Revenue teams use 6sense intent data to know who their potential customers are and when they’re ready to buy. In fact, revenue generation is 120% more effective when using 6sense to identify and pursue accounts that are in-market.
This improved performance is largely the result of intent data, or the “digital footprints” left behind when people search the web or visit your website. These signals create millions of data points that are mostly anonymized, but can be accurately matched to target accounts. This gives marketing and sales teams a complete picture of prospects, including their needs and where they are in the buyers’ journey.
The very same intent data can be applied — in just a slightly different way — to give hedge funds, venture capital organizations, and private equity firms insight into potential investment opportunities, as well as help them evaluate investment decisions.
Here’s how.
Traditional Decision Making vs. Data-Backed Decision Making
Very simply put, investment firms determine companies to invest in by:
- Finding a potential investment target
- Conducting a fundamental analysis
- Conducting a technical analysis
- Deciding whether or not to invest
When done the traditional way, without the benefit of a platform like 6sense, the problem is that the data is limited, lacking visibility into leading indicators via intent signals. These signals can give you a clearer understanding of the market and company landscape:
- How is the investment trending against the competition?
- How many other investment firms are actively researching it?
- Who and when did the most recent investment firms search for it?
These data points help complete the bigger picture analysis. Firms that use a platform like 6sense can make better-informed decisions.
What is Intent Data?
Intent data is information that internet users leave behind as they search for keywords or visit websites and digital resources. This data, left behind like footprints in the snow, offers insight into how ready buyers are to make a purchasing decision, or in the case of venture capital, seek out an investment.
There is first-party intent data, which is data that comes directly from interactions with customers and prospects across your digital properties, and third-party data, which comes from all across the greater internet. Unless users identify themselves through a contact form or other channels, these intent signals are anonymized — meaning that they can’t be traced back to an individual.
6sense processes and matches online activity at the account level, giving you insight into a company’s behavior online. This data is widely used today by marketing and sales teams to surface prospects and customers web activity. This gives them a leg up to get into deals earlier, prioritize hot accounts, and reduce churn of current customers as they start to showcase intent signals towards competitors.
For investment firms, these insights can be used to get a more complete picture of the company or market landscape, helping you make confident investment decisions.
Generic and Branded Keywords
Among the intent signals that 6sense can capture are the generic and branded keywords that companies search for.
Investors can use the insight offered by these keywords to:
- Shed light on emerging categories to target for investment
- Discover companies for potential investment that attract the most interest
- Spot companies seeking funding sources, based on keywords such as “SaaS financing” or “late-stage funding”
- See which companies are researching their firm, or their competitors
Understanding this keyword data can help investors track the market, identify desirable opportunities, and be the first to establish deal conversations based on what they know the target company is already interested in. Investors can also see any engagement with competitors that demonstrates investment interest.
Website Tagging
6sense uncovers anonymous activity on customers’ websites through website tagging. Firms can add 6sense tags to track which pages potential and current portfolio companies are visiting, and which content they are consuming.
Additionally, these tags can be used for future fundraising or capital raising activities. Investment companies can track intent from family offices and other sources to see if there is interest in potentially allocating capital in an upcoming raise.
Knowing how companies are engaging with your website and what resources they are seeking can help inform future investment decisions, such as allocating capital or looking for investors.
Conclusion
In a competitive market, it’s important for investment firms, such as venture capital firms, hedge funds, and private equity companies, to have access to all of the data available to make informed investment decisions.
Just like 6sense helps revenue teams identify their ideal customers, what they care most about, and when to reach out to them with the right message, hedge funds and VC firms can apply robust intent data in similar ways to determine where they should put their future investments, monitor the health of current investments, and monitor interest for an upcoming raise of their own.
