Outreach on third-party intent data — an account researching the category (Bombora topics, G2 activity, review-site views). Account-level and probabilistic: someone at the company is looking, identity unknown, signal noisy.
The angle
Intent works like a website visit one step further removed: it sets timing and topic, and it never, ever appears in the copy. The message reads as well-timed cold outreach about the exact problem the account is researching — sent to the person who would own that problem.
Do
- Treat the topic as the brief: the researched category tells which pain to lead with and which persona owns it. Find that persona; the researcher is invisible, their boss usually isn't.
- Corroborate before spending sender capacity — intent alone measures content consumption, not purchase intent (the "researcher" may be writing a blog post). Stack it with a second signal — hiring for the space, stack fit, growth stage, recent event — which both confirms the account and supplies the mentionable hook. Signal plus fit is action; signal alone is not.
- Respect staleness: under 14 days with rising activity is the strong zone; past 30 days intent is context, not a trigger.
- Write topic-led, problem-first cold outreach per the parent — the corroborating signal is the visible hook, the intent data stays backstage.
- Batch same-topic accounts into one slice under the cold-list discipline — but give the strongest corroborated accounts an individually drafted sequence rather than the batch treatment.
Don't
- NEVER reference the research activity, the source, or anything that implies tracking ("noticed your team has been researching...", anything G2/Bombora-shaped). This is the fastest trust burn in the skill.
- Don't treat a topic spike as a buying committee — it's often one curious person or a competitor's analyst.
- Don't reach out on intent alone with no corroborating signal; if nothing checks out, the account isn't ready — park it, don't force it.
- Don't blast every account on the topic list the day it arrives; capacity goes to corroborated fits first.
Sequence shape
Placeholder until this org sets its own:
| Step | Day | Channel |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | email — topic-led problem opener via the corroborating hook |
| 2 | 3 | email — new angle on the same problem, shorter |
| 3 | 8 | LinkedIn or email — proof angle |
| 4 | 14 | soft close |
This org's rules
Nothing recorded yet. When the user gives feedback on intent outreach in conversation, write it here: which topics map to which pains and personas, corroboration bar, source quirks. Rules only — approved copy accumulates automatically as message examples.