Using Product Intent to Inform Content Creation: What Buyers Really Want

For years, marketing teams have created content based on assumptions—persona decks, industry trends, or what we think buyers care about. The result? High volumes of content, low engagement, and even lower pipeline impact.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth most teams avoid:
Buyers are already telling you what they want - you’re just not listening to the right signals.

Product intent data changes that. It replaces guesswork with evidence. It tells you why someone is engaging, not just that they are engaging. And when used correctly, it becomes the most powerful input into your content strategy.

This is not theory. This is how modern, revenue-driven marketing actually works.

What Product Intent Really Means (And What It Does Not)

Let’s clarify something upfront.

Product intent is not:

• A single web visit

• A content download

• A third-party keyword spike taken at face value

True product intent is behavioral accumulation over time.

It is the combination of:

• Repeated engagement with product-specific pages

• Depth of interaction (time, sequence, frequency)

• Asset consumption aligned to a solution area

• Cross-channel signals (email, web, events, demos)

When these behaviors cluster together, they form a buyer narrative.

And narratives are what content should respond to.

Why Most Content Fails: The Absence of Intent

Most B2B content fails for one simple reason:
It answers questions buyers are not asking.

Marketing teams often optimize for:

• Awareness metrics

• Vanity engagement

• Channel-specific KPIs

Buyers, however, move through stages:

1. Problem recognition

2. Solution comparison

3. Risk validation

4. Internal justification

If your content does not align with the current intent stage, it will be ignored—no matter how well written it is.

Intent is the missing context between content creation and revenue impact.

Turning Product Intent into a Content Strategy

Here’s how high-performing teams operationalize intent into content—step by step.

1. Map Behavioral Signals to Product Themes

Start by identifying product-aligned behaviors, such as:

• Visits to pricing, comparison, or architecture pages

• Engagement with integration or security documentation

• Attendance at product-focused webinars or demos

These signals should be grouped into intent clusters, not viewed in isolation.

For example:

• Repeated engagement with API documentation ≠ early awareness

• It signals technical validation intent

Your content must respond accordingly.

2. Identify the “Why” Behind Engagement

Intent is not just what content was consumed—it’s why.

Ask:

• Are buyers trying to understand implementation complexity?

• Are they validating compliance or security posture?

• Are they comparing vendors internally?

Each “why” demands a different content response:

• Technical deep dives

• Competitive comparisons

• Risk mitigation assets

• ROI and justification frameworks

Generic thought leadership will not move these buyers forward.

3. Build Content That Mirrors Buyer Decisions

The strongest content feels like it was written for the buyer’s internal meeting, not for marketing attribution.

High-intent content should:

• Answer objections before sales hears them

• Equip buyers to defend decisions internally

• Reduce perceived risk

This is where content stops being “marketing” and starts becoming sales enablement at scale.

Case Study: Turning Intent into Pipeline Impact

In one enterprise environment I worked in, we noticed a consistent pattern:

A segment of accounts showed:

• High engagement with product comparison pages

• Repeat visits to security and compliance documentation

• Low response to generic awareness campaigns

Historically, marketing treated these accounts as “inactive.”

That was a mistake.

What We Did Differently

We re-engineered the content strategy around observed intent, not personas.

Actions taken:

• Built content streams focused on risk validation and differentiation

• Created technical FAQs addressing real sales objections

• Aligned content delivery to behavioral thresholds, not campaign dates

The Result

• Engagement quality increased—not volume, but depth

• Sales conversations started further down the funnel

• Pipeline velocity improved because objections were addressed earlier

The biggest win?
Sales stopped asking, “Why are they sending us this content?”

That’s when you know intent is working.

Why Marketo Is Central to Intent-Driven Content

Intent without execution is useless.

Platforms like Marketo become powerful when used as behavioral intelligence systems, not just email tools.

Key advantages:

• Individual-level activity tracking

• Behavioral recency and frequency scoring

• Program-level engagement attribution

• Lifecycle stage alignment

When intent signals are captured correctly in Marketo, content delivery becomes:

• Contextual

• Timely

• Revenue-aligned

This is where content strategy meets operational excellence.

The Shift Marketing Leaders Must Make

To use product intent effectively, marketing leadership must shift mindset:

From → To

• Content calendars → Behavioral triggers

• Persona assumptions → Observed intent

• Campaign volume → Decision enablement

• MQL counts → Pipeline quality

This shift is uncomfortable because it exposes inefficiencies—but it’s necessary.

Modern buyers are sophisticated. Your content must be too.

Conclusion: Content Should Answer Intent, Not Fill Calendars

Product intent is not a trend. It is a correction.

It forces marketing to align with how buyers actually behave—not how we wish they would behave.

When content is informed by real intent:

• Buyers feel understood

• Sales feels supported

• Marketing earns credibility

And credibility is what ultimately drives revenue.

About Me

I’m Raghav Chugh, a seasoned digital marketing and technology professional with nearly two decades of experience designing scalable, data-driven marketing systems. I’ve spent years operating at the intersection of Marketo, revenue analytics, lifecycle design, and behavioral intelligence, helping organizations move from activity-based marketing to outcome-driven growth.

As a four-time Marketo Certified Expert (MCE), I’ve worked deeply across lead lifecycle architecture, intent modeling, and database strategy—always with one goal in mind: turning marketing data into meaningful business decisions.

You can connect with me on LinkedIn here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/raghavchugh/

About SMRTMR.com

This article is published on SMRTMR.com (Strategic Marketing Reach Through Marketing Robotics) — a platform dedicated to sharing practical, experience-backed insights for modern marketing and revenue professionals.

At www.smrtmr.com, we focus on:

• Advanced marketing automation

• Intent-driven strategies

• Analytics, attribution, and lifecycle optimization

As the founder of SMRTMR.com, I bring real-world execution experience into every article. The goal is simple: help marketers stop guessing and start operating with clarity, confidence, and measurable impact.

If you’re serious about building marketing that actually drives revenue—not just reports—SMRTMR.com is built for you.