Beyond Buzzwords: The Real-World of Demand Gen for IT Services

At Digitalzone, we want to put the spotlight on how marketers are moving the demand gen needle in the IT services industry.

Our team meticulously analyzed the data from our 2024 State of Demand Gen Dashboard, which aggregates insights from 1,500 B2B marketers across the globe to reveal the key drivers of demand generation.

We asked: What are the top demand gen strategies and outlooks for marketers in IT services?

Executive Summary

• Marketers in IT services are increasingly focusing on social media, leveraging its superior ROI and analytics capabilities. This preference is starkly contrasted with other industries, where the value between marketing strategies is more evenly distributed. Social media's effectiveness is particularly highlighted by its role in influencing 86% of IT product buyers' purchase decisions, marking it as a crucial tool for demand generation in IT services.
• The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into data optimization and security represents another critical area for advancement. AI's potential to improve data quality, automate processes, and provide deeper insights is significant, yet hindered by a widespread skills gap in AI expertise.
• The push for demonstrating ROI amidst accelerated digital transformation requires IT marketers to employ diversified and sector-specific strategies. The surge in new technology adoption within the IT services industry, highlighted by Salesforce, underscores the imperative for agile strategies to demonstrate value amidst evolving IT landscapes and shifting consumer expectations.

The State of Marketing & the IT Services Sector

• The largest portion of companies, 24%, report annual revenues between $500M and just under $10B, showcasing a significant concentration of businesses in this high-earning bracket.
• 29% of IT marketers interviewed hold the position of Senior Manager. This is the majority of respondents, indicating a significant representation of upper-middle management in the survey.
• U.S. state and local government IT spending is expected to reach nearly $125.4 billion by 2026, showing a strong and resilient industry path in government according to a forecast by Gartner.
• IT services represent one of the most rapidly expanding areas within the broader IT market, according to Statista. Its growth rate only surpassed by that of enterprise software on a year-over-year basis.

Social Media Content is Front and Center in Demand Gen

Marketers in IT services are banking on social media for both content creation and syndication.

• Social media reigns as a supreme demand gen tactic. In the realm of IT marketing, with email, webinars, video, and articles vying for the silver medal. This eclectic mix underscores the power of diverse and lower funnel content in captivating the IT crowd.
• 47% of IT services marketers singled out social media as their top content syndication channel, highlighting its unmatched ROI prowess.
• 17% of marketers are using social media engagement data to fine-tune their marketing strategies. This insight into audience behavior is gold dust to create more engaging and effective content.

Social media is distinctly more valuable for IT services than in other sectors.

In the finance industry, social media (33%) and content marketing (28%) are nearly head-to-head in perceived value, whereas higher education marketers find social media (34%) and paid advertising (31%) almost equally effective for ROI. This is in stark contrast to IT services marketers, who overwhelmingly favor social media (47%) with no close second.

It’s a clear conversion winner, with Advertising Age reporting 86% of IT product buyers use social media to make purchase decisions.

Bottom line: Social media holds a unique advantage for marketing IT services.

Several Aspects of Data Have Room to Improve

Data quality isn't just king—it's the entire kingdom. For IT marketers, acquiring high-quality data and unlocking its insights are still paramount.

• Data quality is the primary challenge for demand gen vendors, overshadowing even service quality. It's not enough to deliver accurate data–it must be presented with a level of finesse that only a high-quality approach can provide.
• Access to data isn't the issue; the hurdle lies in refining the processes used to interpret this data. It's about making the numbers talk in a way that informs smarter marketing decisions.
• Integrating AI with data analysis could be the game-changer, offering a way to not only collect but also intelligently analyze data to provide actionable insights that can boost demand gen efforts. This synergy between data and AI is turning heads and sparking innovation across the IT services marketing landscape.

Data optimization and security in IT services needs a makeover. AI is the likely way forward.

AI is set to revolutionize data optimization in IT services and the greater tech sector by enhancing data quality, automating tasks, and providing strategic insights with less effort. However, a barrier to this transformation is the skills gap. A whopping 67% of technology leaders report falling behind due to a lack of AI expertise, according to the Digital Leadership Report.

Bottom line: Mastering the synergy between AI and data will become essential for IT marketers and the tech vendors that serve them.

• 75% of B2B marketers say their organization enlisted more than 1 vendor to support demand gen.
• 82% of Marketers in IT services leveraging AI to automate data analysis for their marketing strategy.
• 85% of Marketers in IT services using both data and AI to create personalized content for their target audiences.

The Path to ROI is a Winding Road

Navigating the journey to ROI is more art than science for IT services marketers, with no one-size-fits-all map to guide them.

• IT marketers are diversifying their tactics to optimize ROI. A significant portion of those who responded, each at 22%, are either expanding their channel mix or refining their current campaigns in their ROI optimization efforts.
• Measuring ROI is a multifaceted exercise, with IT marketers tracking everything from overall spend and conversion rates to site traffic and lead volume with nearly equal preference. This variety underscores the importance of leveraging multiple metrics for a holistic view of success.

• Social media reliably demonstrated ROI: IT marketers rank social media as both the most effective demand generation strategy and the top content syndication channel for ROI, making its value clear and easily demonstrable.

IT services is in the front seat of digital transformation. The quest for ROI is only going to intensify.

The Salesforce Trends in Professional Services Report reveals that 88% of organizations have seen accelerated digital transformation since 2019, exceeding the 78% average in other business sectors. This rapid progression is the root challenge for these marketers: the need to reliably prove ROI on digital investments within an evolving IT landscape and in the mist of increasingly diverse consumer expectations.

Bottom line: Marketers in IT services need to stay agile in demonstrating value and find solutions that are constant in a world of change.

Sources

2024 State of Demand Gen Dashboard
The Ultimate Guide to SaaS Social Media Marketing in 2024 – SocialPilot
U.S. State and Local Government Overview: Kick-Starter for Technology Providers, 2024 – Gartner
Digital Leadership Report – Nash Squared
Information technology (IT) services spending forecast worldwide from 2008 to 2024 – Statista

Final thoughts: Success in IT services marketing demands a strategic focus on social media, the implementation of AI for data enhancement, and flexible ROI demonstration methods. Mastering these domains with finesse is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge in a market that's constantly reinventing itself.