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Apollo, a sales intelligence data aggregator and analytics service, alerted customers last week to a massive breach – more than 200 million contacts were exposed along with 9 BILLION data points.

What does this mean to you? Well, even if you were not directly involved with Apollo, you very well may be on the list of one of Apollo’s 500+ client firms. Much of this data is similar or identical to LinkedIn and Salesforce data.

What should you do? You may never know if you were on one of these lists, but the depth of data exposed means that scammers can come up with very targeted messages based on the information they were able to glean from the dozens of data points associated with each record.

It’s always important to keep an eye out for scam messages, but this data exposure makes it even more critical. You may well get a message that looks very legitimate and seems to “know” a great deal about you and your business. Do NOT respond to any requests for data, password changes, etc., unless you know for certain these are legitimate requests.

If you haven’t already engaged a 24/7 service to keep your systems safe from scammers, consider what Blutone Technologies has to offer. From on-going remote security to concierge computer services, we have everything you need to protect yourself and your customers. (add link here)

Whether you are reporting on a fiscal or calendar year basis, the quarter that started October 1 is critical. If you are on a calendar year, it’s the quarter that closes out and determines how your financial year will end and how 2019 will begin; if you report on a fiscal year, it’s the time period where you either build on your first quarter successes or take the opportunity to “turn it around” after a weak start.

This quarter also includes the holidays and the beginning of school holidays, which can be a major distraction or a major boon to your sales and marketing – to ensure the latter, now is the time to add details to your October through December plans:

1. How do the holidays affect your customers? If you are targeting businesses, are your key sales contacts likely to be disappear as soon as school holidays begin? If you are targeting individuals, when are they most likely to be making purchases? Often the days after Boxing Day are big online purchase opportunities.
2. Many business-to-business companies should really use Friday, December 14 as a year-end sales-closing target. After that, you start to lose people to company parties, school holidays, and travel plans. Plan to meet your quarterly or year-end goals by December 14 and anything that comes in after that is gravy!
3. If you have physical products, it’s time to check your inventory. Do you have particular items you’d really like to sell before year end, especially if your company follows the calendar year? If so, consider a flash sale or buy-one-get-one offer – but don’t wait too long or you’ll miss the holiday gift shopping window.
4. Get your marketing plans in order. Segment your audience and send the right offers to the right people at the right time. Lay out all email campaigns on one calendar and note any overlaps. How can you adjust to avoid driving opt-outs instead of sales?
5. Time for database clean up! Scrub your database – check all your bounces and “bad” phone numbers and correct slight but obvious errors (@gmai.com, misspelled last name or company name, or a one-digit-off area code). Remove inactive contacts that haven’t opened any of your email or responded to any calls lately (the time frame will vary depending on your typical purchase frequency). Data cleansing is a time-consuming but extremely important task – it’s worth hiring temporary help if you can’t dedicate staff resources.
6. Plan for system updates and maintenance. Make sure your tech marketing staffs are in synch – if you are planning a major holiday shopping push, you don’t want your systems experiencing any maintenance down-time!

Your detailed marketing plan can drive your business to success – and a secure system with no downtime will allow you to execute your plan the way you’ve envisioned. With Blutone Technologies you and your customers will be safeguarded from cyber threats with constant monitoring and investigation of any unusual activity. The holidays are “prime time” for hackers and organized attacks – makes sure your company is safe, get in touch today.