Brewing Success with Ping Identity: Scaling Smarter with Branded Demand and Real-Time Optimization

How can marketers drive meaningful demand in today’s complex B2B landscape? In this episode of Pipeline Brew, Matt is joined by Emanuela Mafteiu of Ping Identity to unpack how you can go beyond MQLs and start building pipeline that truly converts.

Emanuela is the Head of Digital and Demand, EMEA at Ping Identity, a leading identity security platform serving over half of the Fortune 100. Together, she and Matt dive into the evolving role of demand generation by aligning tightly with sales, localizing content, and embracing AI with intention. Emanuela provides actionable takeaways from her own team’s experience with pod-based collaboration, persona-driven campaigns, and agile feedback loops to deliver real business outcomes across EMEA.

Additionally, you’ll learn why your content needs to provide real education, how to effectively pivot campaigns mid-flight, and where AI can make the biggest impact on your team. Emanuela also shares practical SEO insights from BrightonSEO and explains why she believes localized marketing is easier than ever and well worth the investment.

Emanuela Mafteiu is an all-around marketer with a strong background in brand strategy and campaign management. She is skilled at translating corporate visions into engaging marketing communications and content, ensuring alignment with strategic portfolio development. As the Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Ping Identity, Emanuela leverages her expertise to drive digital growth and optimise return on investment, making her a key contributor to the company’s success.

[00:00:00] Matt Hummel: Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Pipeline Brew, the podcast that meets at the intersection of people and pipeline. We’re bringing you fun yet insightful conversations where you’ll not only hear from marketing experts, but also get to know them as well.

[00:00:21] Matt Hummel: Hey everyone. Today I’m super excited to be joined by Emanuela Mafteiuh. Emanuela is the Head of Digital and Demand, EMEA with Ping Identity, the identity security platform behind over half of the Fortune 100. Today she’ll be sharing how she and the team at Ping found success in the branded demand approach to driving pipeline.

[00:00:41] Matt Hummel: Welcome to the show Emanuela. How are you?

[00:00:44] Emanuela Mafteiu: I am good, Matt. Feeling honored and grateful to join you today.

[00:00:49] Matt Hummel: Uh, well, you’re too kind ’cause it is all my honor. I’ve loved getting to know you and I just could not be more excited to have you as a guest on today’s show. So we like to kick off each episode with [00:01:00] a little icebreaker to get the ball rolling.

[00:01:02] Matt Hummel: So I’ll start with this. What is your go-to beverage when you need a little Pick me up.

[00:01:07] Emanuela Mafteiu: Vanilla latte, simple and sweet

[00:01:11] Matt Hummel: vanilla latte. I am fascinated by that because I, I always love having guests from Europe on the show to talk coffee because coffee is so different in Europe, but I’ve never had someone who said they like flavoring in their espresso drink from the uk.

[00:01:28] Matt Hummel: So how did you discover your love for that combination?

[00:01:32] Emanuela Mafteiu: Just ’cause the simplicity. I love coffee, but I can’t drink it on its own. It has to be latte. And then the pick me up is the vanilla flavor. Mm-hmm. Um, added. So yeah, definitely. There

[00:01:45] Matt Hummel: you go. Now do you I like it. Do you make your own, uh, or do you, do you have a preferred coffee shop that you go to?

[00:01:51] Emanuela Mafteiu: I make my own. I make my own, yeah. I have a proper barista coffee maker at home.

[00:01:57] Matt Hummel: And then, and then to use the vanilla syrup. Is that how it works? [00:02:00]

[00:02:00] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yes. That is how it works. Nice.

[00:02:02] Matt Hummel: That sounds delicious. You’ve made me, I had my regular old American coffee this morning and it’s not doing the trick for me. So Well, before we talk about what you’re up today, I’d love for you to tell the audience a bit more about yourself, your passions and your background.

[00:02:15] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yes. I’ve spent the last decade working across digital marketing and demand gen leading high impact campaigns for B2B Tech brands, and my focus now at Ping Identity is on helping organizations across EMEA protect identities while driving growth. Outside of data and dashboards and campaign strategies, I’m also a mum to a very energetic three-year-old boy named Octavius.

[00:02:45] Emanuela Mafteiu: Oh yeah. So my weekends are all about playground adventures, swimming pool splashes, and finding, really finding child friendly things to do around town. When I get a quiet moment, which is rare [00:03:00] in my house, I like to unwind with a bit of paint by numbers, but not your usual kits. I actually take real photographs, turn them into custom canvases, and then paint them.

[00:03:14] Emanuela Mafteiu: It’s becoming a, a ritual.

[00:03:16] Matt Hummel: That is so cool. So do you just go and look for things that sort of inspire you and then you take pictures of them?

