Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

In this episode, Geordie Carswell, CMO at ActualTech Media joins Maria and Gianna to talk about the stuff no marketer wants to talk about right now: lead generation and content syndication! Can lead generation be a successful part of a demand generation strategy? Is there a right way to use content syndication for a cybersecurity audience? What are the strategies - and company qualities - needed to make these successful? Listen to find out! The guest and hosts use their demand gen backgrounds to jam on webinars, content, and other forms of creating engagement with cybersecurity audiences:  The relevance of different webinar topics  Considering whether to go broad or niche based on specific goals.  The importance of personalization and alignment in lead-generation efforts  Plus…learn a little something about grocery store marketing 🤭 Listen for shop talk and laughs on today’s episode, and make sure to check out ActualTech Media!  About ActualTech Media: Lead generation in cybersecurity can be costly and finding an affordable webinar provider who can cover all your needs like one-of-a-kind post-event reporting, recordings, and analytics can be difficult. This is why our friends, one of our sponsors for #CyberMarketingCon2023, ActualTech Media might just be a perfect fit for your webinar needs! ActualTech has low CPL costs that will help you generate QUALITY cybersecurity buyer leads and sales opportunity pipeline😁!  Links: Learn more about ActualTech Media here: https://www.actualtechmedia.com/cms/  Follow Geordie 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. Hope to see you at CyberMarketingCon this year! 

In this episode, Jake Milstein, CRO, and CMO at Critical Insight, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss his unique perspective on serving underrepresented cybersecurity markets, the importance of establishing trust and personal connection with clients, and more. To begin, Jake shares what makes his job different now that he has the additional role of CRO. One of his favorite parts about his unique perspective is that he can see operations through every step of the way, from the funnel and down the line to customer experience. His responsibilities include marketing, sales, and customer success. He finds that the best CMOs he knows are those who get involved in customer conversations and have a clear understanding of their product market fit. Jake spent 20 years in the journalism field of TV news broadcasting. He believes that where journalism and cybersecurity overlap is in their efforts to give people the facts to help them make educated decisions. Next, Jake shares how Critical Insight came to focus specifically on the underserved cyber markets thanks to the experience of the company’s co-founders. They provide consulting services to help clients prepare for an attack, soft services to help detect an attack quickly, and the tools to respond decisively when an attack does happen. Hospitals in rural areas, for example, want a provider whom they can trust and have a personal relationship with. A major part of Critical Insight’s marketing strategy is showing up to conferences and events in these rural areas and following up with the people they meet there. Then, Jake sheds light on how the company was able to scale at the rate it did by establishing personal connections and authenticity with the people it serves. He has found that showing up automatically makes you memorable by default. Any time a major national event occurs, Critical Insight hosts an urgent panel webinar in which they present the facts and then have a panel of experts discuss the topic. Before wrapping up, Jake and our hosts discuss the challenge of incorporating humor into cybersecurity. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Jake would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links: Follow Jake 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.

In this episode, Mandeep Khera, CMO of SecureAuth, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss the market and economy, changing responsibilities for CMOs, and the role of brand awareness from his perspective.   To begin, Mandeep shares the story of his role as CMO. His career began in finance before shifting to marketing and then cybersecurity. He recognized that the cybersecurity industry was here to stay and decided to devote his career to the field. His security work in the areas of email, application, network, and cloud led him to the authentication space where he is today. He highlights that we are going through a period of headwinds in the industry, but that it isn’t all doom and gloom. It is a matter of being patient, sticking with it, and continuing to do the right things. He predicts that in 6-9 months, the economy will start bouncing back. With that, he shares the pivots that he believes cybersecurity professionals should be taking to accommodate these budget changes while keeping their team focused and happy. This means eliminating things that don’t matter and increasing focus on the most critical areas.   Next, he offers his perspective on brand awareness, which is best done by thought leadership. He believes that brand awareness should be tied into different campaigns to be the most effective. On the other hand, the role of the CMO has become more challenging than ever. Most important, Mandeep reveals, is making sure you as the CMO are in tune with your CEO, CRO, CCO, and CFO. Another important mindset for CMOs right now is to be more quality and quantity-driven, focusing on ROI and thinking and acting out of the box to stand out. One of his main focuses right now is how to improve the website conversion rate. On the subject of edgy campaigns, Mandeep shares a few of his favorite campaigns he has worked on in his career. As a CMO, one of your responsibilities is to encourage your team to be bold in their risk-taking. All ideas are good ideas until ideas start to be filtered, and everyone can come up with a clever idea. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Mandeep would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow Mandeep 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.

