Research uncovers top vendor marketing strategies to influence buyer awareness and purchasing decisions

Multi-award winning B2B technology PR agency CCgroup, today launches new research which will help security vendors market and sell products and services to SMEs and enterprises more effectively. It uncovers not only the state of security investments and what buyers are looking for in a security vendor, but how both vendor awareness and selection is influenced by various communication channels and types of content.

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The study, Security marketing strategies: influencing contemporary purchasing behaviour, conducted in partnership with Coleman Parkes Research, reveals that four out of five (80%) of companies are currently on the lookout for new suppliers in the security technology space. This comes despite an almost equal number of companies (78%) reported already having made an unplanned purchase as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indeed, despite ongoing economic uncertainty, companies are still making considerable investments in security with an average ticket price for new security implementations in the past twelve months standing just below £800K.

But how have they identified the security vendor suitable to their needs? According to the report, there are different ways in which vendors can increase brand awareness and maximise their chances of being selected for RFP processes. Findings notably include:

• Analyst Relations (AR) crucial to security vendors’ content strategies – 58% of security buyers report industry analyst reports to be the most influential in driving awareness of vendors. In addition, analyst reports received a rating of 4 out of 5 in terms of influencing the selection of vendors. This makes an analyst relations programme the top content strategy for vendors looking to boost brand awareness and influence buyer selection.
• Business technology and trade media rated a cut above – Despite appearing in the likes of The FT, The Telegraph and The Times long being regarded as the pinnacle of successful PR outputs, reports of the actual outcomes resulting from media outreach show a much more level playing field. When asked which channels had the most influence on vendor awareness, security technology buyers rated both trade media publications and business technology publications higher than national media publications.
• Blogs lag behind other content types in influencing vendor selection – Owned content types – such as blogs, webinars and videos – were all identified by security technology buyers as influential. However, the degree to which these content types influence their decision-making when narrowing down their choice of vendor varied considerably. Both webinars and video content, for example, were found to have at least double the level of influence of blog content, while case studies and whitepapers also featured prominently in the leader boards.

“Security vendors would be forgiven for having feelings of cognitive dissonance when observing the market today” said Florie Lhuillier, Head of Security at CCgroup. “The boom in demand for security products and services driven by the pandemic and new working practices means that there is an enormous opportunity for vendors to expand their customer base. But when it comes to marketing security companies, this becomes far too large an ocean to boil.”

“To design and execute a marketing strategy that not only resonates with potential customers, but which fundamentally delivers tangible ROI, security vendors must uncover the who, what, where and how of buyer behaviour. This is the approach we have taken in this report, with the objective of making it easier for security vendors to make the right marketing decisions, no matter where they are on their journey.”

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