Tech’s Trust In The Media Remains High in 2023

There are good reasons that purchasers of business software identify ‘the media’ as their most trusted third party source of information while researching products.

In a recent industry survey of the communications industry by Cision/PRWeek, 56% of those surveyed identified ‘the media’ as the most influential 3^rd party endorsement among those in the technology/internet space. These were the people respondents deemed to be the most  persuasive voices and, as such, strong partners with which companies should work. Even now after years of blogging, vlogging micro influencing etc., for tech, journalists remain a most trusted voice.

Vertical media deals specifically with the issues and products in a particular business area, and it is here that buyers will find the most in depth information to help their research. There are good reasons for this.

Focus

Vertical media delivers focus. It attracts all the main industry players to one place, and as a result can offer a good place to get an overall picture of the market. So it is the obvious place to go to do background research, to compare and evaluate, before making product purchases and commitments. Therefore, identifying your vertical media titles, and the influential editors and writers within it is a vital exercise for any tech company.

Expertise

Leading vertical media titles are always staffed by writers and editors who have developed a very strong expertise of the market and have ongoing dialogue with the players who make up that market.   Writers and editors for vertical media are experts in their particular field, and they will give an independent overview of the different products and players. They also guard their industry credibility jealously. A rule of thumb I have found that the more you want to be positioned in a title, the harder it is to achieve. Top editors and writers are very conscious that their credibility depends on rigorous gatekeeping, so only the newsworthy will get covered. 

Conversant

As experts in their particular fields, editors in the vertical space have enough background knowledge to ask the right - ie ‘hard’ - questions.   Interviews are in-depth, solutions and features are explored in detail. In short, vertical media commentators are conversant in the minutiae of their industry, and articulate in their analysis, and this is why they are so valued by tech purchasers. As a result, they expect that depth of information, together with illustrations, figures, photos, videos etc., to be immediately available to them for publication. My advice: don’t approach them without being fully prepared. 

These are some of the reasons why purchasers of business software identified ‘the media’ as their most trusted third party source of information while researching products. And they are also the reasons that no inbound campaign can be considered to be complete without a strong media element.    

For more information 

If the media is the place your purchasers say they go for independent purchase research, it makes sense that it should also be the place vendors go to showcase their solutions. If you want further information on how this can be quickly achieved, please feel free to contact me here