Episode #24 of the Data Center Go-to-Market Podcast features an interview with Blair Felter, Senior Director of Global Marketing at CyrusOne.
- Learn how Blair Felter transitioned into a career in digital infrastructure marketing
- Discover strategies for staying relevant in a rapidly changing industry through continuous learning
- Find out how AI tools can help marketers scale knowledge and summarize information
- Understand best practices for repurposing content across multiple formats and audiences
- Gain insights into building trust with customers through relationship-focused marketing
- Educate external data center stakeholders, including regulators and utilities
- Craft effective marketing strategies tailored to different buyer personas
Host:
Joshua Feinberg, CEO
DCSMI
Special Guest:
Blair Felter, Senior Director of Global Marketing
CyrusOne
The conversation between Joshua Feinberg and Blair Felter focused on data center-related marketing strategies and challenges, including understanding customer needs and tailoring marketing approaches to different segments. Consolidation was also a major topic, with Blair highlighting the need for financial stability and long-term growth and the challenges of grid power, availability, and self-generating power. Continuous learning and adaptation were emphasized, as well as the need for data centers to be more sustainable and use renewable power. Finally, strategies for repurposing content across different mediums and formats were discussed, including the challenges of getting internal subject matter experts to collaborate in creating content.
Action Items
- Develop content repurposing strategy from long form to shorts and mediums.
- Build external affairs programs to improve relationships with utilities and governments.
- Continue initiatives to understand customer needs through research and market segmentation.
Outline
Marketing strategies in the data center industry.
- Blair Felter joins CyrusOne as Senior Director of Global Marketing after 8 years in the data center ecosystem.
- Blair’s career journey in digital infrastructure, including mergers and acquisitions.
Data center industry growth, consolidation, and marketing strategies.
- Investors prioritize financial stability in the data center industry, leading to consolidation.
- Blair originally discovered data center space through the interview process and learned its importance in keeping connected platforms running.
- Blair highlights the importance of understanding the data center industry, its fragmentation, and marketing challenges.
Staying relevant in the rapidly changing digital infrastructure industry.
- Mid-career professionals must diversify beyond initial success to sustain growth.
- Staying ahead in digital infrastructure requires continuous learning and adapting to industry changes.
Using AI to summarize information and keep up with changing SEO strategies.
- Blair suggests using AI to summarize research papers and podcasts to save time
- Blair finds AI helpful in scaling knowledge, even with limited time
- Blair discusses the evolving nature of SEO and the importance of staying up-to-date with industry changes.
Repurposing content from webinars, podcasts, and videos into various formats for different audiences.
- Blair highlights the importance of having subject matter experts on camera to repurpose content.
- Blair: Repurposing webinar content into shorter pieces for different audiences.
- Blair: Identifying key topics and timestamps for easy navigation and engagement.
Marketing strategies for the data center industry, focusing on creativity, personality, and customer understanding.
- Blair: Marketers should test content to see what resonates with customers.
- Blair: Personality-driven marketing is key to success in the data center industry.
- Blair emphasizes the importance of showing the human side of a business, citing trust and likability as key factors in customer choice.
- Blair encourages marketing departments in technology-based industries to prioritize creativity and empathy in their strategies.
Building trust with customers and external affairs in the data center industry.
- Companies growing channel partnerships prioritize customer understanding and employee satisfaction.
- Blair emphasizes deepening customer relationships, building brand trust, and external affairs initiatives.
- Through external affairs efforts, Blair aims to improve power dynamics within the data center space.
Educating state and local governments and utility providers about data center needs.
- Educating state and local governments on data center goals and partnership opportunities.
- Separate go-to-market strategies for different audiences with aligned methodology.
- Blair emphasizes the importance of understanding the "why" behind choosing a data center provider and building trust with regulators.
- Blair and Joshua discuss the need to tailor marketing strategies to different audiences, including regulators and potential customers.
- Blair highlights the need for better communication between data center providers, state/local governments, and utility providers.
- Blair discusses the challenges of meeting power demands in the face of growing data center needs and increasing competition for grid power.
AI tools and platforms used for productivity and marketing.
- Blair mentions using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude for productivity and creativity.
- Blair and Joshua praise Canva for democratizing marketing by making design accessible to non-designers.
Marketing strategies and tools in the data center industry.
- Blair shares insights on podcast consumption, mentioning 1.5x speed and multitasking.
- Blair and Joshua recommend listening to podcasts while commuting or doing other activities.
Guest Resources
- Connect with Blair Felter, Senior Director of Global Marketing at CyrusOne, on LinkedIn
- Follow CyrusOne on LinkedIn
- Learn About CyrusOne
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