I worked at RSA when our whole conference fit inside the Fairmont on top of Nob Hill. Now it spills out of Moscone and takes over half of downtown San Francisco for a week. Cybersecurity marketing has come a long way in those twenty-plus years. The budgets are serious, the talent is the best it's ever been, the craft is real. Which is exactly why it's so maddening to watch so many cybersecurity marketing teams just doing the same old same old. Coasting. Trying to shortcut their way to the … [Read more...]

          NOLA Marketing and the Ponemon Institute produced a great piece of research a few months back on the buying preferences of cybersecurity buyers. I've been meaning to write about it for a while now and finally found some time. Full disclosure: I know both of the authors but I recommend my fellow marketers read the report because it has some great insights. Here are my top five takeaways. 1. Cybersecurity Buyers are Using AI More than one-third of buyers … [Read more...]

There’s been no shortage of bold claims about how AI will revolutionize (or ruin) marketing. I’ve spent the last six months experimenting with AI tools to understand how they could actually help my team. In this article series, I’ll walk you through the use cases that I’ve found most promising. Companies don’t buy products, people do.  I’ve done B2B sales and marketing for my whole career, and I’ve seen how often my colleagues forget this very basic principle. All the talk these days seems to … [Read more...]

CMOs can get themselves into a pickle when pipeline generation falls short. By the time they realize they are below the target, it may be too late to recover. I’ve borrowed a practice from my sales brethren to help me avoid this problem. Most B2B marketers are familiar with sales forecast calls. These meetings are typically held weekly by sales leaders. Sales reps review their deals and expected outcomes. Sales leadership inspects the deals by asking questions about timing, competition, access … [Read more...]