Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Hosts Gianna Whitver and Maria Velasquez sit down with Christopher Mitchell from Google’s Chronicle Security and discuss how he went from working at a series of startups to working at one of the largest corporations in the world. Christopher shares stories of his work experience through many company acquisitions and shares what it’s like to go from 160 to 160,000 employees. He dives into how he has found success working on marketing teams and what has led to healthy work environments and relationships. Christopher also shares what has made his teams run efficiently and how he has found success in launching unique cybersecurity marketing events. 

Timecoded Guide:

[01:46] Adjusting through acquisitions and onboarding at Google

[11:17] Days at Siemplify and Soc Stock—cybersecurity marketing Woodstock

[19:26] Goals at Siemplify—more than lead generation

[20:32] Key signs of business acquisition and founder aspirations

[28:32] Digital marketing strategy at Google and pros/cons

Christopher details his journey in cybersecurity marketing, moving from different types of startups, small companies, large companies, and everything in between. During this time, Christopher worked for companies during IPOs and eventually transitioned to Google. He describes what it was like to start at Google’s security business unit and details the breadth and depth of the onboarding process at the company. During this time, his marketing team tripled and Christopher talks about the adjustment period that followed. 

“It's been awesome. I joined when we were 80-ish people. And so through the pandemic, we doubled in size, we 10x our revenue over that span, the marketing team tripled in size—we went from five to 15. So it was awesome to be part of that growth. And it's awesome now seeing all of us thrive at Chronicle and at Google as well. We're still high functioning, we're still kicking butt and taking names.” 

Working at Siemplify, Christopher picked up early examples of excellent operation and teamwork within a marketing unit. Christopher discusses the culture of the Siemplify marketing team while working there and highlights what made it run smoothly. He emphasizes his team’s goals and how they consisted of much more than just high-level lead generation. Christopher also explains how to make yourself available as a resource to your co-workers and why doing so is important in a team. He emphasizes how team culture is integral to success and then dives into his experience with launching a cybersecurity marketing conference. Christopher also explains to Gianna and Maria what “Soc Stock” is and how it became a major success.  

“That's actually one of the biggest words of advice I can have is always help your co-workers as much as possible—even if they're co-workers you don't like. Just help them.”

Christopher shares some key things that he has noticed when a company is on the path toward acquisition. He highlights product universality and accessibility while diving into what sets companies apart in the cybersecurity space. Christopher also mentions his aspirations in the SaaS space and some possible business plans that he has for the future. Gianna and Maria stress how not everyone gets to say that they are a part of a smooth process between sales and marketing but Christopher shares his experience with the dynamic. He explains what it’s like to have a healthy dynamic between sales and marketing departments—and what has made him excited to go to work every day. Christopher also talks about being a part of a mature and sophisticated team and what it’s like to be responsible for MQL pipeline and revenue targets. 

“We did have an extremely positive relationship with sales, maybe the only positive relationship with sales I've ever experienced in my life. But it was awesome . . . It is so nice.”

Chris talks about the digital marketing strategy at Google and goes into a few pros and cons of working at a large enterprise like Google. He hashes out the big working differences between working on projects at a small company and working at Google. Moving from startups to Google is no small adjustment and Christopher dives more into his adjustment period moving from smaller and mid-size companies to one of the largest in the world. He also relays the importance of marketing teams in building a strong community through big changes.

“It's just a completely different world. I think if I was joining this company without my Simplify peers, I think I would have struggled even more than I did.”

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Definitions: 

MQL Pipeline: MQL stands for ‘marketing qualified lead.’ This is the term that marketers use for prospects interacting with brand content. ‘MQL Pipeline’ is the process in which marketers move prospects through the marketing funnel, exposing them to the brand and turning them into possible customers.

CMO: ‘Chief Marketing Officer’—the chief executive responsible for marketing in an organization. 

IPO: ‘Initial Public Offering’—The public launch of a private company onto the stock market.

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Links:

Spend some time with Christopher on LinkedIn.

Check out Chronicle Security on LinkedIn.

