In order to fully understand digital market research and how it’s changing the face of business, you must have a firm understanding of technographic segmentation, sometimes simply called technographics. In a nutshell, technographics is an analytic approach where data is used to profile certain technology and communication-specific behaviors and characteristics of your prospective client using market segmentation. Much like marketers are able to organize prospects into several or many categories based on demographics, geographic location, personal preferences or interests, and other variables in order to better target their intended market, technographics specifically categorizes prospects based on use patterns of information, entertainment and communication technologies, including personal computers, mobile devices and streaming video channels, software installations, and more. By employing technographics, a marketer can understand how to best reach her intended audience, which marketing strategies to employ, and how to relate to her target audience to get her message across.
Types of Technographics
Technographics have various categories: Social Technographics, Mobile Technographics and even Software/Hardware Technographics. With social technographics, a marketer is able to effectively measure and analyze prospect behaviors in relation to social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Mobile technographics provide metrics and analysis about a prospect’s preferences and tendencies in relation to mobile device usage. For example, technographics can clue a marketer into whether their targeted audience uses more Apple devices than Android devices, or vice versa, which can lead them to make decisions to help optimize their mobile app for that particular platform. But an exciting new addition is Software/Hardware Technographics: When you know the tech stack of your prospects, it can be very powerful. For example, by knowing if your prospects are using a competitor’s technology, you can tailor your outreach message to address the pain point your product solves. Similarly, if your product enhances an existing solution, technographics can help you find companies using the solution so that you can target them with your enhancement.
All of these types of technographics help marketers gain important insights into their prospective client, which can help them modify their marketing strategies in order to reach the prospects who would likely be the most interested in the product or service they’re offering. Technographics is a game-changer in the marketing industry thanks to its ability to pinpoint target audiences and help marketers zero in on the most promising opportunities using the appropriate technologies to reach them. This not only can lead to a boost in sales, but also promote brand awareness, buzz and a variety of other positive effects.
Who Uses Technographics?
The practice of using technographics as part of a digital marketing strategy is quickly becoming a standard practice across a number of industries. In order to make your business more customer-focused, it is essential to begin with the necessary data. By using technographics to gain insights on the digital behaviors of your prospects, your business will be one step ahead of the game. Applying technographics to your digital marketing analysis process now will give your business the competitive edge now and in the future.
Our world is based on technology- we use our mobile devices for virtually everything we do online, and we utilize social media channels for a variety of purposes including communication, entertainment and information. By employing technographics in your data collection and analysis processes, your company has the insights on emerging digital prospect behavior that it needs to maintain effectiveness in your marketing strategies. Technographics give you the information you need to make the best decisions for your company and ultimately boost your ROI with an increased conversion rate.