Social engineering is the use of manipulative tactics by fraudsters to convince individuals or organizations to voluntarily give up valuable private information
Modern businesses must contend with a range of cybersecurity threats, from DDoS attacks and hacking attempts to viruses and ransomware. However, according to findings published in the 2019 Trustwave Global Security Report, social engineering is now by far the dominant method for cybercriminals looking to access your data.
Indeed, the report found that 46% of all breaches in corporate settings can be attributed to successful social engineering attacks, and this rises to 60% in cloud and point-of-sale environments. As a result, learning to prevent social engineering attacks needs to be a top priority for all businesses and individuals.
[caption id="attachment_146502" align="aligncenter" width="939"] [Image Source][/caption]Put simply, social engineering is the use of manipulative tactics…
It’s not about digital or traditional, those don’t exist. It’s about integrated marketing communications. Different channels do different things and that’s the point
Lots of marketers will tell you that it’s possible to build a business using just online channels but that’s just not true and most of these people are selling tactical solutions, they may be good at what they do, but be careful. They reference examples such as Facebook, conveniently forgetting that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook were all over US national television, gaining free coverage to tens of millions of people.
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Tie both shoelaces, not just one
Integrated marketing communications is all about linking these things together, recognizing that one media channel is not going to save the day and…
How can you supercharge your analytics system to increase your acquisition?
If given extra budget, 32% of marketers would spend more on data and analytics. That’s more than those who said they would spend on search, social and additional headcount!
Modern marketers love data for so many reasons. Why?
Data helps optimize businesses from acquisition all the way through customer purchase and reengagement.
It helps them achieve high ROI Facebook and Google Ads campaigns.
It helps them compete against…
For digital marketers, it’s the actions (or lack thereof) that our customers take that speak the loudest.
The latest neuroscience research is crystal clear: it’s our emotions, not our intellect, that drives our decisions. As Nobel Prize-winning behavioral economist Daniel’s Kahneman’s characterized in his book, ‘Thinking Fast and Slow,’ the intuitive parts of our brains work super fast, like on ‘autopilot’, while our reflective frontal lobes plod along methodically, like a ‘pilot’.
For digital marketers, of course, it’s the actions (or lack thereof) that our customers take that speak the loudest. So we need ‘full spectrum’ tools — ones that capture, analyze and report on everything from affect to action.
The good news is, with the latest tech, we can now scientifically measure whether or not our ‘stimuli’ (our marketing creative, user experience designs, etc.) are generating both the intended effect and affect.
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I'm sorry to break it to you, but building personas will probably take twice as long as you think it will. Now's the time to create accurate personas to reap the rewards from doing so.
When thinking about personas, what comes to mind? It's likely you'll think of persona cards like the one below. But there is a lot of work involved to get to that stage - there's no point simply creating persona cards based on who you think your customers are.
Many may think it's a good idea to have a quick look at data or produce them on the assumptions of every time they've dealt with customers, but by conducting persona research you can truly understand who your customers are.
Personalization is also becoming more important, personas help you to deliver content, services, and products to relevant and targeted customers and prospects. Here's why it's worth the time and effort.
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Even in a world where business reviews no longer contribute to aggregate star ratings in SERPs, there are plenty of reasons to include them on your website.
In mid-September, Google made a significant change to the way it displays business websites in SERPs. Prior to the update, first and third-party reviews on a business website could have structured markup applied to them that would result in the average review rating appearing alongside the web page in Google SERPs, like so:
Since Google’s update, which …
To be successful at content marketing, your first task is to create a content marketing strategy.
Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to gain more leads and customers. But there's one problem: content marketing is a lot of work.
For example, consider a study by Zazzle Media. In this study, 60% of companies say they find it difficult to produce content consistently while 65% find it hard to produce engaging content.
There's a solution though. To be successful at content marketing, your first task is to create a content marketing strategy.
In your content marketing strategy, you have details such as:
Marketing goals
Ideal audience
Marketing channels
Content frequency
How to…
Like it or not, at one point or another you’ll probably have to deal with a negative customer comment that’s been published online
Did you know, as many as 94% of customers say that a negative review convinced them not to do business with a brand?
We can’t underestimate the importance of online reputation management.
Like it or not, at one point or another you’ll probably have to deal with a negative customer comment that’s been published online. This means you need to learn how to respond to such criticism. After all, it’s vital you react to these comments in a timely and thought-out manner, as this is the only way you can adequately protect your online reputation.
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Managing your own social media accounts is one thing, but you need to pay attention to the social media presence of others as well
Social media marketing is sometimes overlooked by B2B companies. However, even when you’re targeting huge companies in your marketing efforts, it's important to remember that the decisions are made by people, people who - just like everyone else - use social media. Statistics say that 84% of C- and VP-level buyers check social media before making a purchasing decision.
Social media for B2B companies can be a communication channel, a platform for raising brand awareness and even a source of leads. Managing your own social media accounts is one thing, but you need to pay attention to the social media presence of others as well. From your audience to your competitors, there are a lot of insights you can get from monitoring social media.
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B2B companies…
Social media competition is fierce and your budget is limited – so you need to make the most of your time and resources in order to make sure your efforts are actually paying off
When it comes to social media marketing, you need all the help you can get to stand out and get results. The competition is fierce and your budget is limited, so you need to make the most of your time and resources in order to make ensure your efforts are paying off.
You need to find out what strategies actually work.
Where your audience is online.
What your audience actually wants to hear from you.
And so, so much more. You can do much of this with one simple "trick": leveraging UTM tracking links.
In this blog post, I’m going to show you how to use UTM tracking links on social media to help boost your results.
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