Over the past two years, organizations turned to technology to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, which ultimately accelerated digital transformation. As IT and business leaders review the initiatives put into place, they are now transitioning to supporting the business value of these initiatives and exploring solutions to improve the customer experience, improve internal processes, and generate new revenue systems.

That being said, organizations are having to navigate the disruptions caused by inflationary pressures, labor and skills shortages, and supply chain constraints, leading them again to technology investments. Technologies that increase productivity and lead to efficiency savings such as cloud computing, automation, AI and clean energy are being sought after to lessen the impacts of these economic disruptions.

To recommend and provide appropriate solutions to their organization, IT decision-makers consistently need relevant resources, and technology marketers need to understand what these relied upon resources are. To help tech marketers gain clarity into how to connect with tech buyers during this process and ensure the content they provide is of value, Foundry recently surveyed over 600 global tech decision-makers in the 2022 Customer Engagement study. This research provides insight into the various types and volume of content IT decision-makers consume throughout the buying journey, and helps tech vendors understand ITDMs’ engagement preferences when it comes to vendor follow-up and maintaining relationships.

2022 Customer Engagement Key Takeaways:
  1. Relevant and consistent content is essential – 74% are more likely to consider an IT vendor who educates them through each stage of the decision process.
  2. IT decision-makers are still challenged to find high-quality content, however a larger percentage of content they have downloaded in the past year has provided them with value (48% compared to 41% in 2021.)
  3. Custom-tailored content is preferred by 96% of ITDMs – they seek content based on their industry, technology platform(s) already installed at their organization, company size, and job responsibilities.
  4. The average amount of time ITDMs think is an acceptable timeframe to receive sales follow-up after requesting information has expedited – 16 hours on average compared to 19 in 2021.
  5. Product testing/reviews/opinions, product demos/product literature, and vendor presentations continue to be the top relied upon content types throughout the tech purchase process. The topics of most interest include business value of the technology, pain points the technology addresses, and skills/roles needed due to the technology.

The findings and trends in this report solidify the need that tech buyers have for consistent valuable and trustworthy content. These individuals are tasked with researching, evaluating, and implementing new technologies while shifting organizational processes and require the appropriate educational resources and relationships to do so.

View the sample slides below for additional insight and download the full report to better understand and engage with tech buyers. To request a meeting with a Foundry sales executive to walk through the full study, please complete the form at the right.