The document discusses modern demand generation approaches and provides recommendations based on insights from TechTarget's experience. Some key points: 1. Applying common sense to balance lead volume and quality, such as ensuring adequate content, audience size, and campaign duration to generate quality leads. 2. Remembering relevance and recency by targeting prospects who have recently researched matching topics to improve lead quality and engagement. 3. Focusing on long-term lead value by targeting active, engaged prospects who will continue consuming content and progressing deals. 4. Not restricting targeting based on myths about company size, as smaller companies frequently make large tech purchases. 5. Maximizing opportunities by targeting the full buying team,

1. INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
Demand Generation
in the Age of Intent
A Data-based Approach to Fueling Pipeline
By Dara Such

2. Demand Generation in the Age of Intent | 2
Moderndemandgenerationisinthemidst
ofamajortransformation.
Marketers want quality leads that fuel pipeline, yet
are simultaneously seeking volume at lower cost.
Marketing automation and martech have gone
mainstream, yet some marketers still structure lead
gen “campaigns” the same way they have in the
past – with lots of filters and, in some cases, limited
content variety. Many lead providers are advising
they add even more filters and requirements to
ensure quality. That sounds good on the surface,
but it implies that all lead sources are inherently
poor quality, requiring firmographic or demographic
parameters to be placed on an otherwise untargeted
audience. However, when the lead source is highly
targeted in the first place, this approach can have
unintended consequences.
In a pre-intent world, filters helped demand gen
marketers compensate for unknowns. In today’s
world, over-dependence upon title and company
size filters as a proxy for lead quality can limit your
access to real buyers and force providers to obtain
leads through means that have little to do with their
interest or need for your solutions.
The downstream impact can be pretty harsh,
impacting both marketing and sales efforts.
Directimpactonmarketing...
• Dilutes CRM and marketing automation systems
• Limits insight required to power nurture streams
• Lowers response rates on email campaigns
and nurture efforts
• Lowers conversion rates to MQL
• Diminishes long-term value of database
Directimpactonsales...
• Harder to isolate the right prospects
• Wastes time of valuable qualification
resources: BDRs and Inside Sales
• Results in longer sales cycles
• Strains relationship with marketing because
ROI is questionable
TechTarget has been observing and applying
purchase intent insight since 2005 and have
recognized five key elements to smart lead
generation construction. Let’s look at what
we’ve learned:
1. Apply Common Sense To
Achieve a Balance Between
Volume and Quality
Don’t set aside common sense when partnering
with 3rd party providers to drive lead generation.
Within B2B there’s a finite amount of pre-
purchase technology research happening at a
given time. Lead generation capacity shrinks
or expands based on a few key campaign
parameters factored into the size of the active,
in-market audience.
1. Audience size
2. Content volume, variety and quality
3. Duration in market and frequency of list drops
When any one of those factors is ignored there
is a direct – and pretty drastic – impact on lead
volume. Here’s a look at how this can compound
in a sample lead generation effort:
• Suppose we have a “three month, three asset”
program targeting an audience of 300
• 3 assets x 3 months x 300 contacts =
27 leads1
1
TechTarget Publisher Data, November 2016

3. Demand Generation in the Age of Intent | 3
• Remove just one asset and lead capacity
drops by 33% (18 leads)
• Shrink duration by one month and lead
capacity drops even further to 55% less (12
leads)
• Add a single demographic or firmgraphic filter
which reduces audience by 1/3 and capacity
drops by 70% (8 leads)
MarketerTakeaway: A campaign constructed
without regard to audience size, adequate assets
volume and variety, or enough time to execute,
will suffer. If you don’t have a large enough list of
interested prospects or you lack quality assets or
sufficient time in market, the only way to deliver
is by marketing to or supplying contacts that are
less likely to be in-market. If your lead providers
support any lead volume regardless of campaign
construction or audience size there could be
questionable tactics in play as the provider seeks
to expand the pool of contacts that meet your
requirements independent of their interest in
your solution. You might end up with a nice list of
C-suite contacts, but you have to question if they
are legitimate prospects. Read more about
“Why All Leads Are Not Created Equal.”
2. Remember R&Rs: Relevance
and Recency
The right kind of purchase intent can make or
break the success of a lead generation campaign.
Sounds obvious but engaging users that have been
recently researching solutions like the ones you
sell with highly targeted topically relevant offers
is the most effective way to produce pipeline-
generating leads. Even further, doing so ensures
your demand generation efforts enable a positive
customer experience with your brand before leads
are generated by engaging prospects based upon
their interest versus over-messaging them based
upon their profile. TechTarget executes campaigns
optimized with these elements of purchase
intent insight:
• Relevance: level of topic granularity of the
prospect’s purchase research
• Recency: When they conducted that
research
ThePowerofAligningRelevance&Recency
Activity Timeframe
& Topic Targeting
How much
less responsive
0-­30 days
Sub-­Topic (Copy Data
Management)
n/a
30-­90 days
Sub-­Topic (Copy Data
Management)
2.89x
3-­6 months
Sub-­Topic (Copy Data
Management)
5.06x
0-­6 months
Topic (Backup)
5.50x
0-­6 months
Tech Group (Storage)
8.15x
6-­12 months
Topic (Backup)
11.81x
6-­12 months
Tech Group (Storage)
16.25x

