Here at Cromulent, we’re big fans of thought leadership. And to be clear, we mean legitimate thought leadership, consisting of unique, helpful, insightful programs and content.

For start-ups and scale-ups, effective thought leadership programs can put you on the map, help you punch above your weight, and go toe-to-toe with the established players.

For established players, effective thought leadership can help you squash those annoying start-ups and scale-ups who’re trying to take your business.

eSentire—the global leader in Managed Detection and Response (MDR)—is no stranger to thought leadership, and that’s why working with them was a perfect match.

Standing Out in a Noisy Market

The market for managed security services is booming, as enterprises come under attack from a range of threats and typically lack the specialized skills and technologies needed to mount a strong defence.

With countless companies vying for attention in a rapidly expanding market, it’s important to stand out from the crowd. One way to do so is with compelling content, and eSentire is no stranger to this approach: over the years they’ve published an assortment of valuable resources to help prospects and customers understand the threat landscape and different available defences.

Thought Leadership for Lead Generation

When eSentire’s marketing team were presented with a partner marketing opportunity with a very tight timeline—in a period during which the team was already pulled to capacity—they reached out to us.

Coordinating with eSentire’s threat researchers, leveraging data provided by the partner (Carbon Black—who, incidentally, were acquired by VMware during the project), and tapping into my considerable background in both cybersecurity* and data-centric thought leadership, we quickly authored an 18-page report shining a light on the evolving nature of cyber threats.

*During my product management days I looked after cybersecurity products and services, among other things

After eSentire released the report, it was picked up by industry publications and media, increasing awareness of eSentire within the enterprise security market and generating leads to help fuel the sales funnel.

Thought Leadership to Build and Bolster a Reputation

Coincidentally, while the report project was underway, eSentire’s Director of Product Marketing was putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive ebook—The Definitive Guide to Managed Detection and Response (MDR)—which explains the origin of MDR, introduces important criteria to help distinguish between security offerings, compares and contrasts the differences of those offerings, and objectively weighs the pros and cons of different approaches.

MDR tops the shopping list for many organization; in fact, Gartner recently identified MDR as the next evolution of threat monitoring and incident response services. But there’s an enormous amount of confusion in the marketplace about what, exactly, MDR actually is, and how it differs from related security services and concepts.

By being the source of clarification for a confusing subject, eSentire automatically becomes a trusted authority, building and bolstering an already-impressive reputation within the industry.

While this type of content will no doubt generate an impressive number of leads, it serves another—arguably more important—purpose. By being the source of clarification for a confusing subject, eSentire automatically becomes a trusted authority, building and bolstering an already-impressive reputation within the industry.

Our role in this project was relatively smaller—eSentire asked us to provide an outside perspective on the material, to review the content in general, and to provide proofing and editing prior to final design/layout—but nevertheless important.

The Value of Marketing-as-a-Service

In both projects, eSentire augmented their internal capacity and skills through our marketing-as-a-service model.

While eSentire’s track record is evidence that they can produce thought leadership material without external assistance, working with Cromulent let them move at the velocity demanded by the market.

The fact that we have significant expertise with thought leadership programs and cybersecurity technology just made the whole thing a no-brainer.