Learn more about Google’s Chronicle Security on their website.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Hosts Gianna Whitver and Maria Velasquez sit down with guest Amy Fair to discuss being laid off and how to navigate it in stride. Gianna and Maria ask Amy about her own experiences being laid off as they approach the rarely-discussed but important topic. Amy dives into what it means to be laid off in the cybersecurity content marketing industry and how she has turned layoffs into new opportunities within weeks. In their conversation, Maria, Gianna, and Amy highlight the importance of networking and community and how it is vital to maintain lasting relationships in the content marketing industry. Amy shares how, at the end of the day, these connections can lead to amazing opportunities. 

We’re joined this week by Amy Fair, Content Marketing Manager at SpyCloud, 

Timecoded Guide:

[8:50] The value of building a network and maintaining a community

[17:29] Using Slack in job hunting and making connections

[23:21] The value of mentors and keeping people in your corner

[25:48] Advice for those anticipating a layoff

Amy opens up with stories about getting laid off and how she was able to quickly land new jobs. Sometimes layoffs are expected and sometimes they can be a shock. Amy shares how she used the community around her in both scenarios to turn the layoffs into success. There’s a lot of stigma surrounding the topic of being laid off and Amy offers a dose of optimism to those who come to her for help. She seeks to take away the stigma as she mentions that the attitude towards layoffs has changed over the years. They are even expected in many industries now. Amy highlights how her experiences have taught her that, in content marketing, it’s not only about ‘making connections’ but nurturing relationships that make the most impact along the way.

“I also want to kind of remove the stigma that comes with it . . . I think it might even be more rare for people to not have been laid off in their career, then, you know, for those who have experienced that. But I don't think it's a shameful thing.”

Amy shares how vital it is to open up outwardly into circles to build lasting relationships with people who will have your back. Having a strong standing in the content marketing industry starts from the beginning: personal brand. Amy shares how those in the content marketing industry can apply their expertise to themselves if they want to build a solid personal brand. She also highlights how building a personal brand can save someone from a lengthy job hunt after being laid off. Having a resume counts but a personal brand extends to networking and recognition. Doing this is vital in the cybersecurity marketing industry as Amy shares how it’s a field where layoffs are widespread.

“We make our brands look good, we make our products look good, we make our customers look good. We can take all those skills that we have making everybody else look good. And we can make ourselves look pretty damn good. . . it doesn't have to be when you lose your job, you can do that all day every day.”

Amy, Gianna, and Maria dive into their experiences in how something like Slack can lead to lasting connections and to rekindling valuable relationships with people. Amy shares a story on how she stumbled upon an old coworker on Slack while Maria and Gianna share how they have found a lot of success in finding job candidates by using newsletters, job boards, and meeting people through their Slack channel. Maria emphasizes how, through community and reaching out to others, a boss can get to know someone before their resume shows up on a pile. People make lasting impressions through these connections. The hosts also discuss how building these connections throughout the interview process is valuable regardless of whether someone gets the job.

“Even if you feel like maybe you're new in your career, and you don't really have a network, if you have a mentor who can connect you with so and so for XYZ, like that is huge tap into that resource. That is something that can make a huge impact on your own network.”

In cybersecurity content marketing, people need others to lean on every step of the way. The business can get competitive, leading to unexpected job turns and layoffs. One thing that can stay constant, though, is maintaining steady and solid connections with people in the industry. Amy talks about how someone can have a network of dozens but it’s the three or four people who they have kept in touch with and have built relationships with that matter the most. She adds how it’s a two-way street and that these interactions aren’t transactional but they’re reciprocal: like friends, the people in someone’s corner should be willing to give just as much as they’re willing to take. Making connections is similar to lead generation. To find success after getting laid off, Amy says that those in content marketing need to nurture their relationships all the way through the funnel just like marketing business leads. 

“You need to nurture your relationships, like we do that as marketers, with our leads, we nurture them all the way through the funnel: you need to nurture your relationships all the way through your career and beyond. I think that's so important. Because they might need to lean on you too.”

