How to Generate B2B Cybersecurity Leads

What’s Inside:

• The state of B2B lead generation in the cybersecurity market
  • In-house vs. utilizing third-parties
  • Impression/traffic-driving approach vs. content syndication via third-parties
  • Emergence of intent data
• Ideas for generating B2B cybersecurity leads
  • Use digital content marketing aligned with the buyer’s journey
  • Drive traffic to your own website/digital marketing ecosystem
  • Utilize third-parties
  • Importance of lead-nurturing before hand-off to sales
• 3 lead generation tips for cybersecurity marketers
  • Before you get to market, have a strong foundation
  • Start by spreading your net wide, then narrow down to what works
  • Use data at every stage
• Consider CyberTheory for your next B2B cybersecurity lead generation program!

However, simply using these tactics is not enough. Marketers must also leverage intent data, which provides insights into the behavioral signals and buying intentions of potential leads. By incorporating intent data, marketers can better understand their audience’s needs, tailor their messaging and deliver targeted content that resonates with prospects at various stages of the buying process. This strategic use of intent data enhances lead generation efforts and increases the chances of standing out amidst fierce competition in the B2B cybersecurity market.

Managing B2B lead-generation programs in-house or utilizing third-party services both have their own benefits. Let’s explore the advantages of each approach:

Control and Flexibility: Managing lead-generation programs in-house gives businesses full control over their strategies, campaigns and execution. It allows for quick adjustments and flexibility in response to market changes, target audience preferences or internal priorities. In-house teams can directly align lead-generation efforts with overall business goals and make real-time optimizations to maximize results.

Deeper Knowledge and Expertise: Building an in-house team dedicated to B2B lead generation enables businesses to develop deep knowledge and expertise specific to their industry and target audience. The team can become intimately familiar with the company’s products or services, value proposition and competitive landscape. This deep understanding helps in crafting more targeted and effective lead-generation campaigns.

Cost Efficiency: While building an in-house team requires an initial investment in hiring, training, and infrastructure, it can be cost-effective in the long run. With in-house resources, businesses have more control over budget allocation and can allocate funds directly to lead-generation activities instead of paying third-party service fees. Over time, the cost per lead may decrease as internal teams refine their strategies and optimize performance.

Expertise and Experience: Third-party lead-generation agencies or service providers specialize in B2B lead generation. They possess industry knowledge, best practices and experience in executing successful campaigns across various sectors. Leveraging their expertise allows businesses to tap into their proven methodologies and benefit from their experience in generating high-quality leads.

Scalability and Resources: Third-party providers typically have access to a wide range of resources, tools, and technologies dedicated to lead generation. They can quickly scale up or down their efforts based on business needs, enabling businesses to adapt to changing market conditions or fluctuations in lead volume. This scalability provides flexibility without the need for additional hiring or training internally.

Focus on Core Competencies: Outsourcing lead-generation activities allows businesses to focus on their core competencies and strategic priorities. By entrusting lead generation to experts, internal teams can concentrate on product development, sales, customer service and other critical aspects of the business. This division of labor ensures that each team can excel in their respective areas, leading to overall business growth.

Access to Networks and Expertise: Third-party providers often have established networks and partnerships that can be leveraged to reach a broader audience. They have access to industry-specific platforms, databases, and lead sources that may be difficult to tap into independently. Additionally, working with third-party experts exposes businesses to fresh ideas, innovative strategies and new perspectives that can enhance lead-generation efforts.

The decision to manage B2B lead-generation programs in-house or utilize third-party services depends on various factors such as budget, expertise, resources and strategic objectives. In-house management provides control, flexibility and deep knowledge of the business while outsourcing to third parties offers specialized expertise, scalability and access to networks. Ultimately, businesses need to assess their specific needs, capabilities and long-term goals to determine the most suitable approach that aligns with their overall growth strategy.

