EVERCLEAR INSIGHTS

Its amusing how many tech companies believe all they need is a new website to fix their sales and marketing challenges. Like a new coat of paint or a fresh mow of the lawn will suddenly attract a new set of prospects to fill their pipeline. Since websites are the most visible marketing channel, budgets are often allocated accordingly. But what if that shiny new website still says the same old things?

Too many companies fail to fix the underlying issues buried deep below the surface. These are the fundamental, foundational issues upon which the rest of their sales and marketing efforts succeed or fail. They rarely address questions about positioning, differentiation and value propositions that haven’t been re-evaluated since their website was first launched.

Customer references for your cybersecurity marketing efforts are notoriously hard to "secure." Inherent to the industry, companies are very squeamish about admitting they had a breach, or highlighting specific ways the company is protecting itself.  Your IT/info sec contacts might feel it's akin to putting out a statement telling potential theives, "I protect my house with an ADT wireless system, with motion and glassbreak detectors, a video feed, as well as door contacts.  Good luck!" That said, getting references is not a completely hopeless task.  Here are five tips to help you increase your list of customer references for marketing.

With the SXSW Accelerator wrapping up this weekend and applications for Y Combinator's Summer 2016 funding cycle due next week, the season of startup pitch competitions and demo days is well under way. Here in the Mid-Atlantic, MAVA is set to announce its slate of TechBuzz startups for its April 6th pitch competition and Mach37's cyber accelerator Spring 2016 Cohort kicks off this week as well. So what does it take to deliver an effective investor pitch?

According to Reid Hoffman at Greylock, "In a single year, the classic general partner in a venture firm is exposed to around 5,000 pitches; decides to look more closely at 600 to 800 of them; and ends up doing between 0 and 2 deals." Those odds are never in your favor. So how, out of thousands of startup presentations, hundreds of pitch competitions and dozens of demo days do you increase your probability of success to make your pitch stand out? 

In addition to helping enterprise tech companies prep for their annual sales kickoffs, I also spent the first week of the year helping my second-grade son build a trophy-winning Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts.

Now in theory, every child has an equal chance of winning, since every racecar begins from the same basic ingredients: a single block of wood, four metal axles and four plastic wheels.

But what it takes to be a winner isn’t found in the box.

Now that budgeting season is upon us, it’s time to begin thinking about how marketing will contribute to next year’s operating plan, to assess what worked this year and figure out what you’ll need to do differently next year.

Depending on company size, the budgeting process typically begins in the fall, often in October and November, in order to present to the Board of Directors for approval by the end of the year. While a small startup might wait until December, larger tech companies might begin the process as early as September to allow time for revisions to the plan if the Board has different priorities.

While some budgets are handed down by your CFO with little input from marketing, the best way to build support for your marketing plan is to compile a comprehensive set of numbers that look at the budget from all sides.

From working with numerous cybersecurity clients over the past 15 years I've seen firsthand the challenges of marketing in this space. When it comes to security, you need to stand out, but at the same time you can't be too bold. Finding this balance and communicating to the different roles in the IT organization - from operations to security, admins to managers to executives - is what can take you from a struggling company with an innovative solution to a successful and even profitable company (if that's one of your main objectives). Here are the top cybersecurity marketing challenges and some tips to address them:

Fifth Session Focuses on "Everclear Marketing and Breakthrough Branding Strategies" for Entrepreneurs to Connect with Customers and Investors

Everywhere, Md. (November 19, 2013) – Startup Maryland (www.startupmd.org) today announced that G. Scott Shaw, President and Founder of Everclear Marketing (www.everclearmarketing.com), the B2B marketing agency for venture-backed tech companies, will participate as the fifth guest-mentor instructor for Raise Your Game™.

For nearly five years, Everclear Marketing President and Founder G. Scott Shaw has served as a FastTrack advisor and coach to early- and growth-stage technology company CEOs and executives selected to present at the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association’s (MAVA) annual Capital Connection and Mid-Atlantic Bio events. In this highlights video, Shaw helps entrepreneur’s refine their message and get their story straight when they are actively raising capital and seeking funding within the investor community.

G. Scott Shaw, President and Founder of Everclear Marketing, speaking on the B2B Marketing Panel at the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit about the changing role of B2B Marketing and the benefits of Marketing Automation.

After 12 years of doing business as CreatiVerge, we announced last week that we were changing our name to Everclear. The announcement has been met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from colleagues and customers alike, which has been both exciting and rewarding, given how long we’ve been planning to make this change.