What is Intent Data?
Intent data is behavioral information collected from across the internet that indicates when companies or individuals are actively researching topics related to your solution. It answers the most valuable question in B2B sales: "Who is looking to buy right now?"
Types of Intent Data
First-Party Intent: Behavioral data from your own properties.
- Website page visits and time spent
- Content downloads and form fills
- Product page views and pricing page visits
- Search queries on your site
Second-Party Intent: Data shared by a partner or publisher.
- Content engagement on industry publications
- Webinar registrations and attendance
- Research report downloads from partner sites
Third-Party Intent: Aggregated data from across the web.
- Topic-level research activity (e.g., "email deliverability tools")
- Competitor website visits
- Review site activity (G2, Capterra)
- Technology evaluation signals
How Intent Data Works
Intent data providers monitor billions of online activities, content consumption, search behavior, review site visits, and aggregate them at the account level. When a company shows significantly higher-than-normal research activity around topics relevant to your solution, they're flagged as "in-market."
Why Intent Data Matters for Outbound
Reaching a prospect at the exact moment they're researching your category dramatically improves response rates:
- Timing: You're reaching them when the problem is top-of-mind.
- Relevance: You can reference their specific research topics.
- Priority: You can focus your best outreach efforts on the most likely buyers.
- Competitive advantage: You can engage before competitors if you act on signals quickly.
Intent Data Best Practices
- Combine with ICP: Intent data is powerful, but only when filtered through your Ideal Customer Profile.
- Act quickly: Intent signals decay rapidly. Engage within days, not weeks.
- Validate signals: Not all intent signals are equal. Multiple signals from the same account are stronger than isolated spikes.
- Personalize around intent: Reference the specific topics they're researching in your outreach.
How FlowStrata Uses Intent Data
FlowStrata integrates intent data from multiple providers to create a composite "buying readiness" score for each target account. We monitor topic-level research activity, competitor evaluations, and technology adoption signals to identify which prospects in your ICP are most likely to engage right now. This allows us to prioritize our highest-effort outreach for accounts with the strongest purchase intent.