Utilizing impression-based and traffic-driving tactics for B2B lead generation, such as programmatic and retargeting display, social media marketing, and SEO and PPC, offers several compelling benefits. Firstly, programmatic and retargeting display ads allow businesses to reach a wide audience by displaying targeted ads across various websites and platforms, increasing brand visibility and generating impressions. This helps build brand recognition and can lead to increased website traffic and engagement. Secondly, social media marketing enables businesses to leverage the vast user base of platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to promote their products or services, engage with their target audience and drive traffic to their websites.

Social media platforms offer sophisticated targeting options, allowing businesses to reach specific industries, job titles or interests. Thirdly, utilizing SEO and PPC strategies ensures that businesses appear prominently in search engine results for relevant keywords, driving organic and paid traffic to their websites. SEO efforts improve organic rankings over time, while PPC campaigns provide immediate visibility. Both tactics help capture high-intent leads actively searching for solutions or information. Overall, these tactics work synergistically to increase brand exposure, drive targeted traffic and ultimately generate valuable B2B leads.

Utilizing third-party content syndication for B2B lead generation offers significant benefits to businesses. Content syndication involves distributing valuable and relevant content to a network of trusted websites, industry publications and online platforms. By partnering with third-party syndication services, businesses can tap into their established networks and reach a wider audience that may be difficult to access independently. This approach enables businesses to amplify their content’s visibility, increase brand exposure and attract a larger number of potential B2B leads. Third-party syndication providers have expertise in content distribution, ensuring that the content reaches the right audience in the right context. Moreover, syndication allows businesses to leverage the credibility and authority of the syndication partners, enhancing their own reputation in the industry. By expanding their content reach through third-party syndication, businesses can generate a steady stream of high-quality B2B leads and establish themselves as thought leaders in their respective domains.

Marketers should utilize both tactics for generating B2B cybersecurity leads because each approach brings unique benefits to the lead generation process. Impression-based traffic-driving tactics help businesses increase brand visibility, drive targeted traffic and capture high-intent leads actively searching for cybersecurity solutions. These tactics provide immediate visibility, engage the target audience across various platforms and drive traffic directly to the company’s website. On the other hand, content syndication through third parties allows businesses to tap into established networks, expand their reach and amplify their content’s visibility. By partnering with syndication providers, businesses can distribute their valuable cybersecurity content to a wider audience, leveraging the credibility and authority of the syndication partners to enhance their own reputation in the industry. This combined approach ensures comprehensive coverage, maximizes brand exposure and generates a consistent flow of high-quality B2B cybersecurity leads.

In B2B cybersecurity lead generation, first-party and third-party intent data differ in terms of the source and level of insights they provide.

First-party intent data refers to data collected directly from interactions with a company’s own digital properties and touchpoints. This data is typically derived from website visits, form submissions, content downloads, email interactions, and other user actions. It provides insights into the behavior and interests of prospects who have engaged directly with the company. First-party intent data allows businesses to understand the specific actions taken by visitors on their website, their engagement levels and their demonstrated interest in cybersecurity-related content or solutions. It helps marketers tailor their messaging, personalize outreach efforts and nurture leads based on their specific behaviors and preferences.

On the other hand, third-party intent data is sourced from external providers that collect and aggregate data from various online platforms and sources. These providers analyze data from across the internet to identify signals of intent exhibited by users who may be in the market for B2B cybersecurity solutions. Third-party intent data offers a broader perspective on the overall market landscape, including insights into the intent signals of prospects who have not interacted directly with the company. It provides information on broader industry trends, competitor analysis and the identification of prospects who are showing interest in cybersecurity solutions across different websites and platforms.

While first-party intent data provides a more granular understanding of prospects who have engaged directly with the company, third-party intent data offers a wider view of the market and identifies prospects who may be in the consideration stage but have not yet interacted with the company’s properties. Third-party intent data helps marketers identify potential leads earlier in the buying process, allowing for proactive outreach and targeting of prospects who may not be aware of the company’s offerings.

