Enrich Leads with Intent Signals in Clay

Pull behavioral and timing signals that indicate purchase intent: website visits, content engagement, job postings, funding events, technology changes, and competitor mentions. These signals feed the intent dimension of lead scoring.

Prerequisites

• Clay account with enrichment credits
• Clay table with leads (company name, domain, contact email at minimum)
• Understanding of which intent signals matter for your ICP

Steps

1. Configure website visitor identification

Add a Clay enrichment column using the Website Visitor Identification provider. Input: company domain. Output: recent visitor activity, pages viewed, visit frequency.

If the provider returns no data (common for smaller companies), fall back to the Claygent approach in step 5.

2. Set up funding event detection

Add a Crunchbase or PitchBook enrichment column. Input: company domain. Output: last funding round date, amount, stage.

Score the output:

• Funding in last 30 days: +30 intent points
• Funding in last 90 days: +20 intent points
• Funding in last 180 days: +10 intent points
• No recent funding: +0

3. Configure job posting signals

Add a Job Posting enrichment column (Clay's built-in or via Claygent scraping). Input: company domain. Query: job postings matching keywords relevant to your product category.

Score the output:

• 3+ relevant job postings: +25 intent points (building a team, need tools)
• 1-2 relevant postings: +10 intent points
• 0 postings: +0

4. Detect technology stack changes

Add a BuiltWith or Wappalyzer enrichment column. Input: company domain. Output: current technology stack.

Score the output:

• Uses a complementary technology: +20 intent points (integration opportunity)
• Uses a competing technology: +15 intent points (displacement opportunity)
• Recently added/removed a tool in your category: +25 intent points
• No relevant tech detected: +0

5. Run Claygent for custom intent research

For signals not available via structured providers, use Claygent (Clay's AI agent):

Prompt: "Research {company_name} ({domain}). Find:
1. Any recent news about challenges in [your product's problem area]
2. Any public mentions of evaluating tools in [your category]
3. Any leadership changes in [relevant department] in the last 90 days
4. Any conference talks or blog posts about [relevant topic]

Return a JSON object: {news_mentions: int, tool_evaluation_signals: int, leadership_changes: int, thought_leadership: int}"

Score: sum of all signals found, capped at 30 intent points.

6. Build the composite intent score column

Create a formula column that sums all intent signal scores:

intent_score = min(
  funding_signal + job_posting_signal + tech_change_signal + claygent_signal + visitor_signal,
  100
)

Cap at 100. This becomes the intent dimension of your lead score.

7. Set up scheduled refresh

Intent signals decay. Configure the Clay table to re-run enrichment columns on a schedule:

• Funding and job posting signals: refresh weekly
• Technology signals: refresh monthly
• Claygent research: refresh bi-weekly

Use Clay's built-in scheduling or trigger refreshes via the Clay API from an n8n workflow.

API Integration

To trigger Clay enrichment from n8n or another automation:

POST https://api.clay.com/v1/tables/{table_id}/rows
{
  "data": {
    "company_name": "Acme Corp",
    "domain": "acme.com",
    "contact_email": "jane@acme.com"
  }
}

Poll for enrichment completion:

GET https://api.clay.com/v1/tables/{table_id}/rows/{row_id}

Check that all enrichment columns have populated before pulling the intent score.

Alternatives

| Tool | Method | Notes | |------|--------|-------| | Clay | Multi-provider enrichment + Claygent | Best coverage, credit-based pricing | | Apollo | Intent signals API | Built-in intent data, fewer custom signals | | Bombora | Intent data API | Specialized B2B intent, topic-level signals | | 6sense | Revenue AI API | Account-level intent scoring | | ZoomInfo | Intent signals | Broad coverage, higher price point | | Leadfeeder | Website visitor identification | Focused on web visit intent |

Error Handling

• If a provider returns no data, assign 0 points for that signal (not null). Missing data is not negative signal.
• If Claygent times out, retry once. If it fails again, skip and log for manual review.
• If credit balance is low, prioritize: funding > job postings > tech stack > Claygent research.
• Monitor enrichment hit rates. If a provider returns data for <20% of your leads, consider replacing it.