Cybersecurity 101 for Email Marketers: Protect Your Campaigns

Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools businesses have to connect with customers and make better sales. In fact, In 2024, e-mail marketing revenue was projected to surpass 9.5 billion U.S. dollars. 

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However, making sure to keep the customers and the company data safe is a challenge in itself. 

Businesses that fail at this risk losing their reputation and losing their audience. 

In this article, we’ll guide you through the measures you need to take to protect the customers and keep the company’s information safe from cybercriminals. Your audience’s trust is essential; make sure you don’t lose it. 

What are the risks? 

Given that email marketing campaigns are very effective, cybercriminals target them a lot more than other areas. These are some of the risks you need to consider. 

1. Phishing 

This is one of the most common crimes online. It happens when hackers impersonate companies and prompt people to leave their personal information on fake websites. It’s crucial to warn people about it and to prevent these attacks to keep your customers’ trust. 

1. Malware and ransomware

When a phishing attack is successful, it means that malicious software can land on your internal company system. This can cause from data breaches to a full lockdown and loss of information. 

Research found that 32% of all data breaches involved ransomware or other extortion techniques, with a median loss of $46,000 per breach. That’s why prevention is even more crucial than dealing with a successful attack. 

Enforce a strong authentication protocol

When you have strong authentication measures, it’s harder for hackers to get into your system and steal or keep information encrypted. Here are some of the most basic measures you can take: 

1. Two-factor authentication (2FA)

If you set up two forms of identity verification, most hackers can’t gain unauthorized access to your email marketing platform. The most common way to do this is through a password and then through a numeric code sent to an app or directly to your phone. 

1. Email Authentication Protocols

You can use tools like SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to make sure that your emails aren’t being spoofed. Spoofing is the previous step to phishing, and as usual, prevention is almost more important than having a policy to deal with a successful cybercrime. 

Update the software regularly 

Cyberthreats aren’t stagnant, and the reason why software needs updating often has to do with their evolution. New forms of cybercrime require new security patches, which are then launched in different updates. It’s an area to pay attention to. 

1. Keeping software updated

When you regularly update your email marketing software, you know you’re protected against the most recent cyber threats. Not everything is preventable, but most of the time security measures are there to keep the damage to a minimum. 

1. Automatic updates

It’s easy to forget to update a system. If you set up automatic updates, you know you’re always protected against threats. 

Encrypting sensitive data

If we have to mention one vital side of cybersecurity, we must choose encryption. This is the act of hiding important information behind code. This is how encryption can protect your marketing campaigns. 

1. Data encryption

If you encrypt customer information and email content, cybercriminals have a very difficult time getting their hands into your company. They basically can’t misuse private data. 

1. Robust encryption methods

You can learn how to change location on Google via VPN to avoid getting caught by cybercriminals, but more importantly, you can prevent all sorts of attacks on your company. 

Monitoring and having an incident response plan 

If you constantly review your email marketing activities and search for weird actions, you can detect an attempt at stealing your information early enough to avoid it altogether. This can be automated as well, as there are tools to do it for you. 

Incident response plan

If you have a plan on what to do when you’re threatened, things go smoothly. You can take steps to deal with the incident and recover all your data in no time. You can develop a playbook on what to do, test the plan, and review it from time to time. Here’s what it should include: 

• It clarifies roles and who’s responsible for what.
• It covers the time before the attack, during the attack, and afterward as well. 
• It aims for prevention. 

To sum up

Cybersecurity is a crucial aspect to consider when doing email marketing. It can’t be overlooked, as it has a high revenue and it’s very effective if you take advantage of it. 

When you understand the risks it has, inherent to all online activities, you can take good preventative measures to stop them before your company suffers. 

Remember, when you drive an effective marketing campaign, you earn the trust of your customers and drive up your sales. 

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