MarTech Interview with Seema Kumar, CMO at Expel

Seema Kumar, CMO at Expel shares pointers on what can drive effective marketing plans in this short Q&A:

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Welcome to this MarTech Series chat, Seema, tell us about your marketing journey in the B2B tech domain; what are you most looking forward to in your role as CMO at Expel?

My journey to B2B marketing was unusual. It started in sales, where I developed an intense empathy for sellers. I spent the next decade deepening my understanding of customers’ business problems and solving them in product management. I brought those experiences, combined with a technical background, to marketing highly technical products—to highly technical audiences. This is uniquely difficult, as it’s hard to distill something complex into a simple marketing message that still accurately conveys its value. It’s also hard to market to an audience that is inherently skeptical of marketing.

Expel is a leading managed detection and response (MDR) provider, protecting organizations by reducing risk and strengthening their security postures. We serve some of the most recognizable brands in the world, and it’s time people know we’re the best in the business. What I’m most looking forward to at Expel is telling the stories of those customers who rely on us and making Expel a broadly admired brand.

When revamping a brand’s core marketing plan and strategy: what are the fundamentals and factors you focus on?

Fundamentally, marketing should deliver on the company’s goals and strategy. So, I always start at the company level. What does the business need to achieve this year? How are we going to do it? Launch new products? Expand into new markets? Reach new audiences with our existing products? And ultimately, how can marketing help achieve those goals?

Second, I focus on the outcomes we deliver for our customers. We’re the best at what we do, but how are we communicating those outcomes to everyone who doesn’t know us yet?

Finally, I make sure we’re taking risks and trying new things so we continue to learn—never allowing ourselves to become complacent.

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What are some of the biggest challenges in modern B2B marketing that most marketers have not been able to fix yet, despite all the martech they have access to?

When I was in sales, prospects did most of their research by talking to their account team. At the risk of dating myself, that was over 20 years ago.

But now, we all know 80% of the buyer’s journey takes place before they ever contact a sales rep. So much of their research takes place in the dark funnel, during private conversations with peers. We have a lot more marketing tech than we did in the stone ages and yet somehow it seems we know less about our buyers’ decision process. We are tool rich and insight poor.

Take us through some of the martech that you’ve often relied on to power your marketing plans and goals?

I think the most important thing in a marketer’s technology stack is the ability to capture and analyze everything about your target market. It isn’t any one particular tool. Instead, it’s the ability to instrument everything you know about your customer and the prospect journey, even the things you think will never be useful, and the analytical capability to turn that vast telemetry into actionable insights in a timely manner.

Can you talk about the state of modern B2B marketing and martech and what trends will dominate the space in 2024?

Smaller budgets, combined with the fact that paid marketing is less efficient today, will drive companies to focus more on cultivating audiences through owned channels. An audience, compared to a buyer persona, is a collection of individuals involved in the purchase and adoption of a solution. It extends beyond the buying committee to include those impacted by your solution, so audience-centric strategies lead to more holistic, inclusive campaigns—reaching beyond the account and to the people. When a company builds a media strategy around owned media, it centers on relationships and owning the direct connection with their audience.

Tell us about the leading B2B tech brands you feel have a robust digital marketing presence and framework (and why): what key takeaways from these picks/choices?

Companies like Crossbeam, Zuora, and Gainsight combine audience building with an emphasis on owned media to deliver a unique digital customer journey. They understand their audiences on a deeply personal level and create truly tailored messaging. Each of these businesses invests in creating high-quality, Netflix-like content that resonates with their audiences.

We know that at any given time, only 5% of your target audience is in a buying process. These brands effectively leverage first-party data across owned media to identify those 5% and convert them 100% of the time.

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