What is a data breach?

Data breaches should not be confused with cyber attacks. A data breach is the result of a cyber attack. Meanwhile, a cyber attack is the means to access the data. As you can imagine, penetration testing services are essential for for preventing data breach, so its important to partner up with a pen testing company.

Cybercriminals often use viruses (such as Trojans) or phishing (such as email scams) to gain access to information. You might receive a phishing email that looks like it’s coming from a trusted bank. Even worse, during the pandemic, hackers forged emails from healthcare institutions. They expected people would more likely click on a link regarding their well-being.

The results were devastating. 60% of small businesses did not recover after a successful cyber attack. The pandemic revealed huge cybersecurity issues. Many companies were not prepared to face these new challenges.

Cybersecurity is a complex and costly process. But there are easy and affordable steps you can take right now. Keep in mind that cybercriminals often look for the easiest target. So if you implement the steps outlined below, you can significantly minimize the risks of becoming a victim.

4 ways to protect your company

Here are some proven ways to help your company safe from cyber attacks.

Protect your data

Storing data in unencrypted form is a big mistake in this day and age. If a hacker gains access to your or your employees’ devices, unencrypted data is like a gold pot. There’s nothing worse than companies storing their client’s data in unencrypted form.

Client data often includes banking details and personally identifiable information (name and surname, birth date, etc.). Cybercriminals can use this data to impersonate clients or target them with advanced phishing schemes. One way or another, the victim can rightfully blame the company that did not take care of data security.

Marriott hotel has suffered from numerous data leaks. In 2018 they had 5.3 million unencrypted passport numbers leaked. It was a significant blow to the company’s reputation, showing how poorly it treated data security. Even worse, they got sued by customers. If the data were encrypted, cybercriminals would have had no way of accessing it, preventing massive legal troubles.

Use backups

We mentioned ransomware gangs that use their own encryption to hold your data for ransom. One way to solve this is to backup your files. A backup will create a copy of your data and store it in a secure cloud. So even if you lose access to the data on your devices, you can use a backup to restore it. Keep in mind that cloud services can also lack sufficient security measures. It’s best to backup your data in encrypted form. Even if it leaks from the cloud, there will be no way to exploit it if it’s encrypted.

Train your staff

Education is the first line of defense when it comes to cybersecurity. You should instruct your staff on the proper use of passwords. You should also train them on how to spot a phishing email. Most people can identify the most obvious ones, but nowadays, hackers can forge professional, convincing letters that even the best of us can fall for. Learning to identify phishing emails is not hard, but it takes time and initiative.

Set network administration rights

You should limit access to crucial business and client data. There’s no need for all employees to have the same amount of access to the corporate network. If limitations are not set and one device gets breached, cybercriminals get full access. Implement several access layers and set up a network administrator to manage them. A great way to start is to follow a layered cybersecurity model to maximize the security of different network segments.

Conclusion

A single data breach can be enough to bring even the most successful company down. That’s why businesses should protect their data at all costs and be careful with who and what they trust online.

How does email list building work?

Email list building entails collecting emails from your website visitors and compiling them to create a list of a well-targeted audience. You can use your email list to connect with users and turn them into buyers. 

The list-building process involves gaining more subscribers to your emails. You can utilize list building software to ease the list-building processes and boost your results. 

Also, incorporate a CTA to your homepage to work as a means to grow your email list. Strive to motivate your website visitors to subscribe to your email and boost your list performance.

Why do you need to create an email list?

When you send an email, your message is conveyed directly to your subscribers’ inbox. Such direct access makes email lists a valuable asset and a more effective means to get information to your potential clients than social media. Emails are 40 times better than social media in customer gain.

The potentials of a well-built email list are endless. However, we’ll look at some reasons and benefits of creating an email list.

Easy to reach a large audience

As earlier stated, emails record millions of users worldwide. It’s a marketing medium that presents the opportunity to reach a wider audience. Building an email list should be a top priority, considering the outstanding potential of emails to other platforms. 