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Definitions:

Funnel: Top-funnel/mid-funnel: Levels of an audience to a brand or company and their awareness of the products or services—top funnel being those not yet aware of the company and the mid-funnel being those who have shown interest and might engage with the company. Marketers ‘move through the funnel’ to build an audience for their brand.

Links:

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Amy Fair on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Check out SpyCloud on LinkedIn and the SpyCloud website.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

We’re joined this week by Peter Wheeler, Senior Manager PLG - Partnerships, Startups, Nonprofits at Auth0, to find out just what makes him…the most interesting man in the world! After years as a serial entrepreneur, Peter joined Auth0, powered by Okta, to positively impact nonprofits, charities, and for-profits working to benefit social issues. Peter talks with us about product-led growth, giving back even when you don’t have the budget, and caring about customer advocacy before it was cool.

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Founding businesses & joining the Auth0 team during COVID

[07:01] Making a conscious effort with cyber to give back to the greater good

[12:18] Diving into cybersecurity special audiences & product-led growth

[19:42] Understanding customer advocacy & reducing verification friction

[27:40] Collecting anecdotal and case studies from self-service customers

[33:11] Being bitten by a fiberglass alligator & biting down on some brisket

What advice do you have for cybersecurity companies that would want to have a corporate social responsibility, but are either too small or don’t have the funding? 

Instead of hiding behind the excuses of not being big enough or wealthy enough, Peter believes that cybersecurity companies all have the potential to give back to nonprofits and startups. Peter says when in doubt of what to do, think simply. If your company is interested in equitable product access for companies with limited budgets, consider offering mentorship or training opportunities, or engaging your staff by offering time off for volunteering. 

“You can never be too small. We can all volunteer independently, we can all sit on a board, we can all show up. That's it, just show up. You can mentor. Yeah, you might not have enough money. You can avoid that, you can skip that. Just simple things, it doesn't have to be a lot.”

What are your “strong opinions” on special audiences, now that you work with them? 

Many of the audiences Peter works with have not made a budgetary allocation mentally, or financially, towards things like cybersecurity. Part of his work with Auth0, because of this unaware audience, has involved implementing training and educational processes for these businesses. Showing them why cybersecurity is so important and teaching them to implement good first steps like stronger passwords is vital for marketing efforts and product-led growth. 

“In nonprofits, in startups, there's a big shareholder footprint, stakeholder footprint, people that are affected by what the organization does. Educating that audience is good. Making them understand what cybersecurity truly is is good, so they implement at least the simple things.” 

How does Auth0 implement product-led growth? 

Auth0’s freemium, the self-service product can satisfy just about everyone. The secret sauce of their success? Increasing customer advocacy and refusing friction. Good documentation, strong outside-of-network customer support, being active with customers and having your staff invigorated about your product all contribute to a more satisfying and therefore more trustworthy environment, which keeps companies coming back for more.

“If you're building community, you're working with developers, you're working with individuals, you're working with smaller organizations, and you're putting a free or cheap product in front of them, whether it be discounted enterprise or freemium model, you're developing that trust.”

What are you doing for this user so they feel like they're being treated like an enterprise, even though they may be a team of one? 20:13

Self-service customers are rarely given the same treatment as enterprise customers in most companies, Peter explains, but Auth0 works hard to provide the documentation and ease of access needed to make things as frictionless as possible for those users. Additionally, validating an organization’s startup or nonprofit status can take time and create friction, too. Auth0 works with third-party organizations to quicken and simplify this process as well. 

“Reducing customer friction to come on is key. If somebody signs up, don't make them verify their email, skip that step. Let them play with the dashboard. Let them build something because guess what? They're going to verify their email at some point.”

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Links:

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon 2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Peter Wheeler on LinkedIn and his personal website

Lend your ear to Peter’s podcast, Hey, Good Chat!

And of course, who could forget Peter’s theme song? It’s My Life by Bon Jovi

Check out Auth0 on LinkedIn and the Auth0 website. 

Learn more about Okta on LinkedIn and the Okta website.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

How do you make B2B cybersecurity marketing interesting? This episode brings Travis Hawley, the Director of Media at BlueVoyant, to the Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing podcast to find out. He talks about the background that led him to cybersecurity marketing, his current role at BlueVoyant, how companies can use emerging media to promote products or services, and indeed how to make B2B cybersecurity marketing more interesting. Plus, Travis shares the Facebook groups he created and introverts in cybersecurity.

