In the fast-paced world of B2B marketing, staying ahead of the curve demands a nuanced approach that balances innovation with authenticity. Nir Elharar, recently promoted to CMO at Atera, shares his journey and insights on scaling marketing operations, leveraging AI, and maintaining a human touch in an increasingly digital landscape.
Scaling Marketing for Growth
Elharar’s transition from VP of Marketing to CMO at Atera, a leading Action AI provider, has been marked by strategic changes to support the company’s rapid expansion. “Supporting the growth of the entire organization was a key challenge,” Elharar notes. “We went from a bootstrap company to one with significant funding, requiring us to invest efficiently and scalably in the right areas, geos, and segments.”
Restructuring for Efficiency and Reach
One significant change was integrating product marketing into the broader marketing organization. This move has accelerated go-to-market strategies, particularly evident in the swift and impactful launch of Atera’s AI copilot. Elharar explains, “Bringing product marketing into the marketing org helped us deliver faster to market with launches.”
Recognizing the importance of both digital and physical presence, Atera has significantly expanded its event marketing efforts. “We noticed that in many events, prospects and our audience were not familiar with our all-in-one solution. Building a powerful event team has been a game-changer for us,” Elharar states. This multi-channel approach ensures Atera reaches its audience through various touchpoints, from digital platforms to face-to-face interactions at conferences and smaller meetups.
Balancing Teams and Content Strategies
Integrating product marketing into the broader marketing function wasn’t without challenges. Elharar addresses the potential friction between product marketing and content teams using the “95-5 rule” in B2B marketing:
This clear delineation helps guide content creation and minimize team conflicts.
Creative Marketing in a Saturated Digital Environment
Atera’s approach to creative marketing is guided by three principles:
1. Educate customers
2. Be innovative in both product and marketing
3. Make it fun
Elharar emphasizes the importance of internal testing: “We have a pretty big IT department, so we dogfood every idea with them. If it fails with them, it will obviously fail with our audience.” This approach, combined with customer feedback, helps refine ideas before launch.
Cross-departmental collaboration is key to Atera’s creative process. “We collect ideas from other teams, including the CTO office, chief product, and sales department. It’s really collaborative, which helps us reach new levels of creativity,” Elharar explains.
Successful Campaign Examples
1. “Big Game Monday” – highlighting IT challenges after major sporting events
2. IT Day – encouraging employees to nominate their best IT person, elevating IT managers to “heroes” within their companies
3. Olympics-themed T-shirts – featuring IT-related “sports” like “device weightlifting” and “forgotten password hurdles”
These campaigns resonated strongly with Atera’s target audience of IT managers, who Elharar describes as “the unsung heroes of companies.”
AI and Human Creativity: A Powerful Combination
Atera’s approach to AI in marketing is pragmatic yet innovative. Elharar sees AI as a tool to enhance creativity and speed up execution. “AI-powered tools can really emphasize creativity. It can help take an idea and lift it, and dramatically speed up execution,” he states.
This combination of creativity and speed allows Atera to react quickly to real-time events, from the Olympics to U.S. elections, giving them a competitive edge in the market. Elharar notes,
Maintaining Authenticity in AI-Driven Content
While leveraging AI, Elharar stresses the importance of maintaining authenticity. His litmus test for content quality is simple yet effective: “I’m asking myself, would I consume this content?” He also involves the IT department in content evaluation, ensuring it resonates with their target audience.
“The human touch of editing the content and making adjustments to ensure it provides value to the audience is something we’re not compromising on,” Elharar affirms. This approach helps Atera strike a balance between AI-enhanced productivity and genuine audience connection.
Skills for Future Marketing Leaders
Looking ahead, Elharar believes marketing leaders must adapt to rapid technological shifts. He emphasizes the importance of understanding marketing automation tools and systems. “Things need to be connected. Marketers need to find marketing automation tool systems that work for their organization,” he advises.
Soft skills remain crucial. Elharar recommends putting yourself in the shoes of the sales team and attending sales calls to ensure marketing content resonates with the audience. “Understanding the audience and speaking with customers is essential. Hearing the pain points directly can significantly inform marketing strategies,” he notes.
Looking Ahead: Priorities for 2025
As the new CMO, Elharar outlines three key priorities for Atera in the coming year:
1. Increase share of voice and pipeline creation in the market
2. Successfully launch Autopilot and other strategic features throughout 2025
3. Continue providing value to their audience through educational, innovative, and fun marketing campaigns
“We want to continue doing marketing in a way that educates and resonates with our audience while pushing the boundaries of innovation,” Elharar concludes. This approach aligns with Atera’s commitment to balancing technological advancement with authentic, value-driven marketing.
In an era where AI and human creativity intersect, Atera under Elharar’s leadership is charting a course that balances technological advancement with authentic, value-driven marketing. For B2B marketers facing similar challenges, Elharar’s insights offer a roadmap for scaling operations, embracing AI, and maintaining a human touch in an increasingly digital world.
