Field Notes with Biplab Paul, Senior Field Marketing Manager of JFrog

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. My name is Biplab, and my last name is Paul, by the way. I am associated with JFrog as a Senior Field Marketing Manager, and I am based in Bangalore. I take care of the India, Southeast Asia, and UAE field markets for JFrog.

Love it. So, Biplab, what is your main field marketing focus at the moment?

At the moment, the primary focus is for sure the Southeast Asia market because Southeast Asia is one of the most developing markets in the APAC region, and there are a lot of possibilities there. So yeah, that’s the primary focus.

Before I dive into the bigger picture of things, I am very curious: what is a typical day-to-day like for a field marketer such as yourself?

That’s a very interesting question. When it comes to a field marketer, I believe, again, the definition might vary depending on the organisation you belong to, but in general, I would say a field marketer is like a jack of all trades. You have to do everything. The way the CMO of JFrog defines the field marketing role is that you are like a CMO of your country. You have to understand, be aware, and be attentive to the markets you represent. You have to start from the user’s point of view because, you know, you’re creating messaging and strategising everything for the end user or audience you’re catering to. So, think from their perspective, create your strategies, define your strategies, execute your campaign plans according to them, and create reports to ensure that whatever you’re doing justifies the company’s goals and showcases the ROI. Then, present those insights to your stakeholders to make sure they’re also buying into it. I think it’s a pretty broad role where you’re dealing with all the different aspects of marketing and working with partners and stakeholders, but that’s, in a nutshell, what a field marketer does.

There are a lot of moving parts, and you’re the one who has to stay sane and keep everything together.

Absolutely.

As you mentioned, being a field marketer is like being the CMO of the region that you cover. How do you stay up to date with insights about your own prospects? Do you attend courses in marketing, or what do you do?

That’s a very good question, and I think this is super critical for every field marketer—or in general, why should I just make it specific to field marketers? Every marketer, every person in our industry, who is working day in and day out trying to make a difference, needs to keep themselves informed and updated. How you do that varies from person to person. I prefer to read when I’m free, driving back home, or coming to the office. I prefer to at least run a podcast so that I get to know what’s happening in the industry. And if any campaigns I’m strategising or planning, I must have enough data points to prove that what I’m doing is justifiable. The strategy should justify itself to me first, and only then can I justify it to someone else. That’s how I do it. So yeah, for sure, listen to podcasts and read as much as you can. If there are courses or workshops you can attend, I think that’s a wonderful approach. Another option I would suggest is learning from peers. There are some strategies and best practices another field marketer or senior marketing person might be following in their organisation. If we can just hear them, maybe we can do something better in our day-to-day jobs.

It is really valuable when we learn from people doing the same thing we do but handling different cases. My next question is, what would you say is the biggest challenge field marketers are facing today?

All right, that’s challenging. The biggest challenge today for marketers, field marketers, and digital marketers is fatigue. There was a time—and I’m just speaking from my experience, having been in the industry for close to 20 years, working in different organisations, and learning from their approaches—when every organisation, especially larger ones, used to host a lot of events. Now, there is an event fatigue. People come to events, but they aren’t as serious. I think that’s the biggest challenge. COVID taught us that we could rely heavily on digital. All of us, including myself, started exploring new approaches, techniques, and tactics. I used to run digital and virtual conferences that lasted all day long, with six or seven different sessions going one after another. But that created digital fatigue. Now, people are not willing to attend webinars. They’re more interested in something on-demand, available at their convenience. These are some of the challenges we are all facing today. The traditional tactics, mechanisms, and channels we used to rely on heavily are becoming obsolete or less effective. We have to start thinking about options beyond just pure digital and in-person approaches.

What we’re seeing here is that it’s obviously good to innovate and experiment, but there’s also that aspect of assessing how well it works, how much energy it takes, and whether it’s sustainable. There’s a lot to consider. Since we’re on the topic of campaigns, can you tell me about a particular innovative or successful field marketing campaign your team has recently executed?

Sure. In general, when we talk about different campaigns, the biggest challenge from the marketing front is that most of our campaigns—or most general marketing campaigns—are not related. They’re independent. They run in silos, and you don’t have any way to connect the dots and figure out who you want to reach or which account you want to penetrate. That’s when we started thinking, “What if we could connect all these dots?” What we started was more of an omniscient approach for ABM accounts. We have our own set of accounts that we want to penetrate. What we started was a ground-up approach, engaging these accounts through webinars and meetups to build initial interest and understanding. When we saw some of these accounts engaging with us, we followed a top-down approach, reaching out to the same set of accounts for focus group discussions, targeted surveys, and tele-calling. This allowed us to dig deeper into their specific challenges and align our solutions accordingly. It’s very important to remember that clients might not always know what they need. So, we need to focus on identifying their pain points. Different people in the organisation, at different hierarchy levels, might have different pain points. If you can do that—using the ground-up approach to gather insights—then talk to decision-makers and tell them, “Hey, you might not be aware, but your team members are facing issues A, B, C, and D. These are the solutions I can offer to address these challenges, which might improve productivity.” That’s the kind of approach we followed, and it was really effective.

