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Welcome back to Digital Rage. I'm Jeff the producer here at Phish Tank Digital.
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Phish Tank is our new cyber security marketing company. We have an unfair
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advantage of having cyber security experts join our team, validate our content,
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and most importantly how to generate leads for mid-market cyber security
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vendors. So no more of me. Let's dig in.
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Okay, so for this deep dive we've pulled together your sources and they focus on
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a really fascinating intersection. We're talking about the super technical world
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of enterprise cyber security on one hand and the well the often misunderstood
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world of digital marketing on the other. Right, two worlds that don't always
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speak the same language. Exactly. So our mission here is to tackle a big question.
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How do you actually market these highly complex sometimes abstract cyber security
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and SaaS? That's S-A-A-S solutions. To an audience that is by its very nature
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skeptical. Incredibly skeptical. Yeah, super technical, super savvy. We're talking
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about the enterprise buyer but really the cyber security buyer specifically.
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Once you can spot fluff from a mile away. 100%. And the subject of our dive is a
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company called Phish Tank Digital. They're an agency that works only in the
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space. Cyber security, SaaS, InfoSec brands. So they're specialists. Portal
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specialists and we need to unpack their strategy because they claim to bridge
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that that huge gap between the cutting edge tech and marketing that actually
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delivers results. And what's so interesting right out of the gate is how the
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sources frame the problem. The cyber security marketing landscape today is just
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it's more crowded than it has ever been. It's incredibly noisy. It really is. It's
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not enough to just have the best firewall anymore or you know the most advanced
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XDR platform. If your messaging is unclear. If your content is generic. If your
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SEO is basically non-existent. Even the most groundbreaking technology gets
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completely lost. Right. And the sources really emphasize why that generic
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marketing fails. They call it the fluff factor. And that kind of stuff. It just falls
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completely flat with a technical audience because they're being hit with it all
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day every day. And you're not just competing for clicks. I think that's a key point.
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No, it's something more. You are competing for trust. That's the real currency.
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Yeah. If you waste a technical buyer's time with marketing jargon or worse with
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something that's just plain wrong. Yeah. You don't just lose a potential sale. You
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lose all credibility. Yeah. Instantly. And that trust deficit is everything. The
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sources point to this key audience. The enterprise buyers, the technical teams.
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And especially the CsOs, the CISOs. You see so's right. They are literally
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professional risk managers. That's their job. So they look at marketing with just
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like extreme skepticism. Yeah. So isn't just you know reading your
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brochure. They're evaluating your fundamental competence to protect their
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entire organization. That's a great way to put it. So if your marketing feels weak
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or shallow, they just assume your product's architecture is weak and shallow too.
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So the goal according to the sources is to make your brand visible, credible,
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and irresistible. But that credibility piece. How do you actually earn that?
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That's the million dollar question. And that is the absolute hinge point for this
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whole deep dive. You know, any agency can promise to make you more visible. But how
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does fish tank digital claim to solve this specific, deeply rooted trust
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problem? This isn't just about a better logo. No, it's about a better understanding.
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It is. And this is where it gets really interesting. Their core selling point,
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what they call their unfair advantage is that they are not just another
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marketing agency that you know, learned a few security buzzwords. Yeah. They
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embed actual cybersecurity intelligence expertise right into the marketing
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engine from the ground up. So what you mean they have actual security
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practitioners on the marketing team? That's exactly it. And that's what
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inoculates them against that skepticism we were just talking about. The agency was
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founded by a veteran digital strategist Jeff buyer. But the really unique part
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is who else is on the team guiding the work? Okay, I'm listening. The sources call
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out two specific roles that just completely redefine what you think of when you
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hear marketing agency. Right. First, they work with a former director of a
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global threat intelligence center. Hold on, say that again. A director of a
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global threat intelligence center. Yeah. So someone whose job was tracking, you
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know, nation state hackers and analyzing zero day exploits. The highest level.