[00:03:21] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yes. Sometimes in my own garden, like I have a couple of roses as well, and when they bloom, they’re absolutely beautiful. So, uh, my home is now basically a gallery of personalized, paid by numbers.

[00:03:35] Matt Hummel: I love it. Well, I think I see one in the background and so that’s really cool. And I love your son’s name, Octavius. I have an Oliver, which is, you know, an and also a little bit of a different name, boy’s name that starts with an no. So appreciate that. And yeah, it’s funny being a parent with young kids because your weekends really turn into, you know, what are we doing with the kids?

[00:03:57] Emanuela Mafteiu: Absolutely.

[00:03:58] Matt Hummel: I love that. And. [00:04:00] Help me better understand Ping. So what is, when you say protecting company’s identities, what does that actually mean?

[00:04:07] Emanuela Mafteiu: We are a software company and we’re working with our customers to help them secure the identities of their customers.

[00:04:17] Matt Hummel: Ah, okay. Okay. Got it. Well, that makes sense.

[00:04:20] Matt Hummel: Well, great. Well, I’d love to hear, you know, a little bit more about your journey. What, what big lessons have you learned along the way and any kind of aha moments that you’ve had?

[00:04:29] Emanuela Mafteiu: Well, Matt, I have them every quarter.

[00:04:32] Matt Hummel: The

[00:04:32] Emanuela Mafteiu: two I can mention today actually from H one. So they’re very, very new. Um, first one is progressing the pipeline.

[00:04:41] Emanuela Mafteiu: Progressing pipeline is as important as generating pipeline. And sometimes as in demand gen, we’re always thinking, oh, we need to generate the demand, but we’re never thinking about how do we progress, how do we help sales? And here we’re all responsible for pipeline. So one of the strongest [00:05:00] shifts we’ve made is creating this real alignment with sales through a pod structure.

[00:05:07] Emanuela Mafteiu: We work together from the start open feedback loops, refining our qualifying questions, for example, on the content syndication campaigns, and we’re constantly checking in with each other like, are sales happy with the leads that we’re producing? Are we moving the right people into the conversations? Are we moving the needle on the ROI?

[00:05:27] Emanuela Mafteiu: So this model really removes the classic marketing and sales disconnect, and the goal isn’t just M qls, it is more about M QAs. Mm-hmm. It’s about activating this buying behavior and accounts that really matter for us. And obviously supporting sales with the intelligence that they can act on. So this is the first real learning.

[00:05:50] Emanuela Mafteiu: And the second one, stop under leveraging existing high performing assets. Amen. We have great assets and we always think in marketing, we [00:06:00] have to reinvent our sales or our campaigns. And not reinventing the wheel is not the solution. Sometimes going back to the old assets. Leveraging them as much as you can.

[00:06:13] Emanuela Mafteiu: They can be repackaged, they can be personalized. Yep. Or based on different personas, for example. Or even just going back on the roadmap. Just inspire our prospects and our customers of what’s coming up next. You know, maximize their lifecycle. Those are my two lessons.

[00:06:29] Matt Hummel: Those are amazing. It’s so funny. So on the first one, just this idea of progressing pipeline, I think.

[00:06:34] Matt Hummel: Marketers too often, they’re like, well, you know, I’m not just doing MQL or MQs. I’m focused on pipeline and I’ve done my job. And you’re like, Hey, that’s great. But you know, I had someone at a performer company come up to me it as a marketer and say, Hey, Matt, what’s more important? Pipeline or revenue or pipeline or bookings?

[00:06:51] Matt Hummel: I’m like, is this a rhetorical question? Are you really asking me this? And he said, but yeah, but we’re measured on pipeline. And I said, okay, fair enough. But at the end of the day. [00:07:00] Pipeline doesn’t pay the bills, pipeline doesn’t pay your salary. So I’ll let you answer that question. But I think too often as marketers and just people in general, based on the metrics that we’re measured against, we sort of tend to say, well, I’ve done my job.

[00:07:14] Matt Hummel: But then if marketers are measured against revenue, then they may feel, well, how can I really impact then? I think you’ve beautifully outlined that. And at the end of the day, everyone’s job is to progress pipeline because pipeline is a means to an end, but in and of itself, it’s not keeping the lights on, if you will.

[00:07:31] Matt Hummel: So, exactly. I love that. Yeah. And then on your second point, just this idea of content. We had a guest on recently, and we were talking about this very same thing that. The key is getting the narrative right. Your customers aren’t changing, their needs aren’t changing necessarily, right? Is often they’re certainly not changing every quarter.

