a techtarget global marketer services white paper

IT pros arespecialized

Buying is a team sport

Buyers aremulti-taskers

The entire team researches

Key takeaways More in this series

Demographics/ About TechTarget

Research Habits for International IT Buyers








Understanding and Influencing the International IT Buyer

A TechTarget Global Marketer Services White Paper

Part One: Common Attributes of International IT Buyers















About TechTarget

TechTarget has offices in the US, UK, Singapore,

Australia, India and China and serves the IT community

both through its globally focused tech market specific

websites along with 68 localized websites for nine

different countries in six different languages. With

extensive Global Marketer Services and rich local

capabilities, we help global technology marketers get

to market faster in all the regions they care about most.

About the survey

The survey was fielded in the spring of 2012 in English

and, where appropriate, in local language. We garnered

a statistically significant set of results in the world’s

most important international markets: UK, France,

Germany, Benelux, Italy, India, China, Japan, ASEAN,

and Australia/New Zealand. Each country’s survey

received a minimum of 140 responses. In total, we

collected 750 European respondents and 1,100 APAC

respondents.

To recieve the full report data, contact Renee Cormier.

Helping marketers understand research preferences of international IT buyers

International online marketing contains no shortage

of conventional wisdom, some of which is true and

some of which is not. To shed some data-illuminated

light on how IT buyers actually behave—as opposed

to how we may think they behave—each year

TechTarget fields an International IT Buyer Profile

Survey. The goal: to help technology marketers better

understand the unique composition and research

preferences of IT buyers across 10 different geographies.

The results reinforce some commonly-held marketing

beliefs and debunk others. TechTarget publishes this

research in its presentations at Online ROI summits

and in this four-part white paper series from our Global

Marketer Services group.

Part one: Common attributes of international IT buyers

Part One of the series focuses on who you are market-

ing to. The research provides a profile of the Interna-

tional IT Buyer by addressing the following questions

that have implications for your go-to-market strategies:

• Do international buyers have specialized or more

general roles within their companies?

• Is there a “single buyer” at each organization that

you should aim to reach?

• How many projects does each buyer and buying

team research in any given quarter?

• What role does the IT manager play in conducting

pre-purchasing research on the Web?

Part two: Evolution of international buyer research

patterns

Part three: Translation, localization and content

preferences

Part four: Engaging international buyers by phone

mailto:[email protected]















Italy

54%UK

52%BENELUX

50%France

49%Germany

38%

Australia

52%India

52%ASEAN

50%China

41%Japan

33%

What does this mean for you?How does this distribution of specialists, generalists and IT managers affect your content strategy? Each of these stakeholders approach an IT purchase with their unique requirements in mind, so each one of them needs to be addressed when delivering your marketing message.

Prospects are looking for technical content When marketing mature technologies, assume that your targets have a sophisticated, specialist-based knowledge of features and competitors in your market. Don’t shy from deeper technical problems as prospects are likely looking for content focused on it.

Foundational content still important SMB targets are more likely to be generalists, with less experience and technical expertise. They will want appropriate content. That’s why it is important to also have foundational content available. That can be content that either you or your media partners produce.

Tips to Target the Enterprise When targeting the Enterprise, you should assume they are sophisticated on the tech-nology front, but for those serial specialists who may still be getting up to speed, it never hurts to have a full chain of content at the ready.

Conventional wisdom has held that IT professionals out-

side the US lack a specific technology focus—such as a

storage administrator, a network manager or a database

developer—and tend to be generalists. However, across

nearly all markets in Europe and APAC, the direction of

IT roles and buying leans towards specialization.

We asked respondents whether they are a special-

ist, a generalist or an IT manager. In almost all coun-

tries, nearly half identified themselves as a specialist

in a specific technology area full time or throughout a

specific project’s lifecycle. Germany and Japan seemed

to be exceptions where more respondents described

themselves as having multiple IT responsibilities.

These results indicate that IT generalists are actually

more of the exception, with merely 1/3 of the overall

audience noting that they are in fact a ‘jack of all trades’.

17–23% of the respondents identified themselves as

an IT manager. Although this proportion decreases as

the company size increases, it remains an important,

distinct segment from the IT generalist.

International IT Pros are more specialized than you think

A significant number of IT pros in all countries identify themselves as project specialistsThe trend towards specialization is even stronger at larger companies; 55%–60% of respondents from companies of >250 employees reported being specialists.















