The conventional wisdom holds that tech marketers are a step ahead. Marketers in the technology sector were among the first to build websites, to run banner ads, and to grasp the power of search, social and mobile.
But is the conventional wisdom true? Do tech marketers differ from their non-tech counterparts and reign supreme in particular domains of marketing expertise?
New LinkedIn research says yes. But more importantly, findings from our recent global marketer’s study point out significant lessons that non-tech marketers can learn from today’s tech trailblazers.
In the following weeks, we’re excited to deliver a new, data-driven series diving deep into the inner worlds of today’s marketers — tackling questions like:
- Who are today’s marketers? What are their sweet spots?
- What are their key objectives, top resources, and biggest challenges?
- What can marketers across varying industries learn from one another?
Starting with the technology industry, we’ve begun to unpack a few of the many ways tech marketers are indeed different — from adapting new technology, to exhibiting sophisticated targeting and mastering lead generation. Explore our early findings and read on for greater detail on LinkedIn’s latest marketing research.
Tech Marketers Are “Innovators”
It’s no surprise that out of the 2,232 English-speaking, global tech and non-tech marketers we surveyed, that tech marketers were “innovators,” as marked by their likelihood to be early adopters in the B2B sector. They also led the way in implementing advanced technology and data-driven marketing, even noting that finding adequate headcount was the most difficult part of their job (which we took to imply that they are in need of talent to operate the marketing technology they’ve installed).
Tech Marketers Focus On Leads
Where responsibilities are concerned, tech marketers exhibit vastly different, highly specialized priorities vs. their counterparts in other industries. Our results saw that tech marketers are heavily preoccupied with generating leads — with the top five job responsibilities for tech marketers being: lead generation, lead nurturing, account-based marketing, channel enablement, and field enablement. On the contrary, non-tech marketers listed more generalist business objectives as key priorities, such as: brand awareness, public relations, customer loyalty, direct mail, and mass advertising. Accompanying the specialist/generalist split we uncovered, it was also clear from the skills tech marketers listed on their LinkedIn profile that tech marketers have an edge when it comes to tactics and precision, listing skills like: CRM, product marketing, business development, leadership, and lead generation. Non-tech marketers, again, are more general: advertising, market research, strategic planning, sales, and event management.
Tech Marketers Are More Likely to Visit LinkedIn
And when it comes to content, we saw tech marketers more likely to visit LinkedIn (64 percent) and syndicated data sites (23 percent) for marketing resources versus their non-tech colleagues, who are more likely to consult their Facebook networks.
Download "The Tech Marketer Difference"
For more insight into how tech marketers differ from non-tech marketers, download “The Tech Marketer Difference.”
In the meantime, stay tuned to the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions blog, where we will be diving deeper into the differences between tech and non-tech marketers and identifying techniques, tactics, and outlooks that non-tech marketers may consider adopting to boost their performance of their programs.
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