Lauren Smith
Lauren is passionate about teaching kids entrepreneurship skills with Kids Venture Box
An investigation by Forbes revealed that the year-on-year increase in customer data breaches and cyberattacks amounted to 15.1% in 2021. 44% of...
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An investigation by Forbes revealed that the year-on-year increase in customer data breaches and cyberattacks amounted to 15.1% in 2021. 44% of the surveyed executives stated they were exposed to various risks at the moment of study. It is no wonder that more and more consumers are questioning their willingness to share their data with companies they contact and wish to choose an Alleviating Privacy and Security.
As of 2022, GDPR, PDPA, and DPA provisions have become much stricter for violators and Google is planning to stop firms from using third-party data. In this situation, your brand's capability to protect its clients' personal data is a major factor defining your marketing success. In this article, we will consider 3 key ways to alleviate the privacy concerns of your target audiences.
Discussing your strategy is widely applied by marketing specialists in many spheres. Some companies think the open discussion of their internal processes steals away from the ' magic experience' created by their products and services. This effect is similar to endless reality TV shows producing ' stars' from nobodies within a single season. The results seem bland due to the perceived lack of hard labor and associated difficulties.
However, prospective customers may not immediately grant you 100% of their trust (and they shouldn't do this anyway). If you attempt to ' hide' the things you are doing ' under the hood', you are effectively asking them to give you their sensitive data and believe that a total stranger, with zero credibility, will treat it properly, and keep it safe and secure.
By openly discussing your data security strategies, you achieve some small victories:
Your simple explanations allow readers to understand the intricacies of this process better. This reduces their fears associated with the unknown and questions they might have about what you do with their data.
The previous step allows you to create a popular ' checklist table' of security strategies where you can put green Check Mark symbols against your strong points and red Cross Mark symbols against those of your competitors. This can also show why using you is much better than using your competitors.
You have nothing to hide and nothing to prove. Since you are 100% certain that you made the best possible decisions in cybersecurity, you can openly discuss why you consider them optimal and how you have implemented them.
As new legislative provisions related to customer data and privacy become stricter, even industry leaders like Google become more transparent in their data handling policies. In addition to the first recommendation, this approach includes several strategic choices associated with the types of information collected and stored by the company.
Here are some questions asked by any consulting expert in this sphere:
The main idea is simple. Most companies seek to collect as much customer information as possible, a viable strategy in the past for such moguls as Google. However, most modern firms lack the resources to use this big data for personalization purposes or sell it to third parties for profit. At the same time, they have to store this information on their servers and are directly responsible for its protection. Does this look like a major source of sunk costs and reputational risks?
Here is a better strategy that will help you put customer data to work and avoid the earlier discussed threats:
Before you collect your customer's data, you should identify how you will use it. A marketing strategy will provide a list of information items you will need to stimulate future conversions. You can also delete some non-important data, creating additional risks instead of value. This will also help to streamline the data you receive so that you don't have to dig for the information you require.
Like in the Google example earlier, make sure that every customer can browse through the information you store and how you plan to use it.
Any consumer needs to be able to delete all shared data with several clicks. This knowledge creates a sense of control over this information and ensures that all consumer relationships are voluntary and based on mutual consent.
Not being Google or Apple has several additional disadvantages for your company, including lower trust in your brand. As noted earlier, few people will share their information with you before they know your organization more intimately. Unfortunately, you must get their data first to establish this rapport and mutual trust. But how do you convince people to confide in you before they know you?
When you are looking for a new job, a letter of recommendation from a well-known brand like your past employer can easily unlock many lucrative vacations and open many career doors. Partnering with top-notch cybersecurity companies can do the same thing for your brand. Proving your partnership with visitors can be easy by placing the external company's badge/logo on your website. These can be instantly recognizable to customers, which helps build trust with your brand from the start.
This also allows you to transfer some risks to an external provider with substantial knowledge and expertise in data storage and protection. In the worst-case scenario, they will be responsible for any security breaches and will deal with the consequences.
Here are some ways you can use such external providers:
Recommendations from industry experts can help you develop superior systems for storing and protecting consumer data.
Regular inspections will help you strengthen your cybersecurity. This instrument can also be used as credentials demonstrating your perceived trustworthiness.
Over the coming years, more legislations have the potential to restrict the data you can collect from visitors and protect their data even further. But, with a strategy in mind and open discussion about your strategy, your business can still thrive and build trust with your customers. Giving them control of what you can and can't collect and offering the option to delete all saved data can be especially reassuring and help customers feel more confident in working with you. In addition, when you streamline your data collection, you can easily prevent any potential breaches that may happen with any legislation revisions.
Partnering with external cyber security firms is also important to build customer trust. But can also help your small business with the expertise you may be lacking; plus, they can handle security strategies and audits. Overall, alleviating your customer's concerns over security can be easily handled when employing these tips!