[00:07:49] Matt Hummel: Maybe the way they’re consuming content changes over time. But to your point, if you have an asset that works, why stop using it? Maybe repackage it. Maybe it’s slap on a little new [00:08:00] creative, but if it works, it works. So yeah. Totally. It’s great. Let’s transition to a little bit more about you and how you’re driving pipeline.

[00:08:09] Matt Hummel: So how, you know, how does Ping think about pipeline generation right now? I know you’ve helped shape a pretty sophisticated branded demand approach based on my experience in working with you and your team. What does that look like in action?

[00:08:22] Emanuela Mafteiu: Identity can be a very complex topic, and especially when we talk to technical buyers, and that’s why we need to focus on deep persona led content, something that our audience can use, not just read.

[00:08:38] Emanuela Mafteiu: So we call it education, and we don’t call it awareness anymore. So what’s important is that we get this content in front of the right people. The right time in, in their journey. Now, what we think their journey looks like, and this is the trick, so whether it’s the analyst or identity and [00:09:00] access management, pros or security leads, they all want clarity, relevance, and value, and they want to be educated to make the right decision.

[00:09:10] Emanuela Mafteiu: And when we get it right, the results speak from them for themselves. Yeah. So I’ll cover a bit about the how. So our team, as I said, rituals and including reviewing the campaign performance weekly and monthly. Uh, we have QBR as well, but we always add a layer of human inside. So sometimes it’s not just about.

[00:09:33] Emanuela Mafteiu: What the dashboard says, it’s about interpreting the signals behind it. So we combine the data with instinct so that, you know, refine and retest. Motions within our campaigns. So that’s is, that is how we build campaigns, uh, that we get sharper every time. And we also build this every six months. Look back, if you call it like a buyer journey mapping.

[00:09:59] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah. And there is [00:10:00] so much data that you can look at and it tells us so many good gems. And we’ve also designed a clear campaign track, as I said, like we are doing awareness or the education stage, the consideration, the decision, the action phase. And each of those are aligned to different verticals and personas of course.

[00:10:21] Emanuela Mafteiu: But just there, we ab test. We AB test all the time. The copy, the creative, the call to actions is like a constant refinement and that’s what we’ve seen. When you look at the data, you’ll find something really surprising, but you have to look at the data constantly. Yeah. In order to be on the right track.

[00:10:41] Emanuela Mafteiu: And crucially, we don’t wait for campaigns to end before making the changes. We just analyze the performance in real time. We apply the changes mid-flight, and we’re not afraid to pivot. So the level of flexibility and responsiveness has been a game changer in making sure the [00:11:00] content resonates across EMEA markets.

[00:11:02] Matt Hummel: It’s an amazing approach. I, I love what you said around, you know, it’s not awareness, it’s education. I was talking to a marketer last week and he used the word or the term enabling and the way he thinks about structuring his content is to enable buyers, to equip buyers to make decisions. And it was such a subtle nuance, but it really struck me as.

[00:11:26] Matt Hummel: That is what content should be designed to do. You know, yes, we have sort of these buckets of awareness and consideration and decision making, but at the end of the day, it’s all designed to enable buyers to make decisions. And I think it was just that, again, that subtle nuance where you start to think.

[00:11:43] Matt Hummel: Content should drive action. And in the case of awareness, the content should drive the action of educating them in order to progress, to wanting to start to look at the right vendors and ultimately then continue to move down to enable them to make that buying decision. And I just thought it was that nice little [00:12:00] overlay, if you will, that really help I think, shape my thinking a little bit differently around content creation.

[00:12:06] Matt Hummel: So I love how you’re thinking about that from an education standpoint. I mean, there’s so much goodness to what you said that I think the audience can take away. You know, one question for you. When you talk about pivoting in real time, that can sound big and scary, right? Because a lot of times it takes so much work to get a campaign off the ground.

[00:12:24] Matt Hummel: So what does pivoting kind of in real time actually look like for you guys?

[00:12:28] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah, absolutely. We look at the soft signals, so the soft metrics that you would see with an in platform. If you, let’s say you have a campaign on LinkedIn, you would look at click through rates, impressions, uh, cost per lead, for example, depending on what you’re measuring and those.

[00:12:46] Emanuela Mafteiu: Soft metrics are the signals that tells like, this campaign is really successful, or this campaign actually lacks something. And that’s when the AB testing comes in place because you can test the copy, you can test the, the image, [00:13:00] like the design of it. You can test the call to action, for instance. But also I think combining the soft metrics with the hard metrics, which is like influence pipeline, for instance.

