Using HubSpot’s Research Intent tool, I looked at how many companies are actively researching one or more of 13 strategic topics relevant to universities and B2B education. I’ve included global figures for comparison, but the focus here is very much on UK demand.
While the topic-by-topic table shows the volume of research activity for each area, it’s important to note that many companies are researching more than one topic. When we account for overlap, the actual number of unique companies researching at least one of these topics is:
- Globally: 204,077 companies
- UK: 11,828 companies (as of 21 July 2025)
This gives a clearer picture of total market interest and highlights the size of the opportunity for university engagement and B2B outreach in the UK.
| Subject | Companies researching (UK) | Companies researching (Global) |
| Executive Education | 2,235 | 52,548 |
| Workforce Development | 1,161 | 22,530 |
| University Partnerships | 102 | 2,575 |
| Apprenticeships | 2,001 | 3,332 |
| Sponsorship Opportunities | 27 | 747 |
| Research University | 1,792 | 38,546 |
| Leadership Training | 1,853 | 45,228 |
| Leadership Development | 6,972 | 133,900 |
| Corporate Training | 7,574 | 86,708 |
| Research Initiatives | 381 | 23,629 |
| Business Innovation | 548 | 6,976 |
| Knowledge Exchange | 334 | 2,783 |
| Research Collaboration | 107 | 1,706 |
What this data tells us
So what does this actually mean for engagement strategy? Once we step back and look at the data through an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) lens, some clear patterns emerge. These insights help us understand not just who’s interested, but where, why, and how we might start meaningful conversations with them.
Here are three standout takeaways that shape how we approach segmentation and outreach:
1. There’s active demand in the market
Over 11,800 UK companies are currently researching topics related to B2B education, training, and university collaboration. That’s not just passive interest, they’re actively consuming content, looking for ideas, partners, or solutions. It’s proof that the market isn’t just receptive, it’s curious, and possibly underserved.
2. The demand is spread across strategic themes
Topics like Corporate Training, Leadership Development, and Executive Education have the highest volume, these are your high-intent segments. Others like Knowledge Exchange, University Partnerships, and Sponsorship Opportunities are smaller in volume but potentially more strategic, especially for building flagship relationships.
3. There are overlaps (and that’s good)
Companies researching multiple topics are likely to be higher-value targets with broader needs. For Account-Based Marketing, this signals a strong fit for multi-offer positioning, e.g. combining training + research collaboration in a tailored outreach.
Initial opportunities before filtering
Before we start narrowing things down, this top-level intent data gives us a valuable strategic overview, a chance to step back and see the big picture. With over 11,800 UK companies actively researching one or more of these topics, we’re not just looking at isolated interest, we’re looking at a live map of market demand.
At this stage, the value lies in discovery and direction. We can start to spot:
- Which themes are generating the most interest overall (e.g. Corporate Training, Leadership Development, Executive Education)
- Where there might be gaps or opportunities that aren’t currently well-served
- Emerging patterns across topics, where organisations are exploring multiple angles of the same underlying need, like workforce development paired with research collaboration
This is also the point where we can benchmark and prioritise:
- Are we currently aligned with the most-searched themes?
- Do we have the right content, offers, or campaigns for the areas where demand is highest?
- Are we missing opportunities to package services or align messaging more closely with these intent signals?
And perhaps most importantly, this broad view helps us make the case internally. It gives us a data-backed reason to invest in specific campaign areas, develop topic-led content, or explore new partnership models, before we’ve even written the first email or created the first list.
In short, before we segment, we can use this data to shape our Account-Based Marketing strategy, inform product positioning, and decide where to focus energy. The segmentation will come, but this is where we decide what’s actually worth segmenting.
Filtering Research Intent data for ABM
The data shows that over 11,800 UK companies are actively researching topics related to education, training, and collaboration, but that doesn’t mean they’re all the right fit for outreach. To make this data useful for Account-Based Marketing, we need to move from broad awareness to focused action. That means filtering the list to find the companies that align with your goals.
This is where the real value starts to emerge. Filtering helps you prioritise the strongest-fit accounts, align messaging with what specific companies care about and focus your team’s time on opportunities that are more likely to convert.
For example:
1. Filter by Topic
Why it matters:
Start by isolating companies showing interest in specific topics. This helps you align outreach with exact pain points or areas of curiosity.
How to use it:
- Create topic-specific lists (e.g. companies researching “Executive Education”)
- Prioritise outreach based on strategic themes that match your offers
- Tailor messaging, CTAs, and landing pages by topic
2. Filter by Region / Country
Why it matters:
Geographic filters allow you to localise your efforts, ideal for regional campaigns or institutions with area-specific offers (e.g. civic partnerships or devolved funding).
How to use it:
- Focus on UK-only data to stay relevant
- Drill down to regions, counties, or cities for local engagement
- Align outreach with regional skills agendas or economic development priorities
For example, this table shows us the number of companies researching one or more of the 13 topics above by region of England
| Region | Companies Researching |
| East Midlands | 307 |
| East of England | 585 |
| London | 3,998 |
| North East | 144 |
| North West | 636 |
| South East | 909 |
| South West | 335 |
| West Midlands | 488 |
| Yorkshire & Humber | 377 |
3. Filter by Industry
Why it matters:
Knowing the sector helps you frame your proposition in the right language, and identify where you’ve had success before (e.g. healthcare, finance, manufacturing).
