I’m Mark Terry, Head of Marketing at CyberOne, a cyber security Professional and Managed Services business and a leading Microsoft Security partner dedicated to helping organisations stay resilient in the face of an ever-evolving digital risk landscape.
I lead the development and execution of our go-to-market strategy and positioning. My focus is on helping ambitious SMEs and mid-market organisations navigate an increasingly complex environment shaped by rapid technological change and rising security challenges.
Ultimately, my role is about giving business leaders the clarity and confidence to make informed decisions around cyber security. We support them in staying protected, reducing anxiety about potential disruptions and enabling them to focus on what they do best — growing and innovating their businesses.
Our mission is to empower organisations to operate securely and confidently through proactive risk mitigation, regulatory compliance and long-term cyber resilience.
It’s changed massively over the last 20 years. I started in media and publishing, which taught me the real power of storytelling — how to tell an honest, authentic, and human story. That skill has only become more important over time, no more so than today, where you’ve got these synthetic stories and flimsy content created by AI that often lacks depth or sincerity.
For me, marketing is about humanising what your business does — creating a level playing field between an organisation and its audience. It’s about informing and educating people in a way that makes them truly understand the value of your service, not just what it is, but how it helps them, both as individuals and as organisations. That’s probably the biggest shift. Funnily enough, 20 years ago, my marketing was just about selling newspapers or getting a few clicks on a banner ad. But now it’s more of a personal service.
Authentic storytelling and offering a helping hand. That’s how B2B brands earn trust and drive sustainable growth today.
It also feels like we’re entering a new era for the brand. We’ve gone through a phase of measuring everything within an inch of its life. Yes, measurement matters — but not to the point where it stifles progress or creativity. Data should be a guide, not a blocker.
Financial leaders are starting to see marketing not just as a cost centre or the “colouring-in department” but as a strategic growth driver. The days of Don Draper and multi-million-pound ad spend have evolved to becoming more accountable— but perhaps we’ve become too obsessed with attribution. It’s easy to spend too much time chasing the perfect attribution model that you lose sight of the bigger picture: how far marketing has come and how much value it now delivers across the business.
Ultimately, marketing has grown up and become more connected to customer value and more responsive to change. I think there’s an opportunity for all departments to take a similar approach, working more closely together to adapt, learn and stay aligned with what truly matters to customers.
I guess I’ve been lucky enough to have worked for a number of really great organisations and given the opportunity to drive change. When I moved from London back to the south coast, I joined a great technology organisation, a Microsoft partner in Cobweb. One of their challenges was: we’re great at reselling Microsoft solutions to a direct customer base, but how can we make the most of Microsoft’s updated programmes in distributing cloud solutions through channel?
Distribution is a really old space. People have been distributing goods for years and it’s often seen as “stack them high and shift them fast”—basically box shifting. As part of their CSP (Cloud Solution Provider) programme, we had the opportunity with Microsoft to distribute their market-leading software—Microsoft 365, Microsoft Security, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure. It was a pivotal time at Microsoft.
The business said we can’t do this as Cobweb; we must set up a new business. One of those things was to work closely with Microsoft to understand how we could do that best and how we could disrupt the market in a way that was very different from the huge organisations like Tech Data and Ingram Micro at the time.
Rather than just shift boxes, we wanted to add value to these resellers, these MSPs (Managed Service Providers) that we work with, because everything was new to them at that time. They were moving from one-off CD-based software investments to monthly, annual recurring and consumption-based cloud solutions.
The brand Vuzion was created, along with four added-value solutions or pillars, to help the partners we work with grow their organisation and make additional revenue aside from the small margins available through software. We did that through:
But probably the most exciting for me was the fourth pillar called “Grow,” which was basically a “marketing-as-a-service” offering. A lot of IT resellers and Managed service providers are technically very good at what they do, but they don’t have the skill to be able to package and market their services. There were three tiers: boxed campaigns, which they could take for free (creating all the content and campaigns around that) and, on the other end, a pay monthly program delivering customised marketing campaigns and content to support their business and watch them grow.
Working with small organisations on one side and then on the other, working with the likes of Microsoft, Symantec, Mimecast, DocuSign, Acronis etc—it was a really exciting time with a very engaged team. I wasn’t at the organisation when they sold to Infinigate, but you look back at that and think, “Well, we did something right!”. We broke up the market and we were seen as different. So, I would say that was probably one of the most exciting times over a period of only five years where the business went from £0 to £30 million annual recurring revenue.
A previous cyber security organisation I was with was very much trying to sell cyber security services without too much focus on who it was selling to and what it was selling. So, trying to drive that concept of the ideal customer profile was important. I think if you’re trying to sell anything to everyone, the story becomes so much more diluted. It doesn’t have that focus. It’s almost like creating a news story and trying to push it out to the whole UK, hoping everyone will resonate with it.
So, I started delving deep into who we were trying to sell to and who we were successfully selling to. We built its marketing and brand around critical national infrastructure as the audience. We created an annual research study looking into the state of cyber security within a critical national infrastructure.
Driving that annually gave customers and prospects a deep look and understanding of “this is what cyber security is like in my market.” If they wanted a detailed view of a sub-market, they could speak to our organisation and get a thorough understanding of the issues and what they needed to do to protect themselves.