[00:13:12] Matt Hummel: Yeah. Yeah. So

[00:13:13] Emanuela Mafteiu: pipeline generation, like we look at pipeline, we look at M qls, okay, how many are we getting from that particular campaign and when we’re. When we talking about pivoting is just making those feedback loops in real time. So we’ve launched a campaign and then sometimes we’re just like, we’re comfortable and we leave it.

[00:13:30] Emanuela Mafteiu: Oh, let’s leave it this quarter and see how it performs. But sometimes if your gut says, Hey, something is not working on this campaign, because cost per lead is skyrocketing, and that’s when we have to look and make changes.

[00:13:42] Matt Hummel: That makes sense. So speaking of, you know, pipeline. What was your team seeing that led to this approach and what were the ultimate goals that you set out to achieve?

[00:13:51] Matt Hummel: Was it truly just pipeline?

[00:13:53] Emanuela Mafteiu: For us, it goes back to we have a saying, everyone is responsible for pipeline. We [00:14:00] have the same goals, we’re on the same journey. We can, you know, we have the same way points. And this is kind of how it brings everyone. Everyone is moving in the same direction and I think that is super important, um, to keep track.

[00:14:12] Matt Hummel: I love that. John Miller, who co-founder Marketo and former CMO of Demandbase, he would describe this as a football team or a soccer team in America, all moving downfield in the same direction. Everyone has a different role, but at the end of the day, they’re all working in harmony down that, and kind of on that note, I mean.

[00:14:32] Matt Hummel: How did you make all this happen successfully, not just in marketing, which can create its own challenges, creating that cross-functionality within the own, within your own team, but, but bringing in teams like sales and likely product into this.

[00:14:45] Emanuela Mafteiu: It’s, Matt is totally a team effort. I. And I would say it’s also the EMEA leadership that is relentless and inspiring all of us to be relentless and all of us to be responsible in each of the [00:15:00] departments.

[00:15:00] Emanuela Mafteiu: We’re all responsible for pipeline, and this is our saying within emea.

[00:15:03] Matt Hummel: Love that. Well, talk to me about the results. What have you guys seen as a result of this kind of new pod structure and approach to how you’re driving campaigns and ultimately pipeline?

[00:15:13] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah, so at the end of the day, we’re not running campaigns for the sake of the activity or to meet a number.

[00:15:19] Emanuela Mafteiu: We’re driving towards business outcomes. Yeah, so the growth pipeline, customer lifetime value. So that is our destination. I think if I would use an analogy. On this, I would say we’re on a ship together and we have a crew and we have a captain. And digital marketing gives us so much data more than ever.

[00:15:40] Emanuela Mafteiu: Nowadays we have dashboards full of click-through rates, conversions, cost per lead, and ad pink. We’ve moved beyond a one size fits all campaign model. Our programs across EMEA are built with localized content journeys in English, French, and German. [00:16:00] So we’re not just translating the content or the landing pages, we’re adapting messaging to local markets, to the cultures, to the, like the digital behavior as well.

[00:16:12] Emanuela Mafteiu: To give you an example. We are deploying a multi-channel localized campaigns in every, uh, campaign that we do at Ping. So the click-through rate, for example, in a recent French campaign on display advertisement, which usually the benchmark is 0.08, and we know that display does not bring pipeline, right?

[00:16:32] Emanuela Mafteiu: Is more about brand awareness, but this French campaign actually brought in a zero point 34% clicks rate. Wow. It’s impressive, isn’t it? But it’s exactly that because we’re speaking the local language in the markets and they understand and we make an effort to put the content in front of them and. We’ve, um, introduced this like a, a targeted non-performance first approach, especially at the education stage.

[00:16:59] Emanuela Mafteiu: [00:17:00] So it’s not just about the vanity metrics, the 0.34 that I just mentioned, but it’s about starting the journey in a way that builds trust and relevance. So this is super important for us in every campaign that we launch.

[00:17:12] Matt Hummel: This is spot on. It’s. I think the, the trust element is something that soft and gets forgotten because if you’re doing marketing for the sake of marketing, you know, not only are your metrics gonna be bad, but more importantly you’re gonna lose trust that will inhibit your ability to really drive outcomes from those organizations for a significant amount of time.

[00:17:33] Matt Hummel: So if you were to go back before you started this initiative, what would you have done differently? You know, were there any key lessons that have stood out along this journey that you’ve been on?

[00:17:44] Emanuela Mafteiu: Matt, it hasn’t been always easy championing this localized content and pushing the boundaries of what good looks like in aea.

[00:17:55] Emanuela Mafteiu: But one of the biggest challenges is securing the budget. And internal [00:18:00] prioritization for these efforts, especially when global content is already available. It’s already in English. We can use it anytime, but I’ve learned that it’s worth the fight. So when you get local, right, the impact is undeniable.

