7 Outreach Tactics Cybersecurity Buyers Hate (+ The Alternative)
When I launched Audience 1st, little did I know it would open the floodgates to regular emails + messages coming to me from disgruntled security practitioners. So, I made a little tool for you.
Dear friend, subscriber, or customer-obsessed marketer:
When I launched Audience 1st Podcast, I knew it would help me and you understand cybersecurity buyer motivations, needs, and challenges so that we can more efficiently help out those battling threats do their jobs just a little bit better.
Little did I know that it would open the floodgates to regular emails and LinkedIn messages coming to me from disgruntled security practitioners.
The amount of poor marketing and sales messages they send me is overwhelming.
It got me thinking:
How can I provide security professionals a safe space to flag ineffective emails, social media posts, website landing pages, event messages, or even digital ads?
More importantly, how can marketers and sellers engage with cybersecurity practitioners more meaningfully and authentically?
There are clear examples of what not to do.
But, what are the alternatives? How should we engage with them?
So, I created a destination for cybersecurity professionals who are targeted by vendors to submit the worst marketing and sales messages they’ve seen.
It’s called WTF Did I Just Read?.
Shoutout to Joseph Carson for explicitly asking for something like this AND for the inspiration.
Why is this important to the industry?
It’s not enough for buyers to bitch about what isn’t working, right? That isn’t fair to you or me. We need to understand the alternative. We need to fix the problem.
How will this help you?
Upon submission, I've asked each security professional who flagged “bad behavior”, as they put it, to provide me a clear explanation of what not to do (the shitlist, if you will) and the alternative approach + simple tips to engaging with them.
You’ll learn effective methods to outreach high-consideration cybersecurity buyers.
You’ll be able to more authentically build real relationships with cybersecurity buyers that will boost your long-term career.
You’ll improve your (and your company’s) reputation as a marketer or a salesperson.