87% of marketers utilize emails to deliver content organically. Aim to build a list for your target audience and present them with personalized offers and emails to help you easily convert them to customers.

Personalized communication solution

Generally, customers love personalized messages. Asides from the vast audience reach, emails provide an avenue to personalize communication. Emails are relatively effective in addressing prospects by name and delivering relevant offers.  

Emails are personal and allow business owners and managers to relate to their customers in a more excellent and direct tone. Customers prefer direct conversations and are more likely to make orders via personalized channels.

Complete control over the list

Once it pertains to your online business, very few platforms allow total control of your marketing strategy like emails do. When you create an email list, you decide you handle your list. You can choose to use automation or manually manage your email marketing. 

When you successfully acquire a lot of subscribers, you have complete control over your subscribers. You can regulate how you communicate with them without thinking of algorithms or guidelines consistent with other marketing platforms.

Email subscribers can help you share your content

Emails allow you to communicate care to your audience on a personal level and build relationships with them. Unlike social media, you can have a one-on-one discussion, giving them a sense of value. 

The more you connect with your subscribers, the more willing they are to spread the word about your content. Emails create loyalty that makes your subscribers more willing to share your content.

Fantastic means to build trust

Email messages are intimate and allow you to connect and build trust with your potential customers.

Business owners and managers understand the significance of trust and connection in business. Customers delight in buying from brands they trust, and in building trust, you need to relate to them repeatedly in a personalized manner. An email list helps you build trust with prospects and convert them to customers.

Email marketing records a higher ROI than other marketing mediums

Typically, the ROI on email marketing is 4300%, making it an extremely inexpensive marketing strategy. 

The ROI computation involves two aspects, the cost, and the return. Emails record a high conversion and profit rate, making their ROI stay on the high side. Emails allow you to make cost-effective investments. They are more affordable when compared to other marketing techniques. More than 59% of marketers assert emails are their greatest source of ROI. 

Most people that visit your site are interested in the product or service you offer. It’s wise to get their info and follow up with them. Investing in building your email list enables you to quickly sieve out potential clients from the visitors that visit your website.

An excellent means to launch a new product or service

An email list is a cheap and effective way to launch a new product. It provides the platform to promote and receive feedback on your product. Prospects can easily ask questions and get detailed info on the newly launched product or service.

With the right content, you can choose to market your product to your subscribers at will with no restrictions.

Perfect for building a loyal visitor base

Whether you are looking for engagements or traffic on your blog posts, your email audience can always look forward to the content you put out. Including a CTA on your home page is essential to help them easily access your content. 

Email lists provide a loyal audience base. Building a list of loyal subscribers may not be spontaneous, but the results are worth the whole process. Most people return to your website when they receive an email from you. You should leverage this and send them emails as you make new posts.

Easy steps to creating an email list

Here are a couple of unique options that will help you create an email list.

Create a website

The company website is the best channel to receive email addresses. You can use WordPress to build your website if you run a small business.

Include a subscription form to your website

After creating a website, ensure you include a subscription form. The subscription form will allow website visitors to subscribe to your page by inputting their email addresses.

Add a survey form to your website and include a system to compile emails of the survey contributors.

Attach your subscription form to an email marketing tool

You can choose the software that best suits your needs with the several email marketing software available. 

Integrate an email opt-in plugin to your site

Email opt-in forms help to build your email list faster. The forms attract site guests to complete your form and allow you to receive their emails.

Send emails wisely

After you’ve gathered several email addresses, the next step is to send emails. Sending emails is significant because your emails will have no effect until they reach your subscribers.

Ensure to compose emails properly to avoid them from sounding like spam messages. Consistently, evaluate the performance of your emails and strive to make steady improvements.

Conclusion

A well-built email list is priceless, and its effects can be rapid. When you have a substantial list, you can easily build loyal users of your blog and, subsequently, customers for your business. You can also promote new products with ease. 

Regardless of the kind of business you run, if you want to turn your website visitors into customers, you need to create an email list.

