2024 Tech Trends in Marketing: Insights to Attract and Retain Software Buyers – Gartner
or call +1 703 584 1800
or call +1 703 584 1800
November 17, 2023
Contributor: Meghan Bazaman
As the digital marketing realm continues to expand with the proliferation of online platforms, data collection tools, and multichannel customer interactions, businesses are eager to harness software and solutions to reach their target audiences or grow their customer base.
Gartner Digital Markets conducted the 2024 Tech Trends Survey among more than 3,400 respondents in nine countries to understand the organizational challenges, technology adoption timelines and budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations, and satisfaction levels for software buyers, and how they relate to experiencing regret after a purchase.
This article takes a deep dive into the marketing vertical by analyzing data from 1,038 software purchasing decision-makers who work in marketing, advertising, social media, and publishing industries or roles. Here are the top five buying behavior insights from marketers and why they matter for software providers.
The adoption of martech has become not only a choice, but a business necessity.
Among all software buyers (not just marketers), marketing software is the second highest priority software investment for 2024 at 28%, behind only IT security (32%).
Tech providers should develop effective lead generation strategies to capture increasing demand for marketing software in 2024. Understand buyers’ needs and behavior to identify opportunities at each stage of the funnel and launch category-specific campaigns to engage active buyers and boost conversion rates.
Looking into the year ahead, marketers anticipate frustrating external challenges due economic headwinds and the rapidly changing working environment.
First, there’s a persistent struggle to find new customers, with 35% of respondents citing this as the top business challenge they are up against in 2024.
Second, the demand for a tech-savvy workforce is a growing concern. Over a third of marketing professionals find employee training and upskilling challenging, and 29% worry about finding qualified talent.
If you are looking to engage marketing decision-makers, start by illustrating how your software will help them meet their overall goals, but give special consideration to acquisition objectives.
Also, make sure you inform potential buyers about available resources and training materials to improve users’ learning curve during the new software adoption.
61% of marketing professionals say they experienced regret for one or more types of technology they purchased in the last 12 to 18 months.
But when asked about what they would change in their selection process to avoid future remorse, marketers believe that establishing well-defined goals and desired outcomes is crucial, as well as setting clear expectations among stakeholders to ensure alignment.
In addition, performing a security review is important, considering marketers rely heavily on data such as customer information, market insights, and campaign metrics.
Tech providers should practice stakeholder mapping to identify roles in the software buying committee and develop quality content that cater to individual needs, build internal consensus and simplify the decision. Empower buyers with self-service tools like customer reviews, product comparisons or industry-specific case studies that validate your value proposition and exhibit your product security features.
More than one in three (36%) marketing professionals regret a software investment because it was more expensive than they were led to believe or the technology was not compatible with their existing systems.
Nowadays, most marketers are asked to do more with less budget, so it is important to be transparent about cost up front, including software subscription or licensing costs, implementation, integrations, etc. Make sure your product profile on software comparison sites like Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice includes full details on pricing and discounts.
Marketers often operate on budget constraints and have time-sensitive campaigns, so they look for tools that can add efficiencies and streamline processes. Consequently, nearly a third (32%) of respondents have high expectations for a software to demonstrate positive ROI within 6 months. Tied with scheduling software, marketing solutions have the most aggressive ROI timeline.
As a marketing software provider, you have less time than others to demonstrate the effectiveness of your tool. Ensure your implementation is fast and frictionless, and periodically check customer satisfaction levels to address expectations or concerns in a timely manner.
Attracting and retaining the right customer is the surest way to scale efficient growth. But engaging software buyers in your target industry requires a deep understanding of what they need and how they behave.
Our data highlights key buying behavior trends tech providers should watch out for to effectively navigate change in the marketing industry. From top business challenges and technology investments, to product expectations and regret drivers, use these buyer insights to level up your acquisition strategy and prevent churn.
Methodology
Gartner Digital Markets’ 2024 Tech Trends Survey was designed to understand the timeline, organizational challenges, adoption & budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations, and satisfaction levels for software buyers.
The survey was conducted online in July 2023 among 3,484 respondents from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, India, Germany, Brazil, and Japan, with businesses across multiple industries and company sizes (5 or more employees). Respondents were screened to ensure their involvement in software purchasing decisions.
This report includes responses from the marketing industry only — a subset of 1,038 professionals.
Meghan Bazaman
Meghan Bazaman is a senior analyst at Gartner Digital Markets, covering all the latest trends, issues, and developments in marketing technology. With more than a decade of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research, her work has been featured in publications such as Ad Age, MediaPost, and Martech Zone. In her spare time she enjoys looking for the best hiking trails around Austin and spoiling her cat Javier.
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Let us qualify your target software buyers
See who's researching your software, flag potential churn and activate target accounts
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
or call +1 703 584 1800
November 17, 2023
Contributor: Meghan Bazaman
As the digital marketing realm continues to expand with the proliferation of online platforms, data collection tools, and multichannel customer interactions, businesses are eager to harness software and solutions to reach their target audiences or grow their customer base.
Gartner Digital Markets conducted the 2024 Tech Trends Survey among more than 3,400 respondents in nine countries to understand the organizational challenges, technology adoption timelines and budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations, and satisfaction levels for software buyers, and how they relate to experiencing regret after a purchase.
