In this episode of the Channel Zone Podcast, Mark Edwards speaks with Tess Garner, Senior Director of Global Channel and Alliances Marketing at Tenable, about how cybersecurity marketing, partner engagement, and demand generation have fundamentally changed in the post-COVID world.

Tess shares how Tenable, as an exposure management company, works through a global partner ecosystem of alliances, distributors, MSPs, and resellers, and explains why partner marketing is ultimately about winning hearts and minds. For her, successful channel marketing is not just about content and campaigns, but about human connection, memorable experiences, and helping partners feel engaged, enabled, and excited to work with your brand.

A major thread in the conversation is Tess’s doctoral research into how B2B cybersecurity demand generation has evolved since COVID. She argues that the traditional linear funnel no longer reflects how buyers actually behave. Instead, today’s buying journey is more complex, more self-directed, and increasingly influenced by peer networks, invisible social communities, AI-driven research, and partner ecosystems. Buyers now expect faster access to information, more personalization, and far less friction.

Mark and Tess also explore the shift from long-form gated content toward shorter, more human-centric formats, particularly on LinkedIn. Tess makes a compelling case that professional audiences still want credible business content, but they increasingly prefer it in more engaging, visual, and bite-sized formats. The discussion also challenges the continued overuse of dense PowerPoint decks, contrasting them with more direct, interactive, and memorable communication styles.

Alongside her corporate role and academic work, Tess also talks about writing her children’s book Charlie and Oggy, inspired by the simple but powerful idea of doing one thing at a time. It adds a personal dimension to the episode and reinforces one of the central themes of the conversation: in both work and life, clarity and focus matter more than ever.

The episode closes with a look at Tenable’s playful and highly successful jumper campaign, which used user-generated content to create joy, strengthen brand awareness, and show the human side of a cybersecurity company. It is a fitting example of the broader message running through the whole conversation: in a noisy world, the brands that connect emotionally, communicate simply, and create memorable moments are the ones that stand out.