Hey there 👋,

Welcome to The Spoonful newsletter!

If you’re catching your breath between booth duty and parties at Black Hat, same. It feels like we all blinked, and now it’s August, and your calendar is full of “follow-up” requests.

You have a long list of leads and no indication if they’re quality ones yet or if it’s all just AI bots. The meetings are back-to-back.

Here’s some fuel for the in-between moments, when your brain’s not quite in Q4 mode, but you need to feel like you’re prepped.

Are we seeing you in Austin for CyberMarketingCon25?

Don’t you wish you could get professional development, a huge and valuable network, and have fun all in one great place? Great news! You can.

At CyberMarketingCon, you learn from incredible industry leaders on the GTM strategies that are working now… plus gain the AI-powered marketing skills you need for the future!

If you want to learn from the best, make a few friends, AND have a good time, it’s time to sign up.  🎟️ Register Now! 🎟️

Trending News 📰

Do you have cool news from your company? Send it to us! Email media@cybersecuritymarketingsociety.com

DropZone AI raises $37M to scale its autonomous SOC analyst

The Houston-based startup just closed a $37M Series A to accelerate development of its AI-powered platform. The platform acts like a tier-1 SOC analyst, triaging alerts, investigating incidents, and delivering explainable recommendations in minutes. Backers include Theory Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Madrona. 👉 Read the full story

BlinkOps lands $50M Series B to expand its security micro-agent platform
BlinkOps raised $50M to grow its no-code/low-code platform for building AI-powered “security micro-agents.” Without scripting, these agents can automate tasks across IAM, alert triage, and vulnerability management. The round was led by O.G. Venture Partners, with Lightspeed, Hetz, and Vertex also participating. 👉 Read more

Maro raises $4.3M to tackle human risk with real-time nudges

Maro just raised a $4.3M seed round to address cybersecurity’s biggest gaps: human behavior. The platform delivers just-in-time security interventions that help employees avoid risky clicks, actions, or oversharing — all without heavy training modules. Y Combinator and Harpoon Ventures led the round. 👉 Read more

Palo Alto Networks confirms $25B acquisition of CyberArk

It’s official: Palo Alto Networks is acquiring identity security leader CyberArk in a $25 billion deal. The combined force puts PANW at the center of identity, cloud, and SecOps and marks one of the largest cybersecurity acquisitions. 👉 Read the press release

Partner Corner 💼

Elevate Your Brand as a Sponsor of ISC2 Security Congress

Showcase your solutions to thousands of cybersecurity experts as a sponsor of the ISC2 Security Congress, hosted by ISC2, the world’s leading membership association for cybersecurity professionals. Gain credibility, choose from premium visibility packages, and save as a first-time sponsor!

Marketing Mastery 😎

Stop doom-scrolling your docs; these guides help you get stuff done. And yes they’re all from Sara McNamara, sue us. We thought these were great!

• The Complete Guide to Email Deliverability
  Your emails look great. Now, let’s make sure they land. This guide explains how to boost your sender reputation, hit inboxes (not spam), and measure deliverability correctly.
• The Ultimate Campaign Management and Hierarchy Guide
  Confused about parent campaigns vs. tactics vs. SFDC structures? This one’s for you. Build cleaner campaign hierarchies, align across teams, and stop the spreadsheet chaos.
• The Ultimate Guide to Lead and Account Scoring
  Are you scoring for behavior, fit, intent, or vibes? (Be honest.) This guide helps you set up a system that flags your best leads, not just the busiest ones.
• The 2025 Guide to AI in Marketing Operations
  Yes, AI is everywhere. But how do you use it in ops without making a mess? This covers tools, roles, prompts, and real workflows.
• Data Enrichment, Cleansing, Normalization, and Validation Use Cases
  Your CRM doesn’t need to be a trash fire. Here are real use cases for cleaning up your records, merging duplicates, and normalizing what your sales team needs.
• Email Consent Compliance Guide
  Consent rules change fast, and getting them wrong can get ugly. This guide walks through the current best practices across regions and how to build compliance into your process (without slowing you down).
• Clay for Marketing: My Favorite Use Cases and How to Set Them Up
  This write-up provides a tour of real-world marketing use cases (enrichment, alerts, routing) and step-by-step setup tips from someone who uses it.

From the Community 💌

• This week's Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing Podcast episode: Different Is Good: Why Standing Out > Being Perfect on Social with Wiz’s Maya Doron!
  
