Q&A with Doron Youngerwood, VP Marketing at Continuity Software

Partnering with industry thought-leaders and CISOs is an important strategy in helping to build trust and credibility, as well as raising your profile.

MEDIA 7: Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? What inspired you to pursue a career in marketing?
DORON YOUNGERWOOD: While studying Business Management at University, I realized that marketing was the one subject I really wanted to explore once I qualified. As part of the course, I studied a broad range of topics; from economics to HR. And it was the marketing that really stood out. I believe it’s the blend of creativity, analytics and human psychology that appealed to me.

I’ve been fortunate to work at companies where marketing is the driving force behind their success. I also worked at one particular company where marketing was seen as an after-thought. This actually helped me to better position marketing at an executive and board level, and focus more on marketing reporting & analytics to build a stronger business case and justification to the significant value of marketing to a skeptical audience.

M7: How does Continuity Software bridge the gap between cybersecurity and storage problems?                                     
DY: Continuity is addressing a problem that has never been solved before.
There has been a major shift in the cybersecurity landscape, with the emergence of ransomware-as-a-service. This has significant implications for CISOs (Chief Information Security Officers) and requires a drastically different approach to ransomware protection.

When a hacker gets control of a PC, the damage is minimal. But when a hacker gets control of an enterprise’s storage systems, they have access to all the data! They can delete it. Corrupt it. Encrypt it. Sell it. Continuity recently launched the industry’s ONLY cybersecurity solution for storage systems, helping enterprises protect their most critical data.

Providing regular progress updates and campaign analyses to the executive team helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and aligned with the marketing strategy & mission.

M7: What marketing channels do you use and which ones do you see as the most promising, given your target customers?
DY: Just as there���s no silver bullet product that will solve a CISO’s security problems, there’s also no magic wand to wave in cybersecurity marketing. It takes time and consistency to build momentum. To give you an idea of how much noise there is in the market, CISOs receive an average of 320 emails and 60-90 calls per month from vendors.

We use LinkedIn as an important channel to educate our target customers, with high-quality thought-leadership content.
Partnering with industry thought-leaders and CISOs is an important strategy in helping to build trust and credibility, as well as raising our profile. So we’ve recently kicked off a new video series, where we interview a selection of great CISOs to learn more about their role and discuss industry trends.

In addition, we run virtual roundtables with no more than 15 CISOs and VPs of Information Security. These events are purely educational. They are not used as a glorified sales pitch, which unfortunately many virtual events are these days!

M7: How do you work with your executive team to get the most out of their marketing strategies?
DY: It's critical to have open lines of communication with the executive team. Fortunately, I met regularly with our CEO and the rest of the management team. There’s plenty of brainstorming going on, and ideas being created. Providing regular progress updates and campaign analyses to the executive team helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page, and aligned with the marketing strategy & mission.

Bringing the marketing team together helps to get the creative juices flowing and provides a more productive – as well as sociable – environment.

M7: What do you believe are the top three marketing challenges in the post COVID-19 era?
DY: Cutting through the marketing noise: The amount of content being consumed has gone through the roof. And the current marketing channels are also being over-used by vendors. This puts more pressure on marketing leadership to find unique ways to raise awareness, educate, persuade and build trust amongst buyers.

Adapting to change: There will be a ripple effect of COVID-19, and we will still see these effects continuing in the next couple of years. The marketing team needs to remain agile in order to manage to shift internal priorities, changing buyer strategies, and their budget reprioritizations.

New working environments: Work from home has obviously taken on a new meaning during COVID-19. While I believe providing employees with a flexible working environment is important, there’s nothing like brainstorming in person. Bringing the marketing team together helps to get the creative juices flowing and provides a more productive – as well as sociable – environment.