Harness First Party Social Intent Data to Accelerate Sales Pipelines with Oktopost’s Social Signals

In today’s business environment, the ability to discern and act upon a potential customer’s needs and desires can be transformative, enabling businesses to engage with prospects more effectively and convert them into loyal customers. For this reason, utilizing intent data has become a pivotal strategy for B2B revenue teams, as more of their budgets become dedicated to generating new business. Intent data offers crucial insights into when prospects are actively seeking solutions and what they intend to purchase based on their online behavior. Recent findings indicate that leveraging intent data yields promising results. In fact, Gartner research indicates that businesses employing intent data are twice as likely to achieve a 10% conversion rate at the top of the marketing funnel, compared to the standard 6% conversion rate without utilizing intent data.

Despite its substantial potential for increasing closed-won opportunities, B2B revenue organizations often overlook one critical source of intent data: social media. Since prospects often research products on social media, capturing and utilizing social intent data is vital to expediting the sales process. Yet, this valuable resource typically lies siloed in the hands of the marketing team, failing to realize its full potential in providing revenue teams with actionable insights into customer buying behaviors, thus facilitating the conversion of more deals into closed-won. Even when revenue teams gain access to social intent data, they frequently lack a clear understanding of how to employ it efficiently and progress toward the optimal course of action that leads to winning the deal.

Oktopost is proud to introduce the solution to this challenge with the release of its new feature, Social Signals. Social Signals is a feature designed to bridge the trove of knowledge marketing holds about leads, accounts, and opportunities based on their social media actions on first-party content and share those signals with revenue teams to drive and close business.

This new solution, built specifically for revenue teams, empowers organizations to seamlessly route social intent data directly to the email inbox of the most relevant revenue team member, equipping them with unparalleled insights into customer interactions and behaviors across social media platforms. With this invaluable information at their disposal, account owners can proactively enhance purchasing experiences, expedite the opportunity pipeline, and significantly enhance their success rates. 

What is Social Signals?

Social Signals compiles first-party social intent data encompassing a customer’s content preferences, areas of interest, relevant keywords, specific needs, and indications of purchase intent. This information is directly transmitted to the account owner so they can proactively take the “next best action” to nurture the prospect and move the deal to closed-won. By delivering notifications concerning customer engagement, readiness, and context, Social Signals equips revenue teams with the capability to engage customers effectively and at the most opportune moments by offering tailored content and solutions that resonate with their specific interests. This personalized approach leads to more closed-won deals and the ability to hit revenue targets faster.

In essence, Social Signals puts valuable social intent data in the hands of the individual responsible for the customer relationship. Now, this data is no longer held exclusively to the owners of a company’s social media accounts. Instead, it is routed to the most relevant employee and can be used to strategically grow opportunity pipeline and enhance win ratios, thereby, generating more revenue for B2B organizations. 

Social Signals in Action

How does Social Signals work in practice? In many cases, revenue teams may be uncertain about how to move a deal forward because the customer’s level of interest and their position in the sales funnel is often difficult to decipher. Questions arise, such as whether the customer is still in the research phase comparing options, or if they have already chosen a product and require assistance in selecting the right plan. Additionally, revenue teams may need to ascertain if the prospect is addressing challenges for a particular use case or seeking a specific product within the organization’s offerings.

This ambiguity often necessitates revenue teams to make educated guesses in guiding customers through the sales funnel. They may send follow-up emails, make phone calls, and provide content they believe may be of interest, but don’t know for certain if they’re taking the right actions to win the account. 

However, with Social Signals, the pathway forward ceases to be a matter of guesswork but instead relies on deep insights derived from first-party social intent data. The account owner gains visibility into the prospect’s interests, their position in the funnel, and other pertinent details, enabling them to initiate conversations with the right content at the right time to advance the sales process.

Here are examples illustrating how Social Signals can be effectively utilized:

A member of the revenue team responsible for nurturing a significant deal shares content on social media spotlighting their organization’s flagship product. Suddenly, a contact from the target account engages by liking a post that explains the product’s benefits. Armed with this immediate insight, the account owner recognizes the prospect’s active interest in a solution. They can then promptly reach out to capitalize on the opportunity and create a sense of urgency while the prospect’s interest is high.

In another scenario, a prospective customer who had initially expressed keen interest in the product has been unresponsive to the revenue team’s outreach for the past two weeks. Despite persistent efforts including emails, phone calls, and the provisioning of relevant content, there was no discernible progress in moving the deal forward. The situation takes a turn when Social Signals issues an email notification, revealing that the prospect has recently engaged with the company on multiple occasions within the past week. This engagement includes liking an X (formerly Twitter) post about an upcoming webinar on Trends in AI in 2024, commenting on the organization’s LinkedIn post regarding AI solutions for content marketing, and liking a YouTube video on AI prompts that yield high-performing copy.

This newfound information clarifies the prospect’s genuine interest in an AI solution for content marketing as well as their active presence on social media platforms. Equipped with this valuable knowledge, the account owner can reframe their approach,  putting the prospect into a  nurture stream about AI for content marketing and delivering tailored content directly to the prospect’s LinkedIn inbox. This strategic adjustment rescues the deal from its previous stagnation and propels it toward closed-won.

Unleashing the Potential of Social Signals

In an era where creating a sense of urgency and expediting the sales funnel is imperative, Social Signals equips revenue teams with the essential edge they need to hit their quotas and drive success in today’s dynamic business environment. With this tool, they are no longer operating in the dark, and social intent data becomes a potent tool for cultivating leads and increasing win ratio, rather than simply staying in the hands of marketing.

In a realm where timing reigns supreme, these notifications equip account owners with the insights necessary to seize opportunities in their prime and secure the sale. Through these enhanced engagement strategies, Oktopost propels more B2B businesses toward a new era of sales excellence.

Do you want to learn more about Social Signals and how it can help accelerate your sales pipeline? Contact one of our experts to see it in action!