Summary
Critical Design Associates is a team of IT security engineers that provide virtualization consulting, application delivery, and cybersecurity services to Fortune 100 companies.
In 2017 the company was struggling with Sales and Marketing and in October 2017 I joined the company as the Director of Sales and Marketing. My mission was to develop an in-house sales team while managing all aspects of digital marketing with a primary focus on bringing in new leads.
The first step was to bring the company website in-house which allowed me to have greater control over what would become the hub of our hub for digital marketing efforts.
Accomplishments
Lead Generation Strategy
Email Automation using CRM
Creative Content Strategy
Public Speaking Skills
Technical & Content SEO
In addition to bringing our website in-house, we also had to revisit our CRM system. We were paying for features we were not using and as we grew our list, so did our monthly bill. We migrated to a new system that was far more efficient, at a much lower cost, and allowed us to tailor things exactly the way we need to build our lead generation engine.
As the workload increased we brought on a marketing assistant to help with copywriting and website admin functions. I was working closely with the CEO and sales team so that I had a true understanding of what the company provided allowing me to properly identify our true target audience.
Working with our cybersecurity engineers allowed me to tailor our content marketing and blogging strategy. We then rolled out a content strategy featuring articles from our top engineers that resonated well with our audience.
As our blog articles started to attract more inbound traffic, we inherently grew our email list as well. We learned early on that it was in our best interest to optimize our email and CRM system to have complete DMARC authentication. This allowed us to have more emails land in the end-users inboxes which helped us gain visibility to our webinars and live events.
It was in 2018 our sales and marketing activity had grown to the point where I need to split my role and focus purely on digital marketing and continuing to drive our lead generation engine. We brought on a senior sales director (Neil Saltman) who brought with him a killer strategy for blending digital marketing and live events, formulating the Critical Design cybersecurity roadshow where we hosted seminars with SANS security instructors and partnered it with content from our team and software vendors.
By the end of 2018 our “Cybersecurity Roadshow” was getting noticed and we were having no problem filling the room with qualified participants. People would attend for the SANS Instructor training credits and learn about the latest in Cybersecurity software and tactics. It was a huge hit and below is a video I recorded from our seminar at Mortons Steakhouse in Philadelphia, PA.
We continued our Cybersecurity Roadshow through the entire year of 2019, this time taking our team to new cities and locations that we had not been to previously. By this point, I had become an expert traveler and would fly on-location every month to ensure that the roadshow not only happened but continued to drive leads to our sales team.
Critical Design Associates 2019 Roadshow List
Philadelphia, PA
Orlando, FL
Nashville, TN
Atlanta, GA
Pittsburgh, PA
Charlotte, NC
San Antonio, TX
Dallas, TX
Salt Lake City, UT
Austin, TX
New York City, NY
In Conclusion
Critical Design Associates not only taught me a lot about corporate cybersecurity all while honing my skills as a public speaker and lead generation specialist. It was an amazing experience to work with such talented engineers working on high-level projects for financial instituions, government, military, as well and private sector work.