[00:18:16] Emanuela Mafteiu: And I would say another key lesson is something that we do particularly well at Ping, is working within our target account list. We have a framework in place. We call it a bbb fns, big bet focused than named accounts. So this one is both a blessing and a curse ’cause we have to stick with it. If you think about it, it’s more like marketing to a one to many, like a BM one to many approach.

[00:18:41] Emanuela Mafteiu: So on the one hand, it ensures laser focus and close alignment with sales that we’ve agreed to these accounts and we’re gonna go in the market and try and persuade and follow through in the journey, move people along. But on the other hand, it requires constant discipline to balance broader brand building efforts with the [00:19:00] highly targeted account level strategies.

[00:19:02] Matt Hummel: That makes perfect sense. Well, such a cool approach. I wanna transition our conversation to the topic that is on everyone’s mind, ai and specifically, you know, again, just getting to know, you would love to talk about, you know, getting closer to buyers with ai. So I know you as a marketer, always focused. On putting yourself in the shoes of the customer.

[00:19:24] Matt Hummel: It’s something that I think is what makes you so great at your job. How has this influenced the methods you employ when engaging with Prospect Center? Are you always refining strategies as you learn more?

[00:19:35] Emanuela Mafteiu: First, I would say we have a very comprehensive messaging guide, and this is built by our product and marketing solutions colleagues.

[00:19:44] Emanuela Mafteiu: And this is our go-to for every campaign, every conversation, everyone within the go-to market, um, has access to it. And. Talking about ai, we have our own custom bots that help define our customers and [00:20:00] prospect business goals, pain points, challenges, emotional drivers, you name it, objections. And these bots are trained.

[00:20:06] Emanuela Mafteiu: And the messaging guide is basically built with ai. Yeah, absolutely. And as a balance, we are listening to our customers at the same time, so we’re not forgetting the customers, we’re not forgetting those conversations. And one of our internal values actually within Ping is being customer obsessed. And we are showing that every day.

[00:20:26] Emanuela Mafteiu: I

[00:20:26] Matt Hummel: love that. So continuing along this thread, where has ai, you know, where does it fit into this picture? Do you think it’s easier now to connect with customers, or is it actually more difficult given all the noise in the market?

[00:20:39] Emanuela Mafteiu: AI is absolutely part of the picture. I think if you don’t use it, you miss out.

[00:20:44] Emanuela Mafteiu: Um, if you refuse to use it and if you use it, you kind of look alike like the other competitors. And especially I see that on a paid search and a paid social activity. If you’re playing with ai, trying to get some, some headlines there. But [00:21:00] when it comes, um, to building a human connection, I think this is where you have to kind of think about it and it really shines in.

[00:21:08] Emanuela Mafteiu: The efficiencies. Yeah. So we’re using AI to be more efficient, like streamlining execution, accelerating testing, and helping us scale smarter. But Matt, let’s be honest, there’s a lot of noise in the market, and you said it right now, everyone’s shouting about ai. And the real value comes when you use it intentionally as a tool to support your strategy, but not to replace your thinking, your creativity, or meaningful engagement with the customers.

[00:21:37] Matt Hummel: You’ve touched on this a little bit, but I think in terms of practical uses for ai, not everyone can create or has access to their own AI bots, certainly. So, you know, any practical uses for AI that you can share in terms of how you’re, how you’re leveraging it today?

[00:21:53] Emanuela Mafteiu: Absolutely. At Ping, we’re using ai, as I said, in a very practical, grounded way, um, and not [00:22:00] for the sake of trend chasing.

[00:22:02] Emanuela Mafteiu: But to genuinely improve how we work, even like internally or within the campaigns. For example, we use AI to speed up audience segmentation and identity. You know, identify micro patterns and intent data, things that. Usually it would take forever to do it manually. It’s helping us refine who we target and when gives us ideas, particularly within our BBFN framework.

[00:22:27] Emanuela Mafteiu: We’re also applying AI for the creative testing and then using the performance data to quickly double down on what’s working. And again, this is very like on a inspirational, we still have the human element that comes in on top. Another powerful use case is for us and EMEA specifically, is language optimization across local markets.

[00:22:50] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah, we’ll run AI driven sentiment checks on translated content, and we first translate the content with the AI and then we actually reach out to our [00:23:00] colleagues to overlook and to to bring that in market nuances. To make sure the tone is still, you know, resonates with the German market or the French market without losing the original intent.

[00:23:11] Emanuela Mafteiu: So it’s not flashy, uh, but it’s very impactful. It’s about using AI to remove the friction, like move faster and focus human time where it matters the most on strategy and storytelling and connection. Something that the AI can’t do that at the moment,

[00:23:27] Matt Hummel: no doubt. Well, yeah, at the moment, no, I think that’s. I love how you’re thinking about it.

