Data breaches can cost businesses thousands and, in some cases, may even result in legal action. In this article, we’ll share tips for keeping your website data breach free.
A data breach can be catastrophic for a business or an individual and can lead to a loss of reputation, a loss of revenue, and even legal action depending on the extent of the issues.
In this article, we’ll explain what a data breach is, including when a company gets a GDPR data breach notification, and how to keep your website data breach free.
What is a Data Breach?
In 2016, the European Union adopted the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation which was introduced to better regulate the collation, handling, storage, and sharing of personal data.
A data breach occurs when the integrity of the data held is compromised and, therefore, falls into the wrong hands or is at risk of doing so. Breaches can occur accidentally or through deliberate cyber-attacks and can mean that private information, including financial and medical details, may be distributed without consent.
In the case of a data breach due to cybercrime, the data holding company may be ‘held to ransom by attackers who will threaten to release the data unless a financial payment is made.
Since the introduction of GDPR, data controllers are required, by law, to report any data breach to the supervisory authority within 72 hours or face severe penalties – this is known as a GDPR notification.
Anybody who collates and stores data has a responsibility to keep it safe and, in this section, we’ll run through ways in which you can do just that:
Use of High-Quality Firewalls
First and foremost, you need to make sure that you have a high-quality and comprehensive firewall in place to protect the data that you’re holding. This should be standard for any company and is the first defense against cybercrime.
Multiple Authentications
Many businesses make the mistake of still only requiring employees to use a simple password in order to access systems. This is inadequate when all employees are using company equipment and working from the same office – but is so much more dangerous when employees are working remotely some of the time.
To protect data, it’s vital that you introduce two-step authentication – i.e. a password and a code sent by text or, a password plus a fingerprint, in order to prevent data breaches.
Secure Sockets Layer
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) adds another layer of protection to your website. This essentially encrypts data and information when it’s in transit, preventing unauthorized people from accessing and reading it.
Regular Security Audits
Get into the habit of having regular security audits performed on your system to make sure that all is well. By doing this regularly, you have a much better chance of catching any problems early.
In 2022, we all use more devices than ever before and that includes employees. Plugging different devices into computers and laptops can significantly increase the risk of data breaches.
Therefore, it’s a good idea to install malware that will scan each device before allowing use.
Education and GDPR Training
Web security should be the responsibility of each and every employee and, as such, investing in proper education and training is vital in giving employees ownership of data protection and keeping your systems safe.
Updating Software and Plugins
Many people are guilty of installing software and plugins and then forgetting about them. In reality, these need to be updated regularly in order to be effective and secure. Hackers and bots are able to make light work of breaching outdated software, so this is a really good habit to get into.
Use Separate Devices for Work and Personal Matters
We spend a huge amount of time online both at work and in our spare time, and problems can occur when employees are using the same device for both.
While there may not be any significant issues with employees downloading movies and other content on their own devices in their own time, these can introduce viruses and other nasties into work devices which can quickly compromise the data held.
Banning Social Media on Work Devices
It’s incredibly common for employees to log onto their Facebook or Instagram page during their lunch break or downtime but, as with downloads, this can be bad news for work systems.
While it may seem a bit ‘big brother’ to ban access to social media on work computers, it’s a good idea to put security settings in place to limit the risk of data breaches.
Backup your backup
Information and data should be backed up on a very regular basis as we all know, however, this isn’t always enough. Adding an extra backup layer is a great way of making sure that, should a breach occur, your IT personnel will be able to identify where and when the issue happened and get to work on minimizing the damage.
Don’t cut corners when it comes to cyber security…
When thinking about your website security, think of your website address as an actual physical address and the web host as the property’s plot. Then think about the lengths that you would go to, to protect that property and everything inside it. This is exactly what you need to be doing to keep your website and the data stored within it secure. By following the tips in this article, it is possible to keep yours and your customers’ data locked up tight and avoid reputational loss and possible legal action.
In the past few years, online reviews have played an important role in how consumers decide where to shop, what to buy, and who to trust. These reviews and ratings serve as the third-party confirmation that will influence the purchasing decision of many consumers who do not want to take any risks when it comes to the quality of goods and services they are getting.
This has left an impact on companies around the world as they fight to protect their online reputation and that of their business. If a company is not careful, its brand can easily be tarnished by a few false claims made against it on review sites. To keep companies from being damaged by negative feedback on the Internet, online reputation management strategies must be implemented.
