Shaping the future of cybersecurity marketing

An interview with Maria Velasquez, Chief Growth Officer & Co-Founder of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society

National Cybersecurity Awareness Month is a great time to explore the unique challenges and opportunities in the cybersecurity marketing space. New challenges and threats demand specialized marketing approaches that communicate complex technical solutions while addressing growing risks. So, where can marketers turn for advice in this highly nuanced field?

Maria Velasquez, Chief Growth Officer and Co-Founder of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, has created a community for professional development, networking, and career support specific to cybersecurity marketers. In just a few years, the Cybersecurity Marketing Society has grown into a vibrant hub where marketers exchange ideas, learn from industry experts, and collaborate to tackle the unique challenges in their field.

We sat down with Maria to explore everything from the current cybersecurity talent shortage to strategies for building trust during cyber breaches. Maria shared her thoughts on how AI-driven threats are shaping marketing strategies, crisis communication lessons learned from incidents like SolarWinds and the CrowdStrike outage, and the best ways to make an impact in a crowded marketplace.

What inspired you to create the Cybersecurity Marketing Society, and how has it evolved since its inception?

We created this community to fill a big gap in professional development, networking, and career support for cyber marketers. Security practitioners enjoy a menu of different communities, but marketing teams haven’t until now.

What are some of the key takeaways or trends you’ve observed during the Cybersecurity Marketing Convention?

At CyberMarketingCon, there was a central theme around content, messaging, and even branding: the need to do better research on the ideal customer profile, truly understand their challenges and how the security product and service solves them and package all this into simple messaging, free of marketing jargon.

The cybersecurity talent shortage has been a recurring issue. How can companies better attract and retain diverse talent, and what role should marketing play in this effort?

Provide more educational resources for the practitioner side. I know of certain companies that offer free training and certifications. This is a great way to build trust as a vendor with the security buyer and further our cause for a safer and more secure world.

With the increasing frequency of cyber breaches, how can companies adjust their marketing strategies to maintain customer trust while handling the reputational risks?

The best thing cybersecurity companies can do during rocky times is share as much information as possible. There can be a lot of noise during a breach or incident response, so security teams can be overwhelmed and find it difficult to know what’s a good information source and what is junk.

The risk environment is growing more complex with AI-driven threats. How are cybersecurity marketers adapting their messaging to address this growing challenge?

If your product or service can provide security teams the right visibility into the potential risk AI can bring, then great! Join the conversation. If not, please don’t.

What lessons should cybersecurity companies learn from recent global incidents, such as the SolarWinds attack in 2020 and the CrowdStrike outage in 2024, and how should marketers adapt to crisis communications?

Crisis communications are probably the most challenging jobs for a cybersecurity marketer. Sometimes, people think carrying a pipeline quota as a marketer is hard, but crisis communications are another beast. I have a lot of respect for those teams, including PR. I am not sure there is a one-size-fits-all strategy for crisis communications, so you kind of have to custom-fit your strategy to your situation.

Hats off to all my crisis communications friends.

How can cybersecurity companies better communicate the importance of supply chain security to both technical and non-technical audiences, especially in light of growing concerns around vendor dependencies?

Most security teams and the security community already understand the importance of third-party risk. The struggle is understanding their attack surface and having the proper visibility. For other security teams with visibility, it’s essential to understand what to prioritize and avoid alert fatigue.

Given the rise in nation-state and ransomware attacks, how do you think cybersecurity marketing needs to evolve to address the fears and concerns of B2B buyers?

The best evolution we can make is not to lead with fear in your marketing. Instead, peace of mind should be provided with the essential information needed to help the community continue to make our world more secure. We have already seen this shift across security vendors’ messaging and marketing strategies.

Cybersecurity marketing often involves educating a non-technical audience about highly technical solutions. What are some strategies you recommend for bridging this gap?

This is probably the hardest because at times we assume technical content will resonate with all that work in security and struggle to simplify it. Or we assume the technical audience wants and loves technical content…when sometimes they just want to understand what your product does in simple terms and how it can impact their job and help solve their challenges.

What do you think is the most misunderstood aspect of marketing cybersecurity products or services?

The buyer journey and behavior in cybersecurity are difficult to predict or document. We work hard to understand which campaign was the most influential in helping create a deal, but in reality, so many touch points in that journey can’t be documented or predicted. We have to be okay with the unknown and believe in brand awareness because it’s powerful. Not everything needs to be lead generation.

How can marketers differentiate their cybersecurity brand in such a crowded market where many companies offer similar solutions?

Bring humor into the mix. Security practitioners are stressed as they are… and don’t need fear in your messaging. A meme or two can put a smile on their faces, and they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy a solution.

Stand out, look different, do something unusual at your booth, and offer actual value, not just pens and t-shirts. Offer an experience they’ll remember.

All these are ideas most marketing teams already know and want to implement—the struggle is internal buy-in and ensuring everyone agrees on the creative direction and tone.

What are the biggest mistakes cybersecurity marketers are making in today’s competitive landscape, and how can they avoid these pitfalls?

Assuming demand generation entails investing in paid channels only. Unfortunately, this misconception is more prominent within leadership, disseminates into the team’s strategy, and hinders its success. Please continue to invest in brand awareness in all its forms. You can’t measure it on a lead source, but over time, you’ll feel its impact on the pipeline.

Considering the increasing importance of zero-trust architecture, what innovations do you expect in this space, and how can marketers educate customers about its benefits?

I’m afraid to say AI, but that’s what’s been taking over our feeds and minds. The security community is working hard to keep up with this technology and its evolution to ensure we understand the security implications of injecting AI into our everyday lives.

What role do you see AI and machine learning playing in the future of cybersecurity marketing? Has the role of cybersecurity marketers changed in response to the rise of AI tools for content creation and customer engagement?

AI has been a fantastic add-on to the tech stack for marketers, especially those operating with a lean budget or tend to be a one-person marketing magic show. Faster graphics, head start on scheduling two weeks of social posts, or even getting you started on a skeletal email nurture program.

Envisionit has developed key specialties to help cybersecurity companies stand and generate new business. See how our team can help your cybersecurity marketing efforts with brand strategy, campaign development, media planning, content development, and analytics.

Want to learn more? Check out why marketing is key to mitigating damage in cyber attacks.