- March 18, 2024
- Intent data, partner marketing
While many demand generation marketers use intent data to improve campaign outcomes, incorporating intent into complex go-to-market (GTM) motions is more difficult for partner and channel marketers. It was difficult. The channel marketing team at 8×8, a leading unified communications and contact center cloud provider, has cracked the code on using account and lead-level intent data to drive demand generation for partners. We recently spoke with Dan Streeter, Channel Marketing Manager at 8×8.
8×8 shows the path to success
The 8×8 partner ecosystem is a key element of the company's growth strategy. In 2020, the 8×8 Channel team started thinking about where intent data could be incorporated into our strategy and how it could benefit our partners. They invested in TechTarget's Priority Engine platform to help partners identify and engage buyers within their marketplace.
Over the past four years, 8×8 has evolved from providing purposeful data to partners and expecting action on it to creating turnkey programs that can be pushed to partner communities at scale. So far, they've seen great results, including building a $1.5 million monthly recurring revenue pipeline from their intent-based efforts.
Examples of using intent data in partner marketing
Throughout our intent journey, 8×8 has discovered many creative ways to use intent data to build our partner pipeline. Here are six use cases for partners and channel marketers to consider.
Use case 1: Account targeting
Some of the easiest outcomes of intent data in partner marketing are account targeting. A common tactic in the partner world is account mapping. Partners share customer lists, and vendors work with partners to create target account lists to pursue together.
Account-level intent data makes this process more effective. As a vendor, you can take your partner's customer list, compare it to the list of accounts with purchase intent, and focus your efforts and joint campaigns on the companies that are in the market for your solution.
Prospect-level intent data takes account targeting to the next level by helping you:
- Conduct pre-purchase research to identify individual buyers.
- Identify their specific behaviors.
- Give your partners buyer insight into who to engage with and how to customize your message.
Dan from 8×8 emphasizes the importance of enabling intent data when providing it to partner sellers.
“Your partners and channels are just an extension of your sales team. Treat them like that. Don't tell them where the data comes from, how it was generated, and how you need to follow up. , you can't just hand the data over to the sales team.”
You can also use account-level and lead-level intent data to create target lists for joint marketing campaigns. For example, you can identify contacts from marketplace accounts in a specific geographic region and invite them to a co-sponsored field event.
Use case 2: Account re-engagement
Another way partners can identify potential opportunities within their customer base is by using intent data to understand which trade registration accounts are still in the market. Review your partner sourcing pipeline to identify stalled deals or closed-lost deals, and compare this list to the list of accounts that are interested in buying. Provide this intelligence to your partners so they can identify customers who may be ready to re-engage.
Dan shares:
“Partners may register deals, but they get rejected, stalled, or go to closed lost. If we know they are actively doing research, we can publish their backups. There may be an opportunity to do so.”
Use case 3: Accelerating pipelines
A key success metric for 8×8 channel teams is the acceleration of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) to close. In addition to using intent at the top of the funnel, you can leverage this data to advance mid-funnel opportunities throughout the sales cycle. You should review your open partner pipeline to identify accounts that need to reach more members of your buying committee or tailor your messaging to resonate with key stakeholders. With lead-level intent data, you can uncover additional contacts in your account and tailor your outreach to their specific areas of interest.
Use case 4: Personalization
Another powerful use case for intent data in partner marketing is personalization. Every marketer knows that relevant and timely messages are key to capturing the attention of potential customers. Achieve better results by providing signals of intent to your partners and making it easy for them to personalize their outreach.
8×8 takes things a step further by automating the creation of co-branded and personalized content tailored to the topical interests that key account buyers are researching. It also leverages Priority Engine's IntentMail feature to automatically create customized emails for each individual contact, making it easy for partner sellers to reach out to them with relevant messages. .
Dan elaborates:
“From an end-to-end perspective, we hit all the right points. We use intent data to find out who is interested. Identify the right contacts But in addition to that, we offer co-branded content for our partners that specifically appeals to the interests of their customers.”
Use case 5: BDR-as-a-Service
One of the key challenges facing partner marketers is converting top-of-funnel interest into registered opportunities, especially when working with partners who have limited marketing and sales resources and expertise. If you have a mature business development organization, you can work with this team to effectively attract top-of-funnel leads from collaborative programs like webinars and events.
8×8 also provides lead-level intent data to partner and business development representative (BDR) teams to drive outbound activity during virtual blitzes. This approach has yielded great results, with the first event generating a week's worth of registration opportunities in one day.
Use case 6: Cross-sell/up-sell
In addition to acquiring a new logo, many partner marketing teams are tasked with supporting customer expansion. If you have multiple products to sell to your current customers, you can use account-level intent data to reveal which customers are actively exploring other related solutions. By layering prospect-level intent data, partners can identify specific customer contacts and engage them with customized messages that resonate with customers.
Dan advises:
“When we tell our partners that their account is actively researching new technologies online, they get more interest because it looks like an opportunity to make more sales. ”
Resources to help you get started with intention
To learn more about the 8×8 Channel team's crawl, walk, run approach to intent data and practical advice on where to start on your own journey, check out the recording. How 8×8 leverages intent data to drive collaborative campaigns. To learn more about intent data, check out our extensive educational content in our resource center. We also invite you to learn more about Priority Engine, the industry's most powerful prospect-level His Intent™ data.
B2B purchase intent data, demand generation, partner marketing, impact on partner marketing