[08:40] How companies with limited resources can use emerging media

[11:17] How to make B2B marketing engaging, educational, and sticky

[23:14] How to get your employees engaging and sharing content

[27:26] How to get founders or CEOs engaged and what to do if you can’t

[42:21] Travis’ Facebook groups and meme culture

What is emerging media and how can companies with limited resources use it?

Traditional media is your white papers, blogs, reports, email marketing, etc. Those have their place and are useful but emerging media is two-fold. But Travis believes it’s video but it’s also what new platforms arise (like TikTok). In terms of limited resources, work with what you do have. For example, if you have a two-hour long webinar already recorded, you can take that and break it up into shorter 30-second video clips. Now you have content already done you can simply post in your marketing campaign.

“If you have limited resources, you have to be creative. And you may not be able to do it at the scale you want. But you can still get video out there, even if it isn't the most ideal video experience that you want. Start small, start with what you have, and just start creating that account of the data of any kind of video and you'll most likely start seeing the results of that.”

How do you make B2B marketing engaging?

Travis says you need two big things: faces and voices. People want to engage with content featuring someone who looks like them and talks like them. Graphics and the like aren’t engaging enough. You need to feature the faces and voices of your target audience and/or your employees because people don’t buy from companies; they buy from people. You can even do an animated video of the text of someone's quote and their headshot.

“So to me, in most cases, all content will fall under two buckets: it's either educational, or I would say utilitarian, useful. Or it's entertaining. And then hopefully, the best of both worlds is if you can have overlap there. And if they are educational and entertaining, and there's overlap to some degree, then the content is sticky, you're gonna have retention.

Again, faces and voices. In Travis’ experience, employees generally like to celebrate their co-worker's achievements. So if you post a video of someone in one department and tell the rest of the company, it’s much more impactful than a paid actor. Because the employees know this person, they work with this person, they want to support this person. Employees don’t necessarily have a relationship with other employees, but they have a relationship with their co-workers.

“Employee advocacy starts from the ground up, any employee needs to be empowered to create content, to co-develop content, to ideate content, and to star in the content. And that's how you get people to want to engage more to support their own colleagues.

What about founders, how do you get founders or CEOs engaged with marketing strategy?

Founders and C-suite executives are very busy people. So start with trying to figure out the value that marketing is adding to your company, and go to the data. Show the founder the value and see if you can get buy-in from them but if you can’t, that’s okay. You can find other influencers and subject matter experts in the company who want to advocate for the services and the company itself. Employees are just as effective evangelizers.

“They're the leaders of the company. And they have the most knowledge and on the vision and on the services and things like that. But you don't need them, let's just be honest, you don't.”

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon2022 

Spend some time with our guest Travis Hawley on his LinkedIn or on his Twitter.

“Brand marketing” may sound like just another branding buzzword, but this episode tackles this concept as a real strategy with data behind it. Kayla Rice, Senior Manager of Brand and Creative Studio at SpyCloud, joins the pod to discuss brand awareness, brand marketing strategy, refresh vs. rebrand, and so much more about all things branding. Learn how to make brand marketing a part of your marketing growth team, how to handle a big or small brand refresh, and how to balance your messaging across platforms.

[07:48] Focusing marketing team members on seeing brand as influencing the pipeline

[15:39] Comparing and contrasting brand refresh and rebrand

[23:59] Understanding the phenomenon of debranding

[34:28] Balancing your brand messaging across social media platforms 

[40:58] Looking at metrics from a brand-growing perspective

How do you get non-brand-focused marketers to see brand as influencing a sales pipeline?

Focusing your marketing team on branding can depend on the size of the organization, according to Kayla. In smaller organizations, there are pieces to branding that every member of the marketing team can appreciate. Smaller teams also encourage members to work together to create the best experience for audience members and product launches, whereas teams at larger organizations can have less interconnectedness and less role appreciation.