What does this mean for you?Each team member has bias to content This is good news. Buying teams with multiple members offer you more ways to penetrate an account. But, as we learned earlier, you need a greater breadth of content to fulfill everyone’s unique area of interest. Application managers, storage admins, proj-ect managers and the IT Director may all work on a project, but each will have a bias to different types of content. The research process is collaborative and marketers should aim to influence the entire buying team.

Nurture leads and look for additional account contacts The sales strategy must also be structured in a way to understand and communicate with all the individuals on the buying team. Directing a follow-up conversation based on a lead’s role or content downloaded is a good first step to nurturing that lead. Once a name has been collected, assume there are others on the buying team, look for more names to call and remessage. Any contact you DON’T know is an opportunity for another vendor to capture, influence and ultimately steer the conversation away from your solution.

Team buying at all companies Team buying at companies >500 employees

India

Japan

Australia

ASEAN

China

96%

96%

94%

93%

84%

BENELUX

UK

Germany

Italy

France

96%

96%

91%

87%

72%

India

China

ASEAN

Australia

Japan

91%

90%

89%

88%

83%

BENELUX

UK

Germany

France

Italy

85%

85%

84%

79%

66%

84% 91%

The single IT buyer is a rarity—IT buying is a “Team Sport”

The next piece of conventional wisdom we put to the

test is the notion that outside of the US companies rely

on a “single buyer” and that buying is generally more

hierarchical. This turns out to be a myth. In fact, only

16% indicate that their company has a single buyer

scenario. While buying teams outside the US are typically

a bit smaller, at most companies in EMEA and APAC

a team of at least two or more individuals contributes

to the IT research and decision-making process. In the

majority of countries, more than 80% of respondents

indicated that IT purchases are made by a team and

not a single individual—and in companies of more than

500 employees, the percentage increasts to over 90%.

The single-buyer scenario is somewhat more preva-

lent in three markets: Italy, France and China. In Italy 34%

of companies indicate there is a single individual driving

purchases; however, this is likely the result of Italian

companies being relatively small. When we look at com-

panies of more than 500 employees in Italy, the results

fall in line with those of the other European nations.

The single buyer is no longer—team buying is prevalent across all geographies55–75% of respondents indicate that the most common buying team consists of 2–4 people, but the size of the buying team increases at larger companies.















What does this mean for you?As a marketer, the busyness of researchers has implications for the way you build your campaigns. You should:

Influence buyer’s while they research Insert your message “at the point of research” for a prospective customer by aligning with third-party thought leadership and best practices content. In short, you need to influence buyers as they are doing research. Evaluate advertising platforms based on whether they feature the type of content likely to attract a serious buying audience for your solution.

Educate researchers about related issues Capitalize on the ability to be a one-stop shop. Organizations with broad portfolios can try to address multiple concerns for a user by educating researchers about related tech issues that arise related to the project they are currently researching. Plenty of cross-sell opportunities exist, especially when organizations prefer to manage fewer vendor relationships.

Make content easy to find Respect the researcher’s time by making content readily available and easy to access both within your content assets and on your website. This means taking an always-on and on-demand approach to content distri-bution, as opposed to forcing researchers to view material on your timetable rather than theirs.

Project 1Project 2

Project 3

China

India

Australia

ASEAN

Japan

Germany

France

BENELUX

Italy

UK

60%

58%

57%

51%

31%

62%

54%

53%

53%

52%

IT buyers are busy, typically working on more than 2 projects each quarter10–15% of respondents research five or more projects simultaneously.

The research offers a quick reminder on capturing

mindshare. As much as marketers may like to think

decision-makers are focused squarely on the technology

they are introducing, the survey shows just how busy

IT researchers are. Across the countries, we find that

the majority of IT pros are multi-tasking, researching

more than one potential purchase each quarter. In fact,

as many as 10–15% of respondents research five or

more projects simultaneously. This is true across all

company sizes and has not changed year over year.

The notable exception is Japan, where often times

outside consultants are enlisted to manage a purchase

from research through implementation.

IT buyers are multi-taskers















i i ii

52%of IT Managers at companies with more than 250 employees assign early stage research to their teams

Research is not only done by IT managers, but the entire teamIT managers work with their teams to address IT purchase research needs across the buying cycle.

IT Managers rely heavily on their teams to do pre-purchase research

What does this mean for you?Influence each specialized team member Expectations regarding the ability to reach IT managers should be tailored to the realities of how more senior members of the buying team actually conduct research. IT managers at larger organizations are more apt to delegate and less likely to personally investigate solutions in the early stages. As previously noted, a successful marketing strategy encompasses all members of the buying team and features content designed to influence each partici-pant based on his specialized role. Content specifically designed for IT managers is useful and necessary, but when targeting the enterprise it is likely to have greater success in the consideration and decision-making stages of research.

