Reading time 9 minutes
Women have proven their mettle in various industries, showcasing their multitasking abilities and dedication. In the B2B marketing technology sector, women have particularly excelled, despite the industry’s various hierarchical job roles. Although men possess similar skills, women have established their presence in this field.
According to PwC’s report of 2022, only 15% of women in technology hold leadership positions. Nonetheless, women have made remarkable strides in various areas of B2B marketing technology, mastering skills ranging from marketing automation to CRM software and social media.
Women are leading B2B marketing in the tech industry. The numbers are on our side: Women hold nearly half of all jobs in IT and over 60% of positions in finance and accounting, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But women aren’t just winning at work; they’re also redefining how their companies do business with customers and partners.
Here’s a look at ten powerful women who are driving significant impact in their industries by embracing their own identities as marketers:
Maria Pergolino – Chief Marketing Officer at ActiveCampaign
Maria Pergolino is the CMO at ActiveCampaign, an email marketing platform that helps marketers turn their customers into advocates. Maria has a background in marketing and strategy, which allows her to oversee all aspects of the B2B tech industry including product development, acquisition and retention. She also works closely with CEOs and CMOs on strategy for their businesses as well as providing strategic advice on how best to execute their marketing plans by leveraging data analytics resources such as AI technology or machine learning algorithms that help identify new ways for companies within this sector going forward.
She’s been recognized by LinkedIn as one of the Top 10 Women in Marketing (2016), named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Entrepreneurship Leaders (2017) & named among 10 Female Influencers Who Are Changing Businesses Today By Forbes Magazine (2018).
Meagen Eisenberg, CMO at MongoDB
Meagen Eisenberg is the CMO at MongoDB. She joined the company in 2015, and has been responsible for all marketing activities since then. Meagen has a strong background in marketing and technology, with experience working at Microsoft and Salesforce before joining MongoDB as its first Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). She also earned her MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
Meagen is passionate about helping companies build their brands and drive revenue by connecting with customers through compelling storytelling. She has worked with a wide range of technology companies including Salesforce, Microsoft, and MongoDB.
Latane Conant – Chief Marketing Officer at 6sense
Latane Conant is the Chief Marketing Officer at 6sense, a marketing intelligence platform that helps companies with their growth. She has been named one of the top 50 most influential women in technology and she’s also a mentor at Techstars.
Latane Conant is the CMO at 6sense, a marketing automation software company based in New York City. She has over 10 years of experience in B2B marketing, having worked with companies like HP and Ford Motor Company. In her role as CMO, she helps to drive growth within the company by developing strategies that align with their vision for success.
Latane’s mission is to help companies make data-driven decisions. She believes that marketers need a better understanding of how customers interact with their brand, and she works hard to provide her clients with the tools they need to succeed in today’s digital world. Latane has been working in marketing since she graduated from Villanova University in 2007.
Heather Zynczak – Chief Marketing Officer at Pluralsight
Heather Zynczak is the Chief Marketing Officer at Pluralsight. She is responsible for developing and executing the company’s marketing strategy. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing, sales and business development.
Prior to Pluralsight, she worked as the Vice President of Marketing at SuccessFactors and held various positions in marketing at SAP and Oracle.
In this role, she is responsible for leading the company’s marketing team. She oversees all aspects of the company’s marketing strategy and execution, including demand generation, customer experience management, social media management and content creation.
Jill Rowley – Chief Growth Officer at Marketo
Jill Rowley is a B2B marketing leader and an expert in the field. She has worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Marketo and Oracle. She is currently chief growth officer at Marketo, where she leads its growth initiatives across all verticals.
Jill began her career at Oracle as vice president for global customer experience management (CEM) before moving on to become CMO at Marketo in 2011. In 2013 she was promoted to VP & GM of Global Marketing Solutions at Marketo.
Lisa Arthur – Chief Marketing Officer at Teradata
Lisa Arthur is the Chief Marketing Officer at Teradata. She is responsible for all marketing activities, including brand, product and demand generation as well as customer experience. She has over 20 years of experience in marketing leadership roles with a long list of companies including GE Healthcare and Comcast Cable.
She has a BA in Economics from the University of Texas and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Before joining Teradata, Arthur was the Chief Marketing Officer of Comcast Cable where she led a team of more than 1,000 people and drove significant growth for the company. Her previous roles include Senior Vice President of Marketing at GE Healthcare, where she helped launch several new products and services including MUSE™, a next generation CT scanner that harnessed the power of cloud computing technology; and Vice President at Comcast Corporation where she managed multiple marketing teams responsible for brand strategy, customer acquisition and retention initiatives.
