Tech Marketing

9 Steps To Effective Cybersecurity Marketing

An effective cybersecurity marketing strategy is a must-have for every provider in this space. Why? Because demand for cybersecurity services is higher than ever, and as a result, so is the opportunity to attract buyers with the right tools, tactics, and approaches.

Cybersecurity spending is expected to increase 12% this year as compared to 2022, with more than half going to software and services.

In this guide, we’ll cover nine actionable steps you can take during this time of spending growth to position your brand, edge out competitors, and win more business.

Looking for more complete insight on cybersecurity marketing? Check out our complete guide.

Step 1: Define Your Personas

Buyer personas describe the purchasing decision makers within your target organizations and are typically developed around attributes like position title, level of experience, and salary. In cybersecurity, however, personas are more effective when focused on knowledge and attitude regarding security issues. Examples include:

  • The Uninformed: Founders or enterprise heads with little to no cybersecurity knowledge
  • The Fretter: Individuals who have had poor experiences with providers in the past and/or are concerned about their ability to implement necessary cybersecurity solutions
  • The Skeptic: Decision makers who have never experienced a negative security incident and thus don’t see cybersecurity solutions as relevant to their current needs

The right marketing messages for these (and other) cybersecurity personas vary greatly. As a first step to building your strategy, take time to outline your unique buyer personas and consider the messages and language that would be most impactful for each.

Step 2: Highlight Subject Matter Expertise

When organizations realize they don’t have enough in-house expertise to execute a confident strategy, they seek out professional organizations to fill the gaps—and they want to hear from your subject matter experts (SMEs) to know that you’re capable.

Partner with your internal SMEs to develop marketing messages, material, and content that shows you have the highest levels of expertise in your field. It’s effective to include names and faces of your experts where it makes sense (for example, as the author of a blog post or the host of a webinar) to humanize your marketing outreach and make it more relatable.

Step 3: Establish Industry Authority

Authority and expertise are often discussed interchangeably, but there’s a key difference that’s important to keep in mind for your cybersecurity marketing strategy: positioning.

To be more specific: Expertise can exist in your marketing strategy without actually contributing to your brand’s industry authority. To ensure it translates to authority in your space, be sure that you apply your expertise to the right topics and amplify it on the right channels.

You can do this with tactics like SEO, competitive research, and providing commentary on current cybersecurity events and issues. Remember: In the end, authority shows that you don’t just have expertise, you have more expertise than other providers and the right kind of expertise to fulfill your customers’ cybersecurity needs.

Step 4: Execute Multichannel Engagement

According to McKinsey, B2B buyers interact with potential providers on 10-plus channels throughout their buyer journey. These channels include (but aren’t limited to) websites, social media, search engines, email, online events, demos, phone calls, online chat, landing pages, third-party review sites, ads, and more.

Given that it takes six to eight touches to convert a lead (and even more to convert a sale), meeting your customers on multiple channels where they’re researching is essential to earning their business.

Leverage marketing automation technology to scale your cybersecurity marketing strategy across multiple channels—think email marketing automation software, social media scheduling software, content syndication platforms, and the like.

Step 5: Showcase Your Track Record

Social proof—or proof that others are already finding success with your solutions—is important to B2B buyers. In fact, more than 90% of buyers seek out reviews before making a final purchase decision.

You can build existing social proof around your brand by:

  • Publishing case studies and client success stories
  • Including client testimonials in your marketing materials
  • Leveraging review sites like G2 or TrustRadius
  • Amplifying first-party reviews you receive on social media

The easier you make it for potential customers to see your solid track record, the quicker you can earn their trust (and their business).

Step 6: Make Your Messaging Relatable

While cybersecurity customers want to hire providers with high levels of expertise, they’re often turned off by overly technical jargon and language that’s difficult for them to understand. To make your marketing outreach most effective, develop “layman’s terms” messaging that actually informs buyers rather than overwhelms them.

Step 7: Use Data-Driven Insights

One of the most significant benefits of today’s highly automated marketing capabilities is data insight. With the right data-driven tools and processes, you can collect data about buyer behavior and cybersecurity marketing performance that can help you continually improve and refine your strategy for better results.

Data-driven marketing can also give you a serious competitive edge. According to research from Wyzowl, 91% of companies know that data-driven decision making is a strategy essential, but only 57% are actually doing it.

Step 8: Create and Share Great Content

Buyers complete more than half of their research independently before they ever reach out to potential providers directly. To boot, throughout their buyer journey, they engage with more than 13 pieces of content (created both by vendors and third parties).

You need to be creating great content and sharing it effectively in order for your cybersecurity marketing strategy to yield results that help you grow. This includes blog posts, social media content, webinars, videos, e-books, white-papers, infographics, and more. Not every content type is for every business—it’s up to you to determine what your audience wants, then deliver it.

Step 9: Outsource Parts of Your Cybersecurity Marketing

Digital marketing in any industry—cybersecurity included—requires time, resources, and overall bandwidth that many organizations can’t maintain in-house.

If you feel like that’s the case for your company, leveraging outside support might be the best option for you. By working with expert service providers, you can execute a more complete and consistent strategy without having to sacrifice focus on other key mission-critical activities.

Specific benefits of outsourcing parts of your cybersecurity marketing strategy include high levels of experience and expertise, proven processes, cutting edge technologies, scalability, and 24/7 prioritization of your marketing efforts.

Grow with ActualTech Media

ActualTech Media offers a range of services to power your cybersecurity marketing strategy and has a long track record of developing client strategies that lead to real, measurable results. If you’re thinking about hiring an agency to support your marketing efforts, ActualTech Media can help.

Get in touch with our team to learn more about how we can help you generate more leads today.