“Whether it be launching a sponsored report, whether that be podcast ads, organic, social, there's so many levers your company can pull to really make people understand who you are, what you stand for, what you're trying to solve, and the people who are backing all of that.”

What’s the difference between a brand refresh and a rebrand?

Some marketing teams think they’ve changed the color palette or logo and they’ve rebranded. Unfortunately, Kayla explains that this is not the case. A rebrand happens in situations when you experience an acquisition or you’re truly renaming your company. In contrast, a brand refresh is more of an evolution of your brand. It’s taking from what you’ve learned in your brand marketing campaigns and growing upon those lessons with your team.

“It really is so much more than just updating a logo or color palette, it's really digging into: What is your messaging framework? Who are you going after? It’s being able to speak to them where they are, meet them where they are, and then, dangling that carrot in front of them of what could be.”

How do you balance your messaging across social media platforms?

Kayla believes that balance across social media platforms requires staying flexible and adaptable. Marketing teams can and should adjust their tone depending on the channel and messaging. Social media should be more of a place to experiment and see what works with your brand and audience, as well as what doesn’t. Do your market research, adjust your content across popular social media platforms, and see where each step takes you.

“It's been really exciting to see and it's ever-growing, and always new ideas and new things that we're going to do.”

What metrics should you look at from the perspective of growing your brand?

While metrics should be measured in different ways depending on the source, Kayla explains that website metrics should involve visits, time on the page, and click-through rates. From a social media perspective, follower count matters, even if it feels like a vanity check. More followers and visitors equals more eyeballs on your content and a larger potential user base. Kayla also advises not to forget about reposts, reshares, and interactions with your paid ads.

“If we're opting to do paid ads or podcast sponsorships, for example. Okay, what is their viewer or their listenership? What does their audience look like? How many times are we a participant in that? How many downloads were there?”

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon2022 

Spend some time with our guest Kayla Rice on her LinkedIn or email her at [email protected]

We’re joined this week by Jason Cenamor, Founder of the CISO Society, to talk about the community he’s focused on building for fellow CISOs, as well as his extensive background in cybersecurity events. Events aren’t always an easy topic for cybersecurity marketers looking to make the most of their marketing budgets, but Jason has the dirt on all things events; the good, the bad, and the downright scary. Looking to spot an event red flag before it wastes your time and money? Jason is your guy!

Timecoded Guide:

[00:00] Introducing Jason Cenamor & the CISO Society

[05:50] Transitioning from cyber event management into community building

[15:59] Noticing best event strategies & prioritizing transparent event vendors

[24:16] Understanding the value of custom curated events and targeted invite lists

[32:27] Building events better to provide value and community in cybersecurity

[41:59] Getting the best price from event vendors, no matter who you choose

Did you envision your career would shift towards community building, content creation, and networking?

Until recently, Jason didn’t consider his career path would’ve evolved and shifted into a focus on the CISO Society. Originally started as a side project, the CISO Society was born from Jason’s passion for building community and putting on hybrid in-person and virtual events. When the Society took off and continued to grow larger under Jason’s care, he realized more and more of his passion and energy belonged with the CISOs he was working with everyday. 

“I started the CISO Society as a side project, because obviously, what's better than to start developing a network of CISOs that I could get access to for real market intelligence when I'm working with these advisory boards.” 

What are some noticeable green lights of a good event vendor for cyber marketers to look out for? 

While Jason dives deep into the red flags of bad cybersecurity event vendors, he also reassures us that there are incredible events out there. Jason recommends his favorite companies, including the always consistent Evanta, but more than that, he gives us advice on what makes a good cybersecurity event. Unsurprisingly for cybersecurity practitioners, transparency in invitees and agendas signify an event vendor is much more trustworthy. 

“I think the key is how transparent the event company is going to be with the information they give you. A typical tactic of some event companies is to password protect their attendee list. In my personal opinion, all that does is show that you have something to hide.”

What are the event vendor red flags we should worry about?

