Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Tom Kish, Director of Growth Marketing at CardinalOps, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss demand gen and more!

To begin, Tom unpacks the difference between the titles demand gen and growth, both of which he has held at various points in his career. Demand gen is a time-consuming role and requires balancing quick wins with long term strategies. Typically, a marketing team will come in to build some foundational elements before demand gen enters the scene to scale up. Since demand gen is so closely tied to pipeline, it is also easily and quickly measured. Tom shares the benefits of working for organizations who were operating with a tight budget and how he has carried that mindset with him to larger organizations. While the goal of demand gen is to create opportunities and revenue, the process of getting there is still part of demand gen, too. There is no one size fits all when it comes to demand gen. Marketers should be constantly adding new things to their toolbox and know when (and when to!) not apply them.

Next, Tom shares the strategies which he has found most successful in his demand gen roles. They all come back to finding the proper balance among the fundamentals goals of creating demand, identifying demand and capturing demand. A successful framework not only finds the proper balance of these things, but ensures that they all flow together seamlessly while covering all of their bases. Checking your social engagement is also really important. Tom’s team has designated people who manually identify the individuals who regularly interact with their posts. Building off this, he elaborates on the lack of innovation and creativity he often sees in marketing as a result of the rise of automation and data. His most successful marketing campaigns have been those that were totally creative and were not based on previous engagement.

Before wrapping up, Tom reveals his favorite thing about being a member of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society now that he has been a member for two years. Finally, he engages in a fun guessing game and reveals what career he would pursue outside of the cybersecurity field.

Links:

Follow Tom on LinkedIn.

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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.