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These 4 groups of B2B brand advocates on social media can help business-to-business marketers improve brand awareness and customer relationships. Brand advocacy tools can help manage the process.
Read the full article at: www.marketingprofs.com
Simply managing data can seem overwhelming for small businesses. How can you know your data is secure? Can you promise your customers their personal information won’t be stolen? Are they assured their credit card is safe on your website? While you don’t need to manage every possible data risk on your own, it’s important to know the basics when it comes to data security for small businesses.
Outdated Software
Data theft has surpassed physical theft as the most commonly reported type of fraud. One of the simplest prevention measures you can take is making sure your software is regularly updated, especially your operating system and Internet browsers. Set your software to update automatically overnight, when it won’t interfere with business.
Double check automated functions by confirming the latest version of software is installed, especially when you open a program you haven’t used in a while. Remember, it’s vital you have anti-virus software installed on all your machines and you keep it up-to-date.
Payment Card Fraud
According to Barclays, America accounts for 24 percent of global credit card use, yet 47 percent of its fraud. In 2015, a new law made liable any business without a chip-enabled card reader, called EMV. If you’re still operating without this technology, you must update as soon as possible, for the sake of both financial security and your customer’s data security.
A few other prevention measures will help you prevent card fraud. Ask for identification from customers, so you match the card is its owner. Look over the card to ensure the magnetic strip, hologram, and signature are in tact. For orders online or by phone, always require the Card Verification Value (CVV code). Send order confirmation emails. Be wary of apparently phony email addresses. Make use of the Address Verification Service to verify authenticity of a buyer’s billing address.
Human Error
This a major cause of data loss among small businesses. Employee training in cybersecurity best practices is an absolute must. Every time you update those practices, re-train employees. Consider disallowing access to personal accounts at work. When employees use personal accounts it can lead to inadvertent disclosure.
Security professionals often advise business owners to lay out concrete repercussions for employees who fail to comply with security protocols. While this may seem strict to some small business owners, remember what’s at stake for you and your customers if an employee loses a company laptop or infects your network with malware by opening a malicious email attachment.
Back Up Data
Saving sensitive data on one machine is not enough. You must create backups at regular intervals so you can recover lost data. Backup files should be stored off-site, whether on physical servers in a different location or in the cloud. This ensures you may retrieve your backed up data no matter if it was accidentally deleted or your hard drive was destroyed in a fire. If you use free cloud storage be warned services such as Dropbox and Google Drive may lack a sufficient level of encryption to keep customer data secure.
Open Wi-Fi
If you or your team work on-the-go, you risk sensitive data being stolen while connected to open Wi-Fi. You should discourage use of public hotspots, but with mobile devices’ ability to automatically connect to them, it may occur accidentally anyway. When you connect to public Wi-Fi, or a network that appears as such, there is the potential for other users on the network to see everything you do. Use only encrypted sites and apps when on a public network. Follow (and be sure your employees follow) best practices for using public Wi-Fi. If you have mobile employees, consider using a Virtual Private Network on company mobile devices.
Customer Wi-Fi
The Wi-Fi you use in your business should be secure, encrypted, and hidden for maximum safety. Never open up your private wireless network for customer use. Your router likely has the option to create a Guest Network, which customers may use without accessing your private network and sensitive data. You may also purchase hardware specifically for creating a Wi-Fi Hotspot for customer use.
Keep Learning
Small businesses can use the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Small Biz Cyber Planner to create a free document packed with actionable advice. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Internet Security Essentials for Business 2.0 is a free resource designed to educate small business owners on cybersecurity. It offers simple measures you can take to make your business more secure. Best practices for data security change over time, so review your practices regularly to be sure you’re doing everything you should be.
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
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Given the high trust we have on Gmail we tend to believe that all messages that fall into our inbox are legit and safe, but there is something to kno
Read the full article at: securityaffairs.co
Many small businesses believe creating high quality content is too expensive and time consuming. Only big companies have the budget to employ someone just to write up pages for a website, right?
It’s true that many big companies spend the Big Bucks on hiring staff with the sole purpose of keeping their websites up-to-date and interesting, but it really doesn’t have to be done that way! By investing a little time, you and your business can have Big-Bucks content without breaking the bank.
Forget Everything
Firstly, forget what you’ve been told about big company content and the high costs of investment, both financial and timely, to get decent content. Content can be kept simple and low-to-no budget, if necessary. A quick tweet, blog post, re-sharing of an article with added commentary about how your brand relates to it, or even a short video or podcast, are good examples of low-investment/high-return content.
Define Your Goals
Start by deciding what your goals are. What do you hope to achieve? Increasing visitor numbers to your website? Having people sign up to receive emails? Targeting potential first time sales? Encouraging happy customers to come back again and again? All of the above are goals that can be met with careful content management.
Your content needs to have a purpose, and it needs to fulfill that purpose in a tangible way. Your CRM data will help you decide which goals are most important for your company, right now.
Choose Your Target
Focus your efforts on your target audience, and on finding out which particular needs and wants you and your brand can meet. Use your CRM data to help you find and reach your target audience, and decide which direction you want to take.
What is your audience looking for? What do they as a group, prefer to see? What style are you hoping to achieve? Formal, informal? Cartoon style, flowcharts, graphics led? Vlog, sound bytes, written content? Original content, shared with context, or a mix of the two?
Quality not Quantity
Whichever style you opt for, you’re after quality, not quantity. Keeping the standard high is vital. Remember, you’re competing for attention against every other site on the internet.
