---
title: ZoomInfo Intent Signals & High-Intent Lead Identification
type: article
created: '2026-04-05'
updated: '2026-04-05'
source_docs:
- raw/2025-11-14-sales-standup-101733053.md
tags:
- zoominfo
- prospecting
- intent-signals
- lead-management
- outbound-sales
layer: 2
client_source: null
industry_context: null
transferable: true
---

# ZoomInfo Intent Signals & High-Intent Lead Identification

## Overview

ZoomInfo's Intent Signals feature identifies companies actively researching topics relevant to your business — before they've made contact. By filtering on Signal Score and Audience Strength, you can prioritize outreach toward leads with the highest likelihood of engagement, rather than cold-prospecting from scratch.

This is one of two primary ZoomInfo prospecting inputs; the other is [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-website-visitors|Website Visitor Signals]], which shows companies that have visited your site but cannot identify the specific individual.

---

## Key Concepts

### Intent Topics
ZoomInfo tracks a configurable set of topics (Asymmetric currently has **12 intent topics** defined, e.g., *Pricing Strategy*, *Local Marketing*, *Marketing Automation*). Each week, ZoomInfo surfaces companies whose employees have been actively researching content related to those topics across the web.

### Signal Score
- **What it measures:** ZoomInfo's confidence that the company is genuinely researching that topic.
- **Range:** 0–100
- **Target:** 100 (or as high as possible)
- **Practical use:** Filter to Signal Score ≥ 80 to eliminate low-confidence noise.

### Audience Strength
- **What it measures:** The likelihood that the company's contacts will engage with outreach (based on historical email behavior and AI modeling).
- **Range:** 1–5
- **Target:** 5 (ideal)
- **Practical use:** Combine with Signal Score to rank leads. A company with Score 100 / Strength 5 is a top-priority target.

### Spikes
A spike indicates a sudden increase in research activity on a topic within a short window (e.g., 3 spikes in the last day). Higher spike counts suggest urgency or an active internal initiative.

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## How to Work the Intent Feed

1. **Navigate to Intent:** In ZoomInfo, go to *Signals → Intent*.
2. **Select topics:** Check the intent topics most relevant to your current outreach focus (e.g., Pricing Strategy).
3. **Apply filters:**
   - Signal Score minimum (e.g., ≥ 80)
   - Audience Strength minimum (e.g., ≥ 3)
   - Spike count threshold
   - Company size / headcount range
   - Geography if relevant
4. **Sort results** by Signal Score or Audience Strength descending to surface the best leads first.
5. **Evaluate each company:** Review employee contacts listed, their titles, and engagement likelihood indicators.
6. **Select a contact** who plausibly owns the topic (e.g., for Pricing Strategy, look for Director of Marketing, VP of Revenue, or equivalent).
7. **Export to HubSpot** and continue the workflow in [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-hubspot-prospecting-workflow|ZoomInfo → HubSpot → Sales Navigator Workflow]].

> ⚠️ **Before exporting:** Ensure ZoomInfo fields are mapped to HubSpot fields to prevent data loss. See [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-hubspot-integration|ZoomInfo–HubSpot Integration Setup]].

---

## Worked Example

**Scenario:** Lowe's Foods appears in the Pricing Strategy intent feed with Signal Score 100 and Audience Strength 5.

- A contact, *Jennifer Santiago* (Director of Marketing Communications), is listed with a high engagement likelihood.
- She is exported to HubSpot with a note: *"Intent: Pricing Strategy — high signal/audience score."*
- Her LinkedIn profile URL is added to the HubSpot contact record via Sales Navigator.
- Initial outreach is sent via LinkedIn message (not a connection request) sharing the Asymmetric [Pricing topic page](https://asymmetric.pro/topics/pricing/), which aggregates all related articles.

The outreach does **not** reference the intent data directly — it simply positions the resource as relevant. This avoids the "creepy" perception of surveillance while still leveraging the signal. See [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/intent-based-outreach-strategy|Intent-Based Outreach: Non-Creepy Framing]] for messaging guidance.

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## Recommended Cadence

- **Frequency:** Review the intent feed **once or twice per week** (the feed updates weekly).
- **Time budget:** ~60–90 minutes per session to review signals, select leads, export to HubSpot, find LinkedIn profiles, and queue outreach.
- **Volume:** Prioritize quality over quantity — a few high-signal leads worked properly outperform bulk low-confidence exports.

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## Filtering Reference

| Filter | Recommended Threshold | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Signal Score | ≥ 80 (target 100) | Below 60 is low-confidence |
| Audience Strength | ≥ 3 (target 5) | Reflects contact engagement likelihood |
| Spikes | ≥ 1 | Higher = more urgent research activity |
| Headcount | Per ICP | Filter to relevant company sizes |

---

## Related Articles

- [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-hubspot-prospecting-workflow|ZoomInfo → HubSpot → Sales Navigator Workflow]]
- [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-website-visitors|ZoomInfo Website Visitor Signals]]
- [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/zoominfo-hubspot-integration|ZoomInfo–HubSpot Integration Setup]]
- [[wiki/knowledge/outbound-sales/intent-based-outreach-strategy|Intent-Based Outreach: Non-Creepy Framing]]