Email Mistakes You Need To Avoid

According to studies, there are around 5.6 billion active email accounts today. This is perhaps one of the reasons why email is still one of the best sales and marketing tools in the age of social media.

However, everybody else is using email to communicate with each other. Many inboxes are filled with emails not only from co-workers and family but also from relatives and other marketers. How do you stand out?

One of the best ways to do so is by avoiding the following email mistakes.

Using a Misleading Subject Line

Some emails have subject lines that read along these lines: “Next Week’s Meeting” or “A Follow-up On Yesterday’s Call”. The problem with this type of subject line is that you might not have spoken with these people or are going to be in a meeting with them.

These subject lines are lazy, dishonest and should be relegated to the spam folder immediately. Email marketers are always looking for attractive subject lines that will get recipients to open the email. However, deceptive subject lines are not the right way.

Lazy Greetings

One of the best ways to get recipients to engage with you is by personalizing emails. This can be a gigantic task especially if you have a big email list. The good news is that there are many email marketing tools you can use to make personalization easy. This is why greetings like “To Whom It May Concern” are not only lazy but also a turn off.

Not Formatting Message

According to a study conducted by Litmus, 46% of email recipients open their emails on their phones. This means that if you like to write long emails with multiple paragraphs without bulleting or formatting a large number of people will close your email without even reading the rest of the body.

Let’s be honest. Nobody likes to read long emails even if they’re using their desktop or laptop. Do yourself a favour and make your message short. Best of all, format your email so that it is readable on mobile devices.

Start with a killer subject line and then introduce the reason for your email in the first paragraph. This will immediately grab the reader’s attention and prevent them from closing your email.

No Call To Action

The purpose of an email is to get receivers to do something. You want them to go to a landing page to buy a product or to subscribe to your newsletter or blog. This means that emails with a purpose should have a call to action.

Calls to action should be specific. Instead of sending another email to announce something or to make a request, tell them what you really want. For example you can include something like “click this link to subscribe to our blog”.

Using “Decorative” Font

Is your favourite font Curlz or Lucida? Do you think these fonts help you express yourself better? It’s better to save these types of fonts for personal use. If you’re sending a professional email better stick to the classics like Arial or Times New Roman.

These fonts are easier to read. For example, Times New Roman has contrasting line weights that help guide readers eyes from one line to the next. Arial has similar looking letters that gives your email a non-invasive look that is appealing to many readers.

Following-up Too Soon

Do you think waiting 24 hours for an answer is enough time? Sending a follow-up email within this time frame can be disastrous. Readers will think that you’re rude, impatient and have nothing better to do.

As a rule of the thumb, wait 7-10 business days before sending a follow-up email. This will give receivers time to answer your email or acknowledge that they were too busy to respond to your request.

Avoiding these mistakes will help you avoid miscommunication with your readers. Better communication in turn can help boost understanding of your product and service which can lead to improved sales.

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How To Perform A Cyber Security Assessment

Cyber security is an important factor in a company’s risk management strategy. It needs to be performed correctly so that it won’t leave the company vulnerable to potential threats and attacks.
When it comes to security assessment, the needs of companies vary because the needs of a multi-national corporation cannot be compared to a mid-sized business. However, all companies regardless of size will always try to minimize the amount of risk it undertakes. To do this, risk assessment is a procedure they cannot do away with.
Luckily, risk management does not have to be complicated. It can be broken down into these steps:
Come Up With A Risk Management Plan
Even if you’re good in cyber security, you can’t be everywhere at once. You need a team to back you up and help you gain insights to the total risk of your company. Businesses are usually composed of departments and all of them work differently. Therefore it is important to have a team that can work cross-functionally not only to communicate risks but also to come up with holistic analysis. A good team should have:

• Senior management to provide oversight.
• Chief information security expert (or its equivalent) to check network architecture.
• Marketing to discuss stored information.
• Product management to guarantee product safety as it undergoes development cycle.
• Human resources to provide insight to employee information.
• Manager for each significant business line to take care of all data at this level.

You want to make sure that business objectives are aligned with security goals which is why you need a cross-functional team so that you can get the desired results.
Catalog Information Asset

Interdepartmental risk management is important because it allows you to catalog all information assets. Let’s say that some things won’t escape your notice such as information your business collects, stores and transfers but the same can’t be said with different Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) used by other departments.
Departments might not also realize that they can put information at risk by using some SaaS vendors. In fact, 3
rd
party vendors are usually the source of data breach risks. There are questions you need to ask yourself to help you understand the different information collected, stored and transferred by your company. These include:

• Types of data collected by department.
• Where is it stored?
• What is the transmission process?
• Why are you collecting this information?
• Which vendors does each department use?
• Which info is accessed by vendors?
• What is the authentication process for info access?
• What devices are used by the workplace?
• What are the networks utilized to process these information?

Answers to these questions will give you a clear insight as to what your business is dealing with.
Risk Assessment
Importance of information varies in every organization because some are more critical than others. This is also the reason why not all vendors are secure. After taking a look at your information assets you should now turn your attention to the possible risks posed by vendors.

