Technographic Data: Sources & Benefits

Featured article by Mahendra Bajiya

As the competition becomes harsher in all industries, firms need to find new ways of making data-driven, efficient, and productive decisions. Demographic and firmographic data have been widely adopted not only for marketing purposes, but also to attain a competitive edge, retain customers, and personalize products and services. Despite this, many businesses may find these two types of data insufficient to obtain a granular understanding of the target audience or competitors – and this is where technographic data sources become invaluable for firms.

What is technographic data?

Technographic data help businesses understand market trends, their customers, and competitors. More than 70% of all firms in the tech industry are quickly becoming client-centric thanks to this type of data. Technographics help companies track and assess existing clients’ technology assets, identify prospective customers, provide personalized offers, and many more.

Technographics revolutionize many business fields through data enrichment. In short, this type of data tells you what technology your customers use, how they spend their budget on tech assets, along with an insight into their approaches and expertise. This information is also available for other firms, including competitors, providing an extra layer to your competitor analysis that can turn your business into a market leader.

How can you use technographic data?

Technographic data, or information related to a firm’s technological capabilities, can be used in several ways. Firstly, similar to firm-specific data, technographics allow you to target your audience better. It shows you your potential clients’ needs and pain points, so you can offer them personalized products and services.

There are several other ways technographics can add value to your business, including getting to know your competitors. You can find more about their tech staff, identify where your company falls behind in terms of infrastructure or software, so you can adjust your business strategy and improve operational efficiency.

Technographic data sources

There are several ways of obtaining technographic data. One of the main ones is surveying companies to find more about their technological capabilities via phone, email, or other channels. Unfortunately, most companies will not be open to providing specific information, especially when offered to their competitors.

Another method to collect technographics data is web scraping. This allows you to collect selective information from corporate websites regarding their services or software. Although this might be more efficient than surveys, your company requires technical expertise to collect and report the relevant information. Also, there are several issues related to security controls, accuracy or data reliability.

Due to these challenges associated with collecting primary data, many businesses choose a more straightforward method: high-quality, trustworthy technographic data sources, such as Coresignal. Service providers offer large datasets that are not only more affordable compared to establishing an in-house team, but they are also robust, reliable, and up-to-date. With the right technographic data source, companies can access massive amounts of useful tech-related data, both regarding customers and competitors.

Benefits of technographic data

Targeted marketing campaigns

When you have access to reliable technographics related to your prospective clients, you can fine-tune your marketing campaigns to respond directly to their pain points. One of the main advantages of technographics is that it allows you to paint a clear client profile, so you can identify your best buyers and contact them with the right products and services.

Maximum value for customers

Buyers are demanding more and more value both pre- and post-sales. Technographics allow a granular insight into what your customers expect, so you can deliver maximum value with each interaction or contact your target audience. For instance, you can turn generic sales scripts into highly targeted pitches that boost your revenue streams.

Lead generation

Finding the ideal client profile and researching the best buyers can be highly time-consuming. With technographic data, your team can spend less time and effort on these tasks and more on identifying and contacting leads for better conversion rates.

Expanding into new markets

B2B companies can also use technographics to identify new market opportunities. Due to the current technological advancements, research and development teams can now find new markets and develop innovative products that fulfil customer expectations.

Customer Retention

As nearly all industries suffer from increased competition, retaining your clients becomes vital for your firm’s survival in the long term. Simply having new customers is not sufficient as you need to build trust and fruitful connections with your current customers.

Technographics help your business identify opportunities to retain your clients or even obtain an insight into your competitors’ strategies to attract and keep their clients. Then, you can implement these in your own product offering to increase your market share.

Summary

All in all, technographic data helps you boost your ABM (account-based marketing) efforts and increase the competitive edge. You can have meaningful relationships with your customers while customizing your product offering to address their pain points and improve your sales.