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Strategic Communications Advisory For Visionary Founders
Actionable
Takeaways
Stop Confusing Demand Capture with Demand Generation:
Most cybersecurity marketers think they're doing demand generation when they're actually just doing "fancy demand capture." True demand gen creates interest in your category and builds preference over time, while demand capture simply tries to convert existing intent through paid search and lead magnets. The website traffic bump from paid search often consists of non-buyers, creating vanity metrics while wasting spend.
Invest in 12-Month Demand Generation Cycles:
Content syndication gets dismissed as ineffective because marketers expect immediate results. The reality is that educational content consumed through syndication builds brand preference slowly - it typically takes 12 months for syndicated content to develop into opportunities. This requires patience and long-term investment thinking, but it creates sustainable demand rather than just capturing existing intent.
Use Three-Layer Customer Research for Content Strategy:
Combine personal experience (thinking like your past technical self), direct customer conversations (understanding their daily challenges beyond just product usage), and formal market studies through platforms like Hanover Research. This layered approach reveals the gap between what you think buyers want to hear versus what they actually need to know.
Target Influencers, Not Just Decision Makers:
Instead of trying to reach every CISO with expensive targeting, focus on the directors and VPs who are researching solutions for their bosses. Create content that helps them look good to their leadership by addressing the problems that keep CISOs awake at night. This approach is more cost-effective and often more successful than direct executive targeting.
Segment Market Research by Industry for Messaging:
Tony's threat modeling study revealed that while aggregate data showed predictable patterns, industry-specific splits revealed crucial differences. Some verticals are driven primarily by compliance requirements while others prioritize security outcomes, even within heavily regulated sectors. This granular insight enables vertical-specific messaging that resonates with the real drivers.
Budget $15-20K for Comprehensive Market Studies:
Quality market research including audience building, incentivization, expert survey design, and cross-tabulated analysis costs roughly $15-20,000. Use subscription models when possible to maximize study frequency. The investment pays off by revealing blind spots in your assumptions and uncovering messaging opportunities that customer interviews alone might miss.
Implement First 90-Day Listening Framework:
Spend the first 30 days interviewing customers, analysts, and internal stakeholders without preconceived solutions. Use this input to formulate your plan during days 31-60, then begin measuring early success metrics by day 90. Avoid the temptation to implement predetermined solutions from your previous company - every market and customer base has unique characteristics.
Conversation
Highlights
In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Anthony (Tony) Lombardo, VP of Marketing at ThreatModeler Software. Tony brings a unique engineering-to-marketing background to cybersecurity demand generation, where he’s discovered that most companies are confusing demand capture with true demand generation. In a noisy cybersecurity market where every vendor sounds identical, Tony has developed a systematic approach to standing out through customer research, market studies, and thought leadership that actually educates rather than just amplifies. His framework challenges conventional wisdom about paid search, content syndication, and the timeline for measuring true demand generation success.
Topics Discussed:
- The critical difference between demand generation and demand capture
- Why cybersecurity marketing has become an echo chamber and how to break through
- Building thought leadership content that buyers actually want to consume
- Using market research and customer interviews to identify content opportunities
- The real ROI timeline for content syndication (12+ months)
- When paid search actually works in B2B cybersecurity sales
- Framework for the first 90 days at a new marketing role
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