Category: Strategies

Cyberattacks are on the rise these days and ill-intended actors don’t seem to hold back. We already know about big companies taking the hit, but there were also attacks on hospitals, healthcare institutions, and governmental facilities. Now, try and imagine how many of these attacks go unreported? 

It may be the pandemic – after all, the lockdowns forced everyone into remote work, whether they were ready or not. Plus, once things get back to normal, it is expected that around 58% of US workers will continue working remotely. 

On the other hand, we can also blame the fast advancement of new technologies. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are amazing tools that can be used to process massive amounts of data in a flash. Such power gives cybercriminals a serious advantage in identifying the most likely spots to hit.  

Regardless, it’s safe to say we are living in unprecedented times. Businesses have to navigate all sorts of risks and threats without having to look twice over the shoulder when using online tools that help keep things going. Still, that’s exactly what you have to do if you don’t want to have a data breach that may lead to corporate and individual ID theft cases. 

Here is why any business and organization must take ID theft extremely seriously:

#1: Business Reputation

Whether you have an online business or a brick-and-mortar store, your customers and leads will come and go based on the reviews they read and the rumors they hear. A brand’s reputation in the market is one of the most valuable assets a business can have, which is why it must be protected at all costs. 

If your database gets leaked and you are the victim of a corporation ID theft, you risk losing the good name of your brand in front of customers, business partners, and suppliers. 

Cybercriminals can use your accounts to:

• Harass partners by asking for loans, payments for items they didn’t order, information, and more
• Post injurious messages on social media channels
• Send annoying emails and messages to your customer base
• Withdraw considerable amounts of money from your bank accounts
• Place orders you cannot honor
• Sign contracts and close deals you wouldn’t have approved of

The list could easily go on, but the conclusion is that anyone who gets hold of your accounts owns your business. Is this something you are willing to risk?

#2: Smarter Attacks

As we already mentioned, advanced technologies help cybercriminals organize attacks that are more efficient and harder to detect. These examples of identity theft show just how much cybercriminals have advanced in their methods and techniques. 

If back in the days data was only available on paper, nowadays most businesses use cloud services or have an internal system of servers that can be accessed online. Plus, you can do almost anything online from paying bills and taxes to signing documents and having meetings. 

This opened a wide door for intruders who learned how to approach the most vulnerable link in an organization’s security system – the human factor. A Kaspersky study from a few years back showed that careless or uninformed staff are the second most likely cause of a serious security breach. Next, is human error. 

In conclusion, businesses must train their staff in basic cybersecurity measures if they want to have an efficient protection system. Plus, trained employees are more likely to follow the security protocols because they understand the risks.

#3: Protect Business Assets

Did you know that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are ideal targets for cyberattacks? 

This happens because they are not as keen to invest in an advanced security system (due to budget size). Plus, a business that’s just starting to grow is likely to have a few golden eggs hidden in its database. These golden eggs can be anything from a well-developed business plan to the documentation for a new invention. 

That’s why any business should have at least some type of security operations center. It may be an extra cost to your plan, but it’s worth it if you want to keep your assets away from prying eyes. 

In Conclusion

Corporate ID theft and any other form of cyberattack are extremely risky for a business nowadays. Overall, it’s best to take the path of caution and invest in a solid security system. Also, don’t forget to take care of your stuff as well.

There are ways to improve your eCommerce business right now, and some business owners don’t know them yet.  These methods have been used successfully by other successful entrepreneurs and could be used for you too! If you follow them, they will make a difference in your life and also how much money you make with your company. You’ll soon see that it’s worth it to take this time out to read about what these tips entail! Ready? Let’s get started!  

1. Business Optimization

Make your web pages easier to find on search engines with business optimization. You’ll want your page to be easily found on the internet so that people can find it and bring you sales. It will help if you optimize your products and pages for keywords and keep up with the new trends as they come out. You can also consider to invest in Magento performance optimisation to get your website to work faster. This is necessary because the speed is not as fast as it could be, and long load times can drive shoppers away from your page. Customers do not have a lot of patience with slow sites. Another reason why you should optimize your site is that this will help you to increase your conversion rate. Your conversion rate measures how many people who visit your website buy something from you, as opposed to those that just browse or leave. You can look into ways that you can keep them on the page and increase their loyalty so that they spend more time looking at what you have to offer and making a purchase. 

