December 2, 2021 — Faced with mounting projects, priorities and other to-dos, and only finite hours in the workday, analyst relations (AR) pros value efficiency. As you know, ARchitect is geared toward helping you increase efficiency and productivity in your day-to-day AR tasks, and improve results. And we’re striving to make AR work even easier. 

For example, looking for up-to-date information about an analyst or influencer, and their firm? We recently rolled out important updates, so users can get key information they need. 

Read on to learn how we’ve:

  • Consolidated analyst and firm types in ARchitect
  • Increased the number and quality of non-analyst influencers in our database
  • Added more global influencers to ARchitect
  • Launched a service to help you maintain records of the influencers who are relevant to your business

Updated Analyst Types

Analyst types are one way to categorize and sort the 11,000+ contacts in the ARchitect global database, along with thousands of additional influencers that users choose to add to their own sites (or that ARInsights imports for them). 

We’ve streamlined the list of types to better reflect current market trends and the profiles that make up our database. There are now just 4 types:

  • Analyst: Defined as professional analysts who work at an industry analyst firm or independently, or others who have authored research in the last year (does not include salespeople at analyst firms). Sample roles: research analyst, associate analyst, market analyst, IT market analyst, senior market analyst.
  • Consultant: Anyone who works as a consultant at a consulting firm or independently (does not include sales roles). Examples: consulting director, consulting manager, consulting associate, consultant.
  • Executive: Anyone at a company in any industry (except consulting or higher education) with a director, senior director, VP, SVP, EVP or C-level job title. This can include profiles of executive leaders at industry analyst firms if they haven’t authored research in the past year. Sample roles: director, senior vice president, executive vice president, president, CEO.
  • Other: Anyone who doesn’t fit the categories above, such as individuals with sales, financial analyst, media, editor/writer, or higher education roles. Examples: sales manager, sales representative, client relationship manager, account executive, journalist, professor.

Also, we are now classifying research associates at analyst firms as analysts. However, they are not being included in our influencer score algorithm, given their junior status. 

In addition, if users need to view the old classifications for analysts and influencers they’d previously added, we have created archived analyst groups in their ARchitect sites, with the original types preserved. 

Updated Firm Types

The firm classifications (firm types) in ARchitect are streamlined now too. There are now just eight: 

  • Advisory: Includes firms that employ advisors, do advisory-based research and offer advisory services.
  • Consulting: Includes firms that do not publish subscription-based research, but offer tailored client services. They may write sponsored research at client requests.
  • Financial: Includes venture capital/private equity firms, investment banks, securities houses, corporate finance or investment management firms.
  • Higher Education: Includes colleges and universities that may employ individuals who influence or advise in certain markets.
  • Industry Analyst: Includes analyst firms, often small, boutique firms, whose business is focused on producing specific types of technology industry research.
  • Market Research: Includes generally larger firms that conduct broader research on market trends.
  • Media: Includes newspapers, magazines, online publications, blog sites and other entertainment organizations.
  • Other: Includes all other types of firms that don’t fit in one of the above classifications.

More Global Influencers

Many AR programs find that nowadays, it’s not just traditional analysts who impact their prospects and have key market insights; a broader class of influencers carries a lot of weight as well. The need for more holistic “influencer relations” (and a less rigid definition of influencers) at B2B tech companies is becoming more apparent and frequent. In fact, in 2021, the IIAR> even redefined its acronym — from the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations to the Institute of Influencer and Analyst Relations — reflecting the growing importance of non-analyst influencers within AR programs and strategies.

We want to support your outreach to all the individuals who matter to your business and market. So in addition to better organizing the non-analyst influencers in our database, we are adding more of them! These are generally leading executives and consultants who have a significant impact on various markets but aren’t traditional analysts. Expanding our database is an ongoing project to support our users’ needs.

New Service: Maintaining Your Company’s Non-Analyst Influencers

ARInsights thoroughly reviews all the analyst contacts in the ARchitect global database every 90 days – ensuring the accuracy of their contact information, background and areas of expertise. We also offer a “Custom Influencers” add-on managed service, where we perform this same research for the non-analyst influencers our users care about and interact with, at the same frequency as well. If you’d like to learn more, visit our Custom Influencers page and reach out to sales@arinsights.com.

We hope you find these updates to be productivity boosters. If you have any questions, as always, please give us a shout at support@arinsights.com.