As Director of Demand Generation at CA Technologies, Nerissa is responsible for establishing lead-gen strategies and implementing plans to support the Security Business Unit at CA.

Nerissa has over 20 years of marketing and advertising experience, with 15 years spent in conceiving, developing and executing successful IT Security initiatives across a broad range of marketing functions and industry segments. 

Interviewed by Swastika Singh

/ / How has the marketing landscape changed?

In today’s multi-channel, multi-device world, it is harder to find customers in traditional ways than before. Tech buying cycles are becoming more and more complex, with more decision-makers and influencers having a seat at the buying process table. With so much information available at their fingertips, purchase decisions are now being made long before a customer contacts a vendor. The customer-sales engagement has forever changed. Customers are now in control. If you do not have an integrated ABM plan that covers social, digital and live events, then what chance do you think you have when your customers conduct their research?

/ / How do you make events part of your ABM strategy?

I will start by saying that these live events CANNOT be standalone tactics. These events MUST compliment the messaging and content that is being delivered as part of our larger social and digital integrated ABM plan. Every brand interaction counts. We need to target customers as individuals, providing them with not only helpful experiences but also with a valuable number of connected interactions.

/ / What role do live events play in an ABM integrated plan?

Live events offer our sales organization the opportunity to engage with those critical accounts that have the highest propensity to buy, and foster relationships with them.  Also, it helps sales establish trust. In IT Security the investments can be quite significant. Therefore, we know that we must prove to our prospects that we are a company they can trust and rely on. Depending on the account, the event could be an executive roundtable dinner event, a CA led workshop or an onsite customer workshop.

/ / How do you decide which accounts to target for your events?

We have at CA what we refer to as our "high propensity to buy" accounts. I was reading your interview with Jennifer Toton who is the VP of Marketing at Rollworks, and I think she states it perfectly. So, I will paraphrase it here because we follow the same approach. It is targeting those accounts that are:

1. High Fit – You identify accounts that are most likely to see value from your product or service.

2. High Intent – You monitor marketplace signals that indicate that the company is actively looking for a solution.

3. High Engagement – You look at the number of engagements a customer has with you across all your marketing activities, which can include (but are not limited to): visiting your website, attending one of your webinars or downloading content.

/ / Can you go into a bit more detail regarding the different types of ABM events that you execute?

The events that we primarily conduct are:

1. Company-led workshops – These half-day events allow our customers and prospects to gain hands-on experience in using our solutions.

2. Onsite customer workshop – This is when we take the half-day workshop event concept to a specific customer location. Also, since it is just one account, we will tailor the content to align directly with their priorities.

3. Roundtable dinner events – CA, along with our media partner, co-hosts a dinner event wherein we deliver content on a thought leadership topic. We try to share content that provides high value; for example, sharing research findings.

/ / I would like you to go into more detail regarding one of the event types that you mentioned in your previous response. Can you tell us more about how you deliver an Executive Roundtable dinner event leveraging ABM?

Sure. At CA, we execute roundtable dinner events alongside our media partner, The Information Security Media Group. They are a media company that offer a host of demand generation programs, one of which is the Executive Roundtable Dinner event. They have a database of over 650,000 IT Security professionals worldwide. We partner with them on content syndication programs and live events.  We have done the analysis and found that many of our customers and prospects from our targeted accounts are consuming content on their site. So we knew they were the right partners for us in digital programs and live events.

For the Executive Roundtable Dinner event, their SVP of editorial and our subject matter expert serve as event hosts. These two people lead the discussion on a thought-leadership topic that is of interest to our attendees. We make sure the content delivered is of value to the attendee. Also, we make sure the topic complements our overall marketing plan. The way we decide who attends is that we conduct an analysis to determine which accounts have the highest propensity to buy, and then we recruit attendees from those specific accounts.

/ / Why do you think live events are important?

More and more tech companies realize that influencing buyers at a later stage in the funnel is critical. It can drive more wins and help to increase deal velocity. If you have the right type of event that delivers the right type of content to the right audience, you can uncover immediate opportunities or accelerate existing opportunities that may have been stuck in your pipeline.