Make your content snappy, informative, and personable to draw your customers in and make them want to come back for the next installment. If you only have 60 minutes per week to spend on your content, then make it a great hour’s worth of work, rather than short-changing yourself with 20 minutes each on a few sub-standard pieces. Research shows that people prefer to spend a little longer on reading one great, informative article over giving smaller chunks of their precious time on average or less-than-average articles that aren’t new or interesting.
Using your CRM to monitor click-through, you can quickly and easily check on which posts are most effective at catching attention.
Vary Your Content
Content is not limited to words, and you don’t need any special equipment to create videos; most of today’s smartphones have amazing camera features. Try something simple, like greeting your customers with an explainer video. Keep it short, upbeat, and informational, and tell your customers about your business as if you were telling a friend. Other simple-to-create video content might include how-tos and, if you can get them, customer endorsements.
Keep it Relevant
Everything you post should be on-topic and relevant to your brand. Refrain from over-posting on social media. It can turn people away if their notifications are full of repetitive, unoriginal or thoughtless updates. Your brand will be judged by the quality of your content.
Keep it Fresh
Remember, you don’t have to do it all yourself, all the time. Give your team members a chance to post about what they’re working on. It’s worth considering attracting authoritative guest writers from time to time, too.
Track your social media metrics to see which platforms and article styles are most effective at fulfilling your goals, and emulate that style for future promotional pieces.
It All Comes Down to Promotion
Whatever your style and content, it’s only going to be successful if it’s promoted. Use social media to get your brand out there and get people talking about it. Extend your reach by mentioning and linking to others who are influential in your field, and ask them to do the same for you.
Join the conversation on other industry blogs and social media posts to increase your audience.
Mention relevant information in previous articles and link to them when creating new pieces. Send email invitations to informative pieces you know your customers will be interested in.
You don’t have to spend Big Bucks to produce strong and effective content, just take a little time to get your brand out there and be ready to follow through with top quality service.
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
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Gartner surveyed over 400 supply chain professionals around the world to understand how they feel about their careers and their organizations. Read the full article at: www.gartner.com
So, you’ve decided to adopt a CRM! Congratulations!
Chances are, you’ve done your research, looked into your best options and are now ready to bring out your “bundle of joy” and implement this amazing, life-changing CRM into your life…
Aaaand then, what happens? Your staff becomes overwhelmed by the thought of change. They have a “who moved my cheese” moment and dig in their heels. Some people use it, but only half the office, and the rest of the office goes back to their spreadsheets and previous methods. You don’t have time to train or implement the software, and even though you’ve adopted it, you’ve left it sitting there alone, unused because you didn’t come up with a strong plan for unrolling the software.
There’s also the problem that, even though you might understand just how amazing and helpful a CRM can be, your employees are in the dark when it comes to the functionality of the software and how it can keep them in contact with your customers. Maybe they’re nervous because they don’t know how easily and seamlessly it integrates programs you’re already using. Maybe they haven’t been informed just how much of a difference a CRM can make in your life.
So, instead of fretting and stressing about this great program you’ve adopted that no one’s using, identify and overcome the barriers standing in your way. Tear down the wall, and start to get your employees on the same page so you can truly move forward with your software.
Barrier #1: Your Office Doesn’t Understand
Why do employees fear change? Because it’s unknown. It’s mysterious. They know what’s working, and how to keep their customers happy. They’re sure they have a system in place to stay on top of leads and meet every sales goal in the pipeline.
Then what happens? A flu virus sweeps into your office during the busiest month of the year, and suddenly no one knows what’s going on and you’re rousing sick, frustrated employees in their pajamas because you don’t understand their spreadsheets and their filing systems. Or worse–someone leaves your office and takes their contacts and information right out the door, and everyone’s back at square one.
Help your employees understand the value and importance of making the change to a CRM. Talk to them beforehand about your sales goals, the current battles they’re facing and what hurdles they hope to overcome. Ask them what’s important to them when it comes to managing relationships with their customers and then find a product that meets their needs. When employees feel personally invested in the product, and know they’ve had a voice in the implementation, expressed their concerns and been heard, they’ll be on board and ready to embrace your new arrival.
Barrier #2: You Failed to Plan (and Now Plan to Fail)…
So you didn’t think about your rollout, or come up with a timeline for implementing your CRM. Even more importantly, you didn’t talk about the guidelines for going forward. You went in with a “if we buy it they will come” mentality, hoping everyone would just get on board once they had access to this great software.
Oops! It’s time to get things back on track. You need to implement a timeline. Sit down with employees and look at what you have coming up in the next few months, and what you can feasibly tackle. Make a policy to use your CRM for all leads going forward, and business of the future, while you catch up on training and execution.
If employees aren’t sure about the functionality, and they’re nervous about learning new programs, have them watch some tutorials and take time out of their busy schedules to really learn the program. It may be hard to press the “hold” button right now and train everyone, but it’s not going to get any easier as you go down the road. Nip failure in the bud by coming up with a timeline now, today, and figuring out a training and implementation schedule ASAP.
Make sure you set your team up for success by training them properly and giving them a chance to try the program. Let them see how much it can actually help. Tell them about integrations with their Google Calendar, MailChimp, Quickbooks and other programs they already rely on. Once your employees are all on the same page, roll out shouldn’t be a problem.
At Insightly, we offer a CRM used by small and mid-sized businesses from a huge variety of verticals. Learn about all of Insightly’s features and plans on our pricing page or sign up for a free trial.