[00:23:33] Matt Hummel: I’ve not heard the use case of AI driven sentiment checks on the translated content. So that’s something that I’m gonna have to, to research a little further because really cool it, you know, obviously it can translate and probably adapt, but I think that sentiment check what a cool use case. And the other piece I liked around what you said too, or at least that really stood out, was.

[00:23:55] Matt Hummel: You know the value marketers can bring today. Strategy, storytelling, connection. [00:24:00] I love that. So our jobs are not lost because of ai. If anything, it’s gonna enable us to be a lot better and more effective as marketing leaders and really understanding the customer and making sure that we can drive that impact.

[00:24:11] Matt Hummel: So amazing. Alright, I want to transition to S-E-O-S-E-O is a topic much like ai, that there’s a lot of noise in the market on. You know, and in large part because of ai, you attend Brighton, SEO every year, and part of what I think makes you, again, just such a well-rounded marketer is you’ve got a deep understanding of SEO.

[00:24:35] Matt Hummel: So can you share what you’ve been hearing lately around both the current and future state of search engine optimization?

[00:24:42] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah, absolutely. I’d love to. I think AI is fundamentally transforming search, and they said it so many times at Brighton SEO conference. So being more like being discovered. So the large language models like Chat, GPT, perplexity or [00:25:00] Gemini now account for the majority of the chat bot driven traffic.

[00:25:05] Emanuela Mafteiu: But Google still remains the dominant source. So Google is not going anywhere, is about, I think they said at a conference about 41.5%. Okay, so it’s still quite a good chunk. So the future of SEO uh, will be hybrid optimizing for both traditional search and AI assisted discovery.

[00:25:23] Matt Hummel: Interesting. And a

[00:25:24] Emanuela Mafteiu: couple of themes that I can share with you, Matt.

[00:25:26] Emanuela Mafteiu: Today they were talking about the schema and summaries, so these will help content get indexed in AI generated answers. Or the other one that I really liked was the brand radar monitoring. So essentially for tracking how AI tools mention your brand. And another interesting one was about the content strategy shift.

[00:25:47] Emanuela Mafteiu: So from glossary pages or FAQs and ai, safe content formats are now on the rise. So if you haven’t done it, you definitely have to do it.

[00:25:57] Matt Hummel: Yeah.

[00:25:58] Emanuela Mafteiu: And, um, [00:26:00] personalization. So that’s the next big thing. I think su success will hinge on behavior prediction and not just the segmentation. It will be more around the behavior and how our search will change that.

[00:26:11] Emanuela Mafteiu: So the other thing overall, SEO is no longer linear. It’s a multitouch intent driven journey where messaging structure and AI visibility converge. So specifically ping takeaways. I had a lot of takeaways from that conference for sure. But a couple of them once the structure, the website for AI visibility, relevance, and pickup, and the sentiment or emotional research using ai, and I know you got excited on the last point, so I can offer.

[00:26:41] Emanuela Mafteiu: One example, you know, first thing that you wanna do is go on Reddit, look your company, copy everything, what the users are saying about let’s say ping identity. And I’ve done this exercise and it’s fantastic. And then measure the sentiment, the emotions that bring back what people are [00:27:00] saying about your brand.

[00:27:00] Emanuela Mafteiu: It’s fantastic. It’s a good exercise.

[00:27:03] Matt Hummel: That is so cool. Well, it’s funny ’cause as you’re walking through your themes, in my mind I was thinking, gosh, what you’re saying is SEO is no longer linear. And and then that’s where you finish your point. And again, I think much like marketers are worried about AI taking their jobs, SEOs, it’s just evolving.

[00:27:21] Matt Hummel: And the way that we think about it and how we search and search is still important. It’s still very relevant, but it’s how that, it’s how we approach it, I think is, is what you’re saying has to evolve.

[00:27:32] Emanuela Mafteiu: Absolutely.

[00:27:33] Matt Hummel: Well, very cool. Well, tons of good stuff in here, so let’s break it down. How should organizations be thinking about their SEO strategies today in order to stay ahead of their competition?

[00:27:44] Matt Hummel: Do you think some size companies should just forget SEO or, I mean, I, I would say probably not based on the fact that search is still super relevant, but what’s your take?

[00:27:55] Emanuela Mafteiu: Bottom line is SEO is not dead. It’s just disrupted. [00:28:00] So companies that integrate AI awareness, creative testing, and journey based content into their strategy, those are the companies that will win.