2. E-mail Marketing

Email marketing isn’t going anywhere, so it’s good that you’ve got a handle on it if your business uses it! It can be difficult to make it through the day if you don’t know how to manage your email marketing. Of course, some companies can do it for you, but wouldn’t you rather have complete control over what your business is doing? It’s good that you’ve got this down because it’s a very important part of being successful in eCommerce. It’s important to make sure that you’re creating good email campaigns. Good ideas for email marketing can help you keep up with what is going on in your business and even change the way you do things if needed. You’ll be able to communicate more effectively with your customers, and it will also allow them to get a message from you faster than they would otherwise. Your customers will see that you care about them, and it will help to increase the number of people on your emailing list who are willing to buy from you regularly. 

3. Social Media

If you’ve already got a social media presence, it’s important to make sure that you’re doing it right. Although there are other platforms like Facebook and Twitter, consider other websites that your customers might be using also like Google Plus or LinkedIn. You can spend less time updating all of your accounts by either having other people do the work for you or using a scheduling program. Remember that there are certain days and times during the day when your posts will be seen by the most people, and try to post things at those times. You can even use social media optimization (SMO) to make your website more likeable on social media platforms like Facebook. Social media will help you reach your customer base and know your target market. Also, consider which type of content is doing the best for you and then consider whether to invest in a social media eCommerce shop. This will help your business have more of a presence on social media, and it will also work with actual storefronts so that customers can choose where they want to go to make a purchase. 

4. Partnership

If you’re looking to increase your sales, consider partnering with other businesses. You can do this by joining a program that helps you sell each other’s products or just by linking to them from your site and hoping that people will go and check out what they have to offer. There are many different types of eCommerce programs like Amazon Associates which helps you make a commission when people buy from Amazon.com after clicking on a link from your site. Another option is to partner with other businesses in your area that has the same customer base as you do, and then try to offer them a joint promotion. 

5. Sell Your Products in Person

Consider whether you want to sell your products in person. All of the eCommerce options in the world aren’t going to help you if you don’t have a great product that people want to buy! Having an open shop can help make sure that people are aware of what is available from your website, and it can also lead to more sales. Even if you don’t plan on opening a brick and mortar location, it can help to have a pop-up shop for a limited time only. This will help your business benefit from the exposure that comes with being in a physical location as well as having people see how nice your products look up close. 

6. Improve Your Website

One of the best things that you can do to improve your eCommerce business is to make sure that your website has everything it needs. This means having a good domain name, hosting for your site, and also selling some products. It might sound like these are all easy things to take care of, but there are many people out there who have a hard time trying to get their website finished. If you want help setting up your site, consider hiring a web design company or an eCommerce consultant to help you with the process. You can even ask for advice from other online business owners in forums and groups that are related to your industry.

You don’t have to limit yourself to only one way of improving your eCommerce store. Many different options can help you increase the number of customers that are interested in what you’re selling, and they will also make it more likely for people to buy from you more often. So make sure that you won’t be afraid to try something new if it’s going to help your business, and you’ll see that many options can be beneficial in the long run.

A successful business puts customers at the heart of its operations. But too many businesses overlook the opportunities to impress their customers during the delivery stage of order fulfillment.

If you want to ensure your customers are happy and order with your company again and again, you need to check out the following four helpful tips.

1. Be Transparent About Your Delivery Options

The journey of delivering goods doesn’t begin the moment the items leave the warehouse. It begins when customers place an order.

If you want to impress your customers and therefore potentially increase your sales, you should present customers with two pieces of information at the order placement stage.

Firstly, you should be upfront about your delivery charges. Some studies show as many as 73% of online customers abandon their carts after being presented with the shipping costs at the last moment.

It can certainly help to offer more delivery options, too, such as next-day delivery in addition to standard mail, but the important thing is being transparent about the costs.

Secondly, customer snobbery is increasing, which means many customers prefer to know who will be shipping their goods before placing an order.

So, let your customers know which courier service you will be using or whether you have your own dedicated fleet.

The more information you can give your customers about your delivery prices and methods, the happier and more loyal they will be.

2. Use Route Planning Software to Achieve Greater Efficiency

One sure way of impressing customers is by delivering goods to customers on time.

That can be challenging when your drivers have to deliver to multiple stops each day; when unforeseen variables can occur. You can ensure optimal efficiency by utilizing logistics route planning software to create optimized routes. 

The software uses clever algorithms to factor in variables like distance, speed, and traffic patterns to optimize routes and change them accordingly in real-time.

On average, delivering goods with the help of route planning apps can save couriers at least an hour each day. Furthermore, route planners ensure accurate deliveries.