In this episode, Terra Cooke, Cybersecurity Governance and Risk Compliance Manager at Boom Supersonic. She is also a huge advocate for black women in tech. To begin, Terra shares that she has been in the cybersecurity field for 15 years. She shares how she got interested in the cybersecurity field as a young person in the dial-up days. From a very early age, she knew she wanted to be in tech. Her background is in network security and she earned a very early cybersecurity degree at college. Her first job out of college was as a Information Systems Security Engineer at the NSA. In 2014, she was offered an auditing position elsewhere, where she stayed for several years. One of her favorite things about auditing is seeing people experience their own “aha moments”. Then, Tara gives listeners an idea of what a typical day for her looks like. As a GRC, she is often wearing many different hats throughout the day. Then, Terra shares that she refers to herself as a “magical girl” because she is always able to execute the tasks she is faced with. Within the boundaries around her, she does whatever it takes to execute a vision. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses and Terra’s happens to be executing. She loves to collect data to assist her in this execution. She is also inspired by the Black Girl Magic movement several years ago. Then, she normalized the idea of setting professional boundaries. One of the most important things for GRC professionals to avoid while evaluating vendors is to buy tools simply for the sake of buying them, and ending up with poor implementations. Next, she shares her own process for looking at new vendors. Before wrapping up, she identifies the needs within the cybersecurity industry. Simply put, we should all be treating each other as humans with mutual respect when speaking with vendors. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Terra would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.     Links:   Follow Terra 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.

In this episode, David Ebner, Founder of Content Workshop, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss the future of writing.   To begin, David offers his own thoughts on ChatGPT. Like any new form of technology, it is understandable that the initial launch of ChatGPT was met with hesitation. Simply put, ChatGPT is a language processing tool that works on probability. Davis sees it more as a muse than a replacement for genuine writing. Content Workshop, he explains, is a storytelling agency helping brands tell their stories to drive new business and leverage their goals. It has not been possible for them to leverage AI to help with their writing simply because AI is not able to convey empathy. Next, hear what storytelling means to David. What really makes storytelling a work of art is its ability to inspire connection and bring an audience to a place they were not at prior to reading the content. Every piece of content should entertain, elevate, and engage their audience in this exact order.   Shifting gears, David explains how engaging people makes for a loyal audience, and loyal audiences will think about your brand and look towards you for answers in times of need. It is so crucial to make content entertaining so that it doesn’t feel like a chore for audiences to read. Content workshop takes a unique approach in which they aim to embody the life of the individual, rather than the brand. What problem led them to the brand initially? How is the person's life better now that they have discovered the brand? A brand is not a color or logo, but rather what lives in the hearts and minds of the viewer. From a tone point of view, it’s important to have a brand identity and voice first. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career David would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow David 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.  

In this episode, Sean Mattson, Head of Digital Strategy and Operations at Checkpoint Technologies, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss conversion rates and personalization.   To begin, Sean discusses his role at Checkpoint as the management of all digital channels including websites, outbound, marketing automation, digital intelligence, globalization, and SEOs. He has been doing marketing for 20+ years and has 15 people on his current team. Since the team is so small, they use tools like Marketo to help automate tasks. Sean built everything from the ground up in this company and Checkpoint was known as the firewall creator. They needed to work on SEOs and after two years of brand awareness, the traffic on their website went up by 700%. They cross linked all the pages on their own website. They also talk about how the quality over the quantity matters, and how to create leads that can be marketed. Checkpoint does progressive profiling and uses third party data services to do backend form enrichment. This created a 60% lift for Marketo landing page, but Sean asked, “why wait till I’m walking away before you show me any content?”   Then, Sean discusses how Checkpoint uses Hushly for self-nurturing landing pages that has been a game-changer for the company. Hushly sets a preview of the content as the landing page itself, so they are presented with content and value first. Then, the audience can decide whether you like it first. It is in a single field form, and you can set as many pages as you want. There is also a column on the side with alternate content if you don’t like the first page. Hushly provides the service, but Checkpoint also uses clear bit forms and zoom info forms. This is enriched in real time and there is a 25% conversion rate across the whole library. In addition, Checkpoint Technologies is rolling out resource hubs for geo sites in 11 languages and this will expand their reach. They are also using Smartling AI. Translating a website is easy, but the whole cycle is difficult to keep consistent and managed. Hushly will help translate all the PDFs and assets as well. There is a fine line between personalization and stock authorization; you need to personalize it without making it extremely obvious. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Sean would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links: Follow Sean 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.

