Looking outside of cyber
Cybersecurity marketing hiring is booming. Bootstrapped companies with future plans to raise are hiring BDRs & SDRs at a higher rate than other roles. For both Series A companies and public companies, product marketing is identified as a clear need. In Series D+ companies, channel marketing hires outweigh others, with product marketing and demand generation close behind.
Whatever funding round a company is on, it’s likely that they are experiencing trouble recruiting cybersecurity marketers in an increasingly crowded and competitive hiring landscape.
One path forward? Honing in on cybersecurity marketers’ motivations.
What attracts cybersecurity marketers
Across the board, cybersecurity marketers are the Hermione Grangers of the marketing world. They’re high achievers who love being part of a fast-paced environment.
When breaking the numbers down based on funding level, an interesting response pattern shows itself. Marketers in the bootstrapped, and pre-seed/seed stages were more likely to say that they found their job’s intellectual challenge the most rewarding part. Meanwhile, marketers working with Series D and public companies overwhelmingly found being part of a fast-paced, constantly evolving industry the most rewarding part of the job.
These findings correlate to the different challenges that each set of cybersecurity marketers face. For example, in a bootstrapped or pre-seed startup, the company has fewer financial resources. This means that the marketers need to be creative with their budgets, looking for the most bang for their buck.
Marketers working in well-funded or public companies don’t need to be quite as budget conscious, but they do need to keep messaging fresh and meet evolving company needs. Plus, organizations that have the funding are constantly adding new products, merging, and acquiring other companies.
One final data point that needs to be called out is that, when breaking down responses by company funding stage, respondents in the Bootstrapped and Fundraising, Series B, and Series C categories listed “working in a mission-driven industry/having the chance to do good” as the most rewarding part of their job. Also notably, the two groups of marketers choosing this reply the least were those who identify as Series D+ or Public companies. Series D+ and Public companies gave an outsized preference to “being part of a fast-paced, constantly evolving industry.” Series A companies also chose the fast-pace of our work as their top reward, but only edged out “mission-driven” by about 7%.
The future of cybersecurity marketing talent: the most sought after skills
Lastly, what are the hottest roles in cybersecurity marketing today? Who’s hiring what roles?
Bootstrapped companies with future plans to raise are hiring marketing BDRs & SDRs at a higher rate than other roles. For both Series A companies and public companies, product marketing is identified as a clear need. In Series D+ companies, channel marketing hires outweigh others, with product marketing and demand generation close behind.
Read more blogs from the survey here or download the report here.