Key Insight: How CAD Decision Makers and Users Value Different Sources of Information – Each Group has Different Preferences for Staying Up-to-Date with CAD

This post publishes more specific details on trends in CAD decision maker’s and user’s preferences for staying up to date with the latest CAD industry developments from the Worldwide CAD Trends 2016 Survey.

The survey results are based on responses from CAD users, Designers, Engineers and Professionals including managers and senior executives. For CAD professionals it’s interesting to know peer preferences but for CAD suppliers it is vital to know their target audience’s preferences for staying up to date – in order to plan effective marketing.

Overall, usage of information sources in 2016 has remained stable from 2015, after increases in 2014. The above chart has already been published in the full results and shows consolidated results for all job types – but favoured media differs considerably by job title, therefore marketing to reach senior managers, CAD managers or engineers should use different strategies. Similarly, different preferences are seen within industry sector, again requiring different approaches.

All three job function groups use internet search engines as their most popular source of CAD information. Of course, search engines are more a method of finding information rather than a source of information but this emphasizes the huge importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) for all suppliers of CAD systems, software and services.

“For vendors it is obviously very important to know which sources of CAD information are preferred by different audiences so they can most effectively reach each target group,” said Chris Turner, CEO/Managing Director of The Business Advantage Group.

Next steps?

• Watch this blog for regular updates with more detail on other CAD trends from the 2016 Worldwide CAD Trends Survey.
• Naturally the report is a high level summary of insights gained from the data gathered and this series of blog posts enables us to add further detail but if you are interested in still more detail, such as information on media preferences by region or industry,  give us a call to chat with a research executive about your needs.
• Watch the CAD Trends 2016 webinar and other recorded webinars here.