  
• 🎸 The 2025 Demandys – Nominations Now Open The Demandys (think Grammys, but for demand gen) celebrate standout campaigns across ABM, cybersecurity, developer marketing, and more. 🗓 Deadline: Sept 4, Free to enter, and winners get VIP passes to Music City Demand Gen Summit. 👉 Submit your nomination
  
  
• 🎧 In case you missed it: Keyfactor dropped an album for SysAdmin Day. Now That’s What I Call Digital Trust is a musical tribute to PKI admins, IAM architects, and everyone who’s ever fought cert chaos at 4 p.m. on a Friday. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll queue up Certageddon. 👉 Stream it on Spotify
• ⚠️ Too good to be true? A new kind of fake lead is making the rounds
  Marketers in the Society Slack noticed a weird new trend: inbound leads that look legit (real company domains, promising titles)… but the emails bounce and the people don’t exist. 👀 Could it be AI bots? One theory points to automated agents spoofing leads to grab swag, pad stats, or mess with competitors. Community advice: Send a quick confirmation or nurture email to filter fakes. Don’t block free email domains, legit folks still use them and watch for patterns across campaign sources 🧵 Members can check the full Slack convo and everyone can enjoy this wild LinkedIn post that might explain what’s going on.
  
  
• Nominate a woman-led org for the Innovation Women Top Workplaces awards. Know a woman-led company doing great work in innovation and culture? Submit them for national recognition (free to nominate). 👉 Nominate here
  
  
• Meet & Greet with Melissa Di Giovanna – August 27 | Virtual
  Hosted by Priority Experiences, this informal session features sommelier Melissa Di Giovanna sharing how teams use global tasting kits and experiences to stay connected, plus a sneak peek at holiday gifting options.
  👉 RSVP

Stuff Worth Reading (Promise)

Fresh reads from the community (or your next “forward this to my boss” moment):

• 2025 Beautiful Booth Award Winners
  Get the full breakdown on which booths stood out at RSAC this year and why. This is great for inspiration or bragging rights.
  
  
• Why Cybersecurity Marketers Should Download the 2025 Buyers Report Update—Today
  Buyer behavior is shifting again. This blog dives into the newest insights from the updated report, what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how to use the data in your next campaign.
  
  
• 10 Strategic Reasons to Send Your Team to CyberMarketingCon 2025
  Need conference budget ammo? This is your case study meets cheat sheet for why CyberMarketingCon is worth it. For your team, your boss, and your 2026 pipeline.

Upcoming events: 📆

• DEF CON 33: August 8-11 | Las Vegas, NV
• Billington Cybersecurity Summit: September 9-12, Washington, D.C.
• CrowdStrike Fal.Con: September 15-18, Las Vegas, NV
• International Cyber Expo: September 30- October 1, London, UK
• INBOUND 2025: September 3-5, 2025, San Francisco, CA
• Meet & Greet with Melissa Di Giovanna by Priority Experiences: August 27 | Virtual

Top Cybersecurity Conferences & Events: Stay updated with the latest events to network and learn about emerging MarTech tools, SecurityMetrics

Where We’re Meeting Next:

🗓️ August 14 @ 1 p.m. ET – Beyond the Booth: Turning Black Hat Leads into Pipeline (Virtual)
You spent big at Black Hat—don’t let the leads fizzle. This tactical session from the Cybersecurity Marketing Society + Sequel.io breaks down a 30-day post-event nurture plan, including using webinars as strategic re-engagement.
🎟️ Register here

🗓️ August 26 @ 3 p.m. ET – RSAC ROI Community Meetup (Virtual)
Let’s talk numbers. Join this member-led meetup to swap notes on RSAC results—from booth costs to lead quality to what closed. Bring your wins, lessons, and plans for next year.
🎟️ Register here

🗓️ September 4 @ 2 p.m. ET – Eventapalooza (Virtual)
A rapid-fire livestream for field, event, and demand gen marketers to compare and shop 2026 cybersecurity events—without the fluff. One hour, one slide per event organizer, zero sales pressure.
🎟️ Register here

Check out the monthly member events calendar! It’s packed with exciting networking opportunities and recurring meetups designed just for you.

Just for laughs: Meme of the Week... 😂

We blinked, and the year is nearly over. Credit to Michael Yehoshua for the meme!

That’s it for this edition! Thanks for reading!

Don't forget: you're the best! 💪

Have a great weekend!

❤️ Gianna & Maria

PS: This newsletter is made by humans. We might not reply, but we read all your responses.

Cybersecurity Marketing Society, 501 1st Avenue N #901, St. Petersburg, FL 33701

Unsubscribe Manage preferences

‍