In this article, we will talk about online reputation management and how it works to protect a company’s name online through social media and review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor.
The Power of Online Reviews
These days, it seems like everyone is reading online reviews before making a purchase. And it makes sense! After all, why would you buy something yet unseen when you can easily find out what other people think about it?
Yes, the sad truth is that online reviews can either make or break a company. They not only give potential customers an idea of how well products work, but they also influence the buying decisions of others.
In fact, one study found that 98% of shoppers read product reviews before purchasing anything on the internet! Needless to say, this is more than enough reason for companies to worry about their online reputation.
And now, more than ever, there are a number of ways for businesses to help manage their reputation and monitor their reviews in order to keep them positive. One way companies do this is by hiring customer service professionals who are dedicated to responding quickly and appropriately whenever they receive complaints or inquiries from consumers via social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.
But what’s with this trust issue that online consumers need to know what others have to say about a certain product first before trying it?
The Internet’s Trust Issue
A recent study shows that only 42% of people trust the internet, and that number has been on the decline since 2012. Why is this?
Well, there are a few reasons. The first is that we’re constantly bombarded with information, and it’s hard to know what to believe. The second is that we’re seeing more and more instances of fake news and hoaxes. And the third is that we’re becoming more aware of data breaches, cybercrime, and other serious incidents that can affect a company in ways we can’t imagine, such as issues with Mac terminal permission denied resulting in becoming less efficient and unproductive.
We see big companies like Target getting hacked, bank accounts getting compromised, or personal info being sold on the dark web. These things might not affect us directly right now, but they show us how vulnerable we can be when sharing so much online.
It’s not surprising why, as consumers search for products and services online before making a purchase decision, many turn to reviews for guidance as well as ratings from other shoppers.
According to statistics, about seventy-seven percent of people say that customer reviews influence their decision when shopping online; eighty-five percent say they read customer reviews in order to make an informed purchase decision; and ninety-eight percent have found customer reviews helpful at some point in their purchase journey.
The Impact of Online Reviews on Businesses
Businesses need to be proactive in monitoring what is being said about them online. This is because online reviews can have a significant impact on a consumer’s decision-making process.
Say you are looking for a new restaurant or you are considering buying an item from an online retailer, what you read in the reviews might influence your final decision. Right?
The point is not to scare businesses but rather to illustrate that they should stay up-to-date with their online reputation and monitor what people are saying about them before the damage becomes irreparable.
As a business owner, what should you do when you get an unfavorable review?
If you get a negative review, the first thing you should do is take a deep breath. It can be tempting to respond immediately, but it’s important to keep a level head. Once you’ve calmed down, reach out to the customer privately and try to resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work, consider responding publicly. But be sure to keep it professional! Finally, keep monitoring your online reputation and proactively managing it. We will share more ways to handle these reviews below, though.
Harnessing the Power of Online Reviews
As a business owner, it’s important to understand how online reviews can impact your bottom line. If your business has negative reviews, that could be costing you sales.
One study found that for every one-star increase in review rating, revenue increased by 5%. So, what should you do if your business has negative reviews?
There are two possible solutions:
Reach out to unhappy customers and ask them for a new review.
Improve the quality of service you provide and wait for the happy customers to post their own reviews.
All this comes to proper online reputation management. So, how do you effectively and professionally manage your online reputation?
Some Helpful Online Reputation Management Strategies You Can Use to Protect Your Brand
Simply put, online reputation management (ORM) is the process of controlling what shows up when someone Googles your business. This means that to be successful in business, you need more than just good products and services – you also need a solid reputation as well.
When your reputation is damaged by slanderous comments or unfair allegations, however, it can become difficult to continue to do business. If you want to find effective online reputation management strategies that will help protect your brand, here are some online reputation management strategies that can give you the peace of mind you deserve.
1. Build Trust
When it comes to online reputation management, one of the most important things you can do is build trust with your audience. But how do you do that?
Here are some strategies you can use to build and maintain trust:
Get Personal: Share stories from personal life or thoughts on current events. Show people who you really are and share things they will find interesting.
Answer Questions: Be honest when answering questions about your brand and create an environment where others feel comfortable asking questions.
Use Humor: A little humor goes a long way in building trust! Share amusing photos or videos of yourself at work. We all have our bad days, but showing a lighter side helps break down barriers.