We want the dirt on what makes an event vendor a waste of time or resources, and Jason delivers with a list of red flags. From password protected invite lists to calendars full of unpromising events to not giving money back, Jason has seen the worst of the worst in events. Despite the scary practices in place, Jason is happy to report that many of these elements are on the outs in the cyber world as we continue to call companies out and hold them accountable in groups like the Cyber Marketing Society.

“That is such an important question for any vendor to ask: How are you forming the agenda? Because that shows how much they care about the CISO experience or not. If they don't care about the CISO experience, they're not going to have a good audience.”

What sort of content makes a good event for CISOs? 

Many of the event vendors Jason discusses with us have been approved not only by his own experience running events, but by his fellow CISOs in the CISO Society. But what really makes an event worth it for a CISO? Why are they showing up, and how can we help them show up more? Jason explains that CISOs thrive in a collaborative environment and don’t just want pitch after pitch of standalone presentations. 

“CISOs actually provide more value in collaborative roundtable discussions, right? That will always be my recommendation. It's great to stand up and to do your thing, but it's better to be part of a conversation and then say, ‘Can I come to your office and do my thing?’”

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Links:

Get tickets for our upcoming Cyber Marketing Con 2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Jason Cenamor on the CISO Society website, or send him an email at [email protected].

Check out some of the events Jason mentioned on the show: Evanta, HMG Strategy, C-Vision International, CXOSync, Security Current, CISOs Connect, PSI Alliance

Learn more about the CISO Society on their website.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Serena Raymond, Marketing Director at DNS Filter, walks us through her career journey from social media content creation to Marketing Director at DNS Filter. Serena explains the recipe for virtual event strategy, including how to leverage social media and email marketing to gain speakers and attendees, as well as how your virtual event can translate directly to your sales pipeline. Serena also discusses her opinion on agency marketing company vs internal teams, and reveals her secrets for optimizing impact.

[05:12] Getting started with virtual event marketing strategy

[12:52] Understanding what makes your virtual event worthwhile for sales

[20:25] Taking advantage of being on the internal side of marketing

[25:23] Comparing and contrasting agency and internal marketing

How should you host a successful virtual event?

A strong, successful virtual event should include both your company’s internal SMEs, or subject matter experts, and industry experts from outside of your organization. Serena recommends deciding first on the top tracks you want to pursue, before tackling speaker research. Once relevant, experienced speakers have been found, Serena explains that choosing an event platform that meets both your and your audience’s needs is essential.

“Our platform was a huge obstacle for doing a virtual event. There's so much vetting you have to do. I was kind of thinking, ‘Oh, we'll choose a platform and we’ll run.’ There's so much work that goes into that, and that was pretty eye opening.”

What is one key way to entice your desired audience to your virtual event?

Enticing your desired audience should start with LinkedIn and Google ads, which are consistently effective. However, Serena believes the key to your target audience resides with your speakers. Find speakers who appeal directly to your target audience and give them a high quality social media kit. Make it very easy for your speakers to share to followers and potential customers about your event with personalized images, text, and messaging.

“What I think was most key, above all else, was we had a lot of speakers who appeal to that audience. We gave them a really cool social kit, with the links and custom images with their faces, and they were able to share it with their audience on social media.”

How do you know if your online event is justifiable in terms of sales pipelines?The

justifiability of your virtual event extends beyond the pipeline and merges into retention. Your goal is to host an event that provides value to both your attendees and speakers. Serena recommends having sales touchpoints at your event, like a happy hour, where folks can gather and connect. Then, once you build that relationship, your sales and marketing teams can remind the potential client about the happy hour and follow up with them.

“We had a little happy hour after the event, and we had some customers come and we actually got great feedback from that. Our sales team was there and we chatted with that customer and took it offline, and we wouldn’t have had that conversation without that event.”

With experience in both internal and agency marketing, Serena explains that a key difference between the two is that being at a marketing agency puts you on the “outside.” You’re not in the company’s Slack channels or taking part in staff meetings, and you don't have their customer service records. Marketers at agencies don’t have real buy-in or “skin in the game” when it comes to a specific company. The internal marketing teams, on the other hand, have crucial inside information that can help them perform better and boost employee engagement.

