As a sponsor of the event, we had the great honor and joy of hosting a panel at CyberMarketingCon on December 9, 2024. Moderated by CyberRisk Alliance Chief Marketing Officer Jessica Vose we took the opportunity to check in with a group of top cybersecurity marketers from various roles and representing a range of organizational maturity to gather their impressions of how the role and strategy of marketing is evolving and how that was reflected in their plans for 2025.
Panel participants included Jamie Walker, CMO KeyFactor, Chris Simmons, VP Marketing & Strategy Savvy, Saikrishna Chavali, Product Marketing Cloudflare, and Heather Dodgers, former CMO at NetSPI. The conversation centered on breaking outdated marketing rules, redefining marketing’s role, and leveraging AI for future growth.
Breaking Old Habits: It’s Time to Move Beyond Outdated Rules
We began by discussing the outdated practices that still dominate cybersecurity marketing. Among the hottest of topics: the collective over-reliance on MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads), focusing solely on short-term lead generation, and investing heavily in event sponsorships without clear ROI were highlighted as examples of ineffective strategies. The panel felt that a shift towards a more balanced approach is needed—one that prioritizes long-term brand-building alongside immediate conversions. For 2025, marketers need to focus not just on generating leads but also on strengthening brand awareness and reputation.
Marketing’s Identity Crisis: Redefining the Role of the CMO
The conversation turned to the evolving role of marketing. In today’s rapidly changing landscape, there’s growing uncertainty about the true function of marketing. Should marketing be focused on growth and revenue generation? Should the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) report to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)? The line between sales and marketing is increasingly blurred, and this has led in some cases to an identity crisis for the marketing organization.
This shift represents an important opportunity for 2025: marketing is now widely acknowledged to have a critical role in revenue. It’s not just about generating leads anymore—it’s about aligning marketing with business outcomes. If you're a marketer, it may be time to ask yourself whether your strategy is still aligned with old habits or if it needs a refresh to support business growth in new ways.
Attribution Overload: Focus on What Matters
Attribution is often over-architected in the process of attempting to track every touchpoint along the customer journey in order to justify spend and get credit for pipeline. The desire to track each interaction at its worst has often led to turf wars between marketing, channel and sales teams, inefficiency, and analysis paralysis. The panel’s advice was simple: focus on a few key metrics that reflect marketing’s actual influence and impact on revenue generation. Don’t get bogged down by overcomplicating attribution models. The goal is to streamline your measurement strategy and focus on a handful of north star metrics that directly connect marketing activities with business outcomes. The hardest part may be identifying what those are.
AI: The Future of Marketing is Here, and It’s Not Replacing Marketers (Yet)
Generative AI has been a hot topic in marketing circles, and it was no different during the CyberMarketingCon panel. The experts agreed that while AI is transformative, it is not here to replace marketers—it’s here to amplify their efforts.
For smaller teams, like Savvy, AI tools have been essential for scaling efforts and reducing headcount needs, while for larger teams like KeyFactor, AI is about improving efficiency and handling more work without increasing staff.
The key takeaway? AI is not a marketing job killer but it can be an efficiency gains game-changer. For 2025, integrating AI into your marketing stack isn’t just optional—it’s essential for staying competitive. Marketers should encourage their teams to embrace AI for some prescribed use cases and try to remove the stigma surrounding it in order to unlock those efficiencies.
The future of cybersecurity marketing is about embracing innovation and staying focused on what truly drives success. By leaving outdated practices behind, embracing marketing’s role in revenue generation, and leveraging AI as an enabler rather than a threat, marketers can navigate the challenges of 2025 with confidence.
Now it’s up to you to determine how you’ll turn these insights into your organization’s competitive advantage.
Don’t stop here! Download the CRA 2024 End of Year Report.
This comprehensive resource brings together key insights from our 11 brands, providing actionable data on critical trends, practitioner priorities, and marketing strategies. It’s an invaluable guide to help you align your approach with the realities of today’s cybersecurity landscape and empower your team to lead in a rapidly evolving market.
Our team is here to help and answer any questions you might have on how best to implement this advice. Get in touch if we can help!
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