Updated: Jan 27, 2021
Building a solid cybersecurity marketing strategy can be a daunting task for many... But it doesn't have to be. In this article, I'm going to break down some of the thought processes that have resulted in some of our winning strategies, taking you step by step through the process of searching for, and finding, Product Market Fit. This process usually happens over a 9-12 month timeframe so keep that in mind as you progress through this guide.
1. Gather Data
Without quality data, you’re driving blind. You might already know what your audience responds to, but without looking at the data you can't be sure if you're missing out on bigger opportunities. A data-driven approach is an indispensable factor in effectively making decisions throughout the process of creating a cybersecurity marketing strategy. Now at this point you're probably wondering, “How do I gather data?” Well, the answer is simple – you test.
There are a variety of strategies we use here at FR. for testing theories but one simple and easy to implement one is posting on social media. If you're not already doing so, start putting posts on social media that test different audience engagement theories you might have; then, after some time, go back and review the engagement statistics to determine what theories of yours check out and which ones you can put in the bin.
The sales team can help too... Make sure they're noting down prospect pain points in a spreadsheet so you can track in realtime what topics can influence your strategic decision making.
Don't forget to pull data on your competitors and the wider market too. Compile it all into a file and include things like social analytics, web technologies / traffic, headlines and trend data.
2. Analyse It
Next on your list is Analysis. Once you’ve collected all the datapoints, put them in one place and look for patterns. Note down the patterns of your competitors, your own data and the wider market etc...
You know your business better than anybody else, so it’s up to you to work out what strategy you’ll use. Research and plan your routes to market, your buyer’s journey and how a sale is created from start to finish. There are consultants that can work with you on that, but for the most part, you need to do this stuff yourself.
Once you're happy with all the data you have, and you've got some great points on what techniques everyone is using - try to find the gaps. Ask one of our team about how you can find these gaps if you struggle, we'll be happy to help, if you're a new customer get an hour of consultation for free by following this link).
3. Test Your Theories
After you’ve found the gaps, you'll have some new things to try, so test them! Work out how you might be able to test your ideas across different platforms that give you fast feedback from your market.
Here's a list of some of our favourite testing platforms:
Facebook Ads (Good if you have some spare marketing spend as it's nearly instant feedback but can be more challenging to get off the ground)
Social Media Posts (Careful with this one as bad ideas can damage brands, but it's also cheap and easy)
Google Optimise (A/B Testing if you have more than 3,000 monthly visitors to your site, less than 3k isn't enough data to make decisions with)
Email Marketing (Probably the best. Cheapest, most versatile and easiest to get off the ground for beginners)
Once you've done your tests, you'll see the true data in front of you, you can determine what works and what doesn’t. Data doesn't lie so just determine which one of your ideas worked better than expected and bin the rest. Keep your tests quite small (this will save resources) but make sure you're doing enough numbers to gain statistical significance or you could make some fatal errors - think little science experiments.
4. Iterate
This is the step that separates the wheat from the chaff. Good marketers test ideas, great marketers never stop. As you conduct your first round of tests, you're possibly going to see things happen that take you by surprise. Often these surprises inspire a litany of new ideas that rush to the surface. Don't just disregard them.... write them down!
Each one of these new ideas is an opportunity to iterate and conduct further tests. It's very simple really, you just take all that data from your further tests and keep iterating. You can do this as many times as you want, but the longer you wait, the longer it is before you can scale. We usually recommend about 3-5 rounds... But you know best, just don't let your ego get in the way.
It's also worth noting that you're definitely make some mistakes along the way, but don't sweat it... everyone does.
Just make sure that you're awake and you spot the mistakes as early as possible to give yourself ample time to quickly pivot. So once you’ve iterated and you’ve come up with a new strategy that you're confident with – well, now it’s time to light the fires.
5. Scale
Time to turn up the volume, light the fires and kick the tires. You've got real world data on what works for your business and what doesn't, you are safe in the knowledge that what you're doing is working, you've done some optimisation and understand that your numbers check out... There isn't anything to do except increase your velocity...
Invest more resources in the ideas you know are working and really go to town here. As long as you're generating a positive ROI, you can't go too big. In fact, the bigger you go the better really as by investing a lot, you begin to raise the advertising prices for the entire market which actually pushes your competitors (who don't have product market fit yet) completely out of the game as they can't afford to compete with you!
The strange thing about step 5 is that even though you've got something working, it doesn't mean it's the best way of doing things (or it will even work forever). Don't stop iterating and testing, always reserve some of your budget for trying new things and determining whether you've got theories that trump your existing ones. If you're getting a 4X ROAS today, it doesn't mean you can't generate a 7X tomorrow.
I hope you've found this article useful and you feel a little more equipped to go out there and start building your marketing suite however I do have one last word of advice before you go...
Keep things simple for yourself. Don't test 100's of different ideas at any one time unless you've got an army of trained marketeers to back them up. Just test a few at a time and you'll be able to improve your numbers far more effectively. Think about context with your tests and work out a mini rational behind each for the test cross referenced over the buyers journey stage.
If this sounds like too much work, just drop me a line or book in a consultancy session, we've got a variety of techniques to help you through this process.
This can make or break your business so don't be afraid to slow down and get it right - you'll thank me later!
Peace, F