“One of the things I loved about being a marketer for a dedicated company, was I got to get really good at it. I got to go deep on the product and understand our audience. I got to listen in on demos, talk to customers, talk to people who aren't in marketing.”

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Serena Raymond on LinkedIn.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Chris Cochran and Ron Eddings are two very special guests on this episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. Chris and Ron are from Hacker Valley Media, the producers and sponsors of this podcast. Gianna and Maria chat with them about successful content strategy and marketing in cybersecurity, digital marketing successes and failures, and they drop hints about what to expect in their workshop at Cyber Marketing Con 2022.

[05:32] Successes and failures in cybersecurity marketing strategy

[15:01] Cyber Marketing Con workshop hints and teasers

What does a successful content marketing strategy look like in cybersecurity?

“Everyone should have a content strategy. If you're in business, you have to do content. That's just the name of the game these days.” –Chris Cochran

What are some successes and failures in cybersecurity marketing strategy?

One of the biggest content marketing strategy successes is giving value to your community. Yes, you need to think about business objectives. But if all you’re doing is selling, it’s not a two-way conversation with your audience. It’s an inauthentic ad campaign when it's not offering value.

“So you have, whether it's a lead, whether it's me signing up for a demo, but I don't necessarily feel invited to this event, I feel invited to your funnel.” –Ron Eddings

“We can also serve people instead of sell to them in order to really build that community, build that engagement with everyone that you're trying to speak to.” –Chris Cochran

What kinds of things can Cyber Marketing Con attendees expect from Chris and Ron’s workshop?

Everyone wants to start a podcast, but not everyone will be successful at it. There are so many details to figure out, from platform to people to solutions to problems. Chris and Ron are going to help people learn how to start and submit your podcast effectively. And even more importantly, how to record and edit a popular podcast that actually has meaning and value to podcast listeners. You’ll learn the tips and tricks Chris and Ron didn’t know when they launched their first podcast.

“I would say the thing that we're going to talk about the most, some might say that it's harder than it looks: making a podcast that has impact. I would say podcasting is more nuanced than it looks.” –Chris Cochran

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming Cyber Marketing Con 2022. 

Spend some time with our guests Chris and Ron on their website.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. 

Elliot Volkman, Director of Brand, Content, and Community at Drata, joins us in this episode to talk about demand generation strategies, also known more casually as demand gen. Demand gen consists of targeted marketing programs to drive brand awareness and build interest for qualified leads in products, services, and more. Tune in to our discussion with Elliot to learn how demand gen intersects with sales enablement, brand, content, and even community. 

[07:40] The goal of demand gen in an organization

[14:48] How demand gen ties into content and community members

[22:45] Key metrics and KPIs to track brand awareness

[31:04] Experimentation and demand gen

How does demand gen differ from and bring focus to brand awareness?

Elliot believes that a lot of C-level executives mistake brand awareness for traditional marketing or product marketing. Brand awareness is more about what customers see when they encounter your company via search engine. Product marketing is instead about targeting specific personas. Demand generation fits into brand awareness because it’s designed to drive customer’s awareness of your company and build interest in your products, rather than directly marketing those products to them through product marketing strategies.

“The most important and critical aspect that organizations fail to pay attention to is building your brand, especially building voice and messaging around it that resonates.”

What is the goal of demand generation if not to drive sales?

A lot of organizations have an executioner and a product marketing lead, with various jobs for each role. Demand gen’s job is to take the webinars the executioner makes and the messaging the product marketer makes, and then guide those towards business alignment and increased brand awareness. Elliot emphasizes that demand generation drives sales, but does not drive lead generation. Demand gen is not supposed to chase leads the way a product marketing manager might, it’s instead supposed to build awareness.

“I think there's two aspects of demand gen, depending on the organizational size and what they do, but at the end of the day, the demand generation strategy does have to drive pipeline.”

Oftentimes, in Elliot’s opinion, marketing can rely too much on technology. While technology is critical, you don’t have to educate anyone on why it’s important. Demand gen focuses more on humanizing the brand and building something fully centered around the customer. You rely on internal experts to build a community that ties everything together from marketing to security to visuals, and beyond. And in the end, the customer should be the hero and should feel like one in your demand generation strategy.

