Business-to-business has become big business, with B2B data absolutely flooding the modern marketplace in recent years. However, is more always better? When it comes to B2B marketers, it's essential to understand that there is more to unearthing relevant, actionable data about their target consumer base than simple demographics.
Companies using Salesforce or similar CRM software should understand that demographic data, while important, is just the tip of the B2B marketing iceberg. Learning how to harness the full power of available B2B marketing tools can give you the competitive edge, help you target prospects more effectively, and drive your decision-making processes so you can improve those all-important conversion rates and increase your overall ROI.
New Analytical Tool for B2B Marketers
Marketers are now using a new methodology call technography to analyze their customers’ “tech stack“, a term of art for the composition of their supporting systems and platforms. The objective of this approach is to deeply understand what this says about them as a company and, moreover, how can this be used in business-to-business (B2B) marketing campaigns. Thus applied, technography can identify “pain points” in products and alleviate them for current and prospective customers.
For Example:
- Apple or Android users?
- Netflix or Amazon subscribers?
- What types of mobile apps and wearables?
By virtue of this type of technographic data, retailers can target their ads in anticipation of “which customers are most likely to shop in store, online, or via mobile”. Technographics can likewise be applied for competitive leverage in the following use cases:
- Sales reps prospecting for new leads can be supported with more focused messages for potential new customers. These are shaped by understanding their particular motivations and business challenges.
- Locating opportunities in new markets can be achieved by assessing the tech stacks of prospective customers. Such analytics can further be used for expanding business development and product development. An example is the online training platform by Mindflash. They discovered there was a need for a Salesforce training program. Once it became available, they employed technographic signals to pinpoint customers to whom they could present it.
- Enterprise wide decision-making benefits can be achieved by adding “value in areas like cultural alignment”. Familiarity with such data for current employees and job seekers can aid businesses with understanding the “technology disposition” of their workers. Thereafter, its alignment with the “customers or partners” can be pursued. Furthermore, identifying areas where additional training might be needed can help to alleviate productivity issues resulting from “technology disconnects between employees”.
Many businesses are not yet using technographic signals to their full advantage. By increasing such initiatives, businesses can acquire a much deeper understanding of their inherent values. In turn, the resulting insights can have a significant effect on the experiences of their customers and, in turn, elevate their resulting levels of loyalty, retention and revenue, as well as the magnitude of deals done.
Why Do You Need Technographics?
By performing segmentation through technographic data, you can identify companies that align closely with your ideal customer profile. Combine this with firmographic data, and you can prioritize and target high-potential accounts with greater precision to buy your solutions, which means you get better conversion rates for your campaigns and your pipeline accelerates. Understanding an organization's existing tech stack and applying technographic segmentation offers you the context needed to personalize your campaign to a great extent. You can now leverage these insights to tailor your marketing messaging and content for each target segment in different campaigns. This is a way of undertaking account-based marketing campaigns at scale.
Technographics have revolutionized B2B marketing, and continue to make great strides in giving marketers valuable insights into the behaviors and attitudes of their targeted consumer base. However, without an understanding of how to use technographics to your marketing division's best advantage, simply having the data on hand will not allow your campaign to reach its full potential. Don't get left behind by your competition- put technographics to work for your business today, and prepare to see the difference it makes!
