Signal-Based Marketing For B2B SaaS Companies

It’s not easy to know exactly when someone is ready to make a purchase, and besides, the decision process takes a long time for B2B SaaS companies. That’s why intent signals are so valuable. These signals give you and your team insight into potential customers’ thoughts and actions even before they actually buy. But what exactly are intent signals, and why should you pay attention to them?

By tracking your prospects’ behavior – from viewing your website to responding to a social media post – you can better understand where they are in their customer journey. Whether they’re just looking for information or already ready to buy, you can respond to their needs. In this article, I explore the different types of intent signals you can use to make your marketing strategies smarter and more effective. So that you don’t just hope your message arrives, but know when to take the right action.

What is Signal-Based Marketing?

Signal-based marketing is an approach in which companies respond to specific signals that prospects give through their online behavior, interactions and other relevant actions. Examples include visiting certain pages (a pricing page, for example), asking certain questions on LinkedIn or communities, or leaving a review.

By understanding this behavior, you can more accurately match your marketing efforts to the real needs and intentions of your target audience. The result? More personalized, timely and relevant communications that increase the likelihood that prospects will actually convert to customers.

Benefits of Signal-Based Marketing

Have you noticed how often you research something online, ask a question in a community or have a conversation in a chat group, without companies ever knowing about it? That’s because more and more of what we do takes place in what we call “dark social”: places like private messages, niche platforms and closed communities. This makes it harder for companies to understand what you’re looking for.

For B2B SaaS companies, Signal-Based Marketing is now more important than ever. It gives you the tools to communicate with your ideal prospects in a targeted and effective way. The benefits are that it helps you:

• Identify buyers who are active in other channels, such as LinkedIn, communities or review sites, without contacting you directly.
• Pick up relevant signals from accounts considering your business, so you know who is showing interest, even if they are not explicitly asking about your services.
• Proactively respond to signals by providing valuable and targeted content at the right time and place, such as during a product trial or in an online discussion.
• Gain certainty in your approach by gaining insight into where your prospects are, so you can reach them in the right places, at the right time, rather than hoping they will show up somewhere.

Signal-Based Marketing helps you recognize the right signals and understand where opportunities lie within your Total Addressable Market (TAM). This allows you to better serve your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP – ideal customer profile) and activate the market.

The 3 Types of Signals For Signal-Based Marketing

You leave signals every day without realizing it. Think about clicking on a link, watching a video, or signing up for a newsletter. Signal-based marketing extracts value from these small, often inconspicuous actions and divides them into three categories:

1. First-Party Signals (proprietary data) These are the signals you leave directly with a business. Imagine visiting a website and viewing a product page, reading an article, or signing up for a newsletter. These are concrete first signals of interest. For example, if you view the pricing page on a SaaS’s website, this may indicate that you are considering purchasing their solution. The company may use these signals to later offer you a demo or direct you to a case that will help you further in your decision.
   You can extract first-party intent signals, for example, from your own CRM, tools like LeadFeeder or Factors.ai that can recognize companies or e-mail automation software (webinar signups).
2. Second-Party Signals Second-party signals come from external platforms or partners the company works with. Say you recently shared a post in a LinkedIn group about cloud solutions or liked a post about a new technology in a specialized community. This behavior shows where your interest lies, even if you haven’t connected directly with the company. For example, a company that sells software for digital marketing may notice that you are active in a group about marketing automation on LinkedIn. This may prompt them to send you a specific offer or invite you to a webinar about their product.
   Tools such as Buska.io, Phantombuster or TexAU can help you do this.
3. Third-Party Signals Third-party signals come from external sources that track the behavior of prospects and companies, even if they have not yet had direct contact with your company. Some key examples include:
   • Job postings or promotions: When companies open new positions on job boards, this can signal growth or change within the company. For example, if a company appoints a new marketing manager or IT director, this may signal that they are looking for new solutions that fit their strategy or business growth. A promotion can also be a signal to take action on. Tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator or Mantiks can help you with this.
   • Technographics: This refers to signals that show what technologies and tools a company uses or has acquired. For example, if a prospect starts using Hubspot or Salesforce, this may indicate that they need additional tools that integrate with their existing systems. This can be an opportunity to offer a solution that fits well with their current tech stack. Tools like BuiltWith and Wappalyzer can help you with this.
   • News & Events: Companies making important announcements, such as launching a new product, an acquisition or raising investments, may indicate that they are looking for new solutions to support their business goals. For example, if a company has just closed a significant funding round, it may indicate that they are looking to scale up quickly, providing an opportunity for targeted marketing and sales efforts. A news and social media monitoring tool like Talkwalker can help you do this. And at Crunchbase, you can find out if investments have been raised.
   • G2 where users write reviews about different technologies. Suppose you search a lot for information about a specific type of CRM software on various review websites, and on the same day your company visits the website of a CRM provider. This gives the company a signal that you might be ready to buy, and they can approach you with a targeted offer or a demo.

By cleverly combining all these signals, companies can get a better picture of your needs and interests, even without access to the “invisible” places (dark social) where you are active. The point is not to know everything about you, but to understand enough signals to target you in a relevant way.