3. Provide Customers with Order Tracking

With route planning software, dispatchers and drivers are continually kept up-to-date with the status of each order. But if you want to impress your customers, you should ensure they are also in the loop about the statuses of their orders.

Thankfully, it’s easy to send out automatic SMS or email messages informing customers about things like when their orders have been dispatched and when they are expected to arrive.

You can also provide customers with tracking information so they can check the statuses of their orders online at any time.

By giving your customers access to delivery statuses, they don’t have to wait around all day fretting about whether their packages will turn up. But in addition to that, providing customers with order tracking means you show your customers you care.

In turn, that will lead to customer loyalty and satisfaction.

4. Make Sure Your Drivers Provide Excellent Customer Service

Providing excellent customer service is crucial to any successful business. But too many businesses overlook the simple fact that delivery drivers are the only face-to-face contact most customers have with the company.

That means it’s imperative your drivers are trained in how to provide good customer service. They need to be friendly, professional, and helpful. They also need to smile.

If you run your own fleet, make sure all of your drivers are trained well in how to interact with customers and what they need to do to represent your company in the best possible way.

If you use a courier service for your deliveries, make sure you go with a company that has a solid reputation for excellent customer service.

These days, threats to businesses can come in a wide variety of ways, including physical, financial, and electronic. Indeed, the nearly overwhelming array of electronic threats that come from malware, spyware, and viruses can be overwhelming, and all of this means that every business should consider building a security operations center. 

Done right with a trusted partner such as Micro Focus, one of these centers can create a huge boost to your business’s security, ability to ward off threats, and overall reputation. 

What is a Security Operations Center?

An Operations Center can vary depending on how big the organization in question is, but it essentially comes down to dedicated space, equipment, and staff time whose full-time job is to monitor the business’ computer networks for internal or external threats. ‘

This can mean different things to different businesses, and you will have to scale your operations center based on the potential threats to your business, the size of your business, and the available financial resources at your disposal. Furthermore, if necessary, you can outsource your SOC. This ensures that you can be protected, even if it is by outside experts.

The most important thing is that you set up something. Doing so can ensure that your business and information technology are protected. 

The Importance of Building a Security Operations Center

Whether you realize it or not, your computer network is under constant threat. According to multiple studies, malware and cyberthreats to businesses are at an all-time high. Furthermore, these threats can often result in confidential information – like sensitive identification information or credit cards – being compromised. If this is the case, your business may be on the hook for major financial damages.

Furthermore, a cyberattack done right can take your website and entire computer network offline. This is all the more likely if your network is unprotected. As such, making sure that your computer network is protected can save you a small fortune in lost time and money. 

A properly set up center will have a variety of tools at its disposal. This includes well-trained staff, appropriate equipment, and the resources necessary to defend an entire network from a threat. 

As you can see, one of these centers can wind up intercepting computer threats before they truly damage your business. As such, you should not look at setting up one of these centers as an expense – you should look at it as an investment. Setting up such a center can intercept a threat, save you money in recovery and repair, and help to protect your customer’s invaluable financial information. This, in turn, can save you a ton in costs.  

At the end of the day, the right time to build such an operations center is before a major threat cripples your business – not after. Make sure you go through the process of setting up one now so you can be dealing with potential threats in a proactive, preventative way.

Building an Instagram audience can be tough for those just starting out. With over 300 million users, it’s easy to get lost in the mix of “Instagram Famous” accounts – but Instagram’s algorithm is rewarding posts with high engagement, and getting more followers is much easier once you’ve built up a following. Since getting more followers can even mean starting to make a living out of your Instagram account, learning how to grow your followers is crucial.

1. Post On Peak Times

There’s no exact time that all of your followers are online, but by posting at peak times when you have the most engagement, you will be getting in front of more eyeballs. If you’re looking to grow your Instagram followers, you’ll need to make sure you’re visible to them by posting when there’s the greatest chance they’ll be online. Determining this peak time can be done easily by looking at your own Instagram activity.

See when you get the most likes and comments on your photos, and use that as a guide for when to post in order to have the best engagement. Focus on posting photos at times when everyone is awake to maximize your activity. You can also use a scheduling app to make sure you’ve got a constant stream of content going out, and set up several weeks in advance. This way, even if you’re not online yourself, the posts will still be getting sent.

2. Know Your Hashtags

Hashtags on Instagram are the equivalent of someone tagging a photo with keywords – they’re used to categorize photos and videos into groups that other users will find through searchability. By keeping an eye out for trending hashtags and tagging your photos with them, you’ll reach a wider audience. Use hashtags that are relevant to your niche or topic, and make sure to keep the number under 30 (anything higher will be detrimental to your post’s engagement).

