What is intent? In the context of commerce, intent is a desire that a consumer is acting on. Intent is the stage in a purchasing life cycle where a shopper has gone from wanting something to deciding that they will purchase it — if, and only if, they can find something close to what they want.
Why Intent Matters
Intent is important for digital marketers to identify because if you know a customer is at a certain stage of the process, you will be able to market to them differently than to someone who merely wants something. Intent is the moment to pounce; to close; to make a final case of why they should buy your product. Today, digital marketers are learning how to establish intent from digital footprints left by shoppers online. But not anymore. Technology now empowers brands to cut through the noise and isolate customer behaviors on an individual level. That allows marketers to focus on doing more than driving traffic and engagement, it allows them to focus on sales. In a very real sense, this closes the loop on the marketing to sales hand-off. Previously, marketers only knew that if a browser looked at a product online and did not buy it, that they should be retargeted with an ad as they continued to browse the web. The ad would be generic, since they knew very little about what stage of the buying process that browser was in. Furthermore, if that browser switched to a different device, they might lose them altogether.
The Future of Digital
The standard for digital marketing is now much higher and there are platforms that gives them insight into customer behaviors, facilitates seamless remarketing across devices, and customizes ad creative to the customer’s actual interests. That means someone browsing for bedroom furniture in mahogany will be retargeted with ads of bedroom furniture in mahogany. Behavioral marketing is the new frontier in digital marketing. It adapts the e-commerce experience to human buying tendencies, and to the degree that it is possible in a digital medium, to recreate the offline buying experience. By tapping into intent, behavioral marketers are increasing a company’s’ ability to connect customers with content, products, and services that they are actually looking for. Read more about marketing here on Tech.Co