[00:28:10] Emanuela Mafteiu: And those that ignore it, they risk invisibility in both search engines and emerging AI driven interfaces. So SEO is very much part of the strategy.

[00:28:21] Matt Hummel: Love that. Well, I wanted to see if there’s any resources that you’d recommend just to help marketers stay up to speed, and we can drop all these into the show notes, but any any key resources that you find, uh, exceptionally valuable.

[00:28:35] Emanuela Mafteiu: There are so many mats, but things that I could mention, so Brighton, SEO, they have a flagship conference, which is held in Brighton, in San Diego, where they bring people together like expert led talks or networking opportunities, but other resources that, uh, people can just. Have a look and try and educate themselves.

[00:28:54] Emanuela Mafteiu: So Google Search Central blog, they have some really good blogs there. Direct [00:29:00] updates on the next Google algorithm, like when it changes like indexing and best practices. I think everyone should be on top of that for sure. A H Refs blog and they have a YouTube channel. So again, excellent tutorials there, like case studies and actionable strategies that.

[00:29:17] Emanuela Mafteiu: People can employ, and it’s both for beginners but also for pros. Moz Beginners Guide, this is more foundational resource. Um, and the last one that I wanna mention is women in tech. SEOA global community. Offering support and mentorship I think is fantastic. All of those are super cool to go and get upskilled for sure.

[00:29:36] Emanuela Mafteiu: Oh,

[00:29:36] Matt Hummel: well that’s awesome. Well, we’ll definitely drop these links in the show notes. So appreciate you unpacking that. Well, this has been an awesome discussion. I feel like we could talk about. You know the work that you’re doing and how you’re thinking about it. For days on end, there’s so much goodness going on.

[00:29:51] Matt Hummel: But I want to transition to our last segment, which is called What’s On Tap. So this is the time where I like to, to get to know our guests a little bit better. So [00:30:00] what’s on tap Free Meela? So at the top of the show, we talked about your favorite pick me up beverage, which is a vanilla latte, simple and Sweet, made at home with your proper barista.

[00:30:10] Matt Hummel: Let’s flip that around. What is your favorite drink when you need to unwind?

[00:30:14] Emanuela Mafteiu: Ooh, definitely cider. So I live near Somerset, uh, Bristol, so, which means, oh, beautiful. I’m in the perfect spot for a good cider. There is a small local cider farm nearby that makes delicious fruity cider, um, and you can even walk through their orchards.

[00:30:33] Emanuela Mafteiu: It’s the ideal way to relax. It is awesome. So yeah, definitely cider.

[00:30:38] Matt Hummel: That’s amazing. So cider in the states is probably not quite the same as cider in Somerset. But it’s also primarily more of a, a fall or autumn beverage for us. Is this a year round thing for you?

[00:30:51] Emanuela Mafteiu: For me it is. Yeah. Ah,

[00:30:54] Matt Hummel: that’s awesome. Well, next time I’m out your way, I’m gonna have to figure out how to get into your area and [00:31:00] go get a, a cider straight from the orchard, so Sounds awesome.

[00:31:03] Matt Hummel: Well. I know you have a 3-year-old. You mentioned that at the top of the show. I’m sure he keeps you very busy. What is your favorite part of parenting right now and anything surprising that you’ve learned across these past few years of being a mom?

[00:31:18] Emanuela Mafteiu: Oh, awesome. This is such an awesome question. Thank you for asking Matt.

[00:31:22] Matt Hummel: Yeah. I’m

[00:31:23] Emanuela Mafteiu: obviously curious about, um, reversing the question and put it back to you, but, um, yeah, articulating emotions like at the moment, um, I’m trying to empower, empower my little one to believe in his abilities and continue to be curious about the world and about life. He, the way I would describe him, he is like a free spirit and I’ve also about the emotions and, um.

[00:31:49] Emanuela Mafteiu: We have an emotion wheel. So I printed a poster on all of our bedrooms just to remind ourselves about emotion, the emotion wheel, and not to forget how to express. Yeah. So I think for [00:32:00] me, this is so big at the moment and he’s just learning to, to tackle that. So it’s, it’s great seeing him.

[00:32:07] Matt Hummel: Oh, that’s so cool.

[00:32:08] Matt Hummel: It is interesting. How your kids don’t, they’re, yes, they come into the world and there’s some things they inherently understand. When they need something, they communicate. Now when they’re babies, that’s in a form of crying or screaming. And as they get older, they learn words and then, but in terms of like that emotional response.

[00:32:27] Matt Hummel: You have to create that framework and teach your kids what is appropriate and, and how to, how to effectively communicate in certain situations. So it’s such a great example. I think it’s just a good reminder and it’s something that I’ve certainly learned along the way that your kids, they need you to help.