A good Instagram photo needs to tell its own story – the point of including hashtags in a photo is to add additional context in a subtle way. Putting a long list of hashtags in the caption is great for gaining exposure in more searches, but it can also detract from the visual if you’re using too many. A good rule of thumb is to use one or two hashtags at most per post and make sure they don’t detract from the photo itself.

3. Tag Other Accounts

Hashtags are great for getting yourself out there, but tagging other accounts in your photo is how you can gain real exposure. By tagging other accounts, you’re directing followers from those accounts to your own – and the more people who see your photos, the easier it will be to grow your Instagram followers. This is a win-win situation since tagging other accounts in a photo or video lets them know that their audience might like what you have to offer.

You’ll want to make sure you only tag accounts that are relevant to your niche – while it might be tempting to tag big celebrity accounts, their followers aren’t looking for what you’re posting. Make a list of small-time Instagrammers who post about topics related to yours and tag them in your posts from time to time. This is a great way to get in the good graces of these accounts, and it can lead to interesting opportunities.

4. Engage With Others

This aspect of growing your Instagram audience is an often-overlooked part of the social media marketing that can be incredibly beneficial. You want to make sure you’re tapping into the social aspect of Instagram by getting involved with others. By liking and commenting on the posts of other accounts, you put yourself in front of their followers – who may not have known about your profile before. This can be a great way to start growing your Instagram following because it shows that you’re active on the platform and makes people more likely to follow you.

There’s a fine line between engaging with others and spamming them, though – make sure you’re not using automated bots to like thousands of photos in a day or leaving the same generic comment on everything you come across. You want your comments and likes to be personalized so they add value to the Instagram community. People like to support other Instagrammers, and if you can contribute to the community in a positive way your following will reflect that growth.

5. Be Consistent

If you’re putting out new content consistently, people will see that and be more likely to follow you on Instagram. You want to aim for a minimum of three posts per day if possible, but this is up to you. The more often you post, the easier it will be to grow your list of followers – as long as you’re posting quality content that people are engaging with. This is an important part of Instagram marketing because if you have a high number of posts but low engagement, your audience might think your account isn’t active or interesting.

Instagram’s algorithm uses the number of likes and comments on a post to determine how popular it is, and this impacts your visibility. People will be more interested in following you if they see that your photos are well-liked and have a high level of engagement. You don’t need to only post selfies, but every photo should have a clear call-to-action that encourages people to follow or engage with you. Some simple ways to include a call-to-action are by using an emoji in the caption, adding “Tag your friends!” at the end of the post’s description, or posting multiple photos that tell a story and encouraging people to like and comment on them.

Remember that building up your Instagram audience is about so much more than just posting photos and videos you think will get likes. If you want to grow your followers on Instagram, it’s important to take a two-sided approach. You want to focus on reaching out to others through tagging and engaging, but you also need to create posts that attract attention in the first place. Be sure to use hashtags and post interesting and relevant photos – and don’t be afraid to tag other accounts that will get your name in front of the right audience.

Books are a condensed part of someone else’s experience. Few of us can hear cool experts at foreign conferences, much less talk to them. Then the only way to get the knowledge of such experts is to read their blogs, articles, and books. And this rule works for any niche from betting at https://tonybet.co.uk/horse-racing to marketing. 

But you can read a thousand books and get nothing. What matters is not the quantity, but the quality. Choose what is worth your attention, and what you can read in brief. And it doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or a professional, these 4 books will help you improve your marketing skills.

The Positive Leader: How Energy and Happiness Fuel Top-Performing Teams

About the Author

Jan Mühlfeit spent more than a decade as head of Microsoft’s regional operations in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. For four years in a row, he had led the European organization in the IT giant’s domestic performance.

Prior to his career at Microsoft, Jan Mühlfeit was a Czech intelligence officer. His background in psychology and outstanding management skills made him one of the most popular mentors for top executives at global companies such as ExxonMobile, GE, UniCredit, Siemens, Bosch, Société Générale, Škoda, Volvo, and others.

What’s the Book About?

Mühlfeit uses his experience to explain the concept of “positive leadership,” which allows you to manage work energy rather than employee time and achieve results in the most positive way possible.

As an executive with many years of experience in one of the world’s largest corporations, Mühlfeit is aware that if you set only financial targets and measure success by status consumption, it inevitably leads to executive burnout. Emotional intelligence, empathy and one’s own internal measures of satisfaction are critical to corporate success. Scientific studies also show that a positive attitude leads to a 31% increase in productivity.