Kathy Button Bell – Chief Marketing Officer at Emerson
Kathy Button Bell has been the chief marketing officer at Emerson since 2014. She is responsible for the company’s global marketing strategy and execution, including product launches, brand positioning and communications with customers.
Button Bell has more than 25 years of experience as a CMO or CMO-in-waiting in both consumer and B2B settings. She most recently served as Vice President and GM of Global Marketing at HPE where she oversaw all aspects of global marketing functions including both communications and digital channels. Before that she worked as Vice President & General Manager at GE Appliances where she led a team responsible for developing innovative products while keeping costs under control through lean manufacturing processes
Kelly Watkins – VP, Global Marketing, Slack
Kelly Watkins is the Vice President of Global Marketing at Slack, a cloud-based communication and collaboration platform. In her role, Watkins leads a team of marketers responsible for driving the growth of Slack’s user base and revenue streams. With over 15 years of experience in marketing and strategy, Watkins brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her role.
One of the key strategies that Watkins has implemented at Slack is a focus on user adoption. She believes that by making Slack more accessible and intuitive for users, they will be more likely to use the platform on a regular basis. To achieve this, Watkins has led efforts to simplify the user interface and add new features that make it easier for users to communicate and collaborate with each other.
Another area of focus for Watkins is data-driven marketing. She believes that by using data to inform marketing decisions, Slack can more effectively target potential users and optimize its marketing campaigns. Under Watkins’ leadership, the marketing team at Slack has developed sophisticated analytics and measurement tools that help them track the performance of their campaigns and make data-driven decisions.
Mari Smith – Social Media Thought Leader and Facebook Marketing Expert
Mari Smith is a social media marketing expert and thought leader. She’s an author, speaker, and entrepreneur with a popular Facebook group with over 1.2 million members.
She also founded the Startup Runway Foundation to help women build their businesses on Instagram or Twitter.
She’s helped hundreds of brands and influencers with their social media marketing, including companies like Lyft and Amazon.
She’s also a mom of four, and has been an entrepreneur since she was 15 years old. She built her business on Facebook and Instagram,and gathered an audience on these platforms, and has an authentic voice in social media marketing.
Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs
Ann Handley is a well-known figure in the marketing industry and the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, a leading marketing education company. As a prolific writer, speaker, and content marketer, Handley has helped numerous organizations create effective content strategies that engage audiences and drive business results.
One of Handley’s key insights is that successful content marketing requires a deep understanding of your audience. Brands that create content that resonates with their audience can build trust and loyalty over time, which can lead to increased sales and customer retention. To achieve this, Handley recommends that brands focus on creating “radically empathetic” content that speaks to the needs and desires of their audience.
Another important aspect of successful content marketing, according to Handley, is storytelling. Brands that can tell compelling stories that connect with their audience can differentiate themselves in a crowded market and build an emotional connection with their customers. Handley emphasizes that storytelling is not just about creating entertaining content; it’s also about communicating the brand’s values and mission in a way that resonates with the audience.
End Point:
Women are the fastest growing segment of the workforce, and they’re leading B2B marketing.
According to a study by LinkedIn and Women Corporate Elected Officials International (WCOII), women make up 37% of all U.S.-based Fortune 500 CEOs — up from 30% in 2016 — yet only 12% of those companies have female CEOs. In fact, only 18% of C-suite executives at Fortune 100 companies are women overall; however, 53% were promoted over their male counterparts during 2017 alone — an indicator that things are changing for women in business!
It’s not just about numbers anymore: Your employees want to work with people who look like them or share similar interests or experiences as them; it makes sense then that organizations should seek out candidates with diverse backgrounds because diversity helps build stronger teams with more diverse perspectives on problems/opportunities facing both employers’ businesses as well as society at large.”
We’re excited to see what these women do next, and we hope you will be too. As more women enter tech, they bring a unique perspective that can be just as valuable as what their male counterparts bring. They’ll also have a lot of experience to share with other women in the field who may want to follow their lead. With so many great examples of women in B2B marketing already out there, it looks like there’s no limit to how far they can go! Do you know of any other women in B2B marketing who should be featured on this list? Let us know in the comments below!
