How We Ensured All Cybersecurity Professionals Discovered Our Book ‘Security Innovation Stories

“We’ve seen your book all over LinkedIn,” Chantal Stekelenburg remarked when Bram de Bruijn, co-founder of Beyond Products, was a guest on the Angry Nerds Podcast. This comment captures the essence of the marketing campaign behind Security Innovation Stories, Bram’s book, which was launched in February 2024.

The book, written by Bram and promoted by Anja den Hertog, co-founder of Beyond Products, features stories from twenty leaders in the security sector. The book has been well-received, and we regularly received feedback from clients that they encountered it everywhere. For this article, I spoke with the author and the marketer to understand how they achieved this.

The philosophy behind the book

Bram shares the inspiration for the book: “I’ve been working in the security industry for a long time, first as a project manager and later as a product marketer. I noticed that innovations struggle to take off in the industry, and I wanted to investigate why that is.”

The book had a dual purpose. Bram and Anja toyed with the idea of starting a specialized marketing agency for security companies and wanted to thoroughly understand the market. On the other hand, Bram also emphasizes the importance of dialogue between professionals to drive innovation in the field.

Highlighting the marketing strategy

Anja, the architect behind the book’s promotion, explains how crucial visibility is for the success of any product. “You can’t expect people to spontaneously find and buy your book. That’s why we developed a detailed marketing plan that allowed us to effectively and efficiently reach our target audience.”

The marketing strategy consisted of two channels: organic and paid. Since Bram has always worked in the security industry, he built a network of over 2,000 people on LinkedIn. We posted weekly content from both his account and the account dedicated to the book: Security Innovation Stories.

For targeted advertising campaigns, the team allocated a budget. “With just €2,000, we tailored our content to specific LinkedIn groups related to security, dividing it based on seniority and department, such as commercial or technical,” Anja explains.

The use of social media

The results of the organic posts were positive. “We carefully scheduled our posts to stimulate discussions, and specific security solutions were often discussed,” Bram explains.

Do you need a large network yourself to achieve good organic results on networking sites like LinkedIn? It certainly makes communication easier. Additionally, it’s worth noting that many leading security professionals contributed to the writing of the book, and they, in turn, have strong networks. This meant that these posts were seen primarily by people within the industry.

Results of the paid campaign

For the campaign, we ensured that only people with a security background saw the posts. The target audience consisted of about 3,000 people, though we broke this down into smaller segments to identify which profiles showed the most interest.

Since the campaign generated between 1,000 and 1,500 impressions per day, we ensured that every time the target audience opened LinkedIn, they saw the book.

But did the target audience show interest in the book? Anja shares: “The click-through rate gradually increased, which tells us that the message resonated and encouraged people to want to learn more.” The use of images and personalized content played a crucial role in this.

A notable finding: a pre-launch advertisement

An important conclusion? The more faces we showed of the ‘leaders,’ the better the content performed. This once again proves how much we like to hear from others about their views on certain topics.

Anja says: “In December 2023, we ran a small test campaign to announce the book’s launch. This ad didn’t have a call-to-action to buy the book but directed to a summarized interview with Dave Maasland.”

“The ad was a post from Bram’s profile, and the click-through rate was an impressive 8%. For a ‘brand awareness’ campaign, this is an exceptional result.”

What could have been done better?

The campaign met our expectations, but since we continue with Security Innovation Stories as a platform for dialogue, we’ve considered the steps we can still take.

We plan to continue showcasing more faces from the industry, not only through photos and text but also with short videos where they share their opinions. We believe this will definitely help advance the discussion on the role of innovation in security.

Conclusion

The foundation of the success of the Security Innovation Stories campaign is, of course, a great product, but that alone isn’t enough. If no one knows you’re selling a top product, no one will buy it.

The success of the campaign is a testament to the power of well-thought-out content and a smart marketing strategy. The campaign not only made the book visible within the desired circles but also further stimulated the discussion within the security sector, as confirmed by Chantal Stekelenburg on the Angry Nerds Podcast. For Bram and Anja, this project was a confirmation that innovation lies not only in the content but also in the way the product is presented to the world.