Respond Quickly: When people have questions or complaints, respond quickly so they know you’re listening and take their comments seriously.
Be Kind: One thing we should all strive for is kindness in everything we do.
2. Monitor for Negative Reviews
One of the most important online reputation management strategies is monitoring for negative reviews. You can do this by setting up Google Alerts for your brand name and key terms related to your business. This will help you stay on top of any negative press so you can address it quickly.
It’s also a good idea to set up alerts with websites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Amazon, and more. Additionally, you should keep an eye out for bad press through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter.
Sometimes, people also post negative reviews or bad experiences they had with your company in public forums such as these. So, even if there isn’t a review that mentions your company specifically, if it’s in public view then it could have an impact on your brand overall.
3. Don’t Fret Over What You Cannot Control
No matter how great your product or service is, there will always be people who are unhappy with it. And in the age of the internet, those people can make their voices heard loud and clear. But don’t fret – there are things you can do to protect your brand’s reputation online.
Start by taking a deep breath and accepting that there’s nothing you can do about what’s out there on the web. Now, find out where they’re talking about you. Figure out what they’re saying (or better yet, what they’re not saying). Look for gaps in feedback that may indicate a need for some additional explanation or elaboration on an issue related to your company’s products or services.
If one customer had a negative experience with one of your employees, but others were satisfied, for example, maybe this person just needs some better customer service training instead of being fired from his job. If a customer claims he was told something different from what was written on the website, maybe he misread something because he didn’t scroll down far enough before giving up.
4. Have a Crisis Management Plan
It’s important to have a crisis management plan in place before you need it. That way, you can be prepared for anything that comes your way. Here’s how to create an effective crisis management plan:
Closely monitor and control who has access to your online accounts.
Set reputation management alerts so you can proactively respond to negative feedback.
Listen to your customer’s complaints and respond accordingly.
Establish a digitized communication plan.
Draft generic communication statements so online reputation managers can quickly respond when needed.
Spread positive news to further the chances of people reading good stories about your company.
5. Respond Quickly and Professionally
Most importantly, you need to respond professionally and as fast as you can. You really have to be aware of what’s being said about your business online. Again, you can do this by setting up Google Alerts for your brand name and key executives. This will notify you anytime your brand is mentioned online so you can take action quickly if necessary.
When you receive negative feedback, sure, an apology is appropriate. And this is important even if you know you have done nothing wrong. It’s just that, sometimes, those negative feedback is triggered by mistakes or uncontrollable events.
And, of course, you can’t control how people talk about your brand. But you can always control how to respond. A little sympathy and understanding go a long way to ease the emotions somehow. If the reviewer complained about poor service, you could always apologize that they had an awful experience. Your message can be as simple as, “We’re sorry that you have to go through that.”
6. Be Active on Social Media
Also, make sure your website and social media profiles are up-to-date and professional. This will help create a positive first impression for anyone who comes across your brand online.
Monitoring competitor activity online is another way you can protect your reputation by making sure nothing damaging goes viral before it impacts your business negatively.
7. Create and Publish Positive Content
It also helps to be proactive in creating positive content about your brand. This could include blog posts, social media posts, or even press releases. By getting out in front of negative content, you can help shape the conversation about your brand. If it’s too late and someone has already posted something damaging about your company, reach out with an apology. Apologizing is always better than ignoring the situation.
In Summary
The rise of online reviews has made the business world a much more competitive place, and consumers are constantly reading online reviews to help them decide which products and services to purchase, which hotels and restaurants to stay at, and which doctors to visit.
Online reputation management has become an important aspect of marketing for any company or individual that relies on consumer traffic to make their living, and knowing how online reviews affect consumer decisions can help you leverage your review scores in your favor.
Google’s job is to help people find content on the web.
Not just any content, however. It must be relevant and a good match to the search query.
Have you ever tried searching for important information and the sites that come up are just full of badly written blogs or articles? Or, you click a link only to be annoyed by the pop-ups and ads that make it impossible to easily locate the actual info that you are looking for.
Sure, you need to use keywords so Google can match you with the appropriate user search. However, Google is also looking for something of quality using important SEO fundamentals.
This is where TrustRank comes into play.
Understanding TrustRank
When you start to make blogs, Google needs to trust you before it can promote your blog.