A common tendency among IT marketers is to focus

resources exclusively on targeting IT management titles.

Unfortunately, the research shows that this approach

risks removing your company from the vendor selection

shortlist straight away.

Across all markets, the vast majority of IT managers

do pre-purchasing web research. However, the point at

which they personally go online varies significantly based

on the size of their organizations. At companies of more

than 250 employees, the majority of IT managers assign

early stage research to their teams. The IT Manag-

er at larger companies typically becomes more heav-

ily involved in later stages when vendor shortlists are

being determined. At smaller companies, however, the

IT manager typically takes on the early stage research

responsibility. As a result, campaigns targeting IT man-

agers at SMBs with awareness-stage content assets

are better positioned for success. The research did not

uncover significant differences by region or by country.

Across all geos, in the later stages of the IT buying

process all purchasing team members are conducting

online research.















What does this mean for you?A common approach and content strategy based on rich, technical content can be highly successful especially if the content addresses an IT problem from a variety of different IT perspectives.

Key takeaways

Buyers are highly specialized

Requiring content targeted to their individual roles

and responsibilities within the organization

Buyers are collaborative

Working in teams to reach a decision on the best

solution for their companies.

Buyers are multitasking

Conducting research on multiple purchases simulta-

neously and needing to be influenced at the point of

research.

Buyers are online

Increasingly using the Web to collect information

for IT purchases.

The research uncovers some similar attributes of IT buyers across geographies















Part four provides insight into telemarketing and the

effectiveness of phone-based offerings, answering the

following questions:

• When, if ever, are researchers receptive to receiving

phone calls from IT vendors?

• How does the willingness to field a call vary based

on a user’s research stage or country?

• How accurate is the data telemarketers collect

about a company’s purchasing timeline and budget?

In part two Understanding and Influencing the

International IT Buyer, we take a look at how research

patterns are evolving, answering the following

questions:

• How heavily is the internet being used to research

online purchases?

• How heavily relied upon are more traditional

resources like print publications and face-to-face

meetings or events?

• How do the research habits of developing nations

like China and India differ from other markets?

How should this affect your marketing strategy?

• How do buyers prefer to interact with vendors

and how has this changed in the last two to three

years?

Part three addresses the types of content that resonate

best from market to market, answering the following

questions:

• How important is localized content? Does its

importance differ by market?

• How critical is translated content, especially in

countries where many researchers are comfortable

with English?

• How much progress can marketers make

repurposing English language content for

international campaigns?

• Which content assets do users find most valuable:

whitepapers, case studies, trial downloads?

More in this series















About TechTarget

TechTarget (NASDAQ: TTGT) is the online intersection

of serious technology buyers, targeted technical content

and technology providers worldwide. Our extensive

network of online and social media, powered by

TechTarget’s Activity Intelligence™ platform, redefines

how technology marketers view and engage technology

buyers based on their active projects, specific technical

priorities and business needs. With more than 100

technology-specific websites and a wide selection

of custom branding and lead generation solutions,

TechTarget delivers unparalleled reach, innovative

opportunities, and extensive Global Marketer Services

to drive technology marketing success around the

world.

TechTarget has offices in Atlanta, Beijing, Boston,

Cincinnati, London, Mumbai, San Francisco, Singapore

and Sydney.

To learn how you can engage with serious technology

buyers worldwide, visit techtarget.com and follow us

@TechTarget.

To recieve the full report data, contact Renee Cormier

Company size EMEA APAC

< 100 38% 28%

100 to 1,000 26% 36%

> 1,000 36% 36%

Job title EMEA APAC

IT management (manager IS/IT) 16% 17%

Consultant/systems integrator 14% 6%

IT staff 11% 15%

Project management 7% 5%

Senior IT management 6% 6%(CIO/CTO/VP/director)

Systems management/ 6% 7%administration

Programmer/developer 6% 9%

Network management/ 5% 8%administration

Architect 4% 3%

Senior non-IT management 3% 2%(CEO,CFO,VP,director)

Analyst 3% 5%

Application manager 2% 2%

Database administrator 2% 3%

Privacy officer 1% 0%

Telecommunications manager 1% 0%

Other 14% 11%

Survey responder demographics

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mailto:[email protected]

a techtarget global marketer services white paper

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