The cybersecurity market is dynamic and overcrowded. How can startups set themselves apart from the competition? Gianna Whitver, VP of marketing at Votiro and co-founder of Cybersecurity Marketing Society, shares three actionable recommendations for early-stage and mid-stage startups to find their niche market, engage with the target audience and grow their businesses.
Revenue in the cybersecurity market is expected to reach $146.30Opens a new window bn by the end of 2022. Even in an economic downtown, businesses need to protect their customers’ valuable data and assets – not to mention their own. But in such a vast and varied industry, it can be challenging to uncover the best niche for your business. Below are three ways that early-stage startups can begin to uncover their best market offering and carve out their most targeted niche.
Identify Your Target Customer’s Pain Points
Cybersecurity is a big industry, with tons of categories and subsectors (check out this map of cybersecurity domainsOpens a new window by CISO Henry Jiang). Layer in the cyber jargon (Zero Trust, SASE, AI and ML) and the varied and generally non-standardized cybersecurity titles (Security architect, SOC analyst, Threat Intelligence analyst, CISO, Information Security, Data Security), and we’ve reached a point where even figuring out who to sell to can be confusing.
If you are still building your product and/or determining your product-market fit, there’s nothing better than talking directly to your future potential customer. While the internet brings us many evils (which is why our industry is thriving), it also opens up lines of communication with people we would never have had the opportunity to talk to before. So pop open your LinkedIn account or log into some cyber forums and communities and start sharing what you’re working on and messaging people to ask their opinions. As long as you’re explicitly not selling, you can have great conversations with cybersecurity professionals whose feedback will help you target pain points that your product can address, types of titles or organizations that will be most receptive, and even shape product direction.Â
See More: A Playbook for Better Incident Response: Learnings from Major Security Trends
If you’re a more mature company, potentially with some funding and some existing customers, now is the time to rachet down on specifics in order to eventually scale your marketing. Building a marketing machine isn’t instant, but the basis of one is strategy, which hinges upon really knowing your customers. You probably have a base idea of the persona you’re targeting off of your existing customers. As you continue to market and reach more people, make sure you keep talking to prospective customers. Patterns will emerge that will help you identify the triggers that lead people to take an interest in your solution.Â
If you’re targeting enterprise buyers, remember to expand beyond just targeting the CISO. In enterprises, buying happens in teams, with many parties involved in the decision-making process. Don’t neglect that request for a demo from an entry-level person with no “buying power†– they may be vetting the solutions that make it to the decision table.Â
Know Your Competitors
Every great business and organization has competitors, both directly or indirectly. A way to uncover your niche in cybersecurity is to build a competitor matrix and begin to identify the businesses that you would be closely competing with. Great startups go a step further, understanding not just their competitors but what tools and talent these competitors are investing in. This will empower you to recognize not just what you’re up against now – but what you can expect to be up against in the next 18-24 months. If any of your competitors are highly funded, their marketing activities will likely be evident and easy to find and give you insight into their focus. (To be clear, there’s a difference between keeping tabs on your competitors and obsessing over them so much that you prioritize “keeping up with the Joneses†and putting your customer on the back burner.)
One underestimated competitor in cybersecurity that must be addressed is “we do it in-house.†There are arguments for purchasing a solution that a team is currently insourcing. Typically, insourcing solutions take up the time of internal cybersecurity resources. As we are all aware, there is a cybersecurity talent shortage, so time spent writing scripts, maintaining, running, or diagnosing broken internal tools can often be better spent on higher-value activities. Additionally, when employees leave the company, they usually take the knowledge of the internal solution with them.Â
Analysts firms like Gartner, Forrester, or new ones like TAG Cyber have extensive experience mapping the competitive security landscape. If you hold a license with any of these firms, make sure to make use of your inquiries to better understand how customers view the specific segment of security that you’re operating in. Analysts will often be able to advise you on positioning your company within cybersecurity categories – and even the types of companies, roles, and functions that would find your solution the most useful.Â
Tap Into Your VC Network
View your existing VC partners (or target partners if you’ve not yet secured funding) as allies in the success of your business and not ‘just a check.’ VC and angel groups are experts in their investment areas. Tap into their network to uncover trends, expertise and mentorship that you otherwise may have overlooked.
Firms have been actively adding services for their portfolio companies to stand out and help them succeed. Along with their own industry research, this means that you may have access to marketing advisory services and paid tools.Â
One area that your VC should be helping you in? Introducing you to other founders! With their large network, and your and their success is intrinsically entwined, true strategic firms are willing to help make those connections.Â
The three suggestions above, while primarily intended for start-ups, are good recommendations to consider irrespective of your organization’s size, structure and scope. It’s always helpful to reassess your place in the market, recalibrate as necessary, and secure your place in the future.
How are you building your market niche? Share with us on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window . We’d love to know!