So, it uses TrustRank, a system that grades sites in terms of their authority, trustworthiness, and overall quality. It is Google’s and other search engines’ way to combat web spam. The higher your website’s TrustRank, the better it’s likely to perform in search results.
How does it work?
TrustRank is calculated using the distance between the page on your website and a “seed site”. This is a trusted and known internet source chosen by Google and honored with a perfect 10 Trust Score. The closer your website is to the seed site, the higher your trust score.
They developed a metric system called MozTrust. It is the closest thing you can try to measure your TrustRank directly. It may not be perfect, but it is a helpful starting point.
Why TrustRank Matters?
TrustRank is not an official term from Google. In fact, it was built by Hector Garcia-Molina and Zoltan Gyongyi, Standford University researchers, in collaboration with Yahoo!.
But it is a real thing. It gives credibility and weight to how trust plays a vital role in both virtual and real-world relationships. A healthy relationship is built on trust, after all.
If consumers trust a business, both parties enjoy mutual benefits.
With regards to web content, trust helps evaluate if the “trust signals” a website has is legitimate.
For these reasons, you should ensure your website has a high trust rank.
How to Improve Your Google TrustRank
How can you optimize TrustRank and stay on Google’s good side?
1. Optimizing On-Page Trust
You will need to make sure that your web pages themselves are trustworthy and speak of quality. This is the first place that Google will look at and determine if you’re worth promoting.
So…
How do you improve your on-page optimization in line with TrustRank?
Linking To Authority Sites
What better way to show you’re trustworthy than buddy-ing up with an already trustworthy site?
When you link out to other authority sites, you’re essentially showing Google that you are referencing authority sources and building up trust in its eyes. Also, when you reference authority sources, people can learn more from these trusted sources and can verify your claims.
Linking out is a fundamental on-page SEO tactic. But doing so with an authority site garners attention from TrustRank.
In addition, a study found a significant correlation between linking out to authority sites and a higher Google ranking.
So, what would Google consider to be an authority and trusted source? The answer is any domain that ends in .edu or .gov. These websites synonymous with authority and linking to them shows that you are seriously reliable.
Or you can also link out to journal studies, like this one:
As you can see, the page includes all its references. This ensures that they are not making claims without backing them up with facts. These links lead to recognized and high-quality journals hosted at .org and .gov domains that create credibility and greatly improve their TrustRank score.
Mind Your Bounce Rate
Google’s RankBrain algorithm now places user interaction as a ranking factor. If people are not spending more than a couple of seconds on your website, then this does not communicate anything positive to Google. Such behavior will negatively affect your TrustRank score.
Think about it, if your website offers trustworthy information, then why is everyone in a rush to leave?
Make sure to keep an eye on your bounce rate and the time on page rate in your Google Analytics. Then, do whatever it takes to keep people sticking to your website like superglue. Here are some tips:
Ensure ease of navigation
Optimize page load time, making sure that your site loads up quickly.
Ensure readability
Include sources and references. People are more likely to stay on sites with well-researched, accurate, and quality content.
Make sure that your site is device responsive
Include visuals and visually appealing graphical objects
While traditionally thin content was found on many websites, this is no longer the case. With Google’s Panda algorithm, sites that have little to no content are penalized. So, if you want to rank on Google and improve your TrustRank score, make sure that the content on your site is high quality, well researched, and informative.
This can be implemented on any site in any industry. For example, Unscrambled Words, a site that unscrambles words for people, not only provides a great service, but also has in-depth information on its homepage that helps people understand how it works.
With information about what a word unscrambler is, the benefits of using such as a word solver, information on how to use it, the rules for playing scrabble, and much more, this provides everything that a user needs to know about the site, without having to search for it elsewhere.
Copyright, Terms, Privacy Policy
These are the lengthy, boring pages that you should take seriously.
The fact that Google actually pays attention to these so-called boring pages should be enough to convince you to update that copyright notice to 2020.
There’s a fair amount of consensus that including these policies, terms, and copyright information all means further credibility to your website.
Plus, if you’re using Google Analytics, then a Privacy page is a must on your website, according to Google Analytics Terms of Service, Section 7:
Content on these pages actually protects you from any legal liability, so don’t even think of ditching these lengthy terms and notice. Since the beginning Google has been notorious for having lengthy contracts and terms and conditions.
2.Fix Your Domain
Fact: Google is a domain registrar.
