Cybersecurity professionals have been waiting for this moment to step forward and offer their help.
After a long ramp-up period, the cybersecurity compliance program known as Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) cleared the regulatory review process and is expected to become law pending US congressional review.
This is the wake-up call that the industry has been expecting. As part of CMMC, an estimated 350,000 Defense Industrial Base (DIB) contractors and subcontractors will need to implement necessary security measures for Federal Contract Information (FCI) and introduce new security requirements for Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). And if they don’t take these steps in time, they may be precluded from bidding on contracts.
It’s a wakeup call for cybersecurity professionals, as well. With so many potential clients in dire need of help, it has never been more important for compliance leaders to get the word out about their CMMC services.
But there are right and wrong ways to go to market with your message. In this blog post, I’ll introduce my content marketing strategy for compliance professionals who want to position themselves the right way.
Two Approaches
The wrong way to position your firm would be to do nothing and just let companies find your website. While this strategy may bring in new clients, it does nothing to help you pre-select the types of clients you want to be contacting you. You only get what comes your way, including the companies that don’t fit your sweet spot.
A better approach is to position your firm as the expert that has valuable information that can help a specific audience with a specific need, so they know the right person to call when they are ready to make a purchasing decision.
To position yourself and your firm as the expert, I recommend adopting a content marketing plan.
Content Marketing Plan
A successful content marketing plan depends upon the resources you invest in it. This includes having the people (including employees, vendors and partners), processes and tools, and the budget it takes to leverage them. It also depends on the topics you cover. What will you write and speak about?
Let’s address these individually.
People—Often the CEO is the company’s best spokesperson or best salesperson. He or she is therefore the ideal source of content and should work closely with the content creator, who can be an employee or outside vendor.
Process—Your content marketing process includes identifying audience needs and questions, creating a content calendar, conducting interviews, establishing the proper tone, drafting content, working on edits, then publishing and distributing the content.
Tools—The main tools for distributing content are well known. You may already have an active social media channel, blog, YouTube channel, podcast and email newsletter. You may already be presenting at conferences and webinars, developing cases studies, white papers and books, and issuing press releases. Post your content regularly and frequently wherever your audience congregates.
Budget—Fortunately, the tools used in content creation for the most part are free or low cost. The biggest expenses are the salaries or vendor fees you dedicate to the task, and the time you spend. One way to estimate your total marketing budget is to allot 5% of your annual gross revenue to content marketing costs.
Topics—The best way to identify topics is to listen. What are clients and prospects asking about? Whenever you find yourself in conversation teaching, explaining and answering questions that you believe other clients would also be concerned about, make a note. These are the topics you should create content about.
The Message Multiplier
I stated above that the goal of your content marketing strategy is to position your firm as the expert, with valuable information to share, so that when your ideal clients are ready to buy, they know who to call.
To attract these clients, share information that is not only technical. After all, CMMC is not a matter of technology only. It’s also policy, adherence and measurements. But it’s behavior, too, and behavior is driven partly by emotions.
Focus on getting insights on the people you want to serve. Make an effort to understand what they are emotional about. What are they afraid of? Excited about? Uncertain over? The questions they have will likely be shared by others – and provide you with excellent topics for new content.
With audience insights guiding your content marketing strategy, you’ll be in the best position to help DIB contractors—and the broader community—achieve a cybersecurity transformation.
About the author: Rob Macdonald is president of PlumDIBS (plumdibs.com) a content marketing company that helps compliance organizations “reach and teach” since 1998. He is past president of the American Marketing Association, Baltimore Chapter, has been an award-winning marketing columnist for the Baltimore Business Journal and taught at Columbia College in Chicago.
