Steve Armenti, VP of Revenue Marketing at DigitalOcean, shares his insights on personalized ABM, revenue alignment, and optimizing marketing strategies with iTech Series.
It’s fantastic to have you on this interview series, Steve. Your journey to becoming a revenue marketing leader and expert sounds fascinating. How has your always-on learning mindset helped shape your career?
You have to be curious. I find that most of what I learn is by talking to others, so I’m constantly exploring new trends, products, and technologies that others are using or talking about. I’m also very attentive when leaders are talking. If you want to be successful, listen, listen, and listen. And then internalize what you hear and think about how you can add value.
“If you want to be successful, listen, listen, and listen. Then internalize what you hear and think about how you can add value.”
You’ve mentioned the shift from traditional ABM to more sophisticated approaches. Can you elaborate on the key aspects and how businesses can transition their ABM strategies?
Traditional ABM has been a one-size-fits-all strategy. I’m a fan of a more personalized approach. I use deep research to unveil target accounts’ and buyers’ unique needs and then use customized experiences (via ads, email, events, etc.) to drive engagement across multiple channels.
You’ve mentioned the increasing importance of revenue alignment. As a go-to-market leader, what are the essential steps to ensure synchronization between the marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps teams to work towards shared revenue goals?
You have to break down silos! There has to be open communication between marketing, sales, customer success, and RevOps. Set shared goals, track progress transparently, and celebrate wins together. It’s nothing more than that.
How can marketers tailor their programs to different customer profiles using the three pillars of demand generation: accounts, personas, and segments?
Map the buyer journey for your accounts (companies), personas (decision-makers), and segments (categories of personas), then tailor your marketing accordingly. This is where I believe in doing things that don’t scale. Don’t try to create a massive scale right away, do things that get you meetings, but don’t scale.
When presented with multiple GTM and campaign ideas, how do you help shortlist and prioritize those?
It’s by using data. Analyze market fit, potential ROI, and alignment with the overall strategy. Prioritize high-impact, measurable initiatives that drive revenue growth.
What advice can you offer fellow revenue leaders on optimizing their GTM technology stack, considering the explosion of AI-enabled tools?
Use AI to automate tasks, personalize experiences, and create data-driven insights. Empower humans to be creative, build relationships, and talk to customers.
Why is retaining existing customers often more cost-effective than acquiring new ones, and how do you monitor the retention rate?
Acquiring new customers is expensive, so you can focus on delighting the ones you have. Existing customers are also easier to get data and insights about. You can look at product usage, product behavior, demographics, and other intent data. Or just talk to them. You can learn a lot about your customers and then design programs that grow wallet share.
DigitalOcean simplifies cloud computing, enabling businesses to focus on creating software that changes the world. With mission-critical infrastructure and fully managed offerings, DigitalOcean helps developers at startups and growing digital businesses quickly build, deploy, and scale their projects, whether they’re establishing a digital presence or developing digital products. DigitalOcean combines simplicity, security, community, and customer support, allowing customers to spend less time managing infrastructure and more time building innovative applications that drive business growth.
Steve Armenti boasts over 15 years of experience in marketing, beginning his career in sales, where he pioneered early ABM strategies and digital marketing tactics. His journey started with launching and growing a successful website, which led to roles in managing social media and influencer marketing. Now at DigitalOcean, Steve combines his expertise in demand generation with a passion for innovation, shaping strategies that blend product-led and sales-led growth. His journey is defined by a pursuit of learning and problem-solving in marketing.
