Fads come and go within B2B marketing, but technographics — a term that not long ago had been dismissed by many as buzzword — has had true staying power.
These days, many marketing leaders believe technographic data holds the key to optimizing and maximizing revenue opportunities for B2B organizations.
For decades, demographics has been the go-to practice to analyze and define markets. And as robust as analysis based on age, income, profession, and brand preferences might be, demographics can’t answer many important questions such as:
- What if you want to know what kind of tech stack your prospects are using?
- What are their existing IT systems?
- What kind of technology would most naturally fit into their present framework?
Enter technographics. Technographic data helps answer these questions and more by giving you the complete digital blueprint of your potential customer — bringing you significantly closer to closing a deal.
Why Should Technographics Matter to You?
The shift towards digital platforms has radically transformed all sectors, including marketing.
These days, it’s become easier for marketers to understand customers — and create customer segmentation — by analyzing their buyers’ digital footprint. The ability to illuminate, capture and analyze this anonymized information often leads to more impactful campaigns, accurate forecasting, and personalization.
Technographics represent the latest addition to this shift. Today, most businesses leverage technological solutions to improve their functions. Most of these solutions are widely used … which means we know a lot about their capabilities and adaptabilities.
Knowing what a prospect’s tech stack is — and crucially, if it’s compatible with your solution — dramatically accelerates your outreach and informs what kind of engagement to use.
Let’s take a look at two ways that technographic data can influence your marketing goals and processes.
Example A: Product Company
Let’s say that one of your flagship products is a marketing tool. And let’s say that technographic data reveals that four of your targeted companies are using the marketing automation tool Hubspot.
Now, what does that mean to you and your revenue team?
Hubspot customers are more likely to invest in marketing intelligence since they need to continually input this kind of information data into Hubspot.
If you have a marketing intelligence tool that can help fulfill those needs, technographics help identify which prospects are most likely to invest in your tool.
The same logic applies to any field. Whether you have a solution for applicant tracking, inside sales, marketing automation, delivery management, or order management, the right information about your customers’ existing tech stacks can help you estimate how much they’re willing to spend — and how your solution fills the gaps that they need to address.
Example B: Service Provider
Now put yourself in the position of a service provider. Let’s say one of your key services is helping companies shift from an on-premise to cloud-based solution.
Here, technographic data forms an essential stepping stone as it reveals which companies have not yet implemented cloud solutions. It also shows what kind of on-prem IT structure they have. This helps you deduce which companies to target and how to engage them.
Technographics empower you to know far more about your prospects than simple demographics can provide.
Benefits of Technographics for Account-Based Marketing
Information — and the accuracy of that information — plays a pivotal role in Account-Based Marketing. Technographics delivers key benefits for adoptees of ABM, including:
1: Knowing the Customer Better
By understanding the existing tech stacks of the customer, you’re better positioned to identify a prospect’s pain points and authoritatively speak to how your solution might eliminate them.
2: Better Personalization
You can personalize marketing campaigns in ways that truly resonate with buyers. Instead of fishing for possible gaps in a prospect’s systems, you already know what the shortcomings are. This enables you to craft highly relevant messages.
3: Sales and Marketing Teams are Better Aligned
When marketing teams are armed with accurate technographic data, it’s much easier for their organizations’ sales team to do what they do best: close deals. Now, marketers can generate positive rapport with prospects long before a sales rep makes contact.
4: Higher ROI
Technographic data also eliminates the guesswork and high costs of unearthing a prospect’s technological infrastructure. Streamlining this process generates a higher ROI compared to manual approaches.
The 6sense Advantage
After reading this primer, you may still have several questions about technographics, such as:
- How can I look up who is using my competitor’s products or who are using products I integrate with?
- How can I find contract renewal dates?
- How do I get access to this information?
- And others
6sense has the answers … and the technographic data and AI-powered analysis to supercharge your revenue team’s outreach and conversations. Contact us for more information, or schedule a demo today.
