Email marketing presents a lot of opportunities for companies to reach consumers directly and share their messages. Here, Matt Gore, CTO and CPO, Litmus discusses the importance of security measures email marketing vendors have or don’t have in place.
Data breaches are on the rise, meaning email marketing security needs to be top of mind for companies today. When evaluating email marketing vendors, you should consider three security measures to ensure your customer data is safe.
Buyers consider a lot of factors when signing up with an email marketing vendor. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) and marketers on buying teams are looking for workflow optimization, creative and analytics capabilities. On the other side of the C-suite, CSOs, CISOs and CTOs are examining only one thing: third-party vendor security.
Email marketing presents a lot of opportunities for companies to reach consumers directly and share their messages. But, for all the value consumer data can offer your company, you also have an important responsibility to protect it. As you launch email marketing campaigns, ensure your platform enacts the right security measures for data protection. And, make sure your vendor partner takes it just as seriously as you do.
Learn More: 4 Pillars of AI-Based Email Security
Email Marketing Vendor Security Matters
In a world of increasing data breaches, security should be at the top of your list when assessing vendors. A 2020 Thales Data Threat ReportOpens a new window found that nearly half of US companies have experienced a data breach. Along with liabilities stemming from data exposure, companies that have experienced a breach also underperform the market by more than 15 percentOpens a new window for the three years following.
To reduce risk and potential data breaches, you need an email marketing vendor that puts security first. Otherwise, your marketing platform could expose users to large-scale data breachesOpens a new window . Prioritizing security is how your email partner builds trust and creates a product you can continually rely upon as you develop your email marketing lists.
While there’s a lot that goes into choosing a vendor, let’s consider three specific security-specific measures you should look for as you shop for your next email marketing vendor:
Designated Security and Site Reliability Team
The infrastructure of your vendor’s platform is the basis for security. How the vendor builds their system determines how quickly they deliver emails, how reliable that delivery is, and where they include fault-tolerant systems to support their platform. These elements all work together to create a platform’s underlying security, and it’s where excellent email marketing vendors invest significantly when building their product roadmaps.
Providing the highest quality security requires time and resources. The best way for a vendor to do that is to establish a dedicated security and site reliability team. Staff dedicated solely to building and maintaining system infrastructure establishes security as a continued priority, even as the platform evolves and adds new product features. As risk grows, so should your vendors’ investment in privacy and security. Dedicated teams should cover at minimum physical security, application security, network security, vulnerability management, and endpoint protection. Additionally, a robust security program should always have comprehensive security awareness training backed by frequent audits to ensure compliance.
A Partner That Will Tell You No
Trust is an important part of email marketing: trust between you and your customers and trust between you and your partners. Your vendor should want to earn that trust and be honest and transparent about their operations. And, they should provide their knowledgeable opinions about possible ways you’re compromising your email security.
Your vendor should be your trusted ally in sending your email communicationsOpens a new window . They should know what types of content are safe to send and know when sending a link presents a security flaw. Your company has its own internal security policies that affect email. Your partner vendor should not only be aware of them but also help your team comply with them.
Learn More: Rise in Phishing Scams Emphasize a Need for AI in Email Security
Enterprise-level Trust
Your email marketing vendor should also have the systems and protections in place to back up what they’re saying. Trust is built over time, and they should show how they’ve started that trust-building process. For example, does your email vendor have security certifications like a completed SOC 2 reportOpens a new window ? Do they have safeguards to protect data according to laws and regulations like GDPR and CCPA?
Your email vendor should also give enterprise users the access and easy-to-use solutions needed to manage their own frontline security. User access management and two-step verification should be one-click operations on the IT team to afford you the best security. Other features like session timeouts and single sign-on with SAML can protect your accounts from unwanted access. Security should be customizable to exactly your needs and simple to install and manage.
Data breaches are costly and can damage your company’s reputation for years to come. Equally important is the trust your customers place in you when they give you their personal contact information. So, your security should be top of mind for your team and for every partner you work with. With the data they collect and use on your behalf, your email marketing vendor should take security seriously.Â
As you search for your next email marketing vendor, ask them if they have a dedicated security team and explore the tools and resources they provide to create enterprise-level trust. That will help tell you if they truly consider security an utmost priority.
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