Certa’s Education-First Marketing Strategy: Building Trust in the Enterprise Security Space

When you’re selling complex compliance software to enterprises, traditional marketing playbooks often fall short. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Certa founder Jag Lamba revealed how they’ve built trust through a radically different approach to B2B marketing.

The Education Imperative

“For B2B SaaS, I really think that’s the best and the only way to look at marketing. It’s not about branding, if you will, it’s all about education. It’s about raising awareness,” Jag explains. This philosophy shapes everything from their content strategy to their sales enablement.

A Three-Layer Approach to Influence

Certa’s marketing strategy recognizes the evolving nature of enterprise influence. Beyond traditional analyst relationships, they’ve identified three key layers of market education:

1. Traditional Analyst Firms “As a B2B software firm focused on enterprises, analysts play a big role. So you have to talk to the Gardners and the Foresters of the world,” Jag notes.
2. Independent Voices “Similar to what’s happening in social media, it’s also happening with analysts… there are individual independent analysts who have become pretty widely followed by our clients,” Jag explains, comparing it to how “MrBeast is as popular as Brad Pitt.”
3. Direct Education The core of their strategy focuses on direct customer education about their innovative approach. “What we have is something very innovative. What we think is extremely ten times more advanced than most other solutions. And the challenge for us is to just educate prospects on that.”

Making Complex Ideas Accessible

One of Certa’s key strategies is using relatable analogies to explain complex concepts. For instance, when explaining their platform to investors and customers, they position it as “Certa is like the workday, but for companies instead of people.”

This approach helps bridge the gap between technical complexity and business value. As Jag notes, they need to help prospects understand “the differences of what Certa can do” compared to traditional solutions.

Building Internal Capabilities

Unlike many B2B companies that outsource their content creation and marketing, Certa believes in building internal expertise. “It’s all about hiring the right team,” Jag emphasizes. “Agencies are lasers. They can come in, they can help for a project, but they’re not going to be the one who will sustain you, spreading your message and sharing your message.”

The Results of Education-First Marketing

This approach has helped Certa achieve remarkable results. “We’ve been able to successfully deploy Certa at every single client we’ve sold Certa to,” Jag shares. This perfect deployment record becomes a powerful element in their educational content, demonstrating the real-world impact of their approach.

Lessons for B2B Founders

For founders marketing complex enterprise solutions, Certa’s experience offers several key insights:

1. Education should be the core of B2B marketing strategy
2. Influence has become decentralized—plan accordingly
3. Build internal expertise rather than relying on agencies
4. Use analogies to make complex concepts accessible
5. Perfect execution creates its own marketing momentum

Looking Forward

Certa’s vision for the future remains focused on simplifying complex processes: “Companies will be able to onboard and work with each other with one click.” Their education-first marketing strategy plays a crucial role in helping enterprises understand and embrace this vision.

For B2B founders, particularly those in complex technical spaces, Certa’s approach offers a compelling alternative to traditional brand-focused marketing. Success in enterprise sales might not come from clever branding or aggressive outreach, but from consistently educating the market about what’s possible.