Marketing your technology solutions beyond the IT audience is an effective strategy to start conversations within a current or prospective target company.
I am certain you have experienced that the buying process has involved various departments outside of IT as well into the C-Suite. I would suggest that the c-suite has gained more influence towards technology buying to ensure technology investments are aligned with corporate business objectives. Having a strategically led marketing plan in place to approach this audience on-line is an effective means to penetrating these customers and encouraging conversation.
According to new research among 500 executives at companies with sales of $1 billion or higher and conducted by Google and Forbes, the c-suite audience, although assumed to be a passive influencer, is inserting themselves in the exploration phase of technology buying.
Sam Sebastian, director-local and b to b markets at Google suggested “They’re not delegating, They prefer to do a lot of this stuff on their own.”
Among the findings from the research, which will be formally released in the coming weeks include:
74% of C-suite executives are using the Internet daily.
73% of the C-suite is using the Internet for information verification and vendor selection.
64% of C-level execs conduct six or more searches per day to locate business information.
Video and podcast content usage is growing in importance.
Interestingly, 1 in 5 said they preferred to watch video rather than read text. Focusing on the impact of video, Sebastian said there are “1.5 million business searches daily on YouTube,” making it the second-most-visited destination for business searches, behind Google.
Along with video, mobile search will see an “explosion,” Sebastian said, as devices such as Apple’s iPhone become more pervasive and U.S. cellular networks upgrade to the faster wireless standards common elsewhere in the world. Mobile devices are already impacting search volume, which is up 60% in the past two years, he said.
Tom – really interesting information; thanks for sharing. The number of searches on YouTube on a daily basis is almost unbelievable!