SME News Q4 2018

SME NEWS / Q4 2018 5 NEWS , Constant Contact, an Endurance Interna- tional Group (NAS- DAQ: EIGI) company and leader in small business marketing solutions, is giving small business online re- tailers a timely boost with its new integration for Shopify. With e-com- merce sales expected to increase 17 to 22% this holiday season, potentially reaching $134 billion*, this integration provides a solution for small businesses to market their online stores during what, for many, can be the most lucrative time of year. When Shopify merchants connect their online store to their Constant Contact account, customers and products will automatically be synced to their account, making it easy to create and send custom- ized email messages featuring specific products and promotions for targeted customer segments. Merchants can also send branded automated emails to customers who have added items to their shopping cart but have not yet completed their purchase. “Advances in affordable digital marketing continue to narrow the marketing gap between small busi- ness merchants and their power- house competitors,” said Jonathan Kateman, general manager of Constant Contact. “The Constant Contact integration for Shopify is designed to make it effortless for a small business to leverage cus- tomer segmentation and automat- ed email marketing campaigns, such as abandoned shopping cart reminders, that can have a direct impact on sales. The ability to send targeted messaging at just the right time is essential for smaller retail- ers to capture their fair share of the consumer holiday spend.” The integration gives small busi- nesses access to: • Branded Abandoned Cart Emails: Shopify merchants can capture lost sales by automatically sending out branded emails to customers who didn’t complete their pur- chase. • Segmented Contact Lists: Us- ers’ contacts from Shopify are automatically imported to their Constant Contact account. Users can target pre-defined lists including repeat custom- ers, lapsed customers, and prospects, enabling them to send the right message to the right audience. • Drag-and-Drop Email Con- tent: Shopify users can easily drag and drop their Shopify products, as well as coupons, into their emails. • Sales Reporting: Reporting feature shows the correlation between when an email was sent and Shopify sales, giving users an idea of how emails are impacting revenue. Users can also see revenue gen- erated by a specific Shopify product email block. Constant Contact customer Yvonne Hedeker, co-founder and CEO of Light Health Research, has benefited from the efficiency this integration provides. “If you’re an entrepreneur, you need to have as much support lined up as you can, both inside and outside your busi- ness, and we would not have half the customers we have now were it not for our email campaigns,” said Hedeker. “Being able to use Con- stant Contact and Shopify together in this way saves us time. It has also been instrumental in helping us send meaningful and relevant content to our customers, which in turn, has resulted in a huge number of referrals.” Constant Contact Launches an Integration for Shopify from becoming widespread in the UK: • 46% of UK businesses allow staff to use personal devices for regular work activities • 68% of these are in the In- formation, Communications or Utility sectors • 64% of these are in the Pro- fessional, Scientific or Tech- nical services sectors • This means businesses like SciTech start-ups are espe- cially vulnerable to the risks posed by BYOD. • In 2017, medium business- es across the UK spent an average of £15,500 on cy- bersecurity. Investment in security measures varied depending on size and sec- tor. • The Information, Commu- nication or Utility sectors invested an average of £19,500 • Professional, Scientific or Technical saw an average investment of £5,220 • Retail and Wholesale had an average investment of £2,430 • The Education, Health and Social Care sectors invested an average of £1,810 • Businesses in the Food and Hospitality sectors invested just £620 on average The Most Common Threats to Data Common breaches noted in the 2017 security survey included: • Fraudulent e-mails (72%) • Viruses, spyware and mal- ware (33%) • People impersonating the business in e-mails or online (27%) • Ransomware (17%) How are SMEs Improving Data Protection? With the flexible office trend on the rise, how are companies – especially SMEs – protecting their data? The study tells us that 58% of businesses have sought infor- mation or advice on cybersecu- rity threats in the past year. This information was obtained mostly from external consultants. More businesses are spending money on their data protection and security needs, with medium enterprises leading the trend at 87%. These are good indications that more businesses are taking data protection seriously. It’s essential for SME owners to ensure all data protection policies in the workplace are up to date, and to foster a culture of aware- ness and good practices. Ex- amples of common precautions might include: • Putting formal security pol- icies and documentation in place • Using regularly updated passwords, encryption or biometrics • Restricting work activity to secure devices only • Installing trustworthy securi- ty apps • Configuring anti-theft set- tings and regularly updating patches across all devices • Using features like remote data erasing, geo-location or multi-factor authentication for devices that could quick- ly go missing or be stolen • Limiting the information shared through remote de- vices With the right provider, SMEs can enjoy all the benefits of a flexible workspace setup, without compromising their security and peace of mind. Operators provide IT assistance and advice with pri- vacy, speed and backup options all being high priorities. Some operators offer this as a bolt-on service, while others include it in their full agreement. Danny Babington, Senior Oper- ator Relationships Manager at Instant Offices says, “Operators are constantly trying to improve security for their cli- ents. Privacy has become such a talking point of late, and every provider needs to make certain that IT and infrastructure is of the highest calibre to make sure they are not falling behind the pack – but most vitally, putting the client’s needs for privacy at the forefront of everything they do. It’s a high- ly competitive market, and this is the most vital one that all opera- tors need to get right.”