Cybersecurity has grown into a necessity, with the rate of cyber-attacks rising as time goes on. Email Cybersecurity is no different. After all, some Marketing Emails do contain sensitive information. Thus, Email Marketers need to learn about cybersecurity and keep data secure.
Some marketers focus on channels such as websites and Landing Pages. Otherwise, they might handle content creation, blog posts, and Social Media Marketing campaigns. However, Digital Marketers can always count on Email Campaigns.
Email Marketers have a lot to handle, as they must search for qualified leads. Then, they must convert leads into loyal customers with the right Call-to-Action.
Also, as a marketing channel, email is faster than most, especially with email marketing automation tools. As a result, emails can bring in more loyal subscribers, but it has risks.
Quick Tips For Email Marketers About Cybersecurity
For many marketers, email is an effective communication channel with both current customers and prospects! However, Verizon’s 2019 Data Breach report highlighted that 94% of malware gets delivered via email. Thus, email is a source of vulnerability since it provides attackers with a potential pathway into your systems and data.
As an email marketer, you should guarantee the security and safety of your email environment. Adopting email security best practices will help you create an extra protection layer. Many experienced email users know to look out for suspicious subject lines and email addresses.
For instance, Virtual Private Networks are another way to safeguard your marketing emails. Such networks can keep hackers and Internet Service Providers from looking at your Internet activity. Thus, VPNs can keep unauthorized individuals from finding and intercepting your emails.
So, here are other ways you can protect your mail system and data from attacks:
Methods for Protecting Your Marketing Emails
Encrypt Emails
Marketers often send emails containing sensitive customer information. Such information includes:
- phone numbers,
- social security numbers,
- credit card information, and
- home addresses.
Such information is critical in reaching out to email recipients. Marketing Emails contain details that are necessary for a smooth customer journey. Thus, using encryption for all your emails with business contacts and customers goes a long way in securing sensitive data.
Encrypting your emails means they’ll be unreadable to everybody else apart from the intended recipient. It also guards against email spoofing or unauthorized recipients forwarding emails to other recipients.
Apply Email Authentication Protocols
Email Marketers must beef up their cybersecurity with email authentication standards or protocols. These can secure your marketing emails while helping recipients become more confident. So, the protocols can make your marketing emails more secure by:
- enhancing your emails’ security;
- allowing you to control how their domain is being used; and
- providing a comprehensive look at cyber-attackers.
As a result, you reduce the risk of your emails becoming spam, spoofing, or phishing victims. Here are the top email authentication protocols you can rely on:
- Sender Policy Framework. With this email authentication standard, a domain owner can indicate servers that send messages exclusively to the domain. So, hackers won’t be able to send emails through your company servers.
- DKIM or DomainKeys Identified Mail. With this, recipients can cryptographically authenticate the email. So, they can differentiate your business’ emails from spam.
- DMARC. Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance lets ISPs avoid domain-based email scams. As a result, fraudulent activity is blocked before it can even reach recipients’ inboxes!
Validate Your Email List
Having a long mailing list is the bread and butter of email marketing. However, it’s best to remember that it’s never about the size of an email list but its quality. Verifying your email list regularly ensures that whoever is on it are customers who signed up.
In addition, inactive accounts are often the target of hackers. As a result, hackers use the accounts as the base of operation to perpetrate attacks.
While juggling multiple tasks, it’s easy to overlook email validation. However, verifying your email list is essential to campaign deliverability and cybersecurity. Verifying email lists means checking for disposable emails to eliminate common threats, including spear phishing attacks.
Implement Firewalls
Enabling firewalls and other enterprise malware protection tools can help to prevent attacks perpetrated via email. Enterprise-level email protection solutions minimize the probability of human error compromising your organization’s email marketing efforts. They also help you to detect threats and prevent attacks.
When shopping for an enterprise email security solution, ensure that whatever you choose supports DMARC, DKIM, and SPF. Upon combining these security protocols, it’s pretty easy to combat spoofing. Thus, it prevents all types of email-borne threats.
Fortunately, there are dozens of accessible or affordable cybersecurity tools Email Marketers can leverage to secure your email marketing environment. For example, email firewalls filter emails with malware. On the other hand, antivirus software scans emails for worms, Trojan horses, and viruses before downloading anything.
Cybersecurity Awareness
Cyberattacks have become so prevalent that they’re a matter of when and not if. As a result, companies should always prepare for situations such as ransomware attacks.
There’s no better way to accomplish that than having your Email Marketing team undertake regular cybersecurity training. Moreover, employees at all levels need such training. Marketing teams, in particular, need training because they are often a company’s first point of contact.
Your marketing team must understand the dangers posed by email-perpetrated threats and how to respond to these threats. As a result of cybersecurity training, it will be easy to keep attackers at bay.
For instance, you won’t have to worry when attackers target your marketing team via phishing emails. Your Email Marketing team will know how to act in a manner that doesn’t compromise your data security. For instance, your team of trained Email Marketers will know which emails to flag and forward to the IT department! As a result, the mail is scanned for potential threats.
Therefore, practical cybersecurity training and awareness could be the difference between an appropriately managed threat and a breach. Training should focus on teaching all employees to identify and flag malicious emails. In doing so, this prevents them from bringing harm to your company and its customers.
In addition, cybersecurity awareness shouldn’t be a one-off exercise but an ongoing endeavor. Why? Because email scam tactics continuously evolve.
Implement a Password Management Solution
Cyber-attacks occur because hackers find and take advantage of vulnerabilities in your business’ critical infrastructure. For instance, cyber-attacks often happen because email marketers and target customers fail to secure their accounts with complicated passwords.
Of course, all email users should have a habit of creating and remembering complex passwords. But for some individuals, password management tools come in handy because they help create sufficiently complex and secure passwords.
Only authorized individuals will access business emails with such a tool in place. So, as a result, your customers won’t have to worry about their email accounts being hacked or compromised. Not only that, they won’t have to worry about their accounts being used to perpetrate cyber attacks.
Create a Cybersecurity Plan
As a marketer, the greatest mistake you can make is to think that cybersecurity is the role of the IT department. It’s best to remember that most attacks arise from email-based threats.
Vulnerabilities can occur in more than one area. Hence, every company greatly needs a comprehensive and well-thought-out cybersecurity plan. In addition, critical infrastructure for cybersecurity can also include endpoint security.
The plan should account for email-borne threats and include policies, recommendations, guidelines, and requirements regarding email communications. You may also consider using a VPN.
As part of your organization’s cybersecurity plan, the marketing and IT teams should collaborate to secure your email marketing environment.
Final Words
Email marketing is a fantastic tool that businesses can leverage to reach the target audience. Nonetheless, marketers should be smart and adopt cybersecurity practices in email marketing. There are several ways to safeguard your business against cybersecurity threats.
These Email Marketing Cybersecurity measures include:
- email encryption;
- Mailing List verification;
- enabling firewalls;
- providing Cybersecurity Awareness training;
- utilizing Password Management solutions; and
- creating a comprehensive cybersecurity plan.
These practices will protect them from attacks and minimize data breach risks. Also, it will prevent email clients from marking out the marketing emails as containing possible threats or being suspicious.
Businesses need intelligent practices that safeguard their data from malicious cyber-attackers. There are plenty of security measures that Email Marketers can follow. So, when you send your marketing emails, you can rest assured that no cyber-attacks can compromise your business.
