If you’re tired of generic “intent data” that never quite fits your sales goals, this guide’s for you. We’ll break down—step-by-step—how to set up custom intent signals in Drippi for the accounts you actually care about. No fluff, no magic thinking, just a practical walkthrough for sales, RevOps, or anyone who wants more signal and less noise.
Let’s skip the hype and get your team actionable insights for your target accounts.
What Are Custom Intent Signals—and Why Bother?
Most out-of-the-box intent platforms spit out the same noisy data for everyone. Custom intent signals mean you define what matters: maybe it’s visits to a specific pricing page, spikes in competitor mentions, or engagement with a niche topic. The goal? Less “maybe interested,” more “let’s reach out now.”
Drippi lets you build these signals from scratch. But you need a plan, and you need to be honest about what actually predicts buying behavior at your company.
Step 1: Start with a Solid Target Account List
Before you even touch Drippi, get your target account list right. Garbage in, garbage out.
- Use your own data: Pull from your CRM, marketing automation, or spreadsheets. Don’t trust vendor “lookalike” lists unless you’ve pressure-tested them.
- Be specific: Break down by vertical, company size, geography—whatever actually matters for your market.
- Keep it fresh: Update your list at least quarterly. Dead accounts = wasted effort.
Pro tip: Avoid the temptation to make the list too big. Focus on quality over quantity, especially when testing new signals.
Step 2: Define What Real Intent Looks Like for You
This part’s critical, and most teams skip right over it. What actually signals buying intent for your product?
- Ask your best reps: What did your last five big deals do before they bought? (e.g., visited the demo page, downloaded a technical whitepaper, started comparing to a competitor)
- Look at historical data: Pull web analytics, chat logs, ad clicks—whatever you’ve got on past closed-won deals.
- Watch for false positives: Not every pageview or mention means someone’s in-market. Don’t overfit to noisy behaviors.
Write down 3–5 “trigger” events that make sense for your business. This is what you’ll map into Drippi.
Step 3: Map Your Data Sources in Drippi
Drippi can pull from lots of places, but more isn’t always better. Focus on sources that you own or deeply trust.
- Website analytics: Connect Google Analytics or segment tracking to monitor visits to key pages.
- CRM and marketing tools: Use integrations to bring in data like email engagement or form fills.
- Third-party intent feeds: If you’re using Bombora, G2, or similar, sync only the data that’s actually relevant—don’t just dump it all in.
- Custom events: If you have product usage data, hook it up—just make sure it’s clean and mapped to account IDs.
What to skip: Social media “listening” or scraped mentions rarely mean someone’s ready to buy. Focus on hard signals tied to actual companies.
Step 4: Build Your Custom Intent Rules
Now you’re in Drippi’s intent builder. Here’s where the rubber meets the road.
- Create a new signal. Name it something you’ll actually recognize later (“Demo Page Visits—Enterprise” beats “Signal 7”).
- Set your account list as the filter. Only care about signals from your target accounts.
- Define your triggers. Use “AND/OR” logic to combine things like:
- Visited pricing page AND downloaded case study
- Mentioned a key competitor in web traffic OR filled out a contact form
- 3+ product logins in a week
- Set thresholds. Don’t fire off a signal for every tiny action. Require a minimum number of actions or a specific sequence.
- Test with sample data. Most platforms, Drippi included, let you see how many accounts would have triggered in the past month. If you’re getting a flood—or nothing—tweak your rules.
Honest take: Overly complex rules almost always disappoint. Start simple, then layer on complexity as you see results.
Step 5: Decide How You’ll Use the Signals
The tech isn’t the hard part—it’s actually acting on the signals.
- Who gets notified? Sales? Marketing? Both? Be specific.
- What’s the follow-up? A call? A tailored email? A LinkedIn outreach? Spell it out.
- How often? Real-time notifications sound cool, but they can drive your team nuts. Daily or weekly digests often work better.
Don’t: Blast every “intent” lead into a cold call cadence. That’s how you burn credibility, fast.
Step 6: Enable and Monitor Your Signals
Once you turn your custom signals on in Drippi, watch how they perform.
- Track outcomes: Are accounts flagged by these signals actually moving down the funnel? If not, revisit your triggers.
- Get feedback from users: Are your sales reps finding the signals useful, or are they just noise?
- Adjust as you go: This isn’t set-and-forget. You’ll need to tweak thresholds, add/remove triggers, or even kill off signals that don’t pan out.
Pro tip: Keep a shared doc or Slack channel for “intent signal fails.” If you see the same account types or actions triggering false positives, fix it.
Step 7: Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat
Here’s the truth: the first version of your custom intent signals probably won’t be perfect. That’s fine.
- Don’t try to boil the ocean. One or two well-defined signals beat a dashboard full of noise.
- Review monthly. Set a recurring calendar reminder to check what’s working—and what’s not.
- Share wins and misses. The more you involve your team, the better your signals will get.
Wrapping Up: Focus on What Matters
Custom intent signals in Drippi can give you a real edge—if you’re clear-eyed about what “intent” actually looks like for your accounts. Skip the shiny dashboards and focus on a handful of triggers you trust. Check your results, tweak often, and don’t be afraid to kill what’s not working.
Stay skeptical, keep it simple, and you’ll get far more value—without drowning in data you can’t use.