Economies are much more than just the brick-and-mortar stores of the past. So many aspects of modern business practice are filtered, outsourced, and managed by digital technologies nowadays. As a result, different departments and tasks get rolled together into an interlocking grid of information that is generally inseparable from the computer software and hardware that maintains them.
Marketing is just one of those aspects of business that can be included in such a category. Being that marketing teams and their strategies are very dependent on the information that is collected through digital means, it is important to consider how those mediums and systems relate to each other.
Here are ways in which the parallel growth of digital marketing and cybersecurity threats interact.
The intercession of Digital Marketing and Cybersecurity
It would be a challenge to find a company today that does not have at least some type of online presence. The benefits that are associated with the use of various marketing tools, apps, and channels means that it is important to consider how the intersection of these two mediums can potentially create cyber security risks.
When considering just how many digital platforms are and may be connected to internal networks and services it can quickly become clear how a data breach from a phishing scam in even one of those forms could means disaster for the others. There is no sugar coating a data breach. Personal information is compromised, brands and reputations are damaged, and there can even be legal consequences as a result.
Such factors clearly reinforce the necessity of a company to establish sound cyber security techniques if any aspect of marketing has taken a digital format.
So much business is handled and maintained online today, and as such, much of what can be learned about customers has to do with what is collected from online movements. The information collected contributes to many different types of valuable insights that can help to clarify and refine a marketing strategy. That data is a wonderful way for marketing teams to consider the effectiveness, and desire of a demographic they may be trying to reach.
The insights gathered require not just digital presence and platforms but the intelligence to understand and reformulate that information into effective strategies for business. However, in the same way that such information is valuable to companies it can be equally and sometimes more so for cyber criminals. These crimes are rampant for a reason: they are accessible and profitable. The consequences of not taking steps to mitigate against those threats can be costly in multiple ways.
The following are some ways in which cyber security and digital marketing overlap to create the necessity of dual consideration.
Branding
Companies and the individuals within them work hard to build their products or services into reputable, desirable brands. As long and hard a process as that may be to establish a brand, the opposite is true of how easily it can be to have a brand’s reputation destroyed. Intentional or accidental, customer data that is put at risk all has the same effect: loss of trust.
One of the most important ways to help protect against such damage is to take the necessary steps to ensure that all employees are doing their best to follow protocols that maintain the safety of customers and thus the company.
Campaign Software and Information
No matter the digital marketing software maintained; each have a link to troves of personal information that is supposed to be kept confidential. Since those systems are interconnected to financial departments and even private information, the threat of those items being stolen and used in cyber bullying or phishing scams is very real.
While most of those providers and systems should have their own security measures, those companies have done their best to manage things from the point of view of their own interests and thus will be legally protected in their own ways. But those systems can be relied upon as a means by which to ensure that data breaches will not occur in the transfer processes while being used for individual businesses.
Notable Benefits to Effective Cybersecurity
Being that so much of the economy and the businesses that make it up are all sharing the same systems and goals, it means that there are plenty of examples of what to do and what not to do as a successful, trustworthy business.
Effective use of cyber security results in a competitive advantage over other businesses, the protection of intellectual property, compliance with state and federal regulations, and huge cost savings.