Guerrilla marketing ideas for startups and small businesses 

There’s one thing you should know about guerrilla marketing for: you either go all in or not at all! You can’t expect these guerilla marketing ideas for small businesses to work if you lack the courage to stand out. If you’re more the traditional marketing type, maybe you should try with print marketing because this article about creative guerrilla marketing for startups will probably be a waste of your time.

When ugly becomes beautiful

Helen White, Co-Founder of houseof

6th graders can do a better job than adults

One of my favourite guerrilla tactics I used: An entire sixth-grade class sent letters to the local paper, which published several of them. We used the press extensively, with more than 70 articles and about 25 radio or TV appearances over the 13-month campaign. One of them ran with a picture of me on the land we were fighting to protect, one interviewed the developer, whose comments made us label him honorary fundraising chair, as we got a flood of contributions after he was quoted that he would mess up his own view too, but it was worth it because he would make a lot of money. We even successfully changed the town’s laws so no future developer could do this.

Shel Horowitz, Green/Transformative Biz Profitability Expert at Going Beyond Sustainability

Themed parties with a lot of booze and food

After 6 years, we get roughly 100 guests per event to spread the word of our companies.

Recently, we were finally able to throw our annual Yacht Rock party where we all pretended we were floating on a large boat with signature cocktails, a band, great food and casino games. Due to the pandemic, this was our first event after 6 months.

Dave Forman, President of our Masters Bar Service

Toilet paper does a lot more than you think

While we couldn’t track if the guerilla marketing stunt led to any listings, it absolutely helped us make a splash in the market and get some free local press!

Tyler Forte, Co-Founder & CEO of Felix Homes

Slow cooking fast results

To launch a new meal delivery service, Crock-Pot Cuisine, we created a guerilla marketing campaign where we set-up 250 slow cookers at 7am at Union Station in Chicago. We then slow cooked 250 Crock-Pot Cuisine meals throughout the day and when people were commuting home after work, we gave out over 3,000 samples to customers, distributed over 2,500 promotional fliers and collected 171 emails. 

Our website, Crockpotcuisine.com, received close 1,600 clicks that day and we had a lot of activity on social media. We were even featured on the local news.

Kuda Biza, Co-Founder & CMO at Nunbelievable

Pets hold the key to humans’ hearts

We recently decided to tackle the same challenge of how do we use guerrilla marketing to inject some personality into our business and moreover ‘How do we evoke a personal connection with our customer?’ We have around 120,000 currently, and we want to figure out a scalable effective way to get closer to them.

After brainstorming we came up with an idea to tap into our customer’s soul through their pets. When a homeowner signs up for our service we gather information on if they have pets, and if so what are their names. We do this so our lawn vendors know to be careful when entering the lawn.

We decided we could use this info about our customer to send a personalized gift to our customers’ pet, addressed to them.

This really wowed our customers, we received personal thank you notes, videos of their dog chewing the bone we sent posted to FB and thank you tweets, it worked really well for the time and money we invested.

Bryan Clayton, CEO of GreenPal

Tell them not to do something, and they’ll do it

It ended up going well, I got a ton of connections and DM’s from other comedian peers, as well as audience members, who wanted to join in. 

Alex Libutti, Founder of Libutti Media

Sometimes thinking inside the box is better

Not only were we able to use responses to create an infographic and blog piece, but we were able to generate buzz about our company in a budget-friendly way. After being interviewed inside a life-size box in the middle of an NYC street, you’re bound to share the odd experience with friends.

Kimberly Smith, Marketing Manager at Clarify Capital

Dating apps have an undiscovered business potential 

In 2017, prior to the launch of Bumble Bizz I was opening two lounges in a resort outside of Washington D.C. I didn’t know anyone in the market and we were having trouble staffing to the level that was expected. So I decided to go on Bumble (dating app), create a profile that was professional in nature to see if I would be able to find potential employees who were looking to come join our team. 

The method was unorthodox in nature but turned out to work better than I could have expected. We hired a large portion of our staff based off that marketing effort and as you see, Bumble now has a function where you can use their platform to professionally network. I attribute their growth to experiences like mine.