In this episode, the hosts are joined by Deidre Frith, the Director of Marketing at Real Time IT. With over 15 years of experience in marketing, Deidre is a one-stop shop for all things creative, social media, graphic design, and PR. She is known for her innovative and humorous marketing campaigns that have garnered attention and success for her company.   The episode opens with a discussion of the success of the funny commercial campaign that Deidre created for her company, as well as her approach to cybersecurity marketing. Deidre also shares insights into the idea and execution behind the campaign, and the results it has achieved, and emphasizes why word-of-mouth marketing is still so important. She also talks about her team and the challenges of tracking ROI for traditional media.    Lastly, Deidre dives into her cybersecurity awareness initiatives that include a quarterly poster campaign and a dedicated cybersecurity website.    The hosts close this episode with our favorite game where Gianna and Maria guess what Deidre would be doing if she wasn't in marketing. Who wins this time? All bets are on the table! Links: Follow Deidre on LinkedIn Check out Hey Y’all Wraps 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.

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, Josh Feigenbaum, Marketing Manager at Sentra, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss effective email marketing.   To begin, Josh starts off by sharing how almost everyone in the industry has made the mistake where you have sent an email to the wrong chain or group. He gets his creativity from what people have been complaining about, including marketing, campaigns, sales, or what they wish existed. Josh also says he likes to play against what people expect to see in their inboxes by making his emails not look like every other email. The most creative thing he’s done was sending out a Merry Christmas email with a surprise at the very end. The surprise was that if they responded back with a time, they would give a fake cyber security phone call to get you out of something with your family over the holidays. They actually had two people participate in it! He also says creativity is not just the email itself, but the offer as well. He also likes to include gifs of himself that are new and different with a caption underneath. Josh shares that he will put emojis into the subject line if it adds to the email, but he doesn’t like emojis if they are pointless.   Then, Josh shares how with email marketing, there really is no specific time or day that is best to send out an email. He does say the subject line and content of the email matter more than when you send it. The last time he tried content indication leads, it was not successful but he would try it again. He did warm the lists up with a couple of emails, but they had zero idea what they read. In addition, Josh states it is best to benchmark against yourself with emails. You need to keep improving and the trend lines need to keep going up. They also discuss how companies are not strict enough with emailing only the people affected by that email subject– they do not need to include employees in emails when they opt out of them. They also say not to include people in the email chain list if they haven’t opened an email in the last 90 days. This could affect the sending quality if you don’t have reasonable open rates. Josh also shares how the cybersecurity marketing society is a great tool to use to see what other people say about vendors. He checks the Slack group to check reviews. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Josh would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links: Follow Josh on LinkedIn. 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.

In this episode, Brian Whipple, a longtime member of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, joins Maria and Gianna to share his impressive knowledge on how to create successful, record-breaking webinars in the cybersecurity industry.   Brian Whipple is a Marketing Manager at Conetrix and Tandem. He highlights how important it is to treat webinars as a valuable product that provides value to the audience - not as simply something you “do” because you have to do it as part of the marketing mix.   Brian talks about the key factors that contribute to the success of their webinars, including:   Carefully selecting topics  Having knowledgeable and engaging speakers  Practice, practice, practice! (Yes, even for webinars) And to constantly refine the content   According to Whipple, it's important to focus on positive signals and feedback rather than hard KPIs, while also looking at how making small tweaks to webinar formats can help improve lead generation from these activities. Brian and his team’s approach to webinars has led to significant growth in attendance and positive feedback from their audience. ​ The episode closes with the ladies going head to head on their favorite game of guessing what the guest might be if they didn't choose their current career path. Someone’s guilty conscience leads them to confess to cheating in the game. Brian also promises to write down what the hosts might say when they first meet him at the CyberMarketingCon2023 in Austin. Also to find Brian online, DO NOT google him as there’s another Brian who is more “Successful and slightly better looking,” Check out our guest Brian Whipple in our links below!    Links: Follow Brian Whipple 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.  

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, Derek Weeks, author and CEO of Unfair Mindshare, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss community.   To begin, Derek shares that he has been working in community marketing for many years. He found that many people did not understand what community marketing is or how to succeed. Unfair Mindshare is all about showing CMOs and marketing leaders how to integrate community marketing as part of an overall integrated marketing program in order to elevate their brands and increase customer retention. This is what Derek unpacks in his book, Unfair Mindshare. He describes marketing in 3 orbits: product-led, brand-led, and community-led. While the first two orbits are transactional,  the latter is really about collaboration and working together. The biggest red flag that you might be doing the community orbit wrong is if you find yourself talking about yourself often. As a CMO, your primary goal is to promote your company and products, build pipelines and drive revenue. However, Derek explains how CMOs can attract an even larger audience by not talking about themselves but being helpful from the beginning.   Next, Derek outlines how to build the best team for a successful community-building operation. He sees community marketing as another functional area within marketing that is equipped with dedicated staff. This function can be 5-10% of the total marketing budget. However, it requires at least 1,000 hours of work per year in order to make a large enough impact. This means that one person on your team should spend at least 50% of their time focusing on this one area. Your team is responsible for creating either a new community or leading within an existing community. Before wrapping up, Derek offers his best advice to listeners. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Derek would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links: Follow Derek 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.