Inside the mind of the CISO 2021

The definitive study on what makes outstanding thought leadership in the cyber industry

Introduction

Cyber marketing specialists face the constant challenge to contribute to the bottom line. Indeed, it is the reason for their existence.

Whether start-up, scale-up or enterprise marketing specialists have to develop a broad array of tactics, optimising budgets against each stage of the buying journey that we are involved with. Thought leadership is an established practice but by its nature it is not straightforward to attribute specific lead generation or sales, so proving its worth to sceptics can be a challenge.

Our research fills this knowledge gap, providing a strong evidence base for thought leadership’s place – and budgets – in your marketing tool kit.

In compiling this report, we have uncovered how information security leaders use thought leadership content when procuring cybersecurity products and services.

We have also researched what sort of content they look for, what holds their interest and what sort of content they find to be the easiest to consume.

This is the first piece of global research that specifically looks at what cybersecurity specialists and practitioners think, and what they are looking for in thought leadership content.

The global nature of this report is particularly important as the world has been locked down due to the Covid pandemic, which has kept us away from the office, but also united us in communication and ways to keep in touch with peers via digital means. Our research has shown that lockdowns have created difficulties for information security leaders in making procurement decisions. Thought leadership is an important alternative to face-to-face meetings as a way for cybersecurity suppliers to establish their credibility and build trust in potential customers. We anticipate this trend to only accelerate in the future.

These are all factors which we will consider in this report, and just like thought leadership, we hope you will gain useful and practical advice.