In the book, you can find tests to identify positives not only in employees but also in a variety of challenging work situations. You will learn how to turn negative circumstances into positive ones, and how to motivate your team to achieve results, doing so in the happiest way possible for everyone.

One of the main thoughts of the book is that even in the workplace people spend time on what they are passionate about and what is important to them personally. The author recommends making an effort to keep employees passionate. Then they will also work efficiently. Jan Mühlfeit describes specific methods of achieving such an atmosphere in the team.

How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know

About the Author

Byron Sharp is the founder and director of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science at the University of South Australia. The institute’s team of fifty-plus marketing professionals investigates patterns in brand and consumer behavior. This work is sponsored by the headquarters of the world’s leading brands: P&G, Coca Cola, Mars, Red Bull, Unilever, Danone, LinkedIn, and others.

What’s the Book About?

The first part of How Brands Grow has been named one of the most influential marketing books of the first decade of the 21st century by WARC Research.

Drawing on market research, the author analyzes how major brands have gained their dominance in the marketplace and concludes how younger companies can step into the same positions. Particular attention in the book is paid to various tools of loyalty programs, building discount systems and other ways to interact with customers.

The book is written in the language of professional marketers, and its main difference from other marketing literature is that it poses the question: are the usual marketing techniques and strategies so effective? Drawing on the solid research base of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science, Brian Sharp argues that many of the tenets of modern marketing theory are simply not valid. For example, he debunks the myth of the effectiveness of loyalty programs that suggest a focus on attracting repeat customers. According to the author, it is the occasional customers who bring the lion’s share of profits.

Hacking Growth: How Today’s Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success

About the Author

Sean Ellis was the first marketer of Dropbox, the popular cloud storage service. The company’s current value is estimated at over $10 billion. In 2010, he coined the term growth hacker as a definition of a marketer whose only criteria for success in his work is real, measurable growth and scaling of the company. Later Growth Hacking as a methodology was picked up by marketers from leading Silicon Valley residents, and Sean Ellis moved into the category of business angels – venture investors whose attention is sought by the most progressive startups.

What’s the Book About?

The essence of the Growth Hacking methodology is to quickly test marketing strategies or business solutions at short intervals and immediately implement those that yield visible results.

Sean Ellis describes the general principles of implementing the Growth Hacking methodology in company business processes and illustrates the steps of product development with the cases of Airbnb, Yelp, BitTorrent, Twitter, and other “unicorns” of the American market.

There is almost no water in the book, so you have to read it carefully. In Hacking Growth, you’ll find a short course on building a grocery marketing team, determining the true value of your product to consumers, and the very Aha-moment at which consumers first benefit from using it. And that’s just the basis for real business fun: identifying your growth points and experimenting wildly with marketing hypotheses!

Hacking Growth is a source of ideas for any marketer. Read how to apply cases and methods, and don’t wait – implement them immediately into your team’s work! This is how Sean Ellis’ explosive growth strategy works.

Digital Branding: A Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Strategy, Tactics and Measurement

About the Author

Author Daniel Rawls is program director at Imperial College Business School in London, where he also teaches Digital Marketing, and host of one of the most popular business podcasts.

Among the clients of Target Internet, which Daniel heads, are the BBC, Sony, Tesco, Oracle, Vodafone and other global brands.

What’s the Book About?

The phrase “A Step-by-Step Guide” in the book’s title accurately reflects its content. It is a comprehensive guide to developing online brands and digital communications with their audiences, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of digitalization: social networks, mobile applications, online media advertising, email marketing, content marketing, and marketing campaign automation.

Daniel Rawls states that everything you do online on behalf of a brand is digital branding. Consequently, every step you take online must be evaluated for brand alignment:

• A media buying strategy;
• Special projects with online publications;
• Tone of voice on social media;
• The design of the branding, the profiles on public platforms, the own media content.

If offline branding is the construction of a brand personality, then branding in digital is the possibility to develop this personality through direct communication with consumers. Just like in our personal lives we demonstrate different features of our character to different people, so brands can also have a complex personality and find common ground with different audiences. Such “ambiguous personalities” are Dr. Martens boots, which became popular with punks and factory workers at the same time. Or McDonald’s, a brand that can appeal to children through its children’s kits and coproductions with animated characters and meet the demands of today’s adults for healthier food.

The book contains a useful checklist for building a digital brand from start to finish, all sorts of metrics for different communication channels, tips on how to use technical advances in mobile marketing, augmented and virtual reality, and more.