How Is Data Protection Correlated To Your Company’s Marketing

Many companies nowadays opt for remote work and cloud services for daily processes going up. Both things mean that confidential data are being made accessible online, too. Even though this is an important upgrade in terms of communications and flexibility, if data protection is not proper, data breaches can occur and damage your company's reputation.  

According to CISO’s Benchmark Report, the number of businesses that suffer reputational damage due to data breaches has gone up from 26% to 33% over the 3 years. Data breaches can undermine a company’s marketing efforts.  

That is why it is especially important to talk about data security and marketing correlation. 

Online risks 

Online channels became the main advertising stage for companies. Every online interaction with customer collects their data to use for further marketing and remarketing purposes. This mechanism is built on trust – customers are ready to share their data with the brands they trust to get a personalized experience. The brand is processing and storing classified information of their customers and they are therefore responsible for this confidential data safety. 

Data breaches may compromise the safety of consumer data and affect further customer confidence, and brand value. Data losses cost companies financially and reputationally. Not only can a company lose money, but customers can be unwilling to use their services in the future.    

Moreover, with so many businesses that use customer data and personal information, customers see it as intolerable that a company would even risk exposure to their information.     

How to prevent online data breaches 

Marketing sectors of companies and marketing agencies must work closely with the IT and security departments. Outsourcing IT security to experienced IT security companies is an even better option since these organizations are always up to date with any online threats. 

Email marketing and data security 

Email marketing is proving itself as one of the most converting marketing activities, especially important for communication with active customers, but also for acquiring leads. However, email protection is very important. Email communication, if it is not properly filtered and secured, presents another potential security problem for businesses. For many companies, emails are a primary channel for both external and internal communication. They can contain sensitive data and can be targeted by hackers.  

To prevent this, marketing teams must collaborate with IT security to filter mailboxes and encrypt emails.   

Emails that are not encrypted, allow hackers to access and view files, contact phone numbers, address information, and more. Hackers can also use emails as malware to spread viruses to a company’s network.   

The connection between brand promotion and data safety 

Marketing nowadays cannot be focused solely on getting sales leads. Brand reputation is an important part of marketing efforts, especially when it comes to customers’ trust. The modern customer is aware of the frequency of cyber incidents. 

That is why security culture must be embedded within all company departments and promoted to customers to build their trust. Customer today wants to know that their data is in safe hands and the company must present itself as a high-security aware one in order to get their trust. 

Communication strategies and proactive crisis management  

Yet another modern marketing role related to data security is based on proactive planning and efficient communication strategy. No matter how strong your IT security might be, online threats might harm you and you must have a crisis communication strategy prepared. 

Disaster communication plans should be highly efficient and timely, to minimize the damage to a company’s reputation and to recover customers’ loyalty. 

These disaster plans are not only crucial for timely and effective response, but they can also provide the stakeholders with a piece of mind, while at the same time minimizing the potential damage that can be done to a brand's reputation. 

Secure Advertising tracking technologies  

Marketing teams are working on staying up to date with the results of each campaign – from tracking site visitors, and returning visitors, to tracking email campaigns and conversions.  

The tools measuring these data should be able to provide data visibility, management, and reporting, while IT security must take care of the security of collected data. 

Marketing has become a challenging industry that must work closely with IT security to minimize the risks of compromising a brand's reputation.