Trade press best for creating vendor awareness – report

Tech PR agency CCgroup chatted to 100 global telecoms tech buyers to see what gets them to splash the cash and it turns out trade press is right up there.

The report is titled ‘Navigating telco turbulence: lessons for vendor marketing’ and is the result of some independent research done by the agency, which represents vendors trying to sell into telcos. For any given product, service or process required to make communications providers effective and profitable there are countless vendors all claiming to be the best, so what’s an operator buyer to do?

Sifting through the choices on offer seems to be what this report is designed to help with and one of its findings is that telecoms trade press is the information channel that has the biggest impact when it comes to creating awareness of technology vendors.

“The research proves that industry analysts, industry trade media, involvement with trade associations and social media are most respected by telcos,” said Paul Nolan, who heads up the telecoms side of things at CCgroup. “That being said, vendor-owned channels and industry virtual events also have a positive impact in creating vendor differentiation. The vendor challenge is strategically integrating all channels for maximum effect.”

A whopping 86% of respondents said they frequently read trade media, a habit that seems to have been reinforced by everyone being stuck at home coz of Covid. It should be noted that, while trade press is right up there, internal and external industry analysts have the greatest influence in actual buying decisions.

We don’t know if CC Group asked which specific trade press was most respected but think it’s safe to assume Telecoms.com is right up there. The evidence is clear; if you’re serious about selling into telcos then you need to be engaging with sites like this! Shameless self-promotion aside, as the global economy starts to open up this year, and companies lose their hesitance to invest, there will be unique opportunities for fast moving vendors. Getting buyer mindshare could be critical, so what are you waiting for?