Not all PR & Marketing professionals are the same. In the tech sector these people have unique skills that make them stand out from the crowd. For instance:

• The ability to translate complex tech functionality into customer centric solutions
• An understanding of tech buyers decision making influences & processes
• Using segmentation tactics to define and reach target audiences

To find out more about their goals, challenges and views on the effectiveness of their PR & Marketing activities, we recently conducted an in-depth survey.  Criteria for participants was that they held a senior or director level PR or Marketing position within a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) business in the UK.

Here are the highlights of the results:

79% stated that the primary goal of PR & Marketing is to generate leads

It wasn’t surprising that lead generation was rated as the number one goal, however the margin between this and the next highest rated goal (14% said grow awareness about the brand within their target market) is significant.

Many STEM companies are start-ups or come from emerging technologies where high levels of R & D require swift returns on investment. It would seem that the pressure is on PR and Marketing to quickly generate sales ready leads to enable the company to achieve revenues to repay investors and give the business the means from which to grow.

41% rated “Proving a return on investment from PR & Marketing” as the most desired outcome

Tangible evidence of reach, growth, engagement and conversions are the C-suite currencies that tech PR & Marketing teams have to deliver. With Brexit and an uncertain global economy its seems that our survey participants are under no illusions that their job could be at risk if the department does not prove its worth to the board. What’s required is having relevant KPI’s in place and accurate tools to report on activities.

70% said that their biggest challenge is integrating multiple projects

When you consider the variety of projects such as: PR, awards, events, webinars, inbound & outbound campaigns, internal marketing, product launches, SEO, blogging to name but a few, and that each activity involves different people and different technology, it’s no surprise that integration was the biggest challenge.

Marketing automation tools such as Marketo and Hubspot offer some degree of integration, but bringing together people, processes and technology requires PR & Marketing professionals to find ways to improve project management and encourage collaboration.

68% believe that digital PR & marketing tools aren’t being used effectively in their business

Despite being in the tech sector and despite many of the participants having a strong digital presence, they still felt that their business did not utilise digital tools. In the comments section of this question participants said that measuring reach was an issue as was ensuring that publications were shared on social media platforms by staff.

Check out the infographic for more results..

We’ve visualised these and other results in our infographic below.

What are your views on the effectiveness of PR & Marketing in your business? Do you have similar challenges? Feel free to share this post or comment below.