This blog was written by Jennifer VanAntwerp, Principal of JVAN Consulting, LLC. She discussed these commandments during her episode at the Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing Podcast.
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I’ve had the pleasure (with occasional bouts of pain) of working in marketing for over two decades and across three fairly disparate industries. I worked in automotive marketing for over a decade; then, in 2011, I changed gears (pun intended) to healthcare marketing. In late 2020, amid the pandemic, I broke into the wild & wonderful world of cybersecurity marketing.
Each of these industries has its own unique challenges, but they all have something in common, and your grandma was right — ya catch more flies with honey than ya do with vinegar. Personally, I’ve never WANTED to catch flies, but I get the gist, grandma. I feel that kindness, true genuine kindness, should be at the heart of each of your decisions as a marketer.
I’ve put together a list of ten commandments of kindness that pertain directly to cybersecurity marketing, but many of these can be applied to other industries, and to our everyday lives.
- Respect your audience’s time
Everyone is freakin’ busy. Whether your target audience is a c-suite executive or a security practitioner, we’re all constantly inundated with advertisements, messaging, and cries for attention. Reduce friction, and make your website easy to navigate so visitors don’t have to hunt for what they need. Put together a list of two to three top goals or actions you’d want your website visitors to take, and then ask a friend or family member who is unfamiliar with our industry to figure out how to take those actions on your website.
And remember to check your ego at the door, even if you’ve built each of the pages and the navigation yourself. You can also use a tool like Hotjar to get feedback and to view where visitors might be getting stuck or experiencing roadblocks on your site. And on that note…
- Stop gating every single piece of content
Yes, I know you need leads, and I know you created the content and it took lots of time. But that doesn’t mean it automatically warrants a contact form for a download. This ties into the first commandment, and it’s especially relevant to our cybersecurity audience, who tends to be hyper-vigilant about anonymization and maintaining privacy.
My recommendation: don’t ever require a contact form for content that educates a potential buyer about your product or service. You don’t want any barriers to those pieces of information. If you truly feel the need to gate a piece of content, make sure it’s extra-juicy and worth the cost of personal information that your audience is paying. Only ask for the minimum amount of information, and then append that data using Zoominfo or a similar tool.
- Don’t be creepy
You know what I’m talkin’ about. Waaay too personal personalizations, like: “Jen, look at this picture of me and my whiteboard with ‘call Jen’ written on my to-do list!” Just, no. Don’t send cold emails that try to make the recipient feel guilty for not responding. It’s akin to gaslighting your prospective customers. Don’t send unsolicited calendar invitations. As Stephanie from Full House would say, “How Rude!”
I know some of these activities may take place without the marketing team’s knowledge (hello, rogue sales rep), but we should still be held accountable. If you’re working closely enough with your sales and external comms teams, you’ll sniff out when someone may be going rogue and beat them to the pass by providing easily obtainable access to un-creepy resources (emphasis on “easily obtainable”, because the 1st commandment should also apply to your sales and other internal teams).
- Listen, with a capital “L”
We have two ears and one mouth for a reason — kind marketers should remember to listen twice as much as we speak. Listen to your prospective customers through advisory groups, sales calls, forums, social media, or wherever they’re discussing their challenges and pain points. Listen in on development meetings and customer satisfaction calls, and ask to join any other team meetings that will help you to better understand your customer and your company.
- Honor thy Mother (Earth)
Conference season is upon us, and we’re awash with pens, stress balls, carabiner flashlights, and every other plastic promo item you can think of. Be mindful of your environmental footprint when you’re making decisions about promo items, printing, and shipping options. Consider offering an experience or activity in lieu of a branded fidget spinner. Exchange a badge swipe for a donation of funds or items requested by a local charity. Hire a palm reader, or pet therapy puppy, or face painter, or… the options are endless! We’re creative folk, so let’s get creative and not rely so much on items that may end up in a landfill or buried at the bottom of a toybox.
- Don’t give in to the FUD
Much of the messaging we see surrounding cybersecurity focuses on FUD — Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. It’s easy to fall into the FUD trap, because some of the issues we cover can be truly terrifying. But as kind and responsible marketers, part of our job is separating fact from FUD, and educating our consumers in a clear and non-biased manner. Before you post about the latest APT or a newly-discovered vulnerability, ask yourself: Am I truly adding something of value to the conversation? Or just adding to the noise that our audience has to sift through.
- Never. Stop. Learning.
The threat landscape is constantly evolving, and so are the ways in which we can reach our audiences and distribute information about our solutions. You owe it to your customers, your team members, and yourself to invest in your own development and education. There are tons of great resources out there (including, of course, the amazing Cybersecurity Marketing Society’s podcast) where you can sharpen the saw and increase your knowledge of what’s going on in the industry.
- Read the room
It’s important to be mindful of current events and what your audience may be going through. The last thing a practitioner wants to read when they’re in the throes of defending against Log4j or another emergency security issue, or in an area of the world experiencing extreme conflict, is an email that starts off with “Hey Sara, I hope your week is going well!” No, much to Sara’s chagrin, it’s definitely not going well. The ability to pre-schedule social posts and email drip campaigns can help to improve efficiencies, but it’s important to know when to hit the pause button on those activities. Our audience WILL roast you publicly if you’re sending out messages that are blatantly ambulance-chasing or ill-timed. And for every one person who roasts you publicly, there are undoubtedly dozens more who silently decide never to work with your company in the future. Ouch.
- Thou shalt not bear false witness; a.k.a. Don’t be a liar-liar-pants-on-fire
Our audience is already pretty skeptical of marketing messages, so don’t make it worse by speaking in absolutes and making false promises. “Unhackable”, “Military-grade”, “100% blah blah blah”… these are terms that should only be used if you can 100% back them up, 100% of the time. Similar to the 8th commandment, if you’re found guilty of breaking this one, you are likely to be publicly shamed. And last but certainly not least…
- Give back to the community
Whether it’s your time, talent, or treasure, find ways to give back and be of service within your community. Be a mentor for someone who’s new to the industry. Volunteer to help out at an event. If you can afford it, sponsor someone’s attendance at an educational conference. Use your sweet, sweet marketing skills to help a local non-profit improve their messaging or their visuals. Those acts of kindness can also be great networking opportunities and chances to improve your skills.
At the end of the day, these commandments all really boil down to one thing… don’t be a jerk. So go ahead and spread that honey, catch those flies, and remember… if you can choose to be anything, choose to be kind, in marketing, and in life.
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