As buyers focus their IT spending, we expect growth in products that function to help companies “do more with less.” Specifically, we believe IT decision makers will continue to actively seek out solutions that help:

The B2B tech marketplace is flooded with messages from thousands of vendors. To get ITDMs’ attention, your messaging must first be on point (see above). The next step to cutting through the noise is using personalization and data to get your messages in front of the right people, at the right time.

Sales and customer success representatives in your organization should have a good idea of which clients plan to renew and which ones are on the fence, but newer technology can provide even greater insights into account behavior. For example, B2B intent data can provide near real-time visibility into which of your current accounts are at risk. 

Intent signals can reveal whether members of an account’s buying collective are actively researching products similar to yours, which is a red flag that they’re talking to your competitors. At that point, it’s time to re-engage these customers through a combined motion that includes sales, marketing, and client success to understand why their needs aren’t being met, and determine what can be done to get them to stay (e.g., helping them get the most out of what they have, incentives, or restructuring contracts).

As many IT buyers re-evaluate vendors, marketers can also leverage data to win market share from their competitors. For example, technographic data can reveal which companies are currently using your competitors’ products. Marketers with this information can launch targeted omnichannel campaigns highlighting compelling reasons to switch.

Whether looking to retain existing users, poach customers, or engage with new prospects, product messaging must align to customers’ current concerns, wants, and needs. Right now, it makes sense to fine-tune messaging to emphasize the long-term value you can deliver (e.g., facilitating greater productivity, continuing to offer long-term value, offering savings advantages over competitive offerings), and why investing in your products makes sense — even as use cases evolve in a potential recessionary environment.

We’ve already spoken at length about growth opportunities stemming from an increased priority on IT projects. The State of IT also reveals the other top reasons for IT budget growth in 2023, including: need to upgrade infrastructure, increased security concerns, and inflation.

• On the need to upgrade infrastructure, Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8  operating systems will reach the end of extended support in December 2023, creating an opportunity for marketers to help businesses as they update older systems to avoid compliance issues and expensive security breaches.
• Increased security concerns were cited as a driving factor behind 41% of 2023 budget increases. Many companies are adopting emerging security technologies (e.g., hardware-based authentication, zero trust, cloud workload protection, security solutions powered by AI, etc.) as a way to gain benefits including cost avoidance, cost savings, and risk mitigation. Even when speaking to non-security solutions, emphasizing security features and capabilities will be welcome and reflect positively on your product.
• Because of historic inflation, there are opportunities for vendors to help businesses conserve energy — especially in Europe, where already high energy prices have surged. The 2023 State of IT data suggests power and climate (which can greatly reduce energy consumption) spending plans have risen to 12% of IT hardware budgets in Europe, up from 6% in 2021. Vendors emphasizing the power saving features of their products will have the ear of buyers, especially if energy prices continue to climb.

Another recent challenge businesses have encountered has been a tight labor market, which has led to problems hiring in-house IT talent. 

We’ve observed a shift from maintaining on-premises hardware, software, and services to more budgets being allocated to “outsourced” managed services. Expected managed services spending has grown from 16% of overall IT budgets in 2021 to 18% in 2023. 

On a regional and company level, planned managed services spending is proportionally higher in Europe (20%) and in large companies with 500 or more employees (20%).

Spending growth areas (as a percentage of managed IT services budgets)

• Managed business apps: 11% in 2023, up from 8% in 2021 
• Managed IT security: 11% in 2023, up from 9% in 2021 and 7% in 2020

Especially among organizations that struggle to hire skilled IT professionals, messages touting products’ ease-of-use, low maintenance, and quality support will be key selling points in the coming year.

In the evolving tech landscape, IT buyers will actively search for new technologies to propel their businesses forward in 2023. Your customers have told us they won’t cut tech spending during a likely recession…  and neither should you. It would be a mistake for tech marketers to pull back now and leave money on the table. 

To help improve marketing effectiveness across all phases of your customer lifecycle,

SWZD offers full-funnel marketing services that build Authentic Connections™ with IT buyers. Whether you would like to attract new prospects, retain existing customers, or expand within existing accounts, SWZD can deliver the data, content, and leads necessary to accomplish your business goals in 2023 and beyond.

We would love to schedule a meeting to discuss even more in-depth budget and tech adoption insights customized to verticals and markets that matter most to you. 

From security to servers, networking, cloud, and 5G, we briefed marketing teams like yours — leveraging bespoke State of IT data and our deep roster of analysts to help inform effective, forward-looking marketing strategies.

For custom future-looking insights specific to your vertical, region, or area of focus, please contact us today.