SaaS Talks by SpotSaaS with Carole Winqwist, CMO, GitGuardian – Unique Marketing Strategy
GitGuardian helps you keep secrets out of your source code. With GitGuardian, developers can secure software development with automated secrets detection & remediation for private or public source code.
Trusted by brands like PayFit, SafetyCulture, InstaCart & many others, GitGuardian has risen as an industry leader!
Founded in 2017 & led by Jérémy Thomas and Eric Fourrie, GitGuardian has raised a total of $56M in funding over 4 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Dec 7, 2021, from a Series B round.
At SpotSaaS, we invited Carole Winqwist – who is the CMO at GitGuardian to highlight some of their marketing initiatives for our latest series #SaaSTalks.
Let’s deep dive into the marketing strategies of Git Guardian and understand more about their business marketing model through a series of questions that Carole Winqwist answered for us!
1- How has your journey into the world of SaaS marketing been so far?
I have done my whole career in the software industry and I have always found it thrilling. The challenge of the technical comprehension associated with the fast-evolving markets and techniques gives you energy every day!
2- How do you innovate with the marketing strategy at GitGuardian?
We have adopted the agile methodology approach for part of our marketing strategy. Each quarter we aim to launch experiments covering different types of tactics. These are structured in a sprint-like approach and objectives and measures are systematic to allow decision-making.
I also promote continuous learning through self-training and reading but also through peer meetups.
3- What approach do you follow when creating marketing communications- is it solution-oriented?
Evolving in the very technical environment of Cybersecurity we have to balance deep technical content for our developer and application security personas and more use case and solution-oriented content for the decision-makers. This ambivalence is not always easy to articulate.
On the website, for example, you can very quickly become too high-level and fluffy. You have to make choices and remain to the point.
4- What parameters do you track to analyse the results of offline v/s online marketing campaigns at GitGuardian?
We have built a complete list of KPIs to measure the efficiency of our different offline and online tactics. For some of them, like brand awareness (to measure PR and AR activities) you have to decide on a couple of KPIs and acknowledge that you will measure only a subset of your brand awareness.
This is the most complex thing to measure I think. In the Enterprise BtoB market, you also have to remain humble, recognize that your measures are partial, and accept that you’ll never be able to capture all touchpoints, exposure to your content, and buyer’s journey data.
Measuring ROI is one of the toughest elements. Deals gather 6 to 10 decision makers who all had their journey. Dark funnels (communities, slack channels, forums) have a growing impact and currently, the tools we have at our disposal are ill-equipped to show a clear picture.
You need to avoid becoming data-obsessed. Consequently, you have to accept that not everything is demonstrable and your management has to understand that we have to think long-term and make bets a good number of times.
5- Which marketing automation software do you use at your workplace & why?
We have a very complete stack when it comes to marketing automation. To name a few of the apps we use customer.io as our MAP, Hubspot as our CRM, Salesloft four outbound, Mention for our social media, and N8N and Zapier for low-code data pipelines, linking the stack together. Before selecting a tool we carefully evaluate the ROI between build or buy depending on the maturity level we have reached on the given subject.
6- How do you see the general evolution of SaaS marketing & marketing?
Marketing is becoming more and more technical, at least in the software industry even if we also have more and more low-code tools. The mindset you need in your team is a mixture of analytical, technical, creative and processed.
When looking for your team members you need to have this in mind and make sure you have the right level of technical capacities, some engineers make great marketers!
7- Any recommendations from your learnings to new marketing teams & CMOs in the SaaS industry?
I think there is two very important axes to building a solid marketing strategy and marketing team.
- Activation of tactics. In BtoB marketing and even more when your sales cycles are long, you will rarely, if not never, have a win-it tactic. You’ll have to make sure you activate all components of your marketing mix even if at the beginning you have a basic approach for some.
I am convinced that it is better to do at least a basic level of brand building through PR and AR and social media for example than wait to have a dedicated resource for it.
You can rely on agencies or subcontractors to assist you and internalize when you are mature enough. Starting with a basic approach allows you to experiment and when you have a dedicated team member they have a base to work from and bring you to the next level.
- Structuration. As a very process-oriented person, I don’t think you can build a successful system if it is not rock-solid in its structure. Make sure your approaches are documented. Set up objectives prior to execution, measure results post-execution, Establish RACI and give your team members OKRs and objectives and a long-term vision they can relate to.
If you want to learn more and get more details, I outlined a few recommendations for series A to Series B start-ups in an article available on medium
What Is GitGuardian? Watch Here
Conclusion:
In the technical domain, achieving balance in content curation for a high technical expertise audience and low technical expertise is vital, to be effective for either target group.
Structuration & activation of tactics is vital to building a solid marketing strategy and marketing team in the B2B tech domain.
Carole also mentioned that the mindset you need in your team is a mixture of analytical, technical, creative and processed.
Find more information about GitGuardian: https://www.spotsaas.com/product/gitguardian/
Key Takeaway 1: When measuring KPIs, you need to avoid becoming data-obsessed.
Key Takeaway 2: In tech marketing, building a team with both marketing & engineering backgrounds can go a long way.
Key Takeaway 3: In the tech industry, creating content for both non-tech & tech professionals is vital to reach the right audience.
Carole Winqwist
CMO- GitGuardian
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