The result was that we won a huge number of media placements, both in national and industry press. It got us in front of people we couldn’t previously, boosted our brand profile from a thought leadership perspective and showcased the individuals delivering the content - increasing their profile and opportunities at speaking engagements. They’re now seen as the number one cyber security organisation in critical national infrastructure through some of the brand research that has been done. It was really interesting how it shifted perception from just a cyber security organisation to the organisation people would go to within critical infrastructure.
I don’t think it’s necessarily just B2B. I think it’s about content in general. Content was seen as valuable, but the value of content and creating it has changed over the last two to three years. Anyone can create content, but how do you create valuable content that’s looked at, reviewed, viewed and viewed as different from the synthetic content produced today via AI and Large Language Models?
I think that’s the challenge because we all know the power of great content and a great message, but the simplicity of going away and creating it has become even easier. So how do you get that cut-through when there are more and more words around and our attention span is becoming so much smaller?
How much trust do you have in an organisation and the content that they’re creating? Most of the time, you spend money on things because people have spent time, dedication, and knowledge—blood, sweat and tears—in some professional service or expertise. Now it’s kind of like, well, how much time have they spent on that? How much have they done?
That’s what’s driving my thoughts at the moment: Is it better? Can you have a more effective message with less? But if there’s more out there, how do you get that “less” message through when there’s so much clutter?
I think that’s probably the biggest change needed at the moment. How do you do that? I’m not sure I have the full answer, but we do need that. Because ultimately, it’s about mental load. More content adds an increased cognitive load. More communication is a heavier mental load on people. And we’ve been seeing the effects of that on some people over the last few years. It all has an impact.
There is something really powerful about a brand with honesty and integrity at the heart of it. Doing that in a way that feels personable and real. I think you can get some great ideas from AI, but I think it’s a starting place rather than the ending place. We all see too much dubious content on our LinkedIn feeds. Social media and tech organisations need to stamp out some players and brands gaming the system, just like when people were keyword-cramming in the early days of search engine optimisation.
I believe the key is simply trying things, leading with curiosity and creating a safe environment where new ideas can be shared or tested without fear of being dismissed or weighed down by bureaucracy and indecision. Setting clear parameters, what we will and won’t do, provides enough structure to instil confidence while giving the freedom to experiment boldly.
It’s crucial to ensure junior voices are heard and senior leaders are open to being challenged because innovation rarely comes from consensus. Some of the best ideas come from those early in their career or those outside the immediate team. You have to break down silos deliberately and bring a diverse range of perspectives into the room.
While remote collaboration absolutely has its place, I’m a strong believer in the power of coming together physically—especially at pivotal moments in the process. It may not be where ideas are first born, but it’s often where they’re refined, debated and developed into something stronger. Informal workshops or offsite sessions give teams the opportunity to step back, reflect, and co-create in a more energised way.
The worst thing we can do is remain isolated in our silos, assuming we already have all the answers. True change and meaningful progress happen when we create the conditions for open thinking, shared perspectives, and courageous collaboration.
The worst thing we can do is remain isolated in our silos, just live in our little rooms or live in our little bubbles and think that maybe this is the future. I think there’s a lot of power in physically coming together and in different generations bringing their ideas and thoughts to the table.
I think it goes back to what we were just saying about giving everyone a voice and listening to people. It’s about “empathy” — actively listening to (not just hearing) people. We all learn mostly through mistakes and sadly, I’ve got less hair because I’ve made my share of them over time! But I really do believe that having empathy and emotional intelligence to understand people, to listen to them and to grasp what your customers need truly allows you to drive a marketing plan or business strategy that addresses their actual challenges.
The most effective marketing happens when you speak to your audience human to human. Not from a pedestal but in a natural setting, whether that’s a café or over a pint in the pub. This approach helps people resonate with what you’re saying and understand where you’re coming from. That’s when trust is built — and that’s when change begins.
The most effective marketing happens when you speak to your audience human to human. Not from a pedestal but in a natural setting… That’s when trust is built — and that’s when change begins.
There are some incredibly strong and experienced leaders out there, but I think it’s fair to say that some haven’t made it easy for young people entering the industry today. There’s a growing generational gap between those with years of experience and those just starting out. As leaders, we have a responsibility to bridge that divide.
We need to give younger people the time, space and encouragement to speak up. That means not just listening to their ideas but making sure they feel safe to challenge what doesn’t feel right and to question long-standing assumptions. Too often, we overlook the value of a fresh perspective when, in fact, that’s exactly where innovation begins.
We should ensure the environment exists to test and try new approaches, but we also have to create a supportive environment. The wrong kind of pressure creates anxiety, which can be debilitating. Progress doesn’t come from certainty but the courage to try something different.
If you just continue to do what you’ve always done, your brand will eventually start to die—slowly or quickly, depending on the market. That’s why I love the phrase “no idea is a bad idea.” it invites contribution. It creates a culture where people feel empowered to explore, challenge and grow.
So, my advice? Be brave. Be curious and speak up. And never be afraid to try something new—even if it feels uncomfortable at first. That’s where real change begins.
To re-form your industry, we must re-form ours first. From our visceral point of view on creativity to our incisive approach to strategy, delve into our provocative thought-leadership on how we’re aiming to subvert B2B’s status quo.