To maximize B2B cybersecurity lead generation efforts, businesses can combine both first-party and third-party intent data. By leveraging first-party intent data from their own digital touchpoints and integrating it with third-party intent data, businesses can gain a comprehensive understanding of their target audience’s interests, behaviors and market trends. This combined approach enables more effective lead identification, personalized messaging and targeted outreach, resulting in increased lead quality and higher conversion rates.

Vendor brands that generated the most engagement in Q2 and Q3 2022, from the second installment of our CISO Engagement & Decision Drivers Study

Rule number one – do not inundate CISOs or other perceived decision-makers with cold emails or LinkedIn messages!

Utilizing digital content marketing that aligns assets with the buyer’s journey offers several benefits for marketers focused on B2B cybersecurity lead generation:

• Targeted and Relevant Messaging: By aligning content assets with the buyer’s journey, businesses can deliver targeted and relevant messaging to prospects at each stage of their decision-making process. This ensures that the content addresses their specific pain points, challenges, and information needs. Tailoring content to the buyer’s journey increases the chances of capturing their attention, building trust and positioning the company as a valuable resource.

• Nurturing Leads: The buyer’s journey typically consists of three stages: awareness, consideration and decision. Through digital content marketing, businesses can create assets such as blog posts, whitepapers, e-books, case studies, webinars and videos that cater to each stage. This allows for lead nurturing by providing educational and informative content that guides prospects through their decision-making process. Nurturing leads with targeted content helps build relationships, establish credibility and keep the company top-of-mind when prospects are ready to make a purchasing decision.

• Building Authority and Thought Leadership: By consistently producing high-quality content that aligns with the buyer’s journey, businesses can position themselves as industry authorities and thought leaders in the B2B cybersecurity space. Publishing insightful and informative content establishes credibility, demonstrates expertise and differentiates the company from competitors. As prospects engage with valuable content throughout their journey, they develop trust in the company’s knowledge and capabilities, making them more likely to consider the company as a trusted partner.

• Data-Driven Insights and Optimization: Digital content marketing provides valuable data and insights that help optimize lead-generation efforts. By analyzing engagement metrics, such as content downloads, time spent on pages, and conversion rates, businesses can gain insights into what content resonates most with their audience. This data allows for iterative improvements in content strategy, personalization and targeting, resulting in more effective lead-generation campaigns over time.

 

Cybersecurity marketers can employ various tactics to drive B2B lead-generation traffic to their own websites including:

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Optimizing website content, metadata and structure helps improve organic search rankings, making the website more visible to potential leads. By targeting relevant keywords and providing valuable, keyword-rich content, businesses can attract organic traffic and generate qualified leads. With complete transparency in reporting and analytics, marketers can track keyword rankings, traffic sources and user behavior, allowing for data-driven optimization.

• Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising: Running targeted PPC campaigns on platforms like Google Ads enables businesses to display ads prominently in search results and other online placements. By bidding on relevant keywords and crafting compelling ad copy, marketers can drive traffic to their websites. The advantage of PPC advertising is that it provides instant visibility and with transparent reporting and analytics, marketers can measure ad performance, track conversions and calculate return on investment (ROI) accurately.

• Content Marketing: Creating valuable and engaging content such as blog posts, white papers, eBooks, videos and infographics can attract and engage potential leads. By sharing this content through various channels, including social media, email marketing and industry publications, businesses can drive traffic to their website. With transparent reporting and analytics, marketers can assess content performance, measure engagement metrics and understand which content resonates most with their audience.

• Social Media Marketing: Leveraging social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook allows marketers to reach and engage their target audience. By sharing relevant content, industry insights and updates about their products or services, businesses can drive traffic to their website. Transparent reporting and analytics help marketers track engagement metrics, such as likes, shares, comments and link clicks, providing valuable insights into campaign performance and audience behavior.

• Influencer Marketing: Collaborating with industry influencers and thought leaders can boost brand visibility and drive targeted traffic to the website. Influencers with a relevant following can endorse and share content or promote products/services, attracting their audience to visit the business’s website. With transparent reporting and analytics, marketers can measure the impact of influencer collaborations, track referral traffic and evaluate the effectiveness of these partnerships.

