Laurie Morylak, SVP of Marketing at ReliaQuest shares a few proven best practices to help drive better marketing alignment in this catch-up:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Laurie – tell us about yourself and your marketing journey so far…we’d love to hear more about your role at ReliaQuest as well.

My marketing journey has always been focused on creating a customer experience that is high-touch and intentional for individual clients but is also scalable and allows for growth. As the marketing landscape and access to intuitive, effective technology have evolved, achieving these meaningful moments for customers has been a game-changer.

I’ve had the privilege of working with and for creative-minded brands that have focused on innovation and customer success. That mindset is what attracted me to ReliaQuest.

ReliaQuest is a global cybersecurity technology company that acts as a force multiplier for hundreds of security teams for leading brands around the world. The team’s commitment to driving innovation of our platform, building relationships with our customers and partners, and doing whatever it takes to make security possible is what fuels our marketing engine and allows us to make a significant impact.

As a marketer, what are some of the core channels that you often rely on and how do you use those channels to drive marketing demand?

The goal of our marketing team at ReliaQuest is to be an extension of the broader go-to-market team and to utilize our marketing channels in a way that addresses the diverse needs of the market segments and regions we target.

Driving demand is in no way a one-size-fits-all approach. We work hard to be adaptable to what our clients need, and we encourage the team to pull different levers available to engage customers and prospects in a way that makes the most sense for them.

Digital optimization will continue to be at the forefront of our focus, giving our customers the most immediate access to our solutions, but we will always value meeting with our clients face-to-face in the field.

Every channel we utilize must be integrated to tell a cohesive story. Alignment and buy-in are crucial, not only across our marketing and sales teams but across the entire organization. This ensures that we’re amplifying the brand and the outcomes we solve for with immense clarity.

For marketers today, what do you feel they need to do better to drive more qualified leads that can easily be passed off to sales: what handover processes have you followed at ReliaQuest and in past marketing roles?

The most important thing in driving qualified leads is to stop thinking only about leads. A lead is just a first step. What matters most is cultivating credible accounts, with multiple individuals expressing interest in the holistic outcomes we offer. We never send single leads with one “hand-raiser” to our sales team. Instead, we ensure that by the time we’re handing the account over to the sales team, the prospects on the other side are educated and ready to take the next steps.

This doesn’t have to be a complicated process. Keeping the process simple and streamlining communication between the sales and marketing teams helps each side be more effective.

Our teams are in constant communication about themes or time-sensitive topics of interest to our customer base. We share feedback about what’s working and what’s not, creating mutual accountability. And we’re continually adjusting our qualifying criteria to ensure we are only passing along accounts with the highest propensity to buy. Precision matters.

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Take us through some of your favorite martech and how it’s helped you enable efforts over the years?

Across the martech stack, there are two tools that we find especially helpful in providing relevant resources and information to our customer base. The first is an intent data platform, which gives us insights into the most relevant information for our target accounts, based on what they are searching for – sometimes even before they engage with us directly. We can aggregate account buying signals and communicate relevant insights to our marketing and sales teams so they can follow up more effectively. This allows us to provide the most value to prospects who are a good fit for our solutions.

Secondly, our employee advocacy social media management platform helps ensure consistency across our messaging, equipping all our teammates to multiply our message across their own networks. We can tailor suggested content by role relevance and desired outcome to get the most out of our social efforts. The platform also helps us understand which content is most effective so we can better tailor our messages and pivot as needed.

If you had to change five things about the state of modern-day B2B marketing: what would they be?

More is not more – we can generate massive pipeline creation, but marketers should focus more on supporting sales in creating the right opportunities with the right accounts from the start and have a hand in accelerating client acquisition throughout the sales process.

Speed to lead matters, but so does tailoring relevant messages focused on outcomes — not just function and features. Quick response without providing value at the start will ultimately result in a loss down the road.

Focusing on the customer relationship at every stage of the journey, from prospective buyers to long-time clients, is imperative to success. While the transaction may be B2B, the partnership is still person-to-person.

Technology has helped us all move faster and more efficiently, but it can still be complicated for practitioners to utilize it consistently and optimize it fully. Simplification of implication and out-of-box use cases for diverse go-to-market teams is critical.

Facilitate independent learning for buying teams. Most prospective buyers want to do their own research before being marketed to, and they don’t want to be told why a product or solution is better than the competition. Make it easy for them to consume resources early in their journey.

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A few common misconceptions about the modern state of marketing and martech you’d like to dispel?

Modern martech can feel like marketers are lurking in the background watching your every move. If the data consumed is not used in a way to enhance the customer experience, direct contact with a target could result in immediate rejection.

It’s important for organizations investing in marketing technology to enable teams to use data insights ethically and with authenticity. The application of intent data should be to create integrated touches based on account behavior, which drives clients to more value faster while specifically addressing the outcomes they are looking for. A clear playbook for go-to-market teams to follow can alleviate any engagement missteps.