Everyone’s About to Promote the Same Thing

This & That is where we get into the marketing that actually changes how your business grows. This edition focuses on the cybersecurity industry, as Cybersecurity Awareness Month takes place in October and content plans are currently being finalised.

Here’s what happens every year. Come the start of October, the industry starts publishing phishing statistics, reminders about password best practice, and infographics featuring a padlock icon. All of this is done with good intentions, but everyone ends up saying the same thing, at the same time, to the same audience.

If you work in B2B cybersecurity, this puts you in a tricky situation. October is a month when your buyers’ awareness levels are high, but it’s also the month when you run the greatest risk of sounding like everyone else. It’s far from ideal: the month when your buyers are primed is also the one when you struggle the most to stand out.

But what if October is an opportunity to say something that only you could say?

The statistics that are yours

Almost all publications in October rely on the same few reports: Verizon’s data breach report, the Government’s Cyber Security Breaches survey, or IBM’s stats on the cost of a breach. These are excellent sources – which is exactly why everyone uses them. By the second week of October, a statistic cited over and over again ceases to be actual information and becomes background noise.

You almost certainly have alternative material sitting within your own company. Consider the issues your support team has handled throughout the year, or what your engineers consistently uncover during their audits. Think about that specific point which comes up in almost every initial conversation with a prospect. A small, first-hand data point drawn from your own experience, presented with the right caveats, is worth more than an impressive figure borrowed from someone else. Even a qualitative assessment of the information can be interesting and useful. And, best of all, no one else can publish it.

The advice that sticks

The month was originally based on the idea that people aren’t as aware as they should be of the importance of cybersecurity. But when it comes to business-to-business, that’s not necessarily the case. The buyer’s not in the dark; they understand what’s at stake. But they may have to contend with a lack of budget, problems with board approval, and competing business priorities.

What this means is that content aimed at raising awareness is addressing a question that your buyer isn’t asking. Instead, content that helps build a business case or break a deadlock is more compelling. What exactly should be in the business case? What do you do first when you don’t have the budget to do everything? This is the kind of information that genuinely helps a buyer.

Writing that convinces somebody else

We made a similar point regarding conference brochures a fortnight ago, and it holds true here. The person reading your October content isn’t necessarily the person who signs off on decisions. Instead, they’re the person who needs to champion the project internally, often by passing your content onto someone more senior.

So give them something that makes sense if it’s forwarded on: a one-pager that still works without context, something a finance director can read quickly without needing someone to explain it first. Sometimes, B2B content created for awareness months is designed to look clever, but the most useful pieces are those designed to be shared.

There’s a case for going late, on purpose.

As we mentioned, October is a crowded month in the cybersecurity sector. This means that your best marketing has to work twice as hard to stand out. It’s the inevitable result of everyone publishing during the same short window.

November, by contrast, is quieter. If you push the release of that same content back to the second week of November, you’ll reach readers while next year’s budgets are still being discussed. Far from missing the boat, you’re choosing a more opportune moment.

If you’d rather not go silent in October, opt for a two-pronged approach: release something short in October so that your colleagues don’t wonder where you are, then save the content that really matters to you for November. That’s when it will have the breathing space needed to find its audience.

Short on time? Here’s a quick exercise.

Take your content plan for October and compare it with whatever three of your competitors published last October. If your plan looks different to theirs, you’re ahead of most of the market. If it doesn’t, work out what you really think about it all – which, incidentally, usually sparks an interesting discussion.

More of This & That in a fortnight’s time.