4. Demand Generation in the Age of Intent | 4
Filters require targeting audiences who are less
receptive to content offers:
• Relevance: 65%+ higher response rate when
targeting users with “Copy Data Management”
activity versus “General Storage” activity
• Recency: when targeting same audience
active in last 90 days alone, conversions
increase an additional 77%+
• Total impact of focusing on highly targeted,
recently active users results in more than 16x
stronger response rates
The impact on performance declines exponentially
when campaign parameters such as title and
company size filters push targeting further
away from the center of the bull’s-eye of recent
and relevant activity. Like digital ad retargeting,
if messages are misaligned or delivered too
frequently, it can harm your brand – or worse –
prevent the prospect from buying from you at all.
MarketerTakeaway:Structure campaigns to
allow unrestricted ability for your organization
to reach accounts which are in-market for your
solution while ensuring a positive branded content
experience for prospects. This provides a greater
number of actual prospects, with more relevant
information about your solutions, allowing you to
address their current pain points in a customer-
centric way. Only filter out those companies whose
characteristics (industry, location or size) truly
preclude them from buying your solution.
3. Long-term Value of Targeting
Active and Engaged Prospects
If they end up getting leads anyway, why should
B2B marketers care whether their demand-gen
partner applies the principles of recency and
relevance? It’s all about engagement with you after
the lead is generated. Leads generated based on
recent, relevant activity, allow you to assert greater
influence earlier and throughout pre-purchase
research cycle:
• Highly targeted, recently active users are
more engaged by 7x+
• These engaged users download an average
of 9 additional assets in next 90-days same
topic2
2
TechTarget Research™
Avg. Activity Per
Lead post conversion
Avg. Continued
Downloads post
conversion
0
5
10
15
20
25
0-­30 Days Subtopic:
Copy Data
Management
30-­90 Days Subtopic:
Copy Data
Management
3-­6 Months Subtopic:
Copy Data
Management
0-­6 months Tech
Group: Storage
6-­12 months Tech
Group: Storage
22.6
15.1
11.6
9.7
3.1
9.2
5.8
4.4 3.8
1.2

