For B2B technology vendors, staying top-of-mind with industry analysts is crucial. These experts wield significant influence, shaping market perception, informing purchasing decisions, and ultimately impacting your business growth. However, the landscape of analysts is vast and navigating it can feel like a daunting task, consuming valuable time and resources.
This comprehensive article, informed by insights from Thinkers360.com, the world’s leading platform for managing analyst and influencer relations, B2B influencer marketing, and B2B thought leadership marketing, outlines key strategies for B2B tech vendors to effectively engage with industry analysts and highlights how leveraging specialist communities, such as Thinkers360, can significantly streamline this process.
Here’s our top three recommendations together with expert tips and advice from leading industry analysts:
1. Proactive Engagement and Relationship Building
Direct outreach to key industry analysts covering your specific technology space is a foundational step. Identify the top-tier firms like Gartner, Forrester, IDC, and others that are influential in your market.
- Know Your Analysts: Don’t send generic emails. Take the time to understand which analysts within these firms cover your specific niche. Review their recent publications, research agendas, and social media activity to tailor your communication. Demonstrate that you understand their focus and how your solutions align with their areas of interest.
- Schedule Vendor Briefings: Once you’ve identified relevant analysts, proactively reach out to schedule a vendor briefing. This is an opportunity to introduce your company, your solutions, and your unique value proposition. Be prepared to provide concise and compelling information, backed by data and customer success stories. Treat this as a dialogue, be open to their questions and feedback, and demonstrate your understanding of the market dynamics they analyze.
- Provide Value Beyond Promotion: Analyst relationships are built on mutual benefit. Don’t just reach out when you have a product announcement. Offer them early access to significant news, invite them to relevant customer events, and position your executives as thought leaders who can provide valuable insights on industry trends. Be a resource, not just a promoter.
Expert Tip: The Thinkers360 platform enables you to engage and interact with over 12K of the world’s premier B2B analysts and influencers with over 100M followers combined. All our members are opt-in and have detailed Thinkers360 profiles, portfolios, and media kits so you can engage with exactly the right industry analysts and influencers for your niche. Since our members are all opt-in they are ready and willing to work with your brand and you can avoid the noise and the “connect-and-pitch” strategy so common on platforms such as LinkedIn.
In addition to the Thinkers360 platform, we suggest utilizing additional resources such as analyst company web sites (e.g. BARC, Compass Intelligence, Dresner Advisory Services, Everest Group, Forrester Research, Frost & Sullivan, Futurum Group, Gartner, HfS Research, IDC, Lopez Research and many others), social media platforms, industry events and conferences, and social listening tools like Brand24 or Sprout Social to further identify influential voices actively engaging in your industry conversations.
Remember Apple’s advert for its App Store, There’s an app for that? If you do, it’s a helpful way of thinking about industry analysts working in technology markets. There are the big name firms: widely known and generally well understood; access to one or more of these firms is often a given and, like the email app on your phone, a major part of overall use. Don’t forget though there are many other app options available – and not just for email or browsing – the same is true of industry analysts. Technology category coverage is the obvious difference, but there’s far more to explore than just coverage areas. Analysts from firms of all shapes and sizes bring with them different experience, perspective, and specialization. From experts in technology assessments and hands-on implementation, through product / market fit, messaging testing and strategy professionals. Throughout my career, I’ve encouraged buyers of analyst services to step back and consider what they are looking to achieve first, and then assess and access a range of analysts that help them do it.
– Tom Pringle, Director, Pilot Research Limited
2. Consistent Communication and Information Sharing
Staying on an analyst’s radar requires consistent and relevant communication. Think beyond the initial briefing and establish a regular cadence for updates.
- Share Meaningful Updates: Keep analysts informed about significant company milestones, product updates, key customer wins, and market traction. Ensure these updates are concise, data-driven, and highlight the impact of your developments on the market. Avoid overwhelming them with irrelevant information.
- Offer Exclusive Insights: Consider offering analysts exclusive previews of upcoming announcements or the opportunity to speak with your subject matter experts for their research. This can position your company as a valuable source of information and strengthen your relationship.
- Respond Promptly to Inquiries: Analysts often work on tight deadlines. Be responsive to their requests for information, data, or interviews. Being a reliable and accessible resource will make you a preferred point of contact.
- Understand Their Research Cycle: Be mindful of the analysts’ research calendars and proactively provide information that aligns with their upcoming reports or inquiries. This demonstrates your understanding of their work and increases the likelihood of your company being included.
Expert Tip: The Thinkers360 platform enables you to both find and work with industry analysts and influencers as well as to amplify your own corporate executives, thought leaders, content and perspectives to “influence the influencers”TM. Enterprise members can additionally highlight their press releases, industry events and conferences, and set up an in-depth company profile as well as an analyst relations portal to easily interact with our members.
The most successful B2B tech vendors understand that analyst engagement isn’t a transactional exercise but a strategic relationship. What’s often overlooked is that today’s industry analysts wear multiple hats, they’re not just advisors but thought leaders and B2B influencers who can significantly amplify your brand’s voice. The most effective vendor-analyst relationships leverage this dual role, recognizing that analysts offer unique value through their ability to contextualize your solution within both current market dynamics and emerging industry trends. By treating analysts as strategic partners in your market education efforts, you tap into their unparalleled ability to translate complex technological value into business language that resonates with your target audience.
– Michael Fauscette, CEO and Chief Analyst, Arion Research, LLC
3. Leveraging Specialist Communities for Efficient Outreach
Engaging with industry analysts doesn’t have to be a painstaking individual effort. Specialist communities like Thinkers360 offer a powerful and efficient way to extend your outreach and build relationships with a broad network of analysts and influencers.
- Access to a Curated Network: Platforms like Thinkers360 aggregate a vast and diverse pool of B2B thought leaders, analysts, and influencers across various technology domains. This eliminates the need for hundreds of hours of individual research to identify relevant experts.
- Direct Messaging and Engagement: These platforms often provide direct messaging capabilities, allowing you to connect and communicate with analysts in a targeted and efficient manner. You can share updates, ask questions, and build relationships directly within the community.
- Visibility into Analyst Research and Content: Staying informed about an analyst’s latest research and content is crucial. Specialist communities often provide features that allow you to track the publications and insights of analysts relevant to your industry, helping you tailor your engagement strategies.
- Enhanced Company Presence: Many platforms offer the ability to create a comprehensive company profile page and even analyst relations (AR) portals. This provides analysts with easy access to detailed information about your company, solutions, and thought leadership.
- Brand Listening and Insights: Features like brand listening allow you to monitor conversations and mentions related to your company and industry within the analyst community, providing valuable insights into their perspectives and concerns.
Expert Tip: For added differentiation, Thinkers360 enterprise members can engage with industry analysts and influencers directly on the Thinkers360 platform and use our social media activity feed to like, comment and share their content. This provides a more personal setting for interactions and can yield new, valuable relationships with top-tier analysts and influencers which are difficult to establish amidst the noise of traditional social media platforms.
For related reading, be sure to check out our Analyst Relations and B2B Brand Monitoring pages, as well as our articles on 10 Best Practices for Managing Analyst Relations (AR) and B2B Influencer Relations Programs and The Thinkers360 Guide to B2B Influencer Marketing. You can also contact us directly at info@thinkers360.com.
By strategically combining direct engagement with the efficiency of specialist communities like Thinkers360, B2B tech vendors can significantly enhance their visibility among industry analysts, build meaningful relationships, and ultimately amplify their market influence. Embracing these approaches will ensure you stay on the radar of the experts who shape the future of your industry.
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