High-tech companies often struggle to build a strong sales pipeline because their market is so specialized. Finding the right customer can be a tough project. We chatted with Alexey Leybov, Director of Demand Generation at CAST AI, to get the inside scoop on how they tackle this.
CAST AI is one of the fastest-growing cloud optimization platforms and they are well-acquainted with this challenge. From this conversation, we’ve gathered five key lessons on how to succeed in tough tech markets.
1. Know Your Audience
Before you create any go-to-market strategies, you need to deeply understand who your ideal customer is. The sharper your targeting, the better your results.
In B2B, targeting usually has two layers: account fit and persona fit. First, you should focus only on companies that could become your customers. For example, CAST AI optimizes Kubernetes, so if a company isn’t using it, they’re off the list. Second, you need to think about who to target within the company. Typically, you’ll have two key personas: a user and a decision-maker. In CAST AI’s example, it could be a DevOps engineer as the user and a CTO as the decision-maker.
“I always recommend that marketers shadow sales calls—it’s an excellent way to gather valuable insights about your potential customers,” says Alexey Leybov, Director of Demand Generation at CAST AI. “Ideally, you should use a call recording tool like Gong. That way, you don’t have to join live and can listen to the recordings while driving or cooking. To me, it’s one of the most important ways to tune my neural network to feel exactly what our customers are looking for.”
Rather than casting a wide net, CAST AI zeroed in on DevOps, FinOps, and Cloud Engineers. They created targeted campaigns that used language and messaging tailored to the challenges of these roles. As a result, their campaign costs dropped and the conversion rate increased.
The takeaway: It’s better to create campaigns that target specific problems for a well-defined audience than to try and appeal to everyone.
2. Educate Your Audience
Tech markets move fast, and clients are looking for expertise and solutions, not just tools. This is where both your product and content teams come in. According to Alexey, your content marketing should cover all stages of the funnel with relevant content to keep a steady stream of inbound leads coming in. In simple terms, the funnel is the process people go through from discovering your product to becoming a customer. It starts broad with lots of potential leads and narrows down to those most likely to buy.
Every few months, try dropping a thought leadership piece that you can run in paid ads to grab potential users’ attention. “Most companies sell not just their product but the expertise of their engineers. That’s definitely the case for us,” says Alexey. “Our product is great, but our engineers have worked with so many Kubernetes clusters that they can solve any problem related to it and recommend better infrastructure. We use this as a selling point in our marketing collateral.”
To create thought leadership content, you can rely on your own data. For example, in February, CAST AI published a 2024 Kubernetes Cost Benchmark Report showing how much of the provisioned CPUs were actually used by their clients. The report was in very high demand.
“We didn’t just create the report; we built a full-funnel campaign around it,” Alexey adds. “First, people downloaded the report, then we invited them to a webinar to talk through the findings, and after that, we distributed it at KubeCon, a major conference in Paris. Instead of one peak, we had three, and the report has already brought us a couple of million dollars in ARR.”
3. Leverage Data to Guide Decisions
Today, data should drive every marketing decision. Whether it’s PPC or content marketing, real-time insights can guide you to tweak and optimize your campaigns for better results.
But without the right infrastructure, it’s impossible to get meaningful results—as the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out.” CAST AI uses HubSpot as their marketing automation platform and Salesforce as their CRM. This setup allows them to monitor user behaviour, track campaign performance, and make real-time adjustments to boost ROI.
“In B2B, having reliable data is crucial,” Alexey explains. “Sales cycles are long, and people interact with your brand in many different places—from search to conferences. Plus, the person who uses the product isn’t always the one paying for it, which adds to the complexity. You can’t make data-driven decisions without the right infrastructure in place.”
Once you’ve got the right setup and a clear goal, let the data drive your decisions. For instance, by analyzing keyword performance, the CAST AI team found that specific terms attracted more qualified traffic than broader “cloud optimization.” Shifting their budget to these keywords led to a 30% drop in cost-per-click and a 20% increase in lead quality.
CAST AI also experimented with lookalike audiences in social media campaigns, using data from high-converting leads to find similar prospects. Combined with personalized landing pages featuring case studies and product demos, this approach boosted conversion rates by 15%.
“Every decision we make is based on data,” Alexey says. “From keyword optimization to A/B testing our landing pages, we’re always using insights to tweak and improve our campaigns. It’s an ongoing process of testing, learning, and refining.”
4. Personalize at Scale
Personalization is crucial in B2B marketing because there are always multiple personas within a company. Your emails need to be tailored to the recipient’s role. For instance, DevOps engineers need content focused on technical solutions while CPOs require messaging that emphasizes business value and ROI. Each persona has different concerns, and your content should address their specific needs.
Another example of personalization is account-based marketing (ABM) assets. You can deliver tailored case studies, reports, ads, or landing pages that speak directly to a company’s unique challenges. This makes the marketing feel more relevant and increases the chances of engagement.
“It’s obvious: the more personal your communication, the higher your conversion rate,” Alexey explains. “At CAST, we’re now working on programmatic ABM landing pages where we automatically change logos and brand colours to create hundreds of targeted pages at scale. This approach dramatically increases the conversion rate of any ABM campaign.”
Effective lead nurturing is another key part of personalization. By creating a dynamic sequence that adapts to each prospect’s level of engagement, you can move leads further down the funnel. Those who engage more deeply with your content receive in-depth materials, while less engaged prospects are nurtured with educational content. This approach helps boost engagement and delivers more qualified leads to sales.
As Alexey puts it, “Automation does the heavy lifting, but the messaging still feels personal. It’s all about maintaining that balance between scale and relevance.”
5. Showcase Your Product
Strangely, many people skip this, but the most effective way to drive leads is to showcase your product. Marketers often create landing pages that convey value in vague terms using words like “optimization” or “automation.” But in reality, visitors will spend a maximum of 10-15 seconds on your page before closing it if they aren’t interested. Your goal is to be specific—tell them exactly what problem you solve and how. The best way? Show your product in action.
“One of the best ways to showcase your product is by using product screencasts and videos. We found that including the product interface in our communications boosts conversion rates by at least 10%,” Alexey states.
Another powerful approach is to use webinars or product walkthroughs. These not only show how your product works but also give potential customers a chance to ask questions and see the solution in action. This is especially useful for complex tech products, where prospects need to see the tool in use to fully grasp its capabilities.
“People want to see how the product can help them solve their own problems,” Alexey notes. “At CAST, we run demo webinars regularly, so our audience can clearly see the benefits of using our platform.”
Ultimately, by showcasing your product in a way that directly addresses the pain points of your target audience, you make it easier for them to visualize the solution and take the next step.
To Recap
Marketing in tough tech markets requires a clear strategy, focus, and a deep understanding of your audience. As we’ve seen from CAST AI’s approach, success comes from a holistic strategy. By implementing these five lessons, companies operating in highly technical niches might not overcome all the challenges immediately, but they will start moving in the right direction. Whether through dynamic lead nurturing, personalized ABM campaigns or simply demonstrating your product’s value, the key is staying focused on solving your customers’ problems in a way that hits home.
