TechTarget CMO Suggests A More Holistic Way To Think About Lead Gen Quality

The many online magazines published by TechTarget cover everything from enterprise resource planing applications to data storage and servers, but the one technology innovation that’s unlikely to be covered by its editors and reporters is its own toolset for helping marketers gather more accurate, actionable sales leads.

Earlier this month TechTarget announced updates to its IT Deal Alert Priority Engine, a SaaS-based service that ranks purchase intent and other information based on activities across its network of sites. The latest version will include integrations with Salesforce, the ability to filter lists based on more topical variables and access to all members of an account buying team via data from DiscoverOrg.

According to TechTarget CMO John Steinert, marketers are beginning to realize they need more than simply a name and title in order to properly pursue account based marketing (ABM) or set up a viable outreach strategy for sales teams. He suggested the challenges come from a “naive set of requirements” when many relationships between brands and third parties were established.

“The business of lead gen — as expressed by the industry of suppliers — is focused on more leads at a lower cost,” he told B2B News Network. “That creates a huge problem because generally speaking, the lower the cost, the harder it is to imbue it with the value that it took to create. If you’re buying on cost and buying volume, you’re likely to be giving up quality.”

The difference with Priority Engine, according to Steinert, includes an ability to show what’s going on in a company as a whole, compared to a single reader or individual who may not be interested in making a purchase. The application looks for sustained activity by several people within the same firm with respect to a subject. If multiple subscribers are all reading the same in-depth feature on a hybrid cloud service, for instance, that behavior may suggest there is a buying committee researching potential providers.

Firms who have syndicated content with TechTarget will be able to see whether it’s consumed, of course, as well as prospects who have consumed similar material.

Steinart said areas like IT security represent one of the bigger growth areas. In general, though, TechTarget has been in the business long enough that it has learned about the ebb and flow of subscriber behavior depending on whether or not they are in a formal buying process. In between making a major purchase, for instance, the audience might be looking at stories that focus on their role within an organization or general management topics.

“When somebody is not in a buyer’s journey, they’re pretty picky about what they consume,” he said. “Once they’re in a buyer’s journey, they suddenly become ravenous consumers of relevant content. The spike in behavior is dramatic.”

Earlier this year, TechTarget said it managed to double its Priority Engine Subscribers in 2017.