Intent Data Signals

Firmographic fit tells you a company is a plausible buyer. Intent data tells you they're plausibly researching right now. The gap between those two things is most of the difference between a 2% and an 8% reply rate on an otherwise identical list.

What intent data actually is

Third-party (aggregated)   a data provider tracks which companies'
                          employees are consuming content about a
                          topic across a network of publisher sites,
                          and sells the aggregated signal
First-party (your own)    your own site visitor identification,
                          content downloads, pricing page views,
                          demo requests that didn't convert

First-party intent is stronger and cheaper than third-party, and most companies under-use it before buying the third-party version. Someone who visited your pricing page twice this week is a stronger signal than a company whose employees generically read about your category somewhere else — see website-visitor-identification for capturing this directly.

Reading a third-party intent signal correctly