[00:32:43] Matt Hummel: Teach them things and, and that’s okay. You know, because they come into the world knowing some stuff, but not everything. And I’ve gotten frustrated at, at times, I have 12-year-old twin boys who I adore. But you know, twins in and of itself creates unique challenges. They’re [00:33:00] comparing them to, you know, to themselves.

[00:33:01] Matt Hummel: And frankly it’s hard as parents to not compare one to the other. ’cause they have different strengths and different, you know, opportunities. So I love your perspective on that. I know you also love to travel, so, and I love talking travel on the show mainly because I need recommendations from my own family.

[00:33:19] Matt Hummel: So, uh, do you have any favorite spots that you visited?

[00:33:23] Emanuela Mafteiu: Since last December, my favorite place became Austria Innsbrook. I was reminded last year how much I Ms. Snow. It never snows in the uk and if when it snows and if it’s just like little snow, everything stops. Yeah. So it’s not a good combination. Um, so we’ve decided to make it a tradition every year and every year to go and see snow.

[00:33:47] Emanuela Mafteiu: And I think that’s Innsbrook. It was a perfect place, really, really close to going up the mountain and it’s just, just awesome. Totally recommend. And the food, we went in December, so you can imagine the [00:34:00] German markets being there as well and having hot cider or hot wine, obviously. Uh, that was, that was great.

[00:34:08] Matt Hummel: That sounds amazing. I, several people have mentioned Austria as one of their favorite places, and so. I need to put that on the short list because it sounds amazing. I was flying home from France last week, Southern France, and, and the route, the route home or took me home, uh, via Munich. And, uh, at one point during the flight, the pilot came on and said, if you look out to the right, you’ll see.

[00:34:32] Matt Hummel: I think it was the largest mountain range, uh, in Europe. I don’t remember which one it was, or maybe it was the tallest, but I snapped a picture and if I were doing pain by numbers, I would definitely do this. It was the most stunning thing. And I live in Colorado and we have amazing mountains here. I had never seen anything like this, so you know, I, the snow, there’s just nothing quite like seeing snow.

[00:34:54] Matt Hummel: And now that I’m in Colorado, I was in Texas before I saw more snow in one winter here than I saw my [00:35:00] entire life in Texas. And same thing, Texas. Nice, a little bit of snow, everything shuts down. People don’t know what to do. Here we’re like, oh, another day of snow. Let’s, let’s get after it. Yeah. So that’s, that’s cool to appreciate that.

[00:35:14] Matt Hummel: The last thing I want to talk about, you talked about paint by numbers at the top. I would just love to understand, so when you take a picture. How then do you turn that into a pay by numbers? Like what’s the process? Is there a company you work with?

[00:35:28] Emanuela Mafteiu: It’s a company, yeah. Okay. And literally just send it over and they’ll, they’ll do the magic and then it turns up, uh, as a canvas.

[00:35:36] Emanuela Mafteiu: And, um, yeah, it’s really good quality in terms of the, the. Paint as well. So, and it’s, it’s awesome. I mean, it really, it’s relaxing and it just like unwind and you can put your favorite podcast or favorite music and just like, unwind and um, and, and paint. So I love that. I’m trying to do some more like a rogue pieces where I [00:36:00] just splash things on the canvas.

[00:36:01] Emanuela Mafteiu: Yeah. Well, yeah. Well they end up in the garage. Unfortunately, they’re not good enough. We’re inside the house. Oh,

[00:36:08] Matt Hummel: that is so funny. I, I tried to get into painting. Years ago, and I’m like, oh, you know, you see all these abstract artists and they’re like, I mean, that can’t be that hard. My brain would literally not allow me to be abstract.

[00:36:23] Matt Hummel: I’m like, if I’m gonna be abstract, it has to be very intentional. And I would try and same thing, they’d end up in the garage in the, you know, really in the garbage. Um, because they were just so bad. But I love this idea of pain by numbers. ’cause I think everybody needs some kind of an outlet and I think US marketers need that creative outlet.

[00:36:40] Matt Hummel: So I think this is really cool. I appreciate you sharing that. Well, hey, Emanuela, this has been an amazing conversation. I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to share just what. What you’re doing and all the great work that you’re doing at Ping, but also just letting us get to know you a little bit better.

[00:36:57] Emanuela Mafteiu: Thank you very much, Matt. [00:37:00]

[00:37:00] Matt Hummel: Thanks again to Emanuela for joining us on today’s episode of The Pipeline Brew. I hope you all enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. Please leave me a comment with your thoughts and make sure you subscribe to the show so you never miss an episode. Once again, I’m Matt Hummel and I’ll see you next time.