Five reasons to scale up your SaaS analyst relations strategy
By Rachael Birt, Account Manager
Technology companies need to ensure that they’re prioritising the right activities when it comes to their digital strategies. It shouldn’t be a case of throwing your time and effort into a wide range of approaches and waiting to see which ones pay off – businesses need to be selective about which components are most valuable and are going to provide the greatest results, and invest their time and money accordingly.
An analyst relations strategy may not be the first idea you think of when evaluating how your business has met – or not met – its goals and objectives. But increasingly many companies today are turning to analyst relations to overhaul their performance and ensure that they’re building their business in the right direction.
Analyst relations vs public relations
So what exactly is analyst relations? Analyst relations is rooted in driving influence and supporting long-term sales, through building up your reputation amongst analysts who are industry experts in their chosen field. Furthermore, the role of an effective PR and marketing strategy is to focus on media exposure to support building strong relationships with the public, and specifically your target customers.
Some of the most well-known analyst firms include Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, but there are many, many more, and it’s important to consider some of the smaller, more niche firms as well as these top three. Industry analysts regularly speak to both the leading and startup players across a vast range of markets. Making sure that your company is on their radar is therefore crucial to ensure that your products and services are top of mind when it comes to your sector.
But, why? Here are five reasons why you need to focus on analyst relations in 2023…
1. Analyst relations reveals the “voice of the customer”
Analysts are sometimes referred to as the “voice of the customer”, as their role involves advising end users on the products and services that are best placed to solve any problems they’re experiencing. Key decision-makers in IT departments know they can trust analysts to provide completely unbiased advice on what they believe will suit them best, based on their extensive knowledge of the market.
This is why regular briefings with analysts from multiple firms are so vital to this strategy – without them knowing who you are and what you can offer today’s end users, they won’t be able to recommend you as a potential solution.
2. Analysts boast unrivalled market knowledge
Thanks to all of these vendor briefings, as well as their own research, analysts are arguably the most well-informed people in the world about their markets. While you can try to keep up with what your competitors are doing, analysts get to see and hear first hand exactly what they are offering now and, crucially, what their plans are for the near future. Analysts can then help give their vendor partners a stronger understanding of the current market, meaning that when you have an idea for a product or solution, you know whether it is likely to be well-received when it launches.
3. Analysts can help shape your final product
As touched on briefly above, analysts are invited by vendors to hear the latest insights from their company, to the extent that they may even be involved during the product development stages. Analysts hold a lot of initial influence, and they’re there to direct it into long-term plans. Especially for newer technology startups, making evidence-based decisions is fundamental. Because of this, having an analyst relations plan in place gives you the best chance of making waves in your intended space, as well as greater success further down the line.
4. Analyst relations will help perfect your message
Not only do analysts influence the product development process, they’re also often involved in the messaging development process too. Due to their extensive knowledge of their market, they know how to help craft the messaging for a campaign that will resonate with your prospective customers and help them to understand what your new launch can do for them.
This expertise really comes into its own when campaigns or new software launches go viral – ensuring that your customer-facing assets are executed to perfection every time is necessary to keep your messaging on brand and prevent any miscommunication. Analysts can use their insights of the current market dynamics to help craft impactful corporate messaging every time.
5. Analysts can provide independent validation
When you’re announcing your new product or service, one way in which analyst relations can support you is, if you brief an analyst in advance, they may be open to sharing a quote that you can include in a press release. This is an excellent way of providing independent validation of your solution so that prospective customers can trust in its capabilities and effectiveness, which can be harder to achieve through corporate messaging alone.
In addition, some analysts will also participate in webinars and other public vendor activities where they can share their independent knowledge and opinions on the market, so make sure that you ask the analysts in your space what other opportunities they are keen to get involved with!
Embracing analyst relations
While developing technology analyst relations is not a one-step process, starting out on the journey is. Touchdown has excellent relationships with analyst firms around the globe – we were even named one of the most influential channel PR agencies in the world by Forrester – and we’re here to help you choose all of the right digital components for strategies that will generate impactful results for your business.
So, are you ready to embrace new ways to leverage your communication strategy, from scaling up your analyst relations strategy, to mastering the art of asset creation marketing? Get in touch with us today to find out more about our approach to analyst relations, or find out about our wider array of PR services.