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And now they're guiding SEO strategies. It sounds like a huge leap, right? But
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think about what that perspective brings to the table. It changes the entire
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game. It means your content strategy isn't just based on what's trending on
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Google. It's based on actual real time defense priorities. Exactly. When they
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write an article or a white paper, that former threat intel director is
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ensuring every detail is precise. It's timely. And it actually speaks to a
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practitioner who lives in that threat matrix every single day. They know it keeps
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a seesaw up at night. They literally do. And they can use that insight to frame a
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solution as an absolute necessity, not just another nice to have tool. And
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that's not all that expertise is paired with a former product manager from a
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major cybersecurity vendor. Someone who worked on things like MDR or XDR platform.
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Well, that's the other half of the puzzle. A former product manager is I mean,
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they're arguably the perfect translator for technical marketing. They know exactly
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how a technical buyer evaluates features. They know the checklists and
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comparison charts that sees those use. And crucially, they know which buzzwords are
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just fluff and which one's signal real validated ROI. So they can cut to the
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noise because they helped create the original signal.
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Precisely. It allows the agency to market based on provable value, not just
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vague promises of better security. So when they claim to have an unfair
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advantage, it's really rooted in that combination. It's deep, battle-tested
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cyber expertise mixed with top-tier digital marketing. They speak the
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customer's language because they were the customer and the architect.
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Okay, so they have the expertise. But that's only one piece of it. You still have to
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deliver growth in a structured, repeatable way. Right. And what really stood out to
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me in the sources is how they package their services. It's not just a menu of
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options. They're organized into these very specialized structured systems for
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growth. The systemic approach. That's smart. That appeals directly to the
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engineering mindset of their clients. I thought so too. I mean, insecurity.
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Everything is about structure and frameworks, right? We rely on NIST or
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MITRE for defense. So applying that same systematic thinking to generating
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leads, it just makes sense. And it creates transparency. The sources suggest that
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having these predefined systems allows them to be much clearer about scope and
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cost, which immediately helps fight that skepticism. People have about agency
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pricing. So they're not just selling services. They're selling a methodology, a
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roadmap. Yeah, it's almost like a security framework. But for marketing. It is. So
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let's unpack these four systems they offer. The first one is the go-to-market
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system. Okay. This one is aimed squarely at cybersecurity startups or maybe an
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established company that's launching a totally new product. The whole goal is
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to build that foundational strategy, the core messaging, the basics, the
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critical basics. Yeah. And then run the launch campaigns to get those first few
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really important early adopter customers. And that's where that thread-in-tell
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directors expertise would be front and center. I imagine. Absolutely. Because the
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entire strategy has to be built on real security concepts like zero trust or
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specific compliance needs, right? And day one. Right. So once you have that
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foundation, you need to scale. That brings us to system two. The lead generation
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system. The workhorse. Totally. This is for the established SaaS security
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platforms. The goal here is pure reliable scale. Delivering a constant
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pipeline of qualified sales leads by targeting the right people on search and
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social. And that's where the former product manager shines. We're making sure
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the landing page copy they add to all of it. It focuses on the exact technical
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pain points and ROI that gets a buyer to actually click request a demo instead of
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just closing the tab. Then you have the third system, which is about reputation
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and dominance. It's called the visibility and exposure system. That's for the big
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players. Yeah. This is for the large enterprise vendors who want to be seen as
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the definitive thought leader. So it's all about deep content, strategic PR,
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authority building SEO. Moving beyond just getting leads to actually shaping the
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market conversation. You got it. They want their clients to be the ones
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quoted by industry analysts. The ones people search for by name, basically
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making them the mentors of the security world. And the last one. The fourth one is
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the build your own system. It's more of a flexible package. It's for companies
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that maybe already have a marketing team, but need to plug a specific gap, you
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know, without buying a whole prepackaged system. So it's augmentation. That makes
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sense. When you look at them all together, you can see a really clear, logical
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progression. Yeah. It maps to a company's lifecycle. It maps directly to the
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maturity stages of a cyber company from launch to growth to market dominance.
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Yeah. It ensures the marketing grows up right alongside the technology.
