Cybersecurity Marketing in 2025: Get Ready to Burn the Playbook (or Get Burned)

For the past decade, cybersecurity marketing has been running on autopilot.

MQLs, analyst-driven go-to-market strategies, mass cold outreach—rinse and repeat.

I’ve sat in rooms where CMOs have obsessed over lead numbers, debating whether a form-fill from a free eBook really counts as a qualified prospect.

It doesn’t.

I’ve seen teams pour six-figure budgets into analyst reports, only to find out their ideal customer doesn’t even read them.

I’ve watched vendors chase vanity metrics while their sales teams complain that marketing-generated leads “never pick up the phone.”

And I’ve talked to enough CISOs, security engineers, and risk leaders to know that most of them despise the way they’re marketed to.

2025 is the year we stop the madness.

The cybersecurity marketing reckoning is here, and marketers who refuse to evolve will be left behind. 

The old playbook isn’t just ineffective—it’s actively harming vendor-buyer relationships.

So, if you’re in this game for the long haul, let’s talk about the new rules and what’s about to change.

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MQL Obsession is Dead. Buyer Trust is Everything.

I’ll never forget a conversation I had with a CISO at a billion-dollar healthcare company.

He told me, “If I get one more vendor asking for ‘15 minutes of my time’ right after I download a whitepaper, I’m blocking their entire domain.”

And yet, cybersecurity marketing teams keep running the same lead generation playbook, optimizing for downloads, email open rates, and automated follow-ups that buyers ignore.

It’s the definition of insanity—expecting different results while repeating the same tactics.

MQLs don’t equal revenue. 

The smartest marketers are finally shifting their success metrics toward buyer trust indicators. 

This means measuring engagement depth instead of form-fills, tracking referral-based interest over sheer volume, and focusing on the quality of interactions rather than how many people clicked a CTA.

What this means for you:

• Stop chasing vanity metrics and start tracking meaningful engagement.

• Equip your sales team with trust indicators, not just lead lists.

• Build long-term relationships with buyers instead of transactional lead funnels.

Product Marketing is the New Demand Gen Powerhouse and They Have a Seat at the Table

Back when I worked in demand generation, I was tasked with doubling growth through marketing campaigns.

But I had little to zero real knowledge of our buyers. 

I was expected to “sell” without truly understanding the pain points, priorities, and daily struggles of security professionals.

This resulted in content that fell flat.

Campaigns that didn’t resonate.

A sales team frustrated with marketing.

Fast-forward to 2025, and I’m seeing a major shift:

Demand gen leaders are finally embracing product marketing’s role in enabling GTM success. 

Product marketing isn’t just about messaging anymore—it’s about owning qualitative buyer intelligence and embedding it across marketing and sales teams.

What this means for you:

• Treat customer research as a core GTM function, not a nice-to-have.

• Invest in market & buyer enablement—helping both sales and marketing teams understand buyer psychology.

• Make product marketing a strategic function that informs demand gen, not just an execution arm for messaging.

The Shift from Analyst-Driven to Practitioner-Led GTM

The first time I saw the price tag of a Gartner subscription years, I nearly choked on my coffee.

And for what?

A few reports that most cybersecurity buyers either ignore or don’t trust?

The pay-to-play analyst model is crumbling. 

CMOs are waking up to the fact that spending six figures on an analyst ranking, outdated reports, a limiting analyst calls isn’t giving them the market intelligence they need.

Instead, the best marketing teams are going straight to the source: actual security practitioners.

I’ve spent years conducting qualitative research with security buyers.

What I’ve found is that they don’t care about analyst opinions—they care about peer insights, real-world case studies, and recommendations from practitioners they trust.

What this means for you:

• Ditch expensive analyst subscriptions in favor of direct buyer research

• Build expert networks—tap into real security practitioners for insights instead of relying on secondhand analyst reports.

• Use qualitative data to inform your GTM strategy, not just survey-based stats.

Community-Led Growth is No Longer Optional

I recently asked a CISO, “How do you evaluate cybersecurity vendors?” His answer?

“I ask my peers. I trust their experiences way more than any vendor messaging.”

That response perfectly encapsulates why community-driven marketing is the go-to. 

Cybersecurity trust each other.

Most cybersecurity vendors still think a “community” means spinning up a Slack group or posting on LinkedIn.

That’s not community-led growth.

True community-driven marketing means creating real spaces for practitioners to engage, share insights, and solve problems together—without it being a glorified sales funnel.

What this means for you:

• Build authentic spaces for buyer engagement, not just another marketing channel.

• Prioritize long-term community investment over quick-win lead generation.

• Engage security professionals as thought leaders, not just as targets for outreach.

ABM & Multi-Threading > Spray & Pray

Cold outreach in cybersecurity has become a joke.

((I have 50+ podcast episodes dedicated to this fact).

CISOs and security teams are flooded with irrelevant messages, and most vendors are still sending mass emails that get ignored.

Companies that will thrive in 2025 are the ones that adopt multi-threaded, account-based engagement (ABE). 

This means engaging multiple stakeholders in a target account, using multiple touchpoints, and personalizing messaging based on real insights.

What this means for you:

• Stop mass-blasting cold emails—start engaging accounts intelligently.

• Use multi-threading strategies—reach different decision-makers across a company creating and providing value for them.

• Measure success by relationship depth, not just email open rates and meetings set.

The Winners Will Be the Most Creative

B2B marketing is boring as hell. It doesn’t have to be.

The companies that stand out in cybersecurity are the ones that make their marketing fun, engaging, and actually enjoyable to consume.

I was sitting at dinner with a CISO of a large enterprise during Black Hat.

We were discussing his choice of vendors they had invested in for the year. I asked why he chose one vendor over the competitor.

He said:

Think interactive content, storytelling-driven campaigns, gamified experiences, and creative formats that don’t feel like another sales pitch.

Cybersecurity professionals are bombarded with vendor noise.

If your content looks, sounds, and feels like everyone else’s, it will be ignored.

What this means for you:

• Invest in entertainment-driven marketing—video, interactive content, and experiences.

• Use humor, storytelling, and creativity to capture attention.

• Make cybersecurity marketing something people actually want to engage with.

Evolve or Be Left Behind

2025 is a reckoning year for cybersecurity marketing.

The old, lazy playbook is dead. 

Marketers who prioritize trust over transactions, direct research over analyst reports, and community over cold outreach will win.

The ones who cling to outdated demand gen tactics?

They’ll be left behind.

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