 

Here are some key advantages:

• Established Trust and Credibility: Third-party media publishers have already built trust and credibility with their audiences. They have established themselves as reputable sources of information and insights within the cybersecurity industry. By partnering with these publishers, businesses can leverage their established trust and tap into their audience’s confidence. This association enhances the credibility of the content being syndicated, instilling trust in potential leads and increasing the likelihood of engagement and conversion.

• Expanded Reach and Targeted Exposure: Third-party media publishers have a broader reach than individual businesses. They have a well-established audience base, often consisting of professionals, decision-makers and industry influencers who actively seek information and updates. By syndicating content through these publishers, businesses can expand their reach and gain exposure to a highly targeted audience that may be difficult to access independently. This exposure helps generate relevant B2B cybersecurity leads that are more likely to be interested in the business’s offerings.

• Enhanced Brand Equity: When content is syndicated through reputable third-party media publishers, there is a transfer of brand equity from the publisher to the advertiser. By associating with trusted media publishers, businesses can enhance their brand image and reputation within the cybersecurity space. This association signals credibility, expertise and thought leadership to the target audience. The transfer of brand equity boosts the perception of the advertiser’s authority, quality and reliability, making them more attractive to potential leads.

• Access to Targeted Segments: Third-party media publishers often cater to specific segments within the B2B cybersecurity industry. They provide content tailored to niche audiences or specific professional roles, such as CISOs, IT managers or network administrators. By selecting publishers that align with the target audience, businesses can ensure their content reaches the most relevant prospects. This targeted exposure increases the likelihood of attracting leads who are actively seeking cybersecurity solutions, improving the quality of leads generated.

• Amplified Content Distribution: Third-party media publishers possess robust distribution channels, including websites, newsletters, social media platforms and industry events. By syndicating content through these publishers, businesses can amplify their content distribution and increase their visibility across multiple channels. This wider exposure maximizes the content’s potential reach and engagement, resulting in increased website traffic, lead generation and brand awareness.

 

• Maximizing Sales Efficiency: A lead-nurturing program allows businesses to cultivate relationships with leads over time. Not all leads are ready to make an immediate purchase decision and nurturing enables businesses to stay engaged with prospects until they are ready to move forward. By providing relevant and valuable content, addressing their pain points and maintaining regular communication, businesses can build trust, establish credibility and increase the chances of a successful sales conversion. This approach ensures that the sales team focuses their efforts on leads that have been nurtured and are more likely to convert, maximizing sales efficiency and reducing wasted resources.

• Aligning Marketing and Sales: A lead-nurturing and lead-scoring program facilitates better alignment between marketing and sales teams. By defining a shared lead qualification framework and criteria, both teams can collaborate effectively and agree on what constitutes a qualified lead. Lead scoring allows businesses to assign a numeric value to leads based on their behavior, demographics and engagement level. This scoring system enables marketing and sales to prioritize leads based on their readiness to buy and allocate resources accordingly. Effective lead scoring ensures that the sales team receives highly qualified leads, improving conversion rates and enhancing the overall sales process.

• Improving Conversion Rates: Lead nurturing allows businesses to guide leads through the buyer’s journey, providing them with the right information at each stage. By understanding the needs, pain points and challenges of individual leads, businesses can deliver personalized and targeted messaging that resonates with their specific interests. This personalized approach enhances the likelihood of conversion by addressing the specific concerns of leads and offering tailored solutions. Lead scoring further improves conversion rates by ensuring that sales efforts are focused on leads that have demonstrated higher levels of interest, engagement and buying intent.

• Enhancing Customer Experience: A well-executed lead-nurturing program ensures a positive and consistent customer experience throughout the buying journey. By delivering relevant and timely content, businesses demonstrate their commitment to understanding and addressing the needs of leads. This personalized approach builds trust and establishes a strong foundation for a long-term relationship. Leads feel supported, informed and valued, increasing their satisfaction with the buying process and improving the overall customer experience.