Congratulations on that! I really resonate with the idea of having a space for focus group discussions about things even executives might not see because they’re focused on the bigger picture. Being able to educate not only the people working behind the scenes but also the decision-makers is very important for the long-term success of campaigns. Since we are now focused on campaigns, I want to ask, how does your company stay ahead of its competitors in terms of marketing?

Our company’s marketing strategy—not just in APAC but globally—is to stay attuned to industry trends. We try to keep our ears open and listen to what’s happening in the industry. We stay vigilant about market changes, like new issues or vulnerabilities that arise. Keeping ourselves aware of challenges and trends helps us stay ahead. Relying on data—that’s my personal favourite, by the way—helps us navigate an evolving landscape effectively and maintain a competitive edge. We look at the data, slice and dice it to make sense of it and review it at multiple levels to ensure it answers the bigger picture while giving us actionable insights about our audience. Then, we structure our campaigns and strategies accordingly.

I think having a solid foundation is very important, and at the same time, reliable references are essential. What I want to know next is, what do you believe is the biggest opportunity for field marketers today that might not have been available in the past?

Okay, this is really interesting because when I talk about field marketing, as I mentioned earlier, it’s like being a jack of all trades. You have all these options to play around with, and you make sure to structure and create campaigns according to your audience’s requirements. Now, if you look at today’s scenario, how much are we dependent on digital channels, social media, or even the capabilities AI is offering? Today, most of us in the marketing fraternity are creating slides and analysing data. In the past, there were only a couple of options, like putting data into a pivot table, creating some charts, and presenting them. But now, you have AI tools that can analyse data and give recommendations. You have options where you can feed in your expectations, and AI will provide an outline of how your ad copy should look, how your email copy should be structured, and even score the engagement potential.

These are some of the biggest opportunities we have today that weren’t available three or four years ago. They are helping us a lot. On top of that, we now have an interconnected world where collaboration channels allow us to share updates spontaneously, making engagement smooth. These advancements are really helping us create a bigger impact in the broader community.

I like what you said about engagement and how AI helps make it more seamless for your team. That ties into my next question, which a lot of marketers talk about: how do you measure ROI? It’s a funny question because it’s sometimes hard to quantify. I’d love to get your thoughts on that.

ROI requires you to set your goals at a very early stage. What do you want to achieve? Because every campaign, marketer, and organisation looks at marketing from different angles. For some, marketing should bring in quick revenue or opportunities. But in general, the way I see it—and the way I think marketing should be viewed—is by asking, “What impact have I made?” It could be as basic as asking how many people you reached, how many people you shared insights with, how many people responded, or how many posted about it on social media. These are ways to figure out the brand’s influence. After that, of course, you can measure leads generated and revenue, but I think the core measure should be engagement—how much of an impact you made and how much engagement you could track across any medium. I would recommend that everyone focus on the community you are building. No matter what you do, you are contributing to and listening to a community, and based on them, you strategise your campaigns, tactics, and activities. How are you enriching that community? Are you creating content that enriches them? How are you adding new people into the community by influencing practitioners in the industry? For example, you might say, “DevOps is doing ABCD; why don’t you join our community and learn what’s happening?” That creates interest, and when they become part of your community, they talk about it and share their understanding. That’s a win for a marketer—you’ve made an influence, you’ve made an impact.

I think what you’re saying right now also ties back to knowing your objectives. Even for us marketing leaders, we need to be clear about why we launch certain campaigns and why we do the things we do. Since you’ve been in the industry for around 20 years, I want to ask, what career advice would you give to anyone starting in the marketing industry?

Okay, what I would suggest to anyone is to trust their gut and be bold. As a marketing leader or marketer, I feel it’s important to have a deep understanding of the market you are representing. There may be others with a lot of marketing experience, but they might not fully understand how your audience behaves or responds. You know your market better than anyone else, so trust your strategies, approaches, and thought processes. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. We have to explore different options and approaches. I believe marketing is a creative job. If you’re just into ticking boxes, you might not be the right fit—you need to think creatively. Challenge the status quo. There are things companies and marketers think are working fine, but if you touch or change them, you might get better results. Lastly, stay confident and resolute in your ideas. Even if they push boundaries, that’s okay. Your unique insights and boldness can drive innovation and set your brand apart. Trust in your expertise, and that’s what matters. Those are the basic messages I would share with any marketer or anyone thinking about marketing as a career.

For my last question, how would you describe the role of a field marketer in one word, and why?

One word, okay. I would say a field marketer is an advocate. Why? Well, because you are someone who works as the eyes and ears of the organisation in the field. You strategise the campaign, make it happen on the ground, and then take all the messaging to the stakeholders, telling them, “This is what we’ve done, and this is the result,” while gaining their confidence as well. So, you’re like an advocate.