5. Demand Generation in the Age of Intent | 5
This continued engagement directly impacts
MQL acceleration: Most B2B marketers score
leads based on both initial and continued content
consumption and engagement with your brand,
making “recent and relevant” leads essential
to any revenue marketer’s pipeline. Conversely,
campaigns constructed with excessive filters
force your lead generation partners to deliver less
engaged leads (even if they manage to get them
to download your content). Of course this isn’t
a factor for suppliers that use means other than
promoting your content to an active and engaged
audience in the first place.
MarketerTakeaway: Partner with providers
that can provide leads with proven recent
activity on relevant topics, to hack your MQL
and pipeline development.
4. Don’t Buy Into the “Big
Company, Big Deal” Myth
Commonly held thinking suggests that only the
largest enterprise companies can afford complex
IT purchases. In the age of intent, we know that’s
not true. TechTarget Research™ has tracked and
confirmed the details on more than 3,500 Data
Center purchases in past 12-months. Here’s a look
at what we’ve discovered about the market reality
of deal size vs. size of organization:
• 70% of all transactions originate from
companies of less than 1,000 employees
• Six-figure deals not bound by company size
• 53% of $1M+ deals from sub-1000
companies
• 46% of $250K-$1M deals from sub-
1000 companies
• Limit targeting to 1000+ company size and
exclude up to 69% of in-market audience
MarketerTakeaway:What we’ve learned is
today’s market defies the belief that “large deals
come from large companies.” Prioritize Purchase
Intent Insight to better identify and influence deals
and fuel pipeline by accessing companies that
are actively researching what you sell instead of
restricting your access to likely buyers based upon
company size. This allows for maximum reach
into active pre-purchase research for deals of all
size, including large technology investments and
ensures you don’t miss out on a large percentage
of prospective buyers.
5. Maximize Deal Points of Entry:
Target Full Buying Team
Buyer roles have changed and team-buying is
the acknowledged reality for B2B technology
purchases creating a need to engage at all levels
of buying teams rather than focusing demand
gen efforts solely on senior titles. Purchase Intent
insight tells us that aspirational thinking regarding
the desirability of targeting top titles must be
adjusted to gain greater access to B2B technology
deals. We have learned through our many years of
identifying and confirming actual tech purchases
that as technology evolves so do the titles most
often influencing those purchase decisions. Here
is how the numbers shake our based upon 7,000+
confirmed purchases across Data Center and
Storage markets in past 12-months.3
3
TechTarget Research Post-Purchase Market Insight Data, Data Center Technologies, Fall 2016
Targeting less relevant,
less active users can be up
to 94% less responsive.

6. Demand Generation in the Age of Intent | 6
• #1 most efficient path to revenue is via IT
Management role
• IT Management is nearly 3x more involved in
technology purchases than Director + titles
• IT Management involved in 52% of tech
purchases vs 19% for Director+ titles
• Lead-for-lead IT Management titles are
50% more likely to provide access to a
planned purchase
• Focusing on Director level and above titles
reduces points of entry into live deals by a
whopping 81%
MarketerTakeaway:Don’t restrict your access
to live, in-market deals based upon misconceptions
of roles involved in purchases. Embrace buying
team influence to maximize points of entry to deals
relevant to your market.
Summary
With the rise in use of alternate demand generation
channels and tactics that has witnessed even
familiar suppliers sourcing contacts from unknown
audiences, ensure you know what you’re getting.
Don’t fall victim to the unintended consequences
of flawed lead generation practices that undermine
the very quality you seek
• Take a common sense approach to lead
generation programs for B2B technology
markets: if it sounds too good to be true, it
probably is
• Measure lead generation efficiency based
on both short and long-term value of leads:
Inexpensive leads that never convert cost
exponentially more over time
• Partner with providers who can provide rich
insight into lead activity to accelerate nurture
and MQL generation efforts
• Embrace purchase intent insight as your
first line of defense for uncovering in-market
active buyers from sources you trust; avoid
the temptation to attempt to dictate quality via
demographic or firmographic restrictions
• Rather than restrict lead generation to when
you are in market, consider an always-on,
persistent lead generation strategy to access
buyers when they are in market
Title Percentage
of Total
Deals
Percentage
of Total
Audience
Director+ 19% 20%
IT Management 52% 35%
IT Staff 22% 21%
Other non-­IT 7% 24%

7. About TechTarget
TechTarget (Nasdaq: TTGT) is the global leader in
purchase intent-driven marketing and sales services
that deliver business impact for enterprise technology
companies. By creating abundant, high-quality
editorial content across more than 140 highly targeted
technology-specific websites, TechTarget attracts and
nurtures communities of technology buyers researching
their companies’ information technology needs. By
understanding these buyers’ content consumption
behaviors, TechTarget creates the purchase intent
insights that fuel efficient and effective marketing and
sales activities for clients around the world.
TechTarget has offices in Beijing, Boston, London,
Munich, Paris, San Francisco, Singapore and Sydney.
For more information, visit techtarget.com and follow
us on Twitter @TechTarget.
Dara Such is Vice President
of Sales Enablement at
TechTarget. Contact her at
dsuch@techtarget.com or
@darasuch
©2016 TechTarget. All rights reserved. The TechTarget logo is a registered trademark of TechTarget. All other logos are
trademarks of their respective owners. TechTarget reserves the right to make changes in specificationsand other information
contained in this document without prior notice. The reader should in all cases consult TechTarget to determine whether any
such changes have been made. Revised 12/19/16
275 Grove Street, Newton, MA 02466
888.274.4111
Intent@techtarget.com
www.techtarget.com