• Data-Driven Insights and Optimization: Lead nurturing and lead-scoring programs provide valuable data and insights that businesses can leverage to optimize their marketing and sales strategies. Through data analysis, businesses can identify patterns, trends and behaviors that indicate a higher likelihood of conversion. This data-driven approach allows for continuous improvement and optimization of the lead-nurturing program, enabling businesses to refine their targeting, messaging and content strategy based on insights gained from lead behavior and engagement.

• Develop a Unique Messaging Platform: Developing a messaging platform is of utmost importance for B2B cybersecurity marketers aiming to generate leads as it provides a strong foundation for an effective go-to-market strategy. A well-crafted messaging platform ensures consistent and compelling communication across all marketing channels, resonating with the target audience and differentiating the business from competitors. It helps articulate the unique value proposition, addresses the pain points of potential leads, and establishes credibility in the cybersecurity industry. By aligning messaging with the buyer’s journey, marketers can effectively engage and nurture leads, build trust and drive conversions, ultimately maximizing the success of their lead generation efforts.

• Identify Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) & Target Personas: Identifying target personas and an ideal customer profile is crucial for B2B cybersecurity lead generation as it enables marketers to focus their efforts on reaching and engaging the most relevant prospects. By understanding the specific needs, pain points and preferences of their target audience, marketers can create highly targeted and personalized messaging, content and campaigns. This alignment allows for more effective lead generation strategies, ensuring that resources are allocated towards the most promising leads that are more likely to convert. By accurately identifying the ideal customer profile, businesses can tailor their marketing efforts to attract and engage the right decision-makers within organizations, increasing the chances of generating qualified leads and driving business growth in the cybersecurity industry.

• Align Lead Generation Content Assets with the Buyer’s Journey: B2B cybersecurity lead generation marketers can leverage a messaging platform and target personas to create compelling content that entices prospects throughout the buyer’s journey. A well-developed messaging platform ensures consistent and tailored messaging, aligning with the pain points, needs and interests of each target persona. By understanding the buyer’s journey stages, marketers can create content that addresses specific challenges and provides valuable insights at each step, nurturing prospects from awareness to consideration and ultimately to conversion. With a deep understanding of their target audience, marketers can craft content that resonates with prospects, showcases the business’s expertise, and highlights the unique value proposition. This strategic approach helps build trust, establishes thought leadership and guides prospects toward making informed decisions, resulting in successful lead generation and driving business growth in the B2B cybersecurity space.

 

• For B2B cybersecurity lead generation marketers, it is vital to utilize a wide range of influential media outlets where their ideal customer profiles (ICPs) frequent. This approach allows marketers to cast a broad net and reach a diverse set of potential leads. By leveraging various media outlets such as industry-specific publications, online forums, social media platforms and professional communities, marketers can increase their visibility and target their messaging to specific segments within their ICPs. It also provides an opportunity to test different channels and measure their effectiveness in delivering results. By analyzing data and tracking lead generation metrics, marketers can identify the outlets that consistently deliver quality leads and focus their efforts on those specific channels. This strategic approach helps optimize marketing resources, maximize lead generation outcomes and improve the overall effectiveness of B2B cybersecurity marketing campaigns.

