Mike Volpe is the Chief Marketing Officer at Cybereason. I’ve had the privilege of knowing Mike for about ten years, and I consider him to be one of the brightest marketing minds. He combines inbound content, SEO, video, podcast and traditional marketing with account based marketing strategies to support the sales efforts at his current company, Cybereason.
Mike’s a very hands-on marketing executive. As a member of the founding team and CMO at HubSpot, he drove their growth from zero to 1,000 employees and 15,000 plus customers, as well as a successful IPO. Mike is also an angel investor, advisor, and/or board member at more than 25 companies, primarily software startups in Boston.
On this episode of the Social Business Engine podcast, we discuss how Cybereason’s marketing and sales teams work together leveraging an integrated approach. We even talk a little bit about some offline marketing tactics that you don’t hear a lot about in today’s digital marketing landscape.
A Mix of Inbound and Outbound Marketing
Cybereason is a cybersecurity software company that gives their customers a greater advantage when fighting against modern threats. They use artificial intelligence to detect patterns of bad behavior. Mike mentioned that the software is a spin-off from the Israeli Intelligence Cyber Division.
Cybereason targets multiple personas, and because of this, they use an account-based strategy to map out their game plan accordingly. Their target personas include the Chief Security Officer at Fortune 1000 companies, the Director of Security Operations Center (SOC), security analysts, etc. Most of their deals are in the six and seven figures.
When Mike first joined Cybereason the relationship between marketing and sales was broken. Shortly after Mike started, a new head of sales was hired, and the two work together closely. Instead of having individual meetings, Mike (CMO) and the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) meet with the CEO together to have sales and marketing meetings. They also hold joint meetings to discuss the sales pipeline and lead generation goals and account-based marketing plans.
Some traditional marketing tactics still work for Cybereason. They focus on content, SEO, social media, video, and podcasting, while also attending over 100 events a year and sending direct mail to specific targets. Mike says it’s a balanced approach that mixes inbound and outbound marketing tactics.
Storytelling in Cybereason’s Content
Digging into Cybereason’s content, their podcast Malicious Life takes a different approach to sharing news compared to other cybersecurity podcasts. The format is similar to This American Life – it’s about the history of hacking, and the material’s broken down by season. For example, season one is called “History of Malware.” The storytelling podcast helps to get the brand in front of their target audience.
Cybereason creates high-quality video content that also relies on storytelling. Their videos include animation, voice-overs, and even professional acting. Mike says that with more than six targets per account it’s harder to track the ROI. Instead of looking to data, there’s more reliance on feedback from the sales team and customers as to what has an impact on the sales process.
Marketing and sales collaboration enables both teams to have a better understanding of what works. In future, Mike and the team at Cybereason are planning to do more long-form content like printed and digital books. They also expect to create lengthier videos that are ten to twenty minutes. He says that long-form content is an area of differentiation for Cybereason. Most of their competitors are creating short videos, blogs, and podcasts. Making theirs a little bit longer will help them to stand out.