Intent-based targeting: optimise your LinkedIn prospecting

🎯 Find the best prospects with intent-based targeting

Intent-based targeting means contacting people on LinkedIn who show a current interest in your topic: they have just reacted to a post, commented on it or signed up for an event. Rather than a list filtered by job title and industry, you start from what is on their mind right now. Here’s how to choose your sources, then write the message in four beats.

🚀 Identify your intent-based targeting sources

• Prioritize the right sources: Focus on prospects who are already interested in topics related to your field.
• Potential sources: Leading companies, competitors, influencers.
• Use keywords: Search for posts and events with relevant action verbs.
• Engage meaningful audiences: Look for groups of more than 15 people to build targeted campaigns.
• Filter your audience: Make sure the people interacting with the content really are your targets.

💡 The question to ask yourself: “Are the people interacting with this content my target?”

🤔 Why favor posts and events?

Posts and events date the interest. People who interact with this content show current interest, which lets you capture their attention with precision. How fresh their interaction is is a key indicator of their engagement. What you can spot on this network is detailed on our LinkedIn buying signals page, and the other families in our 25 examples of B2B buying signals. For the full method, see how to identify business signals.

🚨 Watch out for groups!

Intent-based targeting on LinkedIn groups has a problem: it’s hard to know how long your target has been a member of the group. That information is crucial for assessing how engaged members are right now.

🎉 Icebreaker: grab attention from the start!

First impressions are decisive! To capture your audience’s interest from the very first moments, follow these tips.

What to avoid:

• 🚫 Don’t introduce yourself right away.
• 🚫 Avoid talking about your offer from the outset.
• 🚫 Steer clear of generic phrases.

Winning strategies:

• ✅ Personalize your approach: Mention a specific detail showing you’re interested in your prospect. For example, a recent event they attended.
• ✅ Focus on the prospect: Concentrate on the prospect’s background or activity rather than on yourself.

💡 Find a common point or an interest shared by a subset of your target to personalize your message. For inspiration, see how to write prospecting messages with AI.

🧩 Identify and communicate the pain point

Start from your targets’ challenges. Start a conversation around your prospects’ concerns to build a deeper connection.

What to avoid:

• 🚫 Don’t jump straight to the solution without setting the context.
• 🚫 Don’t assume the prospect is already aware of all their problems.
• 🚫 Avoid being too vague or general in describing the challenges.

Winning strategies:

• ✅ Specific challenges: Use concrete examples, or figures whose source you know.
• ✅ Open questions: Lead the prospect to think about and express their difficulties.
• ✅ In-depth understanding: Show that you really understand the obstacles they face.

💡 Relate these business challenges to concrete cases from your customers or partners who have overcome similar challenges. It creates an emotional connection and makes your message more relevant.

💡 Toward a resolution: add value without selling

Bring solutions through your expertise, without selling directly. Respond to the challenges you’ve identified by offering keys to overcome them.

What to avoid:

• 🚫 Don’t present your product or service directly as the ultimate solution.
• 🚫 Don’t make unrealistic promises.
• 🚫 Don’t skip the awareness and consideration stages.

Winning strategies:

• ✅ Valuable insights: Share advice that brings immediate value, no strings attached.
• ✅ Case studies: Use testimonials showing how others solved similar problems.
• ✅ Expert content: Offer e-books, webinars and articles to educate your audience.

💡 Say how you can support the prospect in their approach. Use soft calls to action that encourage them to learn more or explore additional resources. A customer is a prospect who has identified their challenges and wants to take action!

📢 The call to action (CTA): move toward action

Take advantage of the interest you’ve sparked to encourage your prospects to take the next step. Suggest a simple next step, without forcing a decision.

What to avoid:

• 🚫 Don’t ask for too big a commitment from the first exchange (like a sales meeting).
• 🚫 Don’t use generic calls to action.
• 🚫 Don’t rush the prospect into a decision without giving them time to think.

Winning strategies:

• ✅ Open questions: Ask thought-provoking questions to deepen the prospect’s interest.
• ✅ Free resources: Offer an e-book or access to a webinar that brings even more value.
• ✅ Gradual progression: Encourage the relationship to progress, such as an invitation to an advisory call, joining a community, or attending a future event.

💡 Show that you’re available to support and advise. Your CTA should invite a deeper conversation, not rush a sale.

🔎 What about Sales Navigator’s “buyer intent”?

Sales Navigator also flags accounts showing buying intent, based on their employees’ activity toward your company (visits to your page, interactions with your content). It’s useful for prioritizing accounts, but the indicator measures interest in you, not in the problem you solve, and it doesn’t tell you what to write. The intent-based targeting described here starts from the topic, which gives you a reason to write straight away. On the difference between this intent data and a buying signal, see intent data vs buying signals, and on profile views, what they are really worth.

🌟 Automate the prospecting process

A good part of this method can be supported by tools: spotting the posts, sorting the people who react to them, drafting a first message. The message itself still needs to be reviewed before it is sent. Our tools are free to use on the free prospecting resources page 👇🏼: our AI setup, a free prospect search inside ChatGPT or Claude, and seven prospecting agents to install.

And if you would rather have this work done for you, the MeetMagnet app spots the people in your target who react to these posts every day and writes the opener drawn from their signal, which you review before it is sent.

Key takeaways

Intent-based targeting starts from what is on your prospects’ minds right now: a post they react to, an event they sign up for. The message then follows four beats: a detail that concerns them, their problem, a useful piece of information, then a question that opens the conversation without pushing the sale.

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