What media want from technology partners

We recently published a survey to find out more about how media technology companies make their purchase decisions. Our insights are compiled from the results of 20 high level media executives who took the time to tell us how they make software purchases and what they want from media technology companies. Here are seven key insights we gathered from the survey.

1. How they keep up with media technology options

Executives say they are using ten sources of information. The most common source was the independent trade press, followed by trade shows and associations, external peers, and LinkedIn. They are also utilizing sales people, press releases and internal peers.

2. What information source has the most influence on the purchase decision

This is where it gets interesting. When it comes to making a decision, there are only two critical sources of information: external peers and case studies. That means that developing case studies and loyal client advocates is critical to future sales.

3. What types of information they wish they had

These answers are a bit of a trade secret, but they are looking for more webinars with clients, case studies, and top ten lists of software providers in their areas of interest.

4. New initiatives using technology in 2018

Clearly this is an industry on the move. The most common new initiatives this year were programmatic, events, digital agency, and ticket sales.

5. Initiatives using technology planned for 2019

From another list of 15 different kinds of initiatives, the most common were self-serve, subscription sales, ticketing, other e-commerce, and verticals such as automotive and real estate.

6. What is most important to these companies in selecting a technology partner

The short answer is they want it all, or almost all. However, there are five criteria that most list as critical to the sale:

• Product and industry knowledge
• ROI
• Easy implementation
• Personal training and support
• Competitive pricing

Get these right, and there is not much more to worry about. Also important, but not critical, are learning centers and the personal relationship and trust.

7. What did not matter to their selection of a technology partners

We asked the media executives to choose what was “not important” to their selection and only two categories factored noticeably here. Surprisingly, “conference sponsorships that show commitment to the industry" was rated not important.

However, investing in sponsorships may be important in other ways; especially in developing relationships with key players responsible for approving speaking engagements, webinars and networking.

Also of the two rated "not important" most often was “being found on Google when we search.” This means that spending lots of money on SEM to appear “on top” may not have any affect on brand preference. If SEM is generating quality leads, keep it by all means, but otherwise this may be an expense to cut.