In this interview, Mike Mancino, VP of SaaS at HubSpot, talks with us about how their content marketing strategy helps to align themselves with business objectives. It involves creating customer personas, and building profiles of customers. It's helped HubSpot to refine their content strategy, and work with them to create stories. It's also helped them align marketing to business objectives, and set metrics for success. About the Author Lisa has been a contributor to CIO.com since 2011, and has a longstanding career in journalism. Based on a background in business and tech journalism, with her focus on vendor- and partner-focused content, she produces a variety of content. In addition to IT Marketing News, her latest efforts include segments for CIO Review and . She is a regular contributor to the CIO's Executive Blog, BNET Webcast (Host) group. In addition to writing, Lisa teaches a graduate course on digital journalism, at the University of Florida, and has been a speaker at various universities, including keynotes at Columbia College and Florida International University. She and her partner live in Tampa, FL. In accordance with our Comment Policy, we encourage comments that are on topic, relevant and to-the-point. We will remove comments that include profanity, personal attacks, racial slurs, threats of violence, or other inappropriate material that violates our Terms and Conditions, and will block users who make repeated violations. We ask all readers to expect diversity of opinion and to treat one another with dignity and respect. What does it take to create a next-generation digital safety and security program that enables employees to thrive in a world where cyber-attacks are as inevitable as fire in an office building or a burglary on the street? The key: Data Security Awareness. Only through an employee-centric approach to security — focused on managing risk — can employees operate productively and securely in a mobile and cloud-first world. Digital business is radically disrupting industries like retail and media. This Blog provides an update on new insights, research and trends that impact the world of digital business including: E-commerce, Mobile Computing and SaaS/Cloud Computing. Featured Resources Lots of people are talking about what’s next in cloud computing, I have some thoughts. I’ve been researching the future of cloud for a long time, and have consulted with many of the companies in the industry. The short answer to the question is: I don’t really know, but I’m excited to find out. With Cloud Expo Silicon Valley just around the corner, there is no better time to attend than now. The show will offer a full day of comprehensive learning at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, on November 3rd. What You Will Learn Cloud Expo is the world's most important gathering of cloud computing professionals, technology enthusiasts, startups and venture capitalists. Cloud Expo Silicon Valley will offer a full day of comprehensive learning at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, on November 3rd. What You Will Learn Cloud Expo Silicon Valley is the world's most important gathering of cloud computing professionals, technology enthusiasts, startups and venture capitalists. Cloud Expo is where technology meets business and where partners, developers and researchers meet to solve the biggest technical challenges facing the industry. Digital Transformation in the Digital Age: Emerging Technologies, Hybrid Cloud and Big Data Expo Innovations in service strategy and application development are having a significant impact on the way businesses are running. Modernized application development, mobile delivery and orchestration, the Internet of Things and analytics and real-time service monitoring are all part of our new digital age. A recent research report found that a single, complex and interconnected application in this cloud native era generates up to an astonishing 11 terabytes of data per month, and the growth of data being generated by businesses every year now surpasses global, regional, and industry specific growth of GDP by all of the industries in the IT sector. Our vision is simple, but we need your help to make it happen. Learn how your organization can use the same technologies, in the same place, to reach your customers wherever they are at that moment. The Cloud Expo can be utilized as a platform to bridge and unite various stakeholders in IT. Cloud Expo will also host the first-ever SaaS, PaaS, and MPS (marketing process services) Providers Expo. SaaS providers need to be represented to grow their platform to reach new customers. This year we are attracting SaaS providers to present and learn how to grow their businesses with our customers. This provides a tremendous opportunity for SaaS providers, as they present to the largest database of IT decision makers in the country! In addition to the agenda, we have expanded our event into a community driven conference. We will continue to have world class, focused educational content delivered by industry leading speakers. At the end of the day, the goal of all of our work is to enable and empower more people in our industry to take control of their career and future. Cloud Expo Silicon Valley will continue to do just that. The SaaS cloud market is at an inflection point. Companies need to transform their business models to address opportunities, changing demands and trends in the market. Success in the SaaS market, as well as their overall business depends on organizations’ ability to implement changes to grow revenue and reduce costs. With Cloud Expo Silicon Valley just around the corner, there is no better time to attend than now. The show will offer a full day of comprehensive learning at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, on November 3rd. The next generation of smart machines will not only transform the way we develop and deploy code, but also transform how we create and apply technology across all areas of society. In this visionary new book from bestselling author Martin Ford (The Age of Intelligent Machines), you’ll learn how a small handful of visionary companies – led by Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook – are rapidly advancing the development of artificial intelligence. These companies will soon control the future, and their vision for the future will utterly transform our lives and how we live, work, love, play, and learn. I believe it’s important to know as a company what you want the role of marketing in your organization to be. While we all aspire to have a “marketing” org as we all know it within larger companies, there is still a very small percentage of companies in the world that do this. A few years back I wrote about ways to define marketing for your organization and the benefits to having a clear definition. So if you think about what marketing really is you might come up with the following definition: Marketing is an applied function where the customer is the center of attention. Marketers have a fundamental responsibility to provide value to the customer through products,