It is not because it wants to sell domain hosting (at least for now), but it wants to look at your WHOIS information to determine who are the registered assignees or users of your website’s registered details such as the domain name.
When approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) like Google, you can check WHOIS information all day long. This is so, big G can once again ensure that you are indeed trustworthy.
So, here’s how you can gain more trust from your domain info:
Go Public
There’s no real company with private WHOIS. When a company has nothing to hide, why would it keep its WHOIS a secret?
Google wants to know if you are in this for the long-term. Although the debate of domain registration in SEO hasn’t reached a conclusion yet, it is something that cannot possibly hurt your site and might even help you.
Include WHOIS info on your Contact page
In order to really show Google that you’re all about openness and transparency, you can place your WHOIS address and phone on your privacy notice page or contact page. Doing so is another signal telling Google that you actually have an “office” somewhere.
These may seem a minor detail, but which site would you trust more:
A site with private WHOIS, no contact page and is expiring in 3 months, or
A website with a real phone number and address that matches the site’s official contact info, plus a 5 year or so domain registration.
I don’t know about you, but I’ll surely pick the latter. Choosing a domain name that’s perfect for your business leads to trust signals that improve your Google ranking.
3.Be a Brand. Act Like a Brand.
Google has been into brands recently.
It makes sense that Google prefers a brand name for your URL instead of “howtobeacontentcreatorandearnmoney.com”, right?
So, how can a small business look like a big-time brand?
Improve your brand signals. No matter which online business you started with, you should ensure that your brand is perceived as important:
Produce content that showcases your brand’s expertise. It doesn’t matter if it is written, video, screencast, or audio. Your product type will determine the channel type.
Get press coverage to build authority
Become a guest contributor to influential media outlets
Build your brand’s social media following
Keep in mind that Google is a website ranking machine, and it can identify ranking by reading signals. So, to identify brands, you need to give them online brand signals.
One more thing to note, Google takes brands very seriously. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, even said, “Brands are the solution, not the problem. Brands are how you sort out the cesspool”.
So, let’s help you step out of the cesspool, clean you up, and make you look like a big-time brand.
Branded Site/Domain Name
Don’t focus on the phrase match or exact match domains. The EMD update, short for Exact Match Domain, has made it very clear that exact match domains will not do you any good.
Rocking a branded domain screams “unique brand” and that you’re not just some SEO-freak trying to rank for a keyword.
Active Social Media
All big-time brands are active on social media platforms including Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and the like. And even if you’re just a small-time entrepreneur growing your business, you still should get your social accounts up and rolling as it helps with brand awareness.
Don’t Skimp On The About Us Page
You might think that this is one of those pages that users don’t bother looking at, but it matters anyway, at least to Google.
And real brands have lengthy About Us pages that talk about the company, mission and vision statement, and even the people that keep it running. So, make an epic and thorough About Us page that tells your brand story.
With tools like WordPress or Clickfunnels you are able to build a great looking About Us page fast.
Brand Name as Anchor Text
Naturally, people link to brands with brand name anchor text. So, if your website is SEOPowerLine.com, then you better get some links with the “SEO Power Line” anchor text.
Branded Searches
People search for brands.
Awesome videos? YouTube.
Quality furniture? Ikea.
Beauty and cosmetics? Maybelline or Loreal.
SEO practices? Neil Patel.
Best Webinar Platform? Zoom.
4.Get Quality Links
So, previously we talked about how linking out to trustworthy sites can improve your TrustRank score. But what about receiving a link from one?
This is the best way to catapult you up the ranking ladder.
Like everything in the Google world, trust revolves around the links. And you will need to work really hard to get quality links from credible sites. This way you can level up your trustworthiness and get more juice for your website.
Basically, getting a link from the highly trusted “seed sites” (Google’s handpicked sites with 10/10 TrustRank score) is the best. But, if you receive a link on a website, that has a link on a website, that has a link from these seed sites, then you still get a lot of SEO juice from that.
Another good example is to link on an industry site or a news site. Google said that news sites are highly reliable, particularly the sites from Google News.
Bottom line? Do what you can to get links from highly trusted sites.
How?
Do guest posts on sites with a higher Domain Rating in your niche.
Hire a freelance SEO specialist.
Use LinkedIn to do some influencer marketing.
Use press releases to get a Google News placement.
Ask your university for a story in the student paper.
