IT priorities are changing. But what does that mean for your marketing strategy?
In June 2024, we surveyed 1,100+ IT and cybersecurity professionals across our community who are actively involved in new software and technology purchase decisions at businesses around the world. We also analyzed the most recent website traffic and audience engagement patterns across TechnologyAdvice’s flagship tech media sites including TechRepublic, eWeek, eSecurity Planet, TechnologyAdvice.com, and Datamation.
Our goal was to provide B2B tech marketers with fresh new insights on IT tech buying trends and behaviors, and get answers to some important questions like:
- What are the top challenges and priorities for IT organizations?
- How are IT tech buyers prioritizing their budgets?
- What are the top cybersecurity priorities?
- How do IT tech buyers prefer to research and buy?
- Which product categories are most frequently researched by companies in different industries?
In this blog post, we’re rounding up the top three findings from our latest research: the 2024 IT & Cybersecurity Buyer Insights Report, along with recommendations for tech marketers. We hope these insights will serve as a valuable resource for understanding the current state of the IT and cybersecurity market, and help you develop effective marketing strategies and tactics tailored to meet the needs and preferences of today’s tech buyers.
Key Finding #1: Cybersecurity, AI Adoption, and Network Infrastructure top the list of current challenges and priorities for IT organizations
When asked about the current challenges and future priorities for their IT organization, survey respondents ranked cybersecurity, AI technology adoption, and network infrastructure as their top considerations, with respondents from large enterprises also highlighting cost efficiencies as a key priority.
Cybersecurity software saw the highest engagement of any IT product review category in the first half of 2024, while IT professionals prioritized reading articles about AI, IT systems management, and cybersecurity across the TechnologyAdvice portfolio of websites.
Recommendations for Tech Marketers:
- Align your marketing programs with these top priorities for IT organizations.
- Invest in programs that will help you build brand authority in key categories like cybersecurity, AI, cloud infrastructure, and IT systems management.
- Ensure you are well represented on product review sites for these categories and look for opportunities to influence buying behaviors of IT decision-makers who are actively researching solutions in these areas.
Key Finding #2: Buying teams have a large number of stakeholders with significant C-level involvement in purchase decisions, including the CEO and CFO
Large decision-making groups continue to be the reality for most organizations with 86% of respondents indicating 3+ stakeholders on their decision committees for technology product purchases and 43% reporting 6+ stakeholders. In large enterprises, this number jumped to more than 60% reporting 6+ stakeholders and nearly 30% reporting 10+ stakeholders.
Meanwhile, C-level executives including the CEO and CFO are frequently involved in purchase decisions. 19% of all respondents indicated that both the CEO and CFO are highly involved in new IT and cybersecurity product purchases. For those companies who had most recently purchased a cybersecurity product within their IT group, this number jumped to 31% stating the CEO was highly involved and 37% stating the CFO was highly involved.
Recommendations for Technology Marketers:
- Review your recent customer wins to better understand the different stakeholders involved and their unique challenges and perspectives.
- Leverage these insights to identify new ways to engage, educate, and influence different stakeholders within your target accounts, including those within and outside of the IT organization.
- Create targeted content and thought leadership for different roles (including the CFO and CEO) that directly address the problems those individuals are trying to solve, concerns they may have, and questions they are commonly trying to answer when evaluating solutions in your category.
- If required, find new marketing channels to reach these different audiences with targeted messaging as a way to build brand affinity and influence them throughout the buying journey.
Key Finding #3: Longer buying cycles with many sources of information create more complex buying journeys for marketers to manage
58% of respondents indicated that the research, evaluation, and vendor selection process took 3+ months for recent IT product or service purchases. This jumped to 83% for respondents at enterprise companies with 1000+ employees.
While customer case studies, independent research by analysts and experts, and product reviews topped the list of go-to information sources during the research and evaluation process, it was clear that IT buyers are looking at many different information sources and content formats when researching and evaluating new products.
Recommendations for Tech Marketers:
- Ensure you’re developing a cross-channel content, thought leadership, and demand generation strategy that aligns with the changing expectations of today’s B2B buyers.
- Invest in credible and impactful customer stories, case studies, product reviews, vendor comparisons, and educational content that offers validation from clients, analysts, industry experts, and trusted 3rd party brands.
- Be mindful that buying journeys may take 6+ months, particularly if you’re marketing to large enterprises, and invest in programs that help you build brand relationships throughout the research process and capture demand from late-stage buyers.
Keep Up with Changing Tech Buyer Needs
As the IT landscape shifts, marketers must stay agile and adapt to emerging trends. By
leveraging these insights, you can better navigate the complex buying journeys of today’s IT professionals and position your brand for success.
For a deeper dive, download the full 2024 IT & Cybersecurity Buyer Insights Report.
