What is Intent?

Intent content is created to help users by educating, informing, teaching, and even possibly entertaining them. It’s content that directly addresses the needs of the user. It doesn’t simply present content in inaccessible or encyclopedic form. 

Intent content caters to the user intent of an organization’s customers. Content developed without knowledge of the user or the user intent doesn’t create a satisfactory experience for the user who is consuming the content. Content must be created with the end user's goals and intent as the focus. 

Ask yourself the question, “What is the user’s intent?” and then provide suitable intent content. 

The two primary types of intent are as follows: 

• Information intent–Users are interested in gathering as much information as possible on a particular topic or product. Often, your audience is looking to solve an issue or problem. 
• Navigational intent–Users are searching for a specific topic, task, or resource. 

In marketing circles, there is a third type of intent: 

• Transactional intent–Users may be at or near the bottom of a sales funnel, and now have the intent of completing a transaction. 

Depending on your customers’ intent, content is created to match whatever stage of the content journey they are in. Intent content for helping users’ awareness is usually made up of general reference content, conceptual case studies, blog posts, case studies, overviews, and so on. In the stage where users’ intent is evaluative, intent content consists of user manuals, tasks, videos, etc. To optimize your content, perform a content gap analysis with your target audience in mind. 

By creating content that matches your users’ intent, you can improve the customer experience of your content. Intent content is more engaging, and more effective at delivering your message and even converting prospects.