Tech Buyers Go Deep For Information and Bite on White Papers
While searching for connection options to help technology marketers align their strategies with the expectations of technology buyers, a study by KnowledgeStorm, in conjunction with MarketingSherpa, found that the trick is to find middle ground where marketers' information meets buyers' demand, as well as aligning content development and distribution with audience engagement and message delivery.The study of nearly 3,000 B2B marketers and technology and business professionals in April 2007 included CMO, VP or Directors of Marketing, Marketing or Product Managers, IT professionals, Strategic Planners, and Buyers.
Eighty-four percent of technology buyers begin their online search for information with one of the major search engines and ultimately use multiple channels during their search, including online publications, analyst sites, directories and IT vendor or community Websites. By using search engine optimization (SEO), paid search/search engine marketing (SEM) and content syndication, the study finds, marketers are able to effectively cover the Internet.
The "Summary of Key Findings" reports these relevant notations:
The study concludes that eighty percent of buyers indicate that offline marketing materials will "frequently" or "often" drive them to specific sites. Once they reach their "content destination," technology buyers place greater value on certain types of marketing material and want to have a good idea what they're getting before they commit to registering for downloaded content. For marketers, then, concludes the study, an offline marketing program of magazine advertisements, direct mail, seminars or tradeshows has the advantage of increasing online activity.
Though traditional search engine wisdom says that you need to be on the first page of results, search is becoming more sophisticated, with buyers using more complex terms of three or more words and often looking as deep as five pages. And, the majority of technology buyers have read paid ads that appear in their search results at least sometimes, with many marketers incorporating paid search into their content positioning strategies.
Finally, concludes the report, technology buyers place the highest value on high-quality educational materials, particularly white papers and case studies, and are consequently most willing to register for them. In addition, technology buyers want to read an abstract of at least a paragraph to determine whether they will register for specific content. Less than half of the marketers surveyed provide that level of detail.
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