More than ever before, field marketing involves an end-to-end strategic approach. Events are important, but they’re one of many digital and physical touchpoints that should be leveraged to build and accelerate pipeline progression. A close, working relationship with sales is crucial, and for Amanda Moran at Code42, this means more than keeping lines of communication open and active. The director of field marketing & sales development also manages a team of sales development representatives.
“I think more and more you find that the sales development teams roll into the demand generation function,” she says. “Our focus is really to get folks engaged with our sellers, but also to get them to the point where they’re ready for that initial human touch from an SDR.”
Hearing Moran explain it, the hybrid role doesn’t sound so unconventional. In a way, her title indicates how much a field marketer’s role has evolved since the pandemic.
Code42 helps companies see and stop data loss and theft caused by their employees. Security teams are able to respond to the full spectrum of risk, automating responses to everyday risks, blocking the unacceptable ones, and containing insider threats. The tool enables cybersecurity professionals to make informed decisions about how to respond. The user-centered value proposition extends to internal processes; Moran takes a long view of the customer journey and trains her eye on windows of opportunity.
“Our entire go-to-market strategy is 100% channel,” Moran says up-front. “We sell through the partner channel, whether we engage the prospect in a direct sales motion and bring the channel partner in later in the sale, or they bring them to us.”
Moran’s team evaluates engagements in stages based on relationships and timing to build their events calendar.
Third-party events are the first to be determined.
“Those are our top-level funnel fillers,” Moran explains. “We look at their calendars and slot those in first.”
To narrow down the selection, she relies on a combination of anecdotal feedback and data. She asks sellers for honest feedback on their experiences at previous years’ editions and also consults a “powerful” attribution model that provides specific insights on pipeline influence.
“By that point, the channel marketers will have come out with their calendars, so we’ll look at those and see what fits for the next level,”
Moran continues. Once those engagements have been settled, Code42 shifts focus to their own efforts.
With hosted events, Moran explains:
“We can really dig into the topics that we don’t feel are being covered elsewhere. And ultimately, all that is dependent on where we have the biggest gaps.” She notes that other tech companies make for especially good co-hosts: “With a lot of our technology partners, our tool actually makes their tool better. “And vice versa.
As for the events themselves, Moran is deeply conscientious about content and what guests ultimately take away from the experience. Showing attendees a good time may have sufficed in the past, but now, organizers must also plan to provide additional value.
“In the B2B space, folks that are putting on events are not just putting on parties,” Moran explains. “They’re finding ways to creatively engage customers and prospects and give them a way to interact with sales teams and experts so that they only have a good time but also find a way to solve a business problem.”
For example, Moran’s team recently hosted a virtual quiz game that involved information from a recent Code42 survey as well as general pop-culture trivia. Guests were sent the report ahead of time so that they could study up to test their knowledge against peers, solo or on teams. In addition to allowing participants to engage in some friendly competition, the event also provided a fun opportunity for learning.
Just as important as content and messaging is timing. Moran gives credit to data analyst colleagues whose attribution modeling identifies points along the customer journey in which prospects engage.
“That has helped us be more thoughtful about the types of events and at what point in the journey we’re holding them,” she says.
For field marketers like Moran, strategy involves right and left-brain sensibilities, qualitative and quantitative data. It’s a role that calls for blending art and science—not to mention the instinct for striking while the iron is hot.