How to use it:
- Create vertical-specific outreach tracks
- Group high-intent companies by industry to spot shared challenges
- Prioritise sectors aligned with your strategic partnerships or case studies
4. Filter by Company Size / Employee Count
Why it matters:
Helps you differentiate between enterprise-level opportunities and mid-market accounts, and tailor your Account-Based Marketing accordingly.
How to use it:
- Use tiering: enterprise = Tier 1, mid-size = Tier 2, small = nurture
- Match company size to offer size (e.g. larger orgs = strategic partnerships, smaller = short courses or pilots)
5. Filter by Annual Revenue (where available)
Why it matters:
Revenue signals budget and buying potential. Useful for qualifying accounts and matching them with high-value or lower-commitment offers.
How to use it:
- Prioritise companies that can fund CPD programmes, research partnerships, or sponsorships
- Exclude micro-businesses if your offer requires investment or long sales cycles
6. Filter by Number of Topics Researched
Why it matters:
The more topics a company is researching, the stronger the intent signal and the more complex their need.
How to use it:
- Prioritise companies researching 3+ topics as Tier 1 accounts
- Create bundled offers or integrated messaging for multi-topic companies
- Use this to justify personalised outreach over automated nurture
Combine filters for precision targeting
The real power of HubSpot’s Research Intent tool isn’t just in the individual filters, it’s in how you combine them to create precisely targeted segments that are both highly relevant and highly actionable.
Think of it like building a laser-focused audience: instead of marketing to everyone who’s vaguely interested in training or education, you’re focusing on the right companies, with the right profile, at the right time.
Example segment:
Companies in the UK, with 100–500 employees, in the Manufacturing sector, currently researching Executive Education
This gives you a well-defined, high-fit audience:
- Big enough to justify investment, but small enough for personalisation
- Operating in a sector where skills development and innovation are high priorities
- Actively showing interest in leadership or talent development
Perfect for a targeted Account-Based Marketing (ABM) campaign offering tailored content, a curated workshop, or a short course designed for manufacturing leaders.
Why this matters for Account-Based Marketing
By combining filters:
- You eliminate guesswork and focus only on accounts that match your strategic priorities.
- You can personalise campaigns with sector-specific pain points, relevant use cases, and tailored CTAs.
- You’re able to scale smarter, running multiple micro-campaigns in parallel, each aligned to a defined segment and mapped to your offer.
This approach turns a big, messy intent list into a series of focused opportunities, each with its own logic, language, and lead path.
Expand out from the inside
Once you’ve narrowed down your intent data and built focused segments, the next step is to look inward, and see what doors are already half open.
Account-Based Marketing isn’t just about cold outreach to ideal-fit companies. It’s about leveraging warm connections, existing networks, and real-world context to create momentum. That means mapping the companies on your list to:
1. People you already know
- Past attendees of your events
- Existing contacts in your CRM
- LinkedIn connections
- Alumni of your programmes
- Current learners or employees of the company
2. Organisations you already work with
- Joint research partners
- Sponsorship leads
- Companies in your extended supply chain or advisory groups
- Firms that have previously enquired but never converted
This kind of mapping turns abstract signals into actionable pathways. If a company is actively researching leadership training and you’re already connected to someone in their L&D team via LinkedIn, that’s a conversation waiting to happen.
The icing on the cake
Mapping known contacts to website activity
Once you’ve identified the right companies and the right contacts, the final, and arguably most powerful, step is to connect that data with what those contacts are doing on your website.
By linking your known CRM records with visitor activity, you can move from “we think they’re interested” to “we know what they care about, right now.”
This gives you visibility into:
- Who’s visiting (contacts already in your CRM)
- When they’re visiting (timeframes and repeat sessions)
- What they’re engaging with (number and type of pages)
- How active or passive they are (e.g. deep content vs quick skim)
Why this matters for Account-Based Marketing
- You can prioritise outreach based on actual behaviour, not just intent signals
- You can time your messaging for maximum relevance (e.g. follow up within 24 hours of a visit)
- You can segment further based on topic interest, funnel stage, or engagement level
- And you can set up alerts or workflows in HubSpot to notify teams when high-fit accounts show strong engagement
This is what allows you to move from broad targeting to true personalisation:
If a known contact views three pages about executive education in a single week, you don’t need to guess what they’re interested in, you just need to help them take the next step.
Where this takes us
What starts as a broad signal, 11,828 UK companies researching education and training, becomes a powerful, data-backed roadmap for account-based outreach. With the right filters, the right connections, and the right timing, you can move from abstract interest to focused conversations with the organisations that matter most. This isn’t just about finding leads. It’s about building relationships, one meaningful signal at a time.
From market signals to meaningful outreach
The data is clear: thousands of UK companies are actively exploring topics that sit right in the overlap between what universities offer and what businesses need, leadership, innovation, skills, training, and collaboration. But most university teams aren’t set up to take advantage of it. CRMs (if they exist at all) are typically geared toward admissions or alumni, not industry relationships. And outreach efforts often rely on spreadsheets, generic messaging, and scattergun tactics.
That’s where we come in.
If this post shows you the size of the opportunity, our services help you act on it, building the systems, processes, and campaigns to turn signals like this into strategic relationships.
- CRM Kickstarter:
Build a fit-for-purpose CRM for managing B2B engagement, without disrupting your student systems. - CRM Launchpad:
Configure your CRM and campaigns for real-world outreach, and start converting intent into conversations. - ABM Accelerator
A guided programme to design and implement a replicable, data-led Account-Based Marketing strategy aligned with your university’s priorities.
If you’re ready to move from insight to action, and build a more joined-up, responsive approach to industry engagement, we’d love to help. Get started here →