You must know the specific attributes of your audience and then translate your product features into values and benefits, to match these to the specific needs says Roy Brockman, Director of Marketing at SecuriThings as he shares his journey in tech marketing and discusses his biggest hacks and tips. Catch the complete QnA.
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Can you tell us a little about yourself Roy? What’s your professional journey been like so far? Tell us what’s it like being a Director of Marketing in the IoT industry for SecuriThings?
I was born in Israel and raised in Paris, France. This versatility has always been a significant strength in my professional career. I like combining the European long-run strategic thinking with the Israeli straight-forward approach. I have started my career 13 years ago in the telecom industry, and quickly found my bearings in the IoT space.
I couldn’t think of a more dynamic field than tech-oriented marketing. The world is getting more and more technical and ROI-oriented. This has led to a paradigm shift in the way tech companies run their marketing activities.
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Given your rich experience and expertise in Tech/B2B Marketing – we’d love to know about some of your top marketing must haves for a basic Marketing outreach / Product campaign!
You must know the very specific attributes of your audience, how/why/when they consume content, translate your product features into values and benefits, and match these to the specific needs of this audience. Within this audience, you should map all your personas – users, decision makers, buyers and influencers. Alongside this account-based marketing, you should pay attention to accounts which might not answer all of your Ideal Customer Profile criteria, but could represent great opportunities.
What would you say are some of the biggest challenges technology marketing teams face everyday? What would your top tips be for them to overcome these challenges?
As said, there has been a paradigm shift in the business value that marketing is bringing over the past ten years. The introduction of MarTech solutions such as marketing automation enables marketing executives to measure the return on investment of their campaigns. However, the ability to reach any potential customer has also resulted in an overcrowded space. No matter how targeted and creative these campaigns are, marketers must come up with two fundamental skills: a business and a product understanding.
Senior marketing positions have always been expected to align their marketing plan with the organization’s objectives. It is now required at all levels. In addition, there is a shift from traditional marcom approach to product marketing – which involves an in-depth understanding of your solution’s characteristics as well as your competitors’, market trends, etc.
Constant reskilling and development of marketers is key to driving business goals today, given the rapid innovations in tech today, it’s sometimes hard to keep up. Can you share some of your top product-based marketing training tips for the B2B space?
Marketing should become product managers’ best buddies – they should have as many touchpoints as possible. Be proactive and dig any insight or new feature from your product peers to convert them into valuable content.
Don’t look only on your direct competitors. Firstly, because we tend to focus on the same names and ignore the new entrants. Then, because what matters is who our prospects define as competitors. Companies with a different product definition could share some of our capabilities and answer our customers’ needs. Finally, because we want to differentiate ourselves. I always like drawing my creativity from totally different industries, even from B2C.
How according to you will the typical role of tomorrow’s B2B/Tech marketing person evolve, given the dynamics and innovations in MarTech? What should today’s marketer do to prepare for the future role of tomorrow?
I believe the new future role of marketing is already here and now. You should be product and business-oriented, and develop both your hands-on and strategic skills. Dig and try any new marketing automation feature, any retargeting and remarketing capabilities, and so on. The COVID-19 period has impacted marketing in the allocated resources – both human and budgets. There are high chances that you will become the main and only actor of a one-man/woman show. Be prepared for that!
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What would you say or do in your capacity to turn tech marketing into the most exciting job of the decade?!
I am sharing my passion for marketing with business students, strengthening the amazing challenges marketing has been facing and overcame. I am taking part in several IoT-industry groups, marketing forums and marketing automation leaders. I believe marketing has a lot of additional challenges to come such as a shared responsibility for employee branding, together with HR departments.
Tag (mention/write about) the one person in the industry whose answers to these questions you would love to read!
I would love to hear what Yam Regev, co-founder of Zest, would say. He is one of the most inspiring persons I met and consult with.
Your favorite Marketing quote and sales leadership books you’d suggest everyone in Sales reads
People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it – Simon Sinek
As for many marketers, Steve Jobs’ bible brought me a lot of inspiration on the importance to brand your technology.
Tell us about some of the top sales/salestech/fintech/ other events that you’ll be participating in (as a speaker or guest!) in 2020!
I spoke at the IoT Trends virtual show on July 5-7, and will talk about All Hands on Deck: Sales and Marketing Alignment for BrightTALK on August 5th
We’d love to know a little about your future plans!
I will pursue my marketing career in tech-companies and, who knows one day, I might take the plunge as an entrepreneur!
SecuriThings enables organizations to protect their IoT devices while maximizing their operational efficiency. SecuriThings Horizon is the first IoTOps solution to provide risk detection, predictive maintenance and automated operations, in one unified view.