How Signal-Based Marketing Works in Practice

You may be wondering: how do companies turn all those signals into action? The process starts with smart data collection and ends with personalized marketing delivered at exactly the right time. Here’s how it works:

1. Collecting data Companies collect signals from a variety of sources. This can be as simple as tracking which pages you visit on their website, but also more complex data from platforms or tools such as CRM systems and intent platforms. The goal is to capture a wide range of signals without violating your privacy.
2. Data enrichment Data enrichment is an essential step when deploying intent data in intent-based marketing. By enriching existing customer and prospect data with additional information, such as company size, industry, technographic data and behavioral patterns, you get a more complete picture of your target audience. This allows you to better interpret and prioritize intent signals, such as search behavior or content interactions. Tools like Clay, Zapier combined with ChatGPT, LinkedIn Sales Navigator or BuiltWith can help you do this.
3. Personalization This is where it gets interesting. Based on the data analyzed, companies can target you with content, offers or information that matches what you are looking for. Think of an invitation to a webinar exactly about that one topic you showed interest in earlier, or an email with tips specifically tailored to your situation.
4. Action at the right time It’s all about timing. Signal-based marketing ensures that companies approach you at the time you are most receptive. For example, if you’ve viewed a product page, a company can send a valuable proposal shortly after, without feeling intrusive.

Signal-based marketing is not just collecting and deploying data – it’s about smartly understanding what that data means and how to act on it. The result? Marketing that feels like a valuable addition rather than a disruptive interruption.

Example of Signal-Based Marketing

For all SaaS clients, I deliver a summary of the following data once or twice a month:

• companies that have had LinkedIn Ads interactions through LinkedIn Campaignmanager/
• companies visiting key pages on the site via tools to recognize companies
• responses to LinkedIn ads and organic posts via a proprietary tool, can also be done with Phantombuster or TextAU if needed

This data is a valuable source of sales. They engage with this by adding individuals to their own LinkedIn network. Or they send an e-mail or call, depending on the level of intent and the sales playbook.

Another example is a SaaS customer in the HR Tech sector. They integrate with specific Applicant Transaction Systems (ATS) that allow the customers of this SaaS like e.g. Randstad to automate their entire recruitment and selection process.

Through self-developed software, I figure out the ATS these companies use to enrich the intent data. With this I filter the data so that sales can start working with the right leads.

Tools For Signal-Based Marketing

Below is an overview of tools that can help you collect intent signals:

You can also use tools such as Clay, Common Room or 6Sense. These are all-in-one solutions and the monthly subscription starts at around $349 per month.

How To Get Started With Signal-Based Marketing

Start by identifying which signals are relevant to make decisions on. Once you’ve identified those, check with sales to see what the most valuable signals are.

The next step is to collect and possibly enrich the data through the tools I discussed above. My advice is to do this manually first before automating with Zapier, Make or Clay. Put the intent signals into a (Google) sheet and share them with sales. You can also choose to use this data to set up your own personalized campaigns.

The frequency of making these lists depends on the amount of data. My B2B SaaS clients do not have a large TAM (Total Addressable Market) so 1 or 2x per month is sufficient. With a lot of data you would want to collect this more often or even in real time and forward it to sales.

Challenges of Signal-Based Marketing

While signal-based marketing offers many advantages, it also comes with a number of challenges. It is not a matter of simply collecting and using data – it requires diligence, technology and a strategic approach. Here are the main obstacles companies face:

1. Privacy and legislation Privacy laws, such as the AVG (GDPR), are becoming more stringent. Buyers expect companies to use their data carefully and ethically. This means companies need to think carefully about how they collect and deploy signals without infringing on customer privacy. Balancing personalization and transparency is a challenge that cannot be ignored.
2. Access to signals With the rise of dark social and closed platforms, companies have less direct access to the entire customer journey. This makes it harder to catch signals. They therefore need to focus on the signals that are indeed available, such as interactions on their own website or platform, and get creative with external data.
3. Complexity of technology Collecting, analyzing and interpreting signals requires advanced technologies such as machine learning and data analysis tools. Not every company has the knowledge or resources to implement these systems effectively. This can lead to challenges in translating raw data into actionable insights.
4. Change in mindset Signal-based marketing requires a fundamental change in how companies think about marketing. It is no longer about sending, but about listening and anticipating. For many organizations, this is a major shift that requires training, time and dedication.
5. Integrating data from different sources To get a complete picture of the customer, companies need to combine data from different sources – from website behavior and CRM systems to intent data from external platforms. This requires strong data integration and a holistic view of the customer journey.

Despite these challenges, signal-based marketing offers huge opportunities for companies willing to invest in the right tools and approach. The key to success lies in finding the balance between technology, privacy and a customer-centric mindset. For companies that get this right, a world of opportunity lies ahead.

What is The Difference Between Signal-Based Marketing And Signal-Based Selling?

Signal-based marketing and signal-based selling are both tactics that leverage “signals” — indicators of customer behavior, intent, or interest — to guide actions. The key difference lies in their application:

1. Scope: Marketing is broader and focuses on creating demand and awareness, while selling is more targeted and aims to convert prospects into customers.
2. Timing: Marketing often occurs earlier in the customer journey, whereas selling typically happens when a prospect shows clear buying intent.
3. Execution: Marketing teams use signals to personalize campaigns and content, while sales teams use signals to prioritize leads and tailor their direct interactions with prospects.

Both approaches aim to increase relevance and effectiveness in customer interactions, but they operate at different stages of the customer journey and with different primary objectives.

Conclusion: Why Signal-based Marketing Is Becoming Increasingly Important For B2b Saas Companies

Signal-based marketing is not just a trend – it is the future of how B2B SaaS companies engage with prospects as part of SaaS marketing. Instead of flooding you with irrelevant messages, companies are now listening to the signals prospects are giving, and using them to provide exactly the information needed, at the time the prospect is ready. It makes marketing more personal, more relevant and much more effective.