Tech Marketers Use More Livestreaming and Social Media Content

BY Kathy Crosett
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With in-​person conferences and events likely to be slow to recover from the pandemic, tech marketers are focusing their budgets and efforts on digital outreach. The Technology Content Marketing report for 2021, fielded by the Content Marketing Institute, MarketingProfs and IDC, reveals that tech marketers started to use more livestreaming and social media content after the pandemic changed how they do business. Some of the tech marketers' new outreach methods have opened opportunities for digital marketing services providers.

Not surprisingly, these marketers are tech-​savvy and 74% were already using virtual events to draw traffic and attention. As the pandemic dragged on, that percentage increased to 83%. And businesses with sufficient resources are also using more livestreamed events. 33% are now using this format.

The pandemic left us all scrambling to change our marketing calendars. For tech companies, the biggest changes were:

  • Revised targeting/​messaging strategy 71%
  • Revised editorial calendar 66%
  • Adjusted content distribution/​promotion strategy 52%

More Firms Are Outsourcing

All of these changes meant some organizations had to step up and do more with the same resources. Larger organizations, 46%, were more likely to have hired additional employees to help. But they don’t always hire new employees. Many organizations hire outside contractors for some of their content marketing needs. By firm size, the following percentages of companies outsource some of that work:

  • Small (1–99 employees) 44%
  • Medium (100–999 employees) 62%
  • Large (1,000+ employees) 67%

By far, the largest outsourced task is content creation (89%). It’s not always easy for these businesses to find the help they’re seeking. The top challenges they face are finding partners with adequate topic expertise (71%) and who understand the audience the marketer is trying to reach (48%).

Nearly all tech marketers using blog posts and short articles (75%) as part of their content strategy. Larger companies are far more likely to use e‑books (78%) versus 63% for smaller organizations. And while 73% of large companies develop white papers, only 39% of smaller businesses do. Podcasts have a growing audience and tech marketers have picked up on this trend. 37% of large employers use podcasts, but only 15% of small employers produce this type of content.

And while tech marketers typically post their content on their websites and distribute to their in-​house email lists, they also pay to distribute their messages to a wider audience. In the past year, they turned to the following formats:

  • Social media/​promoted posts 85%
  • Search, PPC 76%
  • Sponsorships 64%
  • Banner ads 55%
  • Native advertising (outside of social) 41%
  • Partner email 38%

They also use traditional media such as print magazines (6%) and print books (3%).

Tech Marketers Use Livestreaming and Social Media Content 

Around half, 52%, of tech businesses rate themselves as extremely successful content marketers. What does success look like? The number of businesses that increased leads jumped from 79% to 86% in one year. And 77% of marketers said they built credibility/​trust in the marketplace which was an improvement from 73% in the previous year. And the number of businesses that drove attendance to in-​person or virtual events through content marketing grew from 58% to 63%.

Audiences have definite preferences about the kind of content they prefer. While tech marketers use livestreaming and social media content more now than in the past, that might not work for your clients. You can learn which content makes the biggest impact on your client’s target audiences by running a Digital Audit on them in AdMall by SalesFuel. Using those results, you can sell your digital marketing services to help them develop the content they need to boost revenue.


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