In today’s competitive building products market, understanding the behavior of AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction) professionals is more crucial than ever. Gain an upper hand with intent data, a powerful resource that reveals the interests and preferences of your potential customers while they’re looking for products to specify. With CADdetails AnalyticsBETA, building product manufacturers (BPMs) gain access to insightful, actionable intent data they can use to optimize their sales, marketing, and product strategies. 

In this blog, we’ll cover: 

• Understanding intent data & its importance in the specification process 
• How CADdetails calculates intent data  
• How your sales, marketing, and product teams can leverage intent data to drive your success  
• Getting started with CADdetails Analytics  

Understanding Intent Data & Its Importance in the Specification Process

Before talking about intent data, let’s define what we mean by intent. Intent refers to a design professional’s demonstrated intention to specify one of your products based on their real-time interactions with your brand’s offerings. 

To measure AEC intent, CADdetails uses data sourced directly from our product listing platform, CADdetails.com. Intent data collected from our website then accurately gauges a buyer’s interest in your building products based on their engagement with your products and/or related product categories. 

CADdetails’ intent data offers insights into the online behavior of your target AEC audience, providing valuable information you can capitalize on to drive your growth.  

How CADdetails Calculates Intent Data

In one study, 97% of surveyed organizations believed intent data could offer a substantial competitive advantage, but 56% also cited the quality of their data as a major challenge.  

With CADdetails’ 25+ years of industry experience, you can rest assured that you're getting top-notch intent data. Using a precise proprietary algorithm and new metrics hyper-focused on the quality of audience engagement, CADdetails accurately measures intent based on AEC interactions with your products and related product categories on CADdetails.com and Design Hub (if applicable).  

Each firm is then assigned an intent score and ranked on the Design Firm Leaderboard, allowing you to quickly identify and target the most relevant active firms based on their activity. 

To obtain more specific insights, you can also choose to filter your firms by country, state/province, and industry.  

Want to learn more about the incredible capabilities of the Design Firm Leaderboard? Check out this blog for more details! 

Maximizing Your Intent Data: Key Benefits for Your Sales, Marketing, & Product Teams

Intent data is a goldmine for BPMs looking to gain a competitive advantage in today’s high-stakes market. Let’s break down the unique benefits to your sales, marketing, and product teams and take a closer look how intent data skyrockets each of them to success: 

How Intent Data Empowers Your Sales Team 

With intent data, your sales team can: 

1. Identify High-Intent Firms with Ease

• Revolutionize your sales efforts by quickly pinpointing high-intent firms that may not have been on your radar otherwise. 
• Increase the precision of your sales prospects, target potential clients at the very beginning of their specification journey, and connect with them early to build a stronger rapport. 
• Prioritizing firms based on their intent means you’ll always know which prospects are most interested, allowing you to manage your time and resources more effectively. 

2. Anticipate AEC Professionals’ Needs 

• Tailor your strategies to align with the preferences and behaviors of your AEC audience. For example, you could organize a lunch and learn event aimed at providing potential specifiers with more detailed information about the products they’ve shown interest in on CADdetails.com.  
• Nurture existing client relationships based on their recent engagement with your offerings by providing personalized follow-ups, relevant updates, and tailored recommendations that align with their needs and preferences. This approach fosters trust, shortens sales cycles, and improves your intent scores. 
• Gaining deeper insights into your audience also helps you reach out to interested firms at the critical moment when design decisions are made, improving the chances of conversion and fostering stronger connections with AEC professionals. 

How Intent Data Empowers Your Marketing Team 

With intent data, your marketing team can: 

1. Gain a Better Understanding of Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) 

• Ranking design firms by intent helps you identify which ones are most interested in your products or product categories, giving you deeper insight into your ICP. This is highly beneficial since research shows that businesses with a strong, well-defined ICP achieve 68% higher win rates. 
• With a more accurate ICP, you can also adjust your website, social media, email communications, and other outreach strategies to target potential customers already interested in your products. 

2. Create & Market to Lookalike Audiences 

• Understanding intent based on factors like geographic location and job title allows you to generate lookalike audiences which have similar characteristics and interests to your existing community of high-intent firms.  
• Craft marketing campaigns that target your lookalike AEC audiences via display ads to extend your reach, enhance the likelihood of meaningful interactions with your brand, increase brand awareness, and drive conversions.

3. Craft Relevant, Personalized Content Targeted at High-Intent Firms 

• Build effective marketing campaigns aimed at firms which engage most with your content to drive brand visibility and interest in your products, leading to higher engagement. 
• Tailor your content development efforts based on your audience’s activity, ensuring that what you produce resonates with their behavior and preferences and addresses their specific concerns and pain points. 

How Intent Data Empowers Your Product Team 

With intent data, your product team can: 

1. Improve Your Products 

• Refine your products so that they better resonate with your target audience and stand out in the market. 
• Understanding your audience’s preferred file types can guide product improvements and boost AEC user experience and satisfaction. 

2. Guide Product Expansion 

• Align your product development efforts with the preferences and interests of the firms most interested in your existing offerings. 
• Intent data reveals what potential customers are actively researching, enabling product teams to pinpoint unmet AEC needs, gaps in the market, and areas for enhancement. 
• Identifying when interest in specific products is at its highest can help teams determine the optimal timing for new product launches, maximizing their impact. 

Ready to Get Started? 

By using the intent data provided by CADdetails’ analytics, BPMs can better engage with potential AEC buyers, level up their outreach strategies, and increase specification rates. Book a demo to learn more about how CADdetails helps manufacturers connect with design professionals and propel their growth.  

Are you an existing client? Sign up here for early access to CADdetails Analytics or contact your Client Success Manager for more information.