Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Exploring Escaping Rooms and Branding Challenges with Amy Stokes-Waters

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, Amy Stokes Waters, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Esc, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss cybersecurity escape rooms and marketing.
Amy starts off today’s episode by explaining how marketing teams use Esc for team building activities and they are given different scenarios with clues where they have to get the data back. They also have some phishing exercises where participants can have a video call with an AI bot. This is not only fun, but also teaches you more about the dangers of cybersecurity mistakes! Right now, Esc is only available for hire in the United Kingdom since this company has been rebranding, but they are discussing the idea of expanding. Amy started in sales and has been in the industry for a long time. She remembers going to a Reframe women’s technology conference in England and in one session, the speaker said, “Don't just do cool stuff, but actually tell people you are doing cool stuff.” This discussion changed her whole outlook and trajected her into the marketing realm. They talk about the importance of investing in yourself to grow professionally.
Next, Amy discusses the challenges in marketing including branding. If the branding looks nice, it is so much easier to sell the product, and the company looks more professional and established. The other challenge is how to be different and to not have the same cookie cutter messaging. Amy says if people don't know what service you are selling, then how will they ever buy it? You need to make it as easy as humanly possible to buy from you. Personality is also a critical aspect for being successful, and there needs to be faces associated with the brand as well. Marketing makes the brand, but the sales team has to be the people vocalizing that. Both marketing and sales have to work as one and need to align with each other. They also discuss their favorite words in marketing and how to push the envelope in the field. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Amy would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.
 
Links:
Learn more about Amy Stokes Waters.
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.

3 Types of Competitive Intelligence All Cybersecurity Marketers Should Know! Replay from CyberMarketingCon 2022

Competitive intelligence programs can be reactionary and one-dimensional due to squeaky-wheel syndrome and we-just-lost-a-deal-to-so-and-so-itis. 
 
Learn from Alex Babar, Vice President of Solutions at Brinqa about 3 categories of competitive intel every marketer in cybersecurity should know about: Marketing, Business, and Technical. Additionally, learn which categories marketers are particularly well-suited to leading and which ones make better sense to collaborate on with other teams like product, customer success, or sales engineers.
 
In this session:
 
Cut through the competitive noise in cyber security!
Learn the right teams for the proper competitive responsibilities!
3 simple but powerful competitive analysis frameworks!
 
We have approximately 33 days until #CyberMarketingCon2023, held December 10-13! We can’t help but reminisce and replay some of the amazing sessions from previous conferences. This week’s episode is from CyberMarketingCon2022, with a session by Alex Babar, Vice President of Solutions at Brinqa. If you enjoy this session, you will enjoy this year’s lineup filled with education, the best speakers, hands-on workshops, and networking, networking, AND MORE networking!
 
More on #CyberMarketingCon2023 here, see you in Texas! 🤠
 
Be sure to watch a video version of this session here. 
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.
 

Halloween Special: A Nightmare on Cybersecurity Street

On this week’s very special Halloween episode, listen as the hosts embark on a journey beyond the seven seas, a thrilling match filled with spooky stories and of course, lighthearted banter (one can’t help but laugh even in fear)... Sink your fangs into this week's Halloween-themed episode.
On this adventure, Gianna is joined by hosts from That Tech Pod (https://thattechpod.com/): Laura Milstein, aka (at least on this Halloween episode) “the bread,” and Kevin Albert, wearing a just iconic Bob Ross costume. Apparently, there’s a Bob Ross movie starring Owen Wilson? From our research, it is NOT a Bob Ross Biopic… 
The first segment dives into a genuinely chilling cybersecurity tale – a ransomware attack on a hospital in Düsseldorf, Germany. This sinister event led to the unfortunate death of a patient as an ambulance had to be rerouted. The hosts discuss the attack in-depth, shedding light on the hospital's security vulnerabilities and how the hackers demanded a ransom, only to target the hospital instead of a university. The aftermath left the hospital's IT systems encrypted for two weeks, causing significant disruptions in patient care. The police investigation treated the incident as a homicide, emphasizing the gravity of the consequences.
The hosts also discuss the infamous Bangladesh Central Bank robbery, a cyber heist that occurred in February 2016. The hackers launched a spear-phishing attack to gain access to the bank's network, resulting in the transfer of a staggering $1 billion. However, only $18 million was recovered. The hosts break down the story's humorous elements, like the misspelled instructions and the interesting timing of the cyber heist… which overlapped with a holiday. 
The conversation also goes into explaining the role of the SWIFT network and dives into the casino money laundering operation in the Philippines. To add an intriguing twist to the narrative, they reveal that a bank manager was arrested and sentenced to 56 years in prison for their involvement.
As the episode ends, we close it with our favorite game of guessing alternate jobs, including Kevin managing a farm and running a cricket shop, Laura becoming the underground ringleader of a high-end casino, and Gianna's passion for iceberg lettuce. 
 
