Deep dive: Marketing security
Season 6, Issue 3, how to highlight your product's security or data management
Hola Mehketeer,
I’ve heard some pretty crazy stories around products (and services) with wacky data ownership policies. I’ve heard of an agency that claimed they owned the client’s customer email list (and charged them everytime they wanted to know something about the list!), and several products that charged customers to get their own data out of the product because they wanted to stop using the service.
In some cases, the finer details of how data is handled or overall security is a big deal. This usually comes out late in the sales process, when the buyer’s IT or security team is doing due diligence, but bringing it up early at the top of the funnel can be a big differentiator.
But, data’s pretty boring, so how can you make it more exciting and put some marketing flair on it?
Looking at some examples
Why start from scratch when someone else has already solved your problem? Let’s look at a few different ways companies have done this.
1. A big page just for security
Floatcard lists security as a “feature”, and leads the page with a few value propositions. They’re a financial product, so they’ve got a lot to talk about.
2. A tight web of content
Hightouch’s security page is shorter than Floatcards, but it links out to dev documentation and an in-depth blog. This one is also a lot more straight forward and function focused, rather than value propositions.
3. Right on the home page
Prequel is a data warehouse, so security and data management are high priority right on the home page.
4. Separating policy and quality
ContactOut, a sales tool, has a page on privacy (separate to their privacy policy) which includes a “what we don’t do” approach, which can be a great topic when you don’t have a lot you do do. They’ve got a separate page for talking about data quality.
These products are pretty data heavy by their nature and therefore have a lot to say, but what about less data-focused products? What are some ways you can bring up data as a differentiator against your competitors?
List out your credentials (you might not have any, and that’s ok too)
Cover your basic data policy, like who owns it, whether it can easily be exported, etc
Create an FAQ, which can take up quite a bit of space on a web page (use questions your existing customers have asked as a starting point)
Don’t forget things like whether you have tenants, user permissions, an admin area, and other functions that can be linked back to data and security
How you manage personally identifiable information (PII), and whether you share data with a third party (or get data from third parties)
Canva use a “trust” messaging, and although it’s not a company value, they talk about it as if it is
EmploymentHero go one further with trust actually being a value, and they place under their “why us” menu item too
If you don’t have certifications like SOC2 to brag about, consider stating something like “we regularly undertake 3rd party testing” or something like that. If you sell through partners or are listed in a marketplace, it’s likely you have done this - just ask your security team!
Straight from the horse’s mouth
"It's quite frustrating to assess a product or solution via it's marketing material, decide that the functionality is a fit for your particular problem, only to then find on further evaluation that the thing you're interested in, is sold in a way that isn't amenable to your preferred procurement method. Perhaps the license metric doesn't make sense for your organisation, or that it is available as an opex or capex spend only but not both. Furthermore, whilst I probably need to accept your word that the solution does what is says, it is frustrating to learn you need to pay more for standard management features that should be transparently presented; a particular example in security is the ability to access appropriate logs that are effective proof of the correct functioning of the solution."
Tim Davoren, Head of Cybersecurity at Logicalis Australia, was kind enough to give me his opinion from the security perspective. As marketers we really should be asking our audience directly for what they want!
An overview of what’s available from admin functionality is not only a really simple and understandable request, it’s something actionable! We can fix this!
For reference, here’s Logicalis’ cyber page.
Use content about data to look bigger
"Company size also matters. Firms with more than 500 employees are twice as likely to have a security page than those with 1-50 employees. However, an impressive number of startups have also chosen to invest in this crucial aspect, emphasizing its importance even at early stages."
Research from Peer Signal showed that larger companies are more likely to have security pages. If you’re a smaller startup and want to look a little bigger than you are, calling out data and security could help you achieve that.
An easy way to start is to run interviews with colleagues who are knowledgeable about data and security and turn this into content. Don’t be shy of reaching out to your IT team, even if they don’t want to be credited in the content, their knowledge of your product plus data/security will give you some great starting points.
But doesn’t this just tempt hackers?
Maybe. I don’t think so, though. Unless you’re a big brand that’s very exposed, or potentially a high value target for customers (i.e. you hold credit card info, or something like that), sharing that security is a focus for you and that you follow certain standards isn’t a key to how to break into your product.
Marketing during a data breach
I think we all learned a lot from the Optus data breach last year. Just recently, Dymocks had a data breach and I think their security/marketing team did a really good job preventing panic and being more proactive about communicating the status of things.
Obviously, less data was breached, and Optus’ hack included drivers licences and just in general way more sensitive data. But that’s not to discredit the Dymocks team who obviously put a lot of time and effort into crafting their comms and messaging.
(If you’re not a Dymocks customer and you want to see the full emails just ask me and I’ll forward it to you)
Cool things to click
Hurley Winkler interviewed author Matt Bell who this year released both a novel and a non-fiction book. In the opening of the interview she asks him about the difference between the two and the first thing he mentions is the marketing difference (!!) between fiction and non-fiction is urgency. A reminder of the basics, I love it.
A big difference in promotion that was interesting to me is that Refuse to Be Done has this direct applicability to the reader. The people who read it are trying to learn how to write a novel. Promoting an actual novel, that sort of urgency is less evident. Readers might ask, “Why is this the novel that I need to read right now?”
Vogue profiles the home of artists Phillip and Charlotte Colbert. Perfect location for the next Knives Out film if you ask me.
Not a click, but I walked by this poster while walking my dog and it really caught my attention. Good marketing from Showpo!
Another ad, this time in the vein of IYKYK - Spotted by Dave Trott on X (twitter?). It’s a Swatch ad, but is only really recognisable if you’re already a fan.
That’s all for this week, if you enjoyed it please share or forward it! Word of mouth is the most frustrating but most effective way this newsletter grows and it means a lot to me 🫠
Ciao,
Kayla