Final Thoughts
You should now have a better understanding of Google TrustRank and why it is so important. These are just some of the best ways to improve your TrustRank score. There is so much more to it, but a lot of it comes down to common sense.
Every time you want to update your website or publish an article, ask yourself this: “Does it make my site more trustworthy and credible or not?”
And perhaps the best question to ask is: “Does this prove any value to my audience?”
Because at the end of the day, Google only wants its user to have a quality search experience so that they will keep using it.
So, that means that it needs to provide sites offering quality experiences by relying on various ranking factors such as TrustRank.
So, start improving your Google TrustRank today using the methods mentioned above, and you will soon see the fruit of your labor.
Now that you have read all about TrustRank, let’s hear it from you.
Have you tried to optimize your website for TrustRank?
Increased awareness of social issues means that accessible marketing is more important today than ever before. Without accessible marketing, your company will lose out on engagement and will seem out of touch compared to more accessible competitors.
But creating accessible marketing can be confusing at first. Fortunately, there are plenty of tools and resources to ensure that your next marketing campaign is accessible to everybody, regardless of their particular way of experiencing the world and your marketing content.
What is Accessible Marketing?
Accessible marketing ensures that everyone can interact with your content and learn about your product or service without undue strain or effort on their part.
According to the National Center for Deaf-Blindness, accessibility ensures “all people can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with electronic information and be active, contributing members of the digital world.” This means your digital content should be tailored to serve everyone, regardless of “visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.”
Being accessible sounds straightforward, but many businesses run into issues when creating accessible content. Few marketers have received formal training in accessibility, even though it is a key feature in good customer experience (CX) and e-commerce marketing. This is a major issue as e-commerce marketing should promote greater traffic, drive a higher conversion rate, and give all existing customers a great CX.
If your marketing content or website is inaccessible, folks will turn to competitors who offer a better experience and account for differences in sight, hearing, physical abilities, or cognitive and neurological disabilities.
Fortunately, there are plenty of examples to follow when attempting to improve the accessibility of your own company marketing materials. These include things like:
Ensuring content is formatted so screen readers can turn all text to speech without issues
Using descriptions for all anchor text to improve the effectiveness of braille readers
Ensuring there is enough contrast between text and background color
Including relevant alt-text for all images you use
Supporting keyboard navigation to help users who cannot use a mouse
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to accessible marketing. However, taking a few simple steps can lead to far greater reach and engagement with your digital content.
Benefits of Accessible Marketing
Accessibility has been an afterthought in marketing for years. Most designers and web engineers favor flashy design over usability and disregard the experience that folks with a disability have when interacting with their marketing materials.
Fortunately, this paradigm is starting to change as marketing managers realize they are losing out on revenue and harming their brand image with inaccessible content.
Reach and Engagement
According to data collected by the World Health Organization, 15% of the world’s population live with a disability of some kind. While some disabilities do not require reasonable accommodations for online users, many do. By accounting for these users, you can expect to gain greater reach and engagement.
Gaining reach and engagement is particularly important if you are targeting growth in a sector that caters to folks with a disability.
For example, if you are running a campaign for a new range of low-intensity lighting for neurodivergent people, then you absolutely must account for differences in experience between folks who live with things like dyslexia, autism, or ADHD. Folks who are neurodivergent process information and interact with the world differently from neurotypical people. This means your marketing content needs to account for differences in experience to foster greater engagement with your audience.
Feedback
Receiving feedback from folks who live with a disability is important for your business’s long-term success. However, gathering feedback from folks with a disability is typically challenging as physical and digital infrastructure prevents their voice from being heard.
You can gather much-needed feedback from folks with disabilities by tailoring all of your marketing to accessibility. This might include specific redirects to accessible surveys for folks who live with visual impairments or improved navigation options on your “contact us” forms.
Gaining feedback from folks who have disabilities ensures that your brand moves in the right direction while avoiding accidental exclusions on your website.
Brand Image
Running accessible marketing campaigns is the right thing to do — it also boosts your brand image.
Consumers today are savvier and more socially conscious than ever before. This means that many users can spot inaccessible content and won’t be shy about their criticism. You can preempt this by actively creating branded content that is outwardly accessible and cherishes a range of user experiences.
Creating intentionally accessible marketing materials is something that major brands already do well. Brands like Apple have championed accessibility for years, and actively promote usability with features like VoiceOver and their Braille display. This lends major credibility to CEO