Timestamps for the stories: 
04:40 - 09:29 (Death caused by Ransomware)
10:03 - 24:00 (Bank robbery)
26: 06 - 31:30 (LinkedIn hack) 
31:45 - 37:30 (Baby dies because of Ransomware)
 
From spiders to skulls and everything in between. Beware and be scared…Happy Halloween!
 
Follow Gianna on LinkedIn.
Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn.
 
About ThatTechPod & the Hosts
Learn more about ThatTechPod here: https://thattechpod.com/ 
Laura Milstein is a global eDiscovery and cybersecurity specialist. She has a wide range of experience in the tech space with a main focus on cybersecurity and litigation support in areas such as incident response, vulnerability and patch management, pen testing, data processing, forensic collections, data storage, and artificial intelligence. Laura loves diving deep into conversations and expanding her tech knowledge on That Tech Pod. 
Follow Laura on LinkedIn 
 
Kevin Albert is a technology executive with 23 years of experience combining a unique blend of technical expertise, business management, and customer service. His experience includes leading technical teams across a wide variety of environments, spanning large and small consulting companies—including two of the “Big 4”—litigation support vendors, government contractors, and start-ups. Throughout his career, Kevin has conducted forensic acquisitions of all forms of digital evidence and performed data analysis for hundreds of projects in the U.S. and globally. He has managed large-scale investigations, including client-site forensic collection, data processing, hosting, review management, and production. Kevin is currently the Director of Technical Services of Casepoint, a software company specializing in eDiscovery, investigations, data privacy & compliance. 
Follow Kevin on LinkedIn 
Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

From the Horse’s Mouth: CISO Q&A - CyberMarketingCon2022 Replay Session

Since #CyberMarketingCon2023 is coming on December 10th through 13th. We can’t help but replay some of our sessions from previous conferences. This week’s episode is from CyberMarketingCon2022. If you enjoy this session, you will enjoy this year’s lineup filled with education, the best speakers, hands-on workshops, networking, networking, AND MORE networking!
We cannot wait to see you. Enjoy this episode and be sure to get your ticket by clicking ➡️➡️➡️here!
The From the Horse's Mouth: CISO Q&A session is an in-depth conversation about reaching the unreachable buyer. Join us to hear security executives share their insights on why they buy, how they buy, and where they buy. 
 
The speakers are:
Michele Perry, Operating Partner at Elsewhere Partners 
Rick Howard, Chief Security Officer, Chief Analyst, and Senior Fellow at N2K Networks  
Jaclyn Miller,  Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer(COO) at Stealth Startup
Ted Wagner, VP and CISO at SAP National Security Services
 
In this session you will find: 
1️⃣ What works and doesn’t work in getting a security executive’s attention? 
2️⃣ Message trust, message fatigue, and what you can do about it. 
3️⃣ Trusted information sources and how security executives use them. 
4️⃣ Positioning and messaging that is meaningful to decision-makers. 
5️⃣ The security executive’s purchasing behavior and why skepticism is the driving force. 
 
The speakers will talk more in-depth about the day in the life of a CISO, and how you can balance innovation and platform suites when considering products/services. From how do you develop trust with your vendors or potential vendors, the boundaries around when to how to contact a vendor and what is the acceptable amount of time for a call back from a potential vendor. The panelists also dive into who are the evangelists that people listen to and how a company can create their own evangelists. 
 
By the end, the host opened the floor for audience questions:  
 
How big is it a disadvantage to require an email/gate to download content? 
Any advice you have for vendor websites?
How involved would you be in a customer advisory board or executive retreat?
Why do you not give survey data much merit (to Rick)? 
Do you have a preference for virtual or live events?
 