• When selecting media publisher outlets to generate B2B cybersecurity leads, there are several key performance indicators (KPIs) that marketers should consider:
  • Lead Quality: The quality of leads generated is a crucial KPI. Marketers should assess the relevance and alignment of leads with their target audience and ideal customer profile (ICP). Look for indicators such as lead source, job titles, company size and engagement level to determine if the leads match the desired criteria.
  • Conversion Rate: The conversion rate is a valuable KPI that measures the percentage of leads that turn into customers or take the desired action, such as requesting a demo or filling out a contact form. A higher conversion rate indicates the effectiveness of the media publisher outlet in attracting leads that are more likely to convert.
  • Cost per Lead (CPL): CPL measures the cost incurred to acquire a single lead. By analyzing the CPL, marketers can evaluate the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of different media publisher outlets. Lower CPLs indicate higher value for money and a better return on investment (ROI) for lead generation efforts.
  • Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): ROAS measures the revenue generated compared to the advertising spend. It helps assess the financial performance of media publisher outlets and their ability to deliver positive ROI. A higher ROAS indicates that the selected outlets are generating leads that convert into customers and contribute to revenue growth.
  • Engagement Metrics: Analyzing engagement metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), time spent on site, page views and bounce rates provides insights into how well the media publisher outlets are engaging the target audience. Higher engagement metrics suggest that the content resonates with the audience and encourages further interaction.
  • Brand Awareness and Reach: It is essential to evaluate the brand awareness and reach achieved through media publisher outlets. Metrics such as impressions, reach, social media shares and brand mentions can indicate the visibility and exposure gained by leveraging specific outlets.
  • Audience Insights: Understanding the audience demographics, behavior and interests can provide valuable insights for refining targeting strategies. Media publisher outlets that offer detailed audience insights and analytics allow marketers to optimize their campaigns and tailor their messaging to better resonate with the target audience.
  • Brand Alignment is Key: Brand alignment with a trusted influential media publisher outlet is of paramount importance for B2B cybersecurity lead generation marketers when syndicating content to generate leads. The reputation and trustworthiness of the media publisher outlet directly influence the perception of the brand by the target audience. By partnering with a reputable outlet that has established credibility in the cybersecurity industry, marketers can leverage the trust and authority associated with that outlet to enhance their own brand equity. This alignment helps to build trust with potential leads, positioning the brand as a reliable and knowledgeable source in the cybersecurity domain. It not only increases the likelihood of lead engagement and conversion but also strengthens the overall brand image and reputation within the target market.

 

• Are you creating a messaging platform in an echo chamber, or relying on a PR firm to conduct a round of interviews?  When creating new content, how do you know which keywords and copy with create the most engagement with your ICP?  Data shouldn’t be used to simply gauge performance, it can be transformative when used to inform strategy before going to market.

• First-party contact-level intent data can be a valuable resource for B2B cybersecurity marketers in creating a messaging platform that resonates with their target audience. By analyzing the intent data collected from their own website or another trusted third-party media publisher with contact-level intent data, marketers can gain insights into the specific interests, behaviors and preferences of individual contacts. This data helps in understanding the pain points and motivations of prospects, allowing marketers to tailor their messaging accordingly. By leveraging contact-level intent data, marketers can create personalized and targeted messaging that directly addresses the needs and challenges of potential leads. This data-driven approach enables the development of a messaging platform that aligns with the buyer’s journey, ensuring that the right content is delivered to the right audience at the right stage. By utilizing first-party intent data, B2B cybersecurity marketers can enhance their messaging platform, deliver relevant and valuable content and ultimately increase engagement and conversion rates.
  • This data-driven approach enables the creation of highly targeted, personalized, and contextual content assets that resonate deeply with the target personas, driving engagement and increasing the chances of conversion. It empowers marketers to optimize their content strategy and deliver the most impactful content that not only educates and informs but also guides prospects toward making informed decisions.

 

B2B cybersecurity lead generation marketers face intense competition in the industry, making it challenging to stand out from competitors and capture the attention of their target audience. However, utilizing an advisory firm with access to first-party contact-level intent data can provide a significant advantage. By leveraging this data, marketers gain deep insights into the specific interests, behaviors and preferences of their target audience. This allows them to develop highly targeted and personalized strategies that align with the buyer’s journey and address the unique pain points of potential leads. The use of first-party intent data enables marketers to deliver relevant and timely content, increasing engagement and driving better lead-generation outcomes. It helps them identify and prioritize the most promising prospects, enhancing their ability to succeed in a competitive landscape by focusing on strategies that have the highest potential for success.

• We’ve been managing marketing campaigns for cybersecurity companies since 2006
• We’ve exclusive access to the world’s largest repository of real-time first-party contact-level intent data
• We validate all our strategies against our in-house CISO Advisory Board and select members of the CyberEdBoard CISO community

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