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 (35%) say their team uses AI as part of the product selection process. For a technology that barely appeared on the radar two years ago, that’s a meaningful number. Among AI users, 51% use chatbots for product research, 48% rely on AI-generated overviews, and 42% use AI to compare vendors. Perhaps most interesting, 39% use AI to help draft RFPs.
The RFP finding caught me off guard. Research? Sure. Comparisons? Absolutely. But using AI to write RFPs wasn’t something I had considered. It should be a wake-up call for marketers. Increasingly, AI isn’t just helping buyers discover vendors—it may be shaping the criteria by which those vendors are evaluated.
2. Events Are Important, but Only Certain Kinds
Events are expensive. All CMOs (and CFOs) know that. But people still like them and we have to go. But what stood out to me is the type of events that buyers prefer. Security leaders reported that their teams place the highest value on substantive, technically oriented event formats. Threat intelligence briefings and research updates rank first at 51%, followed closely by training workshops at 49% and industry-specific security events at 47%. Hands-on workshops and tabletop exercises also score strongly at 39%, reinforcing the preference for applied, operationally relevant experiences.
Marketing leaders can make customers and CFOs happy by focusing on this type of event. Especially if you put them on yourself, they may be much cheaper than trying to make a splash at a big industry event.
3. Trust is Still an Issue, but Can Be Fixed
Buyers don’t trust cybersecurity marketers because what we say differs from reality, is too high level or in business speak, or is not backed up with facts. All of these are easy to fix with a little bit of effort. Have your product marketing team figure out the ROI. Make sure your PMs review your web pages and blogs (I know, they will need to be pestered). Maybe you need a technical marketer on your team to do QA on your content.
4. Peer Reviews are Key
This is not really a surprise, but a validation. Buyers (and, increasingly, the AI buyers are using) are reading these reviews. So keep it up. I know it can be a slog.
One pro tip is to start looking at your reviews through the lens of AI, not just the vanity star rating and total number. You should work on addressing the things that are causing negative sentiment.
5. What’s Old is New
Buyers like white papers. Who knew? Well, buyers do want more technical detail, so I guess it’s not that surprising. I’ll admit, I’d moved away from this format toward video and glossy eBooks. Time to get back to basics.
There’s a lot more in there, so I’d encourage you to take a look.
Want to learn even more about marketing?
Leave a Reply