• Identify networks, system and software crucial to your business.
• Identify information that should have management confidentiality, availability and integrity.
• In case of data loss, which devices are at high risk?
• What are the chances of data breach or corruption?
• Determine the system, network and software that are vulnerable to data breach by cyber criminals.
• What is the potential financial reputation in the case of a data breach?

Risk assessment is not easy and takes time. However, it can be made easier by making a catalog out of your information assets and identifying areas that are easily accessible by cyber criminals. Therefore it is important to go over every information, data, software, network, system and device to understand risks they pose.
Risk Analysis
Risk analysis is the next step to assessment. The way information is secured is not always risk-free. Therefore it is important to consider:

• Probability of cyber criminals accessing data.
• Financial, reputational and operational impact of a data breach.

Determining the probability of impact will help you determine risk tolerance level. This way you can accept, transfer, mitigate or refuse a risk.

Come Up With Security Controls

Coming up with risk tolerance will give you ideas on security controls. They should include:

• Network segregation.
• Password protocol.
• Workforce training.
• At-rest and in-transit encryption.
• Vendor risk management program.
• Anti-malware and anti-ransom software.
• Firewall configuration.
• Multi-factor authentication.

These are just examples of some controls. The most important thing is to always remember to align business goals with security needs.

Monitor and Review Effectiveness
Cyber security is always a hot topic. Somebody will always try ways to come up with methodologies to compromise security controls. This means that businesses need to maintain a risk management program and monitor IT environments regularly for any new threats that could arise. Make sure that your risk analysis is flexible to adjust to new threats. An unbreakable IT security profile is something that can evolve with any risk that comes along the way.

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Reducing IT Costs

It’s no secret that can be expensive especially when it comes to business. However, it is the cornerstone of many businesses so it’s not really something that you can easily do away with. Aside from this, IT costs are continuing to rise as technology becomes more advanced so budgeting for it can be difficult.

Luckily, there are ways you can reduce IT costs without sacrificing the quality of your service or security. Here are some ways you can reduce IT costs for your business.

Renegotiate Existing Contracts

If you don’t ask then you won’t receive. Some business owners simply sign a contract with their vendors and then leave them as is. What they don’t realize is that could be missing out on deals, promos, price reductions and offers.

Negotiate with your vendors if you’re serious about reducing IT costs. Some benefits include:

• Get what you want.
• Receive a good deal.
• Save money.
• Win-win situation for both of you.

Consolidate

Some businesses don’t realize that they’re using multiple vendors for different needs. However, consolidating vendors, platforms and software can help you reduce IT costs meaning more spending power. It will also help improve security.

Other benefits of vendor consolidation include:

• Easier vendor management – fewer vendors mean less relationships to manage.
• Lesser freight costs – the more vendors you have the higher the freight cost since you have to pay for every fare.
• Better relationships with vendors – easier to cultivate vendor relationships. Now that you’re spending money on your chosen vendor they will value your relationship more.

Use the Cloud

The cloud has become an indispensable tool for many businesses. Using the cloud can help reduce IT costs because it can eliminate the need for expensive storage hardware kept on-site.

Cloud computing is cost effective because businesses can scale their needs as they arise. It is also efficient because businesses don’t need to worry about underlying infrastructure costs or maintenance. Best of all it gives businesses a technological advantage by providing innovative technology.

Use Open Source Software

Software can be very expensive in terms of purchasing cost and annual maintenance. Luckily there are open source software that can help you eliminate this cost. There are even software that you can customize because you have access to the source code.

Other benefits include:

• Ability to let your start small. You can start with a community version and then upgrade to commercially supported editions as your business grows and expands. If it doesn’t require support you can continue with the community version indefinitely.
• Solid security. Open source sometimes gets a bad rap in terms of security. However, this is not true because the open source community is very responsive especially when it comes to information security.
• Attracts better talent. Many industry experts believe that IT is headed towards open source. Many like to create their own projects and have the ability to interact with others to develop solutions. Having the ability to be flexible and free helps to attract better talent.
• Flexible and agile. Technology is evolving fast so you have to compete not only on flexibility but also agility. If not you’re going to lose to the competition. Open source gives you the ability to be technologically agile especially when it comes to solving problems.

Offshore Outsourcing

It’s no secret that offshore outsourcing is a good way to cut IT costs. There are many talents around the world that offer lower prices in exchange for their abilities. Outsourcing can also give your on-site talents a break. However, work should always be carried accurately and existing workflow should be maintained. This is why you have to hire outsourced talents only from reliable providers.

Use Managed IT Services With Fixed Fees

Use managed IT services that have fixed fees. IT services usually have varied fees depending on your requirements or whether you need it long or short term. However, using services with fixed fees can make your budget easier to manage.

IT services should include security service that protects your business from cyber-attacks. This should help reduce cost because maintaining an in-house cyber security team can be expensive.

IT costs can be expensive but it is essential for all types of businesses that operate on the web. The above strategies are good examples of those that don’t sacrifice quality. These tips can help you free up cash and maximize profit without compromising the IT requirements of your business.

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