More on #CyberMarketingCon2023 here, see you in Texas! 🤠
Be sure to watch a video version of this session here.
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.
 

Demand Gen Strategies: Insights from Sonrai Security’s Joseph Barringhaus

In this episode, Joseph Barringhaus, Director of Demand Generation at Sonrai Security, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss all things demand gen.
Sonrai Security is a cloud security startup that focuses on identity, access, and permission in the cloud. To begin, Joseph shares that he has been in the world of cybersecurity and cloud for some time. The ability to build things from the ground up is what he has loved most about working at startups. Then, he explains his current role as Director of Demand Gen at Sonrai. He is responsible for creating awareness for the company’s products first and foremost, while also making sure that awareness is brought into the pipeline. Thanks to Sonrai’s close relationship with their sales team, Joseph is able to work closely with the entire funnel all the way through the customer journey. His strategy focuses on content syndication and later-stage funnel indicators. He clarifies that he is not in favor of un-gating everything. On the flip side, when things do come out that promote the company, like an e-book, Sonrai will typically un-gate the content to encourage more people to read it. More often than not, Joseph is an advocate for un-gating the things that he and his team put lots of time and effort into.
Then, Joseph unpacks MQL and demand gen. Sharing his perspective on brand awareness, Joseph stresses the importance of finding your market audience and the appropriate balance for your specific company. There is real value in knowing where someone remembers you from, which of your marketing strategies did and didn’t work, and how many touches it took for a customer to recognize the brand. Before wrapping up, Joseph shares his best advice for making time in the week for product knowledge and learning. In addition to keeping a detailed calendar, Joseph maintains a close relationship with the sales team to hear about what the market is saying through the team. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Joseph would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.
 
Links:
Learn more about Joseph Barringhaus.
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.
 

Healthy & Profitable Vendor-Reseller Relationships - Replay from CyberMarketingCon 2022

The time for #CyberMarketingCon2023 is fast approaching and we hope to see you in Austin in December. So mark those calendars and get your tickets, the conference will be from December 10th through 13th. It's filled with education, the best speakers, hands-on workshops, networking, networking, AND MORE networking. 
Maria and Gianna cannot wait to see you. Enjoy this episode and be sure to get your ticket by clicking ➡️➡️➡️here!
In this session, the focus was on understanding the dynamics of channel partner relationships in the cybersecurity industry. The two speakers, Amanda McLaughlin, Director of Mid-Atlantic Marketing at GuidePoint Security (Former Marketing Manager for GuidePoint Security), and David Brown, Head of Global Alliance and Partner Marketing at ReversingLabs (Former Director, Global Partner Marketing at ZEROFOX) are on a mission to educate and dispel misconceptions about VAR (Value-Added Reseller) and vendor relationships while also providing valuable tips and tricks on how to establish and maintain healthy VAR and vendor relationships. 
 
Here are the key points covered:
Promoting a better understanding of VAR and vendor relationships. Also highlighting their significance in the context of the cybersecurity industry.
An in-depth explanation of what a VAR is: “entities that offer not only products but also their expertise and services in conjunction with solutions provided by solution providers.” The speakers used GuidePoint Security as an example as it is a cybersecurity VAR offering its services and expertise to clients.
Addressing Misunderstandings: Amanda and David acknowledged that VAR and reseller relationships can be misunderstood, which is something similar to the classic sales and marketing relationship. But they also highlight how important it is to clear misunderstandings to establish effective partnerships.
To close the session the speakers also went into what a successful vendor looks like to a VAR. The key metrics for success and some tips if you feel like your reseller relationship is not working? They also opened the floor for some questions!
 
More on #CyberMarketingCon2023 here, see you in Texas! 🤠
Be sure to watch a video version of this session here
Follow Amanda on LinkedIn.
Check out 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.

Making Lead Gen Work with CMO Geordie Carswell

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! 

Exploring Underrepresented Cybersecurity Markets with Jake Milstein

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.

Insights into Cybersecurity: From the Economy, CMOs to Brand Awareness with Mandeep Khera

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.

Unveiling the Magic in Cybersecurity Marketing with Terra Cooke

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.