What Is Cybersecurity Marketing?

As businesses increasingly rely on the internet and digital networks to handle daily processes and sensitive data, the risk of cyber attacks and hacking increases. To help address this issue, companies offering cybersecurity products have entered the industry. But how does one of these companies stand out and find their perfect audience? The answer: cybersecurity marketing professionals. Read on to learn more about cybersecurity marketing, careers in this field, different cybersecurity marketing strategies, and cybersecurity marketing campaigns.

What is cybersecurity marketing used for?

Cybersecurity marketing is a marketing method that uses comprehensive strategies to help cybersecurity companies find their ideal audience. Through branding, assessments, campaigns, and other strategies, cybersecurity marketing professionals help businesses stand out in a crowded field and successfully communicate brand value to potential customers.

Cybersecurity marketing is key to helping companies identify the type of customer who would benefit most from their specific product. By analyzing the customer journey—including awareness, consideration, and decision—cybersecurity marketers can map out ideal buyer personas and strategies.

Types of cybersecurity marketing

Cybersecurity marketing has several different types, similar to the strategies used for other marketing. Some of these types of marketing include:

Content marketing and SEO

Content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are key to a successful cybersecurity strategy. The idea is to offer valuable written content, such as blogs or downloadable guides, that potential customers might seek out before deciding which product to buy. Content marketing builds authority and trust, and SEO helps that content reach the right audience. This strategy makes marketing efforts more efficient and maximizes the value of money spent on creating the content.

Buyer personas

Understanding the buyers of your cybersecurity product is an important aspect of cybersecurity marketing. By creating profiles that describe the ideal types of customers for your cybersecurity products, you can tailor strategies to unique buyer personas. These personas reflect a potential customer’s desires, pain points, and background. Then, a marketing professional uses these buyer personas to design effective, data-driven marketing campaigns that appeal to the right customers. This way, a company doesn’t waste time or money marketing to people who are not your potential customers.

PPC marketing

Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is a strategy that helps funnel people to a specific landing page or action—such as signing up for a free quote—through deliberately placed ads and calls to action. This strategy is effective at capturing customers who are close to the decision or purchasing stage.

Virtual and in-person networking

Meeting potential clients at conferences, networking events, webinars, or virtual meet-ups are effective marketing strategies that help nurture long-term relationships. For many cybersecurity companies, it’s helpful to offer hands-on demos that allow customers to try out your products themselves. Virtual demos are a great opportunity to connect with potential customers while showing what sets your products and services apart from the competition.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is a powerful way to get valuable content and opportunities for conversation and engagement with stakeholders and other company decision-makers who might benefit from your services. Platforms like LinkedIn make it easy to facilitate valuable interactions with potential customers.

Vertical marketing techniques

Vertical marketing refers to marketing campaigns and content that appeal to a specific type of customer, such as health care companies. While some people think vertical marketing might inadvertently ignore potential customers that don’t fit a vertical, the fact is that vertical marketing helps companies address unique pain points or goals. This technique sets companies apart from those that only market in a broad, general sense.

Who uses cybersecurity marketing?

Cybersecurity businesses use cybersecurity marketing to reach new customers and retain existing ones. Without a strong marketing strategy, reaching your intended audience is almost impossible. Cybersecurity is a saturated field, so it’s more difficult than ever to stand out among other vendors and reach the decision-makers who matter. Business leaders and IT professionals looking for the right cybersecurity vendor for their company tend to value and engage with cybersecurity marketing techniques.

Real-world examples of cybersecurity marketing

Some real-world examples of cybersecurity marketing include testimonials to market your company’s value to potential clients and marketing campaigns led by a cybersecurity project manager. Datasheets, FAQ pages, and product guides are all valuable pieces of content marketers use to establish authority and build trust with potential clients. Content roadmaps are marketing tools that allow you to see what you’ve posted, what you plan to post, and how it works together under a larger cybersecurity marketing strategy or campaign.

How to get started in cybersecurity marketing

If you’re interested in a cybersecurity marketing career, you’ll first want to explore what this role entails. Cybersecurity marketing is part of a field known as technical marketing, which means that, as a cybersecurity marketer, you’re responsible for marketing technical products to enterprises or companies. Cybersecurity marketers must design, plan, create, and implement marketing strategies and campaigns that help draw in new customers and retain old ones.

To start a career in cybersecurity marketing, you’ll typically need a bachelor’s degree in marketing or cybersecurity. This career could be a great fit if you enjoy talking to new people and developing relationships through demonstrations, networking opportunities, and digital marketing campaigns. Generally, cybersecurity marketers have strong project management skills and experience using online analytics tools, which they use directly at cybersecurity marketing agencies or for cybersecurity companies.

Learn more with Coursera.

As with other industries, cybersecurity companies use marketing to spread the word about their services. You can sharpen your cybersecurity marketing skills and learn more about a career in the cybersecurity marketing field with courses and Professional Certificates on Coursera. 

If you’re ready to develop in-demand skills for a career in cybersecurity marketing, consider Foundations of Cybersecurity, the first in an eight-course series to earn the Google Cybersecurity Professional Certificate on Coursera. You can learn more about marketing and cybersecurity and what a career in these fields might entail. On Coursera, you’ll find degrees, courses, and certificates from top-rated universities and companies worldwide. Explore your interests today and discover a new passion or career.