Tackling the hard stuff in data and cyber security

On Thurs 26th September, I attended the inaugural event conceptualised and hosted by two senior board-level global marketers in B2B tech, SaaS, and cyber and data security, Amanda Coles and Sarah Moss. Having decades of experience between them, they deeply understand the challenges marketers face every day, and they launched the Sphere Network to bring together a community of great people to build meaningful connections, whilst empowering tech marketers to thrive. Think of the Sphere Network as your ‘little black book’ for all things B2B tech marketing.

Lighting a fire to drive discussion

The event titled ‘Tackling the hard stuff’ was hosted at the OXO2 on a particularly sunny day in London along the South Bank, one of my favourite spots near Waterloo and the River Thames. Panel sessions on the day covered a range of topics including - ‘The value of community: A CISO’s Perspective’, ‘Aligning Marketing with Business Objectives’, ‘Maximising Lead Generation through Data Insight’ to ‘Content creation and the best ways to maximise impact’, ‘Demystifying channel marketing and how to “partner” within your organisation’, and ‘Data driven decision making: Navigating the sales and marketing partnership for success’.

From the morning kick-off and welcome to the evening networking drinks, panellists and speakers generously shared their knowledge and insights gleaned from specialist areas in the cyber security industry. With so many voices and opinions in the room, the discussion was lively, diverse and informative. Two of the biggest questions raised on the day were “In 2025, how to we continue to do more with less? How do we create cut through?” Here’s some of my key take aways.

Top ten insights captured on the day

1.????Vanity Metrics - Don’t’ focus on vanity metrics, it’s essential to find out what matters to the board and work that backwards, focus on what’s important to the business. Agree what good, bad and ugly looks like and focus on outcomes, see the big picture

2.????Sales and marketing – Working in silos doesn’t work, sales and marketing need to work together, potentially reporting into the same individual (CRO), and ensure both parties agree and align on shared goals, and focus on shared metrics

3.????Attribution – Attribution remains an ongoing challenge but do ensure you’re tracking and measuring success where possible, whilst also remembering not everything can be measured

4.????Creative and brand – Be bold, be creative, desire to stand out and to establish your brand from the competition. To really engage your audience, you need to take them on a journey, tell an emotive story that’s connects your brand, plus develop creative that resonates as this will drive a response ?

5.????Data – Use data and evidence to support and inform decision making, particularly post campaign data, so you’re not leaving any value on the table, this will help to identify trends and what’s fuelling your pipeline

6.????Questions – Always ask questions, understand what’s keeping people your customers up at night, get feedback and listen to what’s being said, gather this feedback and use it to inform your content, then distribute on the appropriate channels, on and offline

7.????Content – Remember that content is ever evolving, AI is good to a point to create and curate content, but it must be layered with human input. Use content at the appropriate point in the sales funnel to speed up conversations and create flow to deliver results. Go broad, go narrow, and align with business goals

8.????Authenticity – Your customers will see through you if you’re not being authentic, have a clear and distinctive tone of voice, always think about the purpose of our content, know your desired outputs too, share value and speak directly to your customer, your audience – do what’s right for them

9.????Scale – Things that work on a small scale are not always repeatable on a large scale, be agile, plan and test accordingly

10.? Results – Think about what your results really mean, and always apply context. Remember, there are no silver bullets, every business is unique and requires a personalised approach to deliver your desired outcome

There were of course many other points shared throughout the day but it’s impossible to capture them all here. What is clear, is that it’s essential to manage expectations, to set them early, to communicate them clearly, and to get up front agreement. Also, it’s important to remember that marketing is a revenue generating part of a business, and when sales and marketing have each-others backs trusted relationships with good communications are created, and better results are achieved. I’m also a big fan of meeting in person where possible, so do make time for IRL communications, being face to face - human to human, as this creates stronger bonds and enables more fluid and open discussions.

Discover more about the Sphere Network

One of my clients, disruptive-tech PR agency C8 Consulting sponsored ‘Tacking the hard stuff’ and having attended on the day I’ve personally joined the Sphere Network. Given the level of energy in the room and the desire for a community of specialists get together to ‘tackle the hard stuff’, it certainly feels like the ‘Sphere Network – The Trusted Cyber and Data Security Marketing Network’, will be going from strength to strength over the coming months and years. As we head into 2025 – connect, validate, inspire, deliver.

#sphere #network #cybersecurity #data #b2b #techmarketing

Photo from Pexels by Kim Stiver.