Chloe Vaidya, EMEA marketing director at Good Technology, and panellist at our upcoming B2B InTech, advises on how to build a good marketing team
What does your role at Good Technology involve?
Good Technology is a mobile security solutions provider. We help customers manage devices and mobilise content and apps without worrying about data breaches or privacy issues. My role is looking after the marketing across the EMEA region, with the objective of raising awareness of the Good brand, fueling the sales team with leads and helping educate our customers on the new solutions we have to help their business.
You’ve always worked in tech marketing, what’s the appeal?
I kicked off my career working for a biometrics firm at the tender age of 15. This was at my father’s company, so I was brought up around technology. From there I found my footing into the marketing world via B2B tech marketing agency Mason Zimbler. Once I experienced marketing and tech together I found my forte and knew this was the best direction to take. I love how it’s so dynamic – technology changes so rapidly. And I like how you always have to be on your toes, ready to adapt to new technologies and what the market demands. You also have to be at the forefront of technology, understanding what’s new and what’s coming, and this is something I have a natural interest in too.
You’ve built up your team at Good Technology from scratch. What makes a successful marketing team?
The two things I look for in my new hires are attitude and culture fit. I place these attributes higher than direct experience. If you can find someone with the right cultural fit, you know that they will be able to learn and sync well into the organisation. If they don’t have the relevant experience you can teach them, but you can’t teach cultural fit or a roll-up-the-sleeves/get-it-done attitude, and you can’t bend personalities to fit the company culture.
What is the marketing department at Good struggling with most at the moment?
We’re in a very competitive market, it can be hard to cut through the noise. So I would say one of our key areas of focus is finding the correct marketing channels to reach our key audience, rather than spending money on doing absolutely everything.
You’re on the panel discussion at our upcoming B2B InTech conference, how do you think technology marketing will transform in 2015?
During 2015 I think we’ll see a shift into personalisation of marketing in the tech industry. It’s so saturated, with many vendors with similar technology and even more similar messaging, and the only way to cut through this is for vendor marketing to resonate with the customer. I believe vendors need to take a personal approach to their marketing strategies and look and listen to what the customer wants and is saying. I think we’ll see this in 2015, like never before.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
‘Listen to your customers, the answer is in there somewhere’. I think this is so true and something that can be neglected, especially by the marketing department. It’s easy to get caught up in metrics, targets and strategies, but ultimately we should be listening to our customers, they’ll tell us what their problems are, what they’re looking for and how they look for the solution. Once we get this right we’ll have the best marketing strategy out there, as we’ll be connecting to the right people with the right message at the right time.