“It’s about focusing on people, focusing on processes, and embracing technology, of course. At the end of the day, having our customers be a voice is absolutely critical to the success of our future.”

There may be numerous ways to track brand awareness, but Elliot explains that the main KPI is organic traffic to the website. The byproducts of increased organic website traffic include organic increases in demo requests, nurturing people through the buying process, and acting as fuel for the engine of marketing campaigns. There’s no direct selling in a demand generation strategy. You can avoid those most-hated marketing tactics, like when you cold call or appear in their already crowded email inboxes. Demand gen is all organic and based on nurturing the customer.

“We're not trying to brainwash people by any means, we're actually able to help educate them along the way. We build a relationship through that education and through those materials, and then, maybe they'll check out what our product does, or they've decided to download something, and we can continue to nurture them.” 

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming Cyber Marketing Con 2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Elliot Volkman on LinkedIn, Twitter, and his podcast, Adopting Zero Trust.

Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.

Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.

Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter.

Matthew Delman, Director of Product Marketing at LookingGlass Cyber, joins the show this week to discuss all things related to sales enablement strategy. Sales enablement helps businesses provide consistent messaging throughout all their content. This enables (Get it?) potential customers to have a seamless journey from discovery of a company to purchase of products or services. In this episode, Matt teaches us how to boost a sales cycle, streamline communication, and improve internal organization, all through the magic of sales enablement.

[06:31] Transforming sales enablement into a faster sales cycle

[14:00] Integrating sales enablement into company culture

[20:20] Essential tools to include in your future sales enablement kit

What is sales enablement and why is it important?

The core of sales enablement is ensuring your message gets out to your marketplace with consistency. During this process, Matt explains that your team is supporting the buyer journey with one-to-many messaging. This ensures a consistent flow in each stage of the sales journey and enables each department to touch on the same concepts. Essentially, sales enablement helps your customer avoid confusion and pain points so that they can go from first contact to purchase seamlessly.

“When your buyers read your content, or they download a white paper, or they go to an event, and then, they're contacted by your salesperson, they should get an extension of that same message.” –Matthew Delman

How does sales enablement convert into a faster sales cycle?

Sales teams are usually hyper focused on making sales. While this fits their goals and metrics, this one-track mindset breeds confusion if they can’t find exactly the materials they need when they need them. In order to save the sale with potential clients, your sales team might create one-off materials that are a good fit in that moment, but do not match what the marketing team is saying. Successful sales enablement streamlines internal processes so that sales teams have exactly what they need, when they need it.

“Sales enablement is about training your sales team to make sure they're confident in talking about your solution, but it's also making sure that they can find the collateral that they need when a prospect asks for it.” 

Sales enablement starts with sales leadership, according to Matt. If you tell the sales manager that your sales enablement strategy will help them close deals faster, essentially every single decision maker will sign on. Once you have the leadership on board, the sales team will follow their guidance. You might have to do some negotiation in terms of support and positioning for the team, but once the sales enablement leaders understand it will increase business, it usually becomes an easy sell.

“With sales enablement, your whole goal is to make the deals move faster, to make them smoother, to essentially smooth out the lumps in the sales cycle because you are responding to your prospects' questions in a timely manner with consistent information.” –Matthew Delman

Matt explains that a few tools need to be included in your sales enablement kit to ensure success. His list includes a unified pitch deck, educational videos or an educational call recording, high-level product trainings, and a few plug-and-play email templates. The pitch deck shouldn’t have the exact same slides for everything, but rather allow for customization within limits, a sample call can provide a real-time example of the sale, and trainings and templates make sure your sales team are knowledgeable and have structured responses ready at all times. 

“You want to have your main points for each slide in the deck, and basically say, ‘Here's the main points that you should hit on this slide. How you say it, I don't care. But here's the main points.’” 

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Links: 

Get tickets for our upcoming CyberMarketingCon 2022. 

Spend some time with our guest Matthew Delman on Twitter and LinkedIn.