Josh Lang, Founder of Pink Cloud Media

Going door to door is not just for Jehovah witnesses

We didn’t do this with fancy advertising on Google or Facebook. We didn’t just blast out to an email list. We actually went door to door in our local area and talked to business owners. We essentially offer them up to $1,000 in monthly marketing services free for 90 days. 

Our only ask was that they track results and encourage customers to leave them a review on their Google business profile. We only went door-to-door for a couple of weeks. Probably spoke to about 200 prospects. Most of them already had deals in place for marketing services, but we ended up with four new clients after the 90 day period and that is totally worth it to us.

Jack Choros, CMO at IronMonk Solutions

$20k in cash and silver are better than Super Bowl’s Halftime

Then, we placed ‘reward signs’ all over town with hints on social media. It was a blast! Forbes, local news, and more covered us!

Evan White, President of Evan White PR

Brains lie and you can use that

If you see the words ‘Going Out…Business Sale’ your brain automatically fills in the word ‘of’ in the middle, right? What if you see ‘Going Out for Business Sale’? You’d be amazed at how many people didn’t even realize we had switched ‘of’ to ‘for’ and thought we were shutting down. 

As soon as people thought we were going under they became more interested and even when we pointed out the trickery most folks laughed about it and we got the opportunity to start talking to some potential customers we probably wouldn’t have otherwise. 

Todd Ramlin, Manager of Cable Compare

QR codes that stick to people’s minds

Before I started working for JungleTopp, I did creative outreach marketing for a music company. The first day I worked for the company, they talked about organizing a street team that would put marketing stickers all over the city (I live in Philadelphia) so we can direct people to our artist’s website. 

The first month was spent researching potential locations to place the stickers and hiring a street team. Once both of those items were assembled, we created five types of stickers that all had a unique QR code generated by a specialized QR code generator. Having unique QR codes allowed us to track which sections of the city were responding to the stickers.

With how crazy of an idea this campaign was, people did respond to it! We were getting hits everywhere! Sadly, the artist never picked up beyond that. But because of how many people scanned the stickers, I would call this a successful campaign.

Walter Wertz, Content Marketer at JungleTopp Media

By the power vested in me by God and hashtags

As a marketer, I spotted the opportunity and thought ‘why not’. I sent in a photo of my company at the time with a bit of personalized text connecting what we did with the event. Between the light humour and the fact that not many people sent in photos to be used, they shuffled my photo into the queue and it was shown dozens of times throughout the event.

On top of that, it was shared by the organization’s large social media account to help grow the promotion.

My ‘ad’ gained some traction and I saw a nice influx of new followers on social media and some inquiries from people who told me they saw my post while at the event.

It cost nothing, was a lot of fun, and was a great way to take advantage of an opportunity that doesn’t come around all the time!

Sean Chaudhary, Owner of Alchemy Leads

Nothing beats a free ride

I did not have money to hire people either so I offered the only currency I had to our members, free driving credit for every hour they would help me by attending street fairs and festivals standing next to one of our cars decorated with helium balloons passing out free postcards I got printed online offering free trial memberships to join. I had an army of folks who wanted to help us succeed and they ended up working enough hours each month to drive for free by helping us grow. We had cars popping up at events all over town!

Paige Arnof-Fenn, Founder & CEO of Mavens & Moguls

Taking advantage of mobile showrooms

Nothing beats an in-person connection and mobile showrooms vehicles are a great way to get in touch with your audience no matter where they are. They can be used as part of an overall retail activation marketing strategy because they garnish media attention very easily. Moreover, due to their uniqueness, people are eager to spread the word through social media when they run into these mobile stores.

Maria Harutyunyan, Partnership Manager at NYFTA

Conclusion

These guerrilla marketing ideas for small businesses are proof that it all comes down to creativity and willingness. However, mind that not all guerrilla marketing ideas will be good for all startups. It has to be aligned with your brand and speak in your own voice.