This article takes a deep dive into the marketing vertical by analyzing data from 1,038 software purchasing decision-makers who work in marketing, advertising, social media, and publishing industries or roles. Here are the top five buying behavior insights from marketers and why they matter for software providers.
The adoption of martech has become not only a choice, but a business necessity.
Among all software buyers (not just marketers), marketing software is the second highest priority software investment for 2024 at 28%, behind only IT security (32%).
Tech providers should develop effective lead generation strategies to capture increasing demand for marketing software in 2024. Understand buyers’ needs and behavior to identify opportunities at each stage of the funnel and launch category-specific campaigns to engage active buyers and boost conversion rates.
Looking into the year ahead, marketers anticipate frustrating external challenges due economic headwinds and the rapidly changing working environment.
First, there’s a persistent struggle to find new customers, with 35% of respondents citing this as the top business challenge they are up against in 2024.
Second, the demand for a tech-savvy workforce is a growing concern. Over a third of marketing professionals find employee training and upskilling challenging, and 29% worry about finding qualified talent.
If you are looking to engage marketing decision-makers, start by illustrating how your software will help them meet their overall goals, but give special consideration to acquisition objectives.
Also, make sure you inform potential buyers about available resources and training materials to improve users’ learning curve during the new software adoption.
61% of marketing professionals say they experienced regret for one or more types of technology they purchased in the last 12 to 18 months.
But when asked about what they would change in their selection process to avoid future remorse, marketers believe that establishing well-defined goals and desired outcomes is crucial, as well as setting clear expectations among stakeholders to ensure alignment.
In addition, performing a security review is important, considering marketers rely heavily on data such as customer information, market insights, and campaign metrics.
Tech providers should practice stakeholder mapping to identify roles in the software buying committee and develop quality content that cater to individual needs, build internal consensus and simplify the decision. Empower buyers with self-service tools like customer reviews, product comparisons or industry-specific case studies that validate your value proposition and exhibit your product security features.
More than one in three (36%) marketing professionals regret a software investment because it was more expensive than they were led to believe or the technology was not compatible with their existing systems.
Nowadays, most marketers are asked to do more with less budget, so it is important to be transparent about cost up front, including software subscription or licensing costs, implementation, integrations, etc. Make sure your product profile on software comparison sites like Capterra, GetApp and Software Advice includes full details on pricing and discounts.
Marketers often operate on budget constraints and have time-sensitive campaigns, so they look for tools that can add efficiencies and streamline processes. Consequently, nearly a third (32%) of respondents have high expectations for a software to demonstrate positive ROI within 6 months. Tied with scheduling software, marketing solutions have the most aggressive ROI timeline.
As a marketing software provider, you have less time than others to demonstrate the effectiveness of your tool. Ensure your implementation is fast and frictionless, and periodically check customer satisfaction levels to address expectations or concerns in a timely manner.
Attracting and retaining the right customer is the surest way to scale efficient growth. But engaging software buyers in your target industry requires a deep understanding of what they need and how they behave.
Our data highlights key buying behavior trends tech providers should watch out for to effectively navigate change in the marketing industry. From top business challenges and technology investments, to product expectations and regret drivers, use these buyer insights to level up your acquisition strategy and prevent churn.
Methodology
Gartner Digital Markets’ 2024 Tech Trends Survey was designed to understand the timeline, organizational challenges, adoption & budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations, and satisfaction levels for software buyers.
The survey was conducted online in July 2023 among 3,484 respondents from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, France, India, Germany, Brazil, and Japan, with businesses across multiple industries and company sizes (5 or more employees). Respondents were screened to ensure their involvement in software purchasing decisions.
This report includes responses from the marketing industry only — a subset of 1,038 professionals.
Meghan Bazaman
Meghan Bazaman is a senior analyst at Gartner Digital Markets, covering all the latest trends, issues, and developments in marketing technology. With more than a decade of experience conducting qualitative and quantitative research, her work has been featured in publications such as Ad Age, MediaPost, and Martech Zone. In her spare time she enjoys looking for the best hiking trails around Austin and spoiling her cat Javier.
Please provide the consent below
I have read, understood and accepted Gartner Separate Consent Letter , whereby I agree (1) to provide Gartner with my personal information, and understand that information will be transferred outside of mainland China and processed by Gartner group companies and other legitimate processing parties and (2) to be contacted by Gartner group companies via internet, mobile/telephone and email, for the purposes of sales, marketing and research.
We value your privacy. By submitting this form, you agree we may use your information in accordance with the terms of the Gartner Digital Markets Privacy Policy.
Download eBook
Read Now
Read Now
Read Now
Connect to millions of in-market software buyers around the globe with our all-encompassing suite of marketing services.
Introduce yourself to engaged buyers
Gather third-party verified user reviews
Earn badges, reports and other assets to build credibility with buyers
Target buyers by category, geo, and site
Let us qualify your target software buyers
See who's researching your software, flag potential churn and activate target accounts
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
©2024 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
This article was autogenerated from a news feed from CDO TIMES selected high quality news and research sources. There was no editorial review conducted beyond that by CDO TIMES staff. Need help with any of the topics in our articles? Schedule your free CDO TIMES Tech Navigator call today to stay ahead of the curve and gain insider advantages to propel your business!
