What’s your role at Instaclustr?

I manage Instaclustr’s U.S. marketing; this includes the many field events we’re engaged in, to demand generation, to all the webinars and related activities we do that support our sales team. While Instaclustr’s marketing is primarily focused on the U.S. market, the demand gen initiatives are global.

When did you join Instaclustr?

I started almost a year and a half ago now.

What does a day in the life of Instaclustr’s Marketing Director look like?

Because I collaborate so closely with our sales reps – and because they’re dispersed at our different international offices – I’m constantly working in a few time zones around the world. I start my day on U.S. Pacific Time out of our Palo Alto headquarters, working with the sales team we have here. The day might then focus on planning new events with our community and customers, building out webinars, monitoring email campaigns, going over PR planning, etc. At 6 or 7pm my time, I’ll usually catch the Canberra, Australia morning to check with the team there, and then do the same later at night with our EMEA team.

Are there specific demand gen strategies that you’ve found most effective?

When we first started our demand gen activities, it was really about creating awareness of Instaclustr as a company and what we do – just getting our name out there. Now that we’re growing so much and have scaled our customer base, the messaging and the focus has adapted. It’s now really much more about telling a story about digital transformation and how we help solve key challenges and inefficiencies businesses face there. For me, our growth is really exciting, because every day is a new challenge. What’s the message going to be? What’s the story going to be in the next six months? How can we leverage the momentum we’ve gotten so far to expand and get our name out there even more?

Is marketing for B2B tech exciting? Why?

I came from working in B2C tech marketing roles before transferring over to B2B about four years ago. What I think is particularly interesting about B2B is that it’s not about the instant gratification of a consumer making a purchase at the point of contact. B2B sales can take a long time; normal sales cycles, depending on the solution, can be three months, six months, or longer. From a marketing perspective, it’s rewarding because you’re really helping the sales team from the moment an inquiry comes in all the way through several touchpoints – that each will involve different marketing mechanisms to keep the ball rolling.

You’ve worked at a few different tech companies; what’s different about the culture working at Instaclustr?

Instaclustr’s roots are in Australia, and the Aussie culture really embedded itself into the company even as we’ve expanded operations to the U.S. and Europe. It’s a work-hard, play-hard mentality, but more than that it’s a culture of really making sure we are all in tune with one another. I’ve found the Australian ethos to be one of genuine concern, with colleagues asking “Are you stretched too thin?”, “How can we help, what can we do?”, etc. It’s supportive and sincere. And, of course, I love getting the occasional Slack messages of kangaroos hopping around outside our Canberra office. We don’t get as much of that in Palo Alto.

Any advice or tips for aspiring B2B marketers looking to get into the field?

Yes: be open to learning. B2B technology can be particularly complex, so you really need to know what you’re selling to make the marketing effective. You can put as much glitz and glam on a website or a piece of marketing collateral as you want, but it really doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the content or the knowledge behind it. The on-ramp to being comfortable marketing B2B technologies can be more daunting for someone new to the field (without particularly deep technical knowledge), so really take the time to know your solution, your industry, and the trends affecting it.