Which competitors' offerings are your prospects weighing against you.
• and more...

How Does It Work

People often come to G2 through Google search when they are looking for a specific product or service. They land organically on the relevant category page on G2.

G2 receives a significant portion of organic traffic from Google searches, much more than your website. You can harness the power of their SEO engine to benefit your own website.

The Secret Sauce Behind It

Human beings trying to solve a problem with software > google it > land on a category page > start exploring their options on that category.

Now it's up to us, smart marketers, how we operationalize and scale that buyer intent.

Cheat Sheets On Great Intent Practices

Precision Ad Targeting

Feed those G2 intent signals into laser-focused LinkedIn campaigns, retargeting prospects viewing your category. Or power advanced omnichannel ABM orchestration using hot tools like 6sense.

Use-Cases:

• Marketo\ Hubspot - Turn on lead scoring.
• LinkedIn advertising - Turn on LinkedIn matched audiences and start retargeting middle-of-the-funnel G2 buyer intent signals.
• Metadata \ 6 sense - Power all the integrations with G2 buyer intent.

Sales Prioritization

Make sure your sales partners see that this is the way to "no more blind, sad cold outreach!"

Prioritize the hottest accounts demonstrating buying intent according to your sales team's goals, so they see the value straight out of the bag and do not see it as yet another annoying tech marketing is imposing on them.

I call it ABX on Streodis, and I find this one to be the most effective practice.

Use case: Churn Prevention

You work together with AE, set up a Slack channel that is intergrated with G2 buyer intent and show all accounts with signals of churn coming. Six month before renewal is a good time to make sure they are not comparing you to your competitors on G2.

How to get this revenue rocket fueled up ??

1 - Pinpoint your highest-priority business challenges

Whether boosting sales efficiency, targeting the ideal buyers, personalizing engagements, or getting better over time.

2 - Strategize Your Content Personalization

When you understand your priorities and fuel it with the audience's intent and position in the funnel, you can serve content that aligns with your overall strategy. Tailoring your content to fit the right stage of the funnel increases the likelihood of success.

?? I have actually written an entire article on this topic, and you can find the link to it in the first comment.        

Use case: Retargeting

People who looked at your category: Serve ebooks and top-of-the-funnel content > use LinkedIn lead-gen form > get good leads > nurture them to MQL.

People who looked at your profile or compared it to your competitors: serve middle-bottom-of-the-funnel content on LinkedIn (like "us over them") > lead to demo requests > nurture SQLs until they are closed-won.

3 - Operationalize And Scale

Choose your integrations and map out plays across channels.

Then operationalize it all via hyper-focused playbooks that are measurable, repeatable, and continuously optimizable.

An Example Play-Book

1. G2 signals that an account is cross-shopping your competitors.
2. Enrich with Zoominfo data and kick off a tailored cadence.
3. Retarget with LinkedIn ads showcasing your differentiation.
4. Serve up targeted lifecycle content and collect new demo requests.

This forms a well-orchestrated plan for inbound and outbound. Align with sales to decide on content, messaging, and the level of intent you are collaborating on, and then you can duplicate, scale, and optimize.

The new era of intent-driven marketing awaits! Drop me a line below if you have a question or comment about buyer intelligence for epic wins.

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An article by

Limor Reznik

I write, I design, I paint, and I drink great wine.

Do:? Marketing, branding, storytelling, creative, design and whatever my kids say (they are much wittier than me).

Work: Fractional CMO for startups.

Passion: Do-good hasbara causes.