The Authenticx Guide to Enterprise Product Marketing in Emerging Categories

Building an enterprise product is hard enough. But when you’re creating a product in a category that barely exists, how do you convince conservative enterprise buyers to take a chance on you?

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Authenticx CEO Amy Brown shared how they navigated this challenge, offering valuable insights for founders marketing emerging technology to enterprise customers.

Educating Different Buyer Personas

Before ChatGPT mainstreamed AI discussions, Authenticx had to carefully tailor their messaging to different enterprise audiences. “We fell into the business buyer, not so much the tech buyer in the enterprises we sell to,” Amy explains. “We had to use different language to describe AI capabilities. We needed to use analogies, we needed to use other language that could help connect really to the use case and what the business leader was looking to get out of AI.”

This approach required translating technical capabilities into business outcomes. Instead of leading with AI capabilities, they focused on the core problem: “The business problem that we’re trying to solve is leveraging customer service conversations, specifically those that are flowing in and out of the healthcare industry every single day.”

Evolving the Value Proposition

The challenge wasn’t just explaining what the product did – it was helping enterprises understand why they needed it. Amy saw this disconnect firsthand as a COO: “I had the C suite always asking, how do we get our call volume down? How can we lower our headcount in customer service? Meanwhile, we had our marketing and sales team scrambling to put together an NPS survey program, scrambling to figure out, like, how do we get into the heads and minds of our customers.”

This experience shaped their value proposition: “I was like, guys, the keys to the kingdom are in this conversation data. It’s right here.” The message wasn’t about AI – it was about unlocking value from existing assets.

Navigating the AI Hype Cycle

When ChatGPT launched, the market dynamics shifted dramatically. “When ChatGPT came out, my sense from our clients was suddenly their executive teams were saying to our buyers, like, go find AI solutions. Now we need to optimize our business and AI is going to help us.”

But rather than chase the hype, Authenticx doubled down on responsibility. “Our marketing philosophy is really about being the adult in the room, particularly in this AI hype cycle that we’re in,” Amy shares. “We’ve been very intentional about the markets we’re marketing to. We’ve been very honest about what we say our capabilities are.”

Building Thought Leadership Through Listening

Their approach to market education starts with understanding customer concerns. “I was just out at the JP Morgan conference… and I listened to dozens of investors, bankers talk about fears, concerns, the promise of AI, the hesitation of AI, the question and skepticism around use case and risks, rewards, all of that.”

This listening informs their content strategy: “Through listening, I can hear what the big questions are, where the fear is rooted, where the hopes are rooted. And I tend to weigh in on the things that I have a passion about that I feel might help bridge a gap or add some value to the conversation.”

Creating a New Category

Rather than fitting into existing categories, Authenticx is working to establish “listening AI” as distinct from conversational AI. Why? Because existing categories don’t capture their value proposition: “Our goal is really not to replace the human element of conversations. Our goal is to understand what’s going on in the conversation and use that knowledge and that insight to inform leaders.”

This positioning aligns with their long-term vision: “Three to five years, every corporation in the United States will be bringing the voice of their customer into the boardroom, and they’ll be able to do that in a very scalable and real way.”

For founders marketing emerging technology to enterprises, Authenticx’s journey offers a crucial lesson: successful product marketing isn’t just about explaining what your product does – it’s about helping conservative buyers understand why they need something they’ve never seen before.