Leadership Vision for 2022

Top 3 Strategic
Priorities for
Technology
Product Marketers
 Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

From Rishi Sood, GVP, Technology & Service Providers Demand for digital transformation will fuel double-digit growth in spending
on enterprise applications, infrastructure software, and managed services
As we continue to navigate through and emerge from the global COVID-19 and cloud infrastructure services with enterprises investing ahead of revenue
pandemic, business leaders are recognizing the possibility of long-lasting expectations in areas such as analytics, cloud computing, customer
changes in how we do business, even after the immediate threat of experience and security.
COVID-19 has waned.
For large enterprises, this means nearly every company is becoming a tech
company and every market will be even more competitive in 2022. Successful
leaders will update their storytelling and key points of differentiation, obtain
When, where and how we work is forever altered. As a
deeper insight on new buying behaviors, drive continuous product management
result, the process for decision making — rooted in content practices, outperform competitors across the entire customer life cycle, plot
consumption, collaboration and consensus building — has their future ambitions/transformation strategies and overcome the talent crunch.
fundamentally shifted. Gartner Leadership Vision provides top-level guidance to leaders and their
teams on where to focus — based on our data-driven research. We’re providing
detailed insights to our clients across dozens of roles, and we’re now excited
Accelerated digital technology innovation, changing buyer behavior and to share excerpts with the business community beyond our clients. We
new business models add complex dimensions to how technology service hope this will help you to focus discussions with your teams, peers and other
providers think about every part of the organization. Technology spending leaders, so you can more quickly and effectively diagnose priorities and
is democratizing and is increasingly driven by business leaders seeking actions, especially as you solidify your strategic plans for 2022.
to accelerate digital initiatives. The market has changed, so technology
vendors need to adapt.

Rishi Sood
Gartner Research & Advisory

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 Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Being a Strategic Partner Demands a Shift in Marketing Focus

Marketing, which engages with every customer-
facing function and each external stakeholder er Life Cy
group, is radically impacted by the monumental stom cle
u

C
change in the process for decision making.
Tech marketing is accountable for preparing
the organization but challenged by the need
to respond to this shift through well-targeted
and dynamic content and campaigns. Tech Tech
Marketing tech products for growth in a Marketer Marketer
postpandemic world demands that marketing
teams seize the opportunity to be strategic
partners within the enterprise. Failing to do Narrow marketing focus
this risks relegating these teams to a marketing on new logo acquisition
services model. through sales support Agile, strategic partner across the
entire customer life cycle — from
acquisition to retention

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 Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Challenges and Actions for the Technology Product Marketer

Managing the expanding Renewals are really
Marketing is short-term-focused
channel mix buying decisions
Tech product marketers will need to hone their Post-COVID-19, tech product marketers are now The Gartner 2021 User Influence on Software
skills at balancing short-term campaign planning managing an ever-expanding set of channels. For Decisions Survey shows that 22% of workers are
cycles with longer-term strategic planning and many, the broader the universe of channel options only using the minimum application capabilities.
resource allocation for those strategic priorities. grows, the more complexity they must manage. Of respondents, 34% are likely to disparage
This means creating a long-term vision informed Amid uncertainty about which channels to select, a solution to their peers or publicly. These
by data — specifically a forward-looking view of tech product marketers face the added challenge vocal detractors undermine even the best tech
target market segments, ideal customer profiles of needing to allocate resources, plan marketing marketing efforts and have the potential to
and buyer personas. campaigns and create content to satisfy the needs negatively impact renewals.
of an even greater number of channels.

Actions for the technology product marketer

Revise marketing metrics to better align Embrace a range of marketing channels based Market across the customer life cycle by
marketing with corporate objectives, such on where your customers spend their time, how partnering with customer success to drive
as retention rate, and connect short- and they prefer to learn and how they are influenced. adoption and retention, using account-based
long-term marketing priorities. marketing to enact account plans and engage
current customers.

Source: Gartner

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 Action Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Balance Short- and Long-Term Priorities

The ability to balance short- and long-term priorities starts with a balanced success metrics and customer retention rate, but link outcomes to KPIs
view of marketing’s impact on strategic business outcomes. Account used to measure short-term tactical and operational marketing execution.
for long-term success metrics like share of wallet, market share, customer

Skill Set and Capability

Agile Planning Sales Alignment Dynamic techniques
Development can elevate the
strategic impact of
short-term, recurring
Modular Content Emerging Channel Business Strategy marketing activities.
Development Innovation Development

Short-Term Activities Long-Term Strategy

Source: Gartner

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 Action Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Align Marketing Channel Mix to Audience Behavior

Activities Most Likely to Catch Attention and Inspire Exploration
Sum of Top 3 Ranks and Rank 1
Sum of Top 3  1st choice

Exploring the website of a known vendor for new products or services 14% 41%
Directly marketing to you (email, phone, social, regular mail) by vendor 11% 38%
A partner directly marketing to you (email, phone, social, regular mail) 14% 37% Rather than simply utilizing
more marketing channels, tech
Vendor participation in third-party events (in-person) 10% 31%
product marketers must adapt
Vendor-sponsored events (in-person) 10% 30% to where buyers want to engage,
how they prefer to learn and
Vendor participation in third-party events (virtual) 8% 26%
what channels they’re likely to
Search engine (ads or placement) 9% 26% use to inform decisions across
Vendor-sponsored events (virtual) 9% 25% the buying and owning journeys.

Presence on social networks (ads, pages or posts) 8% 25%

Print, TV and radio advertising 7% 21%

0% 25% 50%
n = 1,500, aware of enterprise technology buying activities
Q. Which three vendor activities are most likely to catch your attention and inspire you to explore their products or services further?
Source: Gartner 2021 Technology End-User Buying Behavior Survey

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 Action Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Formalize Retention Programs

Establish a relationship with the customer success team that transcends individual projects and
instead creates a cycle of reviewing customer feedback to understand gaps in adoption and utilization
across the entire account team.

Top Account-Based Marketing Use Case Customer Success Management Focus

Prospects  Customers

100%
Retaining, and growing, Establish a relationship
current customers is Using
with customer success
data for a
59% increasingly a top use comprehensive teams to understand gaps
68% case for account-based
76% view of customer in adoption/utilization.
50% marketing (ABM). throughout life cycle

Customer
41% Success
31% 24% Management
0%
2019 2020 2021
Continuously
(n = 232) (n = 217) (n = 193) monitoring Proactively
customer health guiding customers
n varies; have knowledge of account-based marketing to drive action to value
Q. Please rank the top 3 ABM use cases (by priority importance) that your organization runs? Top 1 Rank.
Note: Percentages may not add up to 100% because of rounding.
Source: Gartner 2021 Technology Marketing Benchmarks Survey Source: Gartner

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 Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

Actionable, objective insight

Explore these additional complimentary resources and tools
for tech product marketing leaders:

Webinar Infographic Research Webinar

The Gartner 2022 Leadership Do tech marketers know how Marketing Agility Primer The 7 Disruptions That Will
Vision for Product Marketers: to reach their buyers? Apply agile marketing methodologies Most Impact Tech Providers
3 Emerging Trends Improve the effectiveness of your to rapidly adapt. in the Next 5 Years
Deliver and demonstrate demand generation programs. Take advantage of the
marketing’s value. coming disruptions.

Watch Now Access Infographic Download Now Watch Now

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 Leadership Vision for 2022: Top 3 Strategic Priorities for Technology Product Marketers

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