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So if we dive a little deeper into the actual like day to day tactics, the
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sources lists some really specific services that show how technical their
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focuses. This isn't just generic stuff. Okay. Let's hear. So they're not just
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doing SEO. They do AI adaptive cybersecurity SEO. It's not about ranking for
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broad terms. It's about hitting those super specific high-intent searches that
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only a real practitioner would type in. Like what will give me an example? Like a
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mighter 18ck mapping for container security or zero-trust implementation
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guide for financial services. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Only a qualified buyer is searching
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for that. The hobbyist isn't exactly. And their content marketing for cyber
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security is the same idea. It's built to earn trust with CISOS and technical
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buyers, which is a totally different skill than writing for consumers. It has
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to be accurate and it can't be condescending. And then there's this one, which I
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think is a huge challenge. Most people don't think about graphic design for
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cybersecurity. Oh, this is a good one. It's not about making a pretty chart.
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It's about being able to accurately visualize something incredibly
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complex, like a security architecture diagram or how data flows through an
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XDR system. And it has to be right for two different audiences at the same
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time. Exactly. It needs to be clear enough for an executive to understand the
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risk. But detailed and accurate enough that a security architect doesn't
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immediately dismiss it as wrong. A generic designer would make it look nice.
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But their experts make sure that data flow diagram is actually, you know,
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correct. A fundamental difference. And even their approach to nurturing leads is
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different. Their email marketing isn't just a bunch of sales pitches. It's
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focused on delivering relevant threat intelligence and solutions. Ah, so
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they're using that threat intel expertise to provide value first value
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first. They send emails that people actually want to open because they might
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learn something. And only then do they introduce the product that solves the
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problem. And of course, they handle the big scaling tools too, like targeted
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PPC advertising on Google and LinkedIn. But even there, the targeting is just
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smarter because they actually understand the buyer personas. They know an
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InfoSec analyst cares about different things than a procurement manager does.
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So who is this all really for? The sources get pretty specific about their ideal
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clients. It sounds like it's for companies that are already serious about their
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tech. It is. They target established SaaS security platforms that need that
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scaled legion to keep growing. Also, B2B InfoSec solution providers who are
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looking to expand into, you know, really competitive markets like the US or
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Europe. So companies that need to scale big but can't afford to lose credibility
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while doing it. Exactly. And what I found really interesting was the mention of
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cybersecurity e-commerce. It's a service for securely selling cybersecurity
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products and subscriptions online. That's a niche within a niche. You need to
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understand the distribution, the licensing, the secure payments. It's complex.
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So when you tie it all back, the main message is that their entire approach is
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tailored to a company's business stage from a startup with a great idea all the
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way to a global enterprise vendor. Right. It's all designed so that a company's
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marketing performs just as powerfully as its technology. So they stop leaving
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money on the table. So if we try to synthesize all this, what's the big takeaway?
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I think for me, it's that in a market like cybersecurity, credibility is
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everything. It's the only currency that matters. And Fish Tank Digital's model
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is built from the ground up to earn that credibility by putting real cyber
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intelligence from former threat directors and product managers at the
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absolute core of their marketing. It's a complete shift from the traditional agency
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model. It's the difference between hiring a marketing generalist versus hiring
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a specialist who could probably sit in on your internal C-suite meetings and
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contribute meaningfully. 100%. They're selling structure, a proven method, a
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roadmap for generating demand that has the same kind of reliability you'd
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expect from a security framework. The whole goal is to make sure your
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communication is as precise and powerful as the code you're selling. And that
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combination of transparency and deep expertise is what it takes to convince a
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buyer who is paid to be skeptical, which brings us to our final provocative
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thought for you to think about. If we know that cybersecurity buyers are so
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skeptical of marketing fluff, what specific details in your own company's
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content, or maybe the content you read every day signals that it's genuinely
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expert-backed versus just generic sales copy. That's a good question. Where else
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could embedding a former threat intelligence director be the key that unlocks
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trust in a super crowded, highly technical market? Think about the specific
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language, the scenarios, the level of detail you look for, and ask yourself if
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the content you create or consume actually reflects that same depth of knowledge.
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Thanks for joining us with this deep dive into marketing to the mentors. We
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encourage you to look at your own content sources through that lens, necessary
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expertise versus what could be dangerous generally. Until next time, stay curious.
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Reach out to us at jbuyer.com for comments and questions. Follow us at buyer
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company on social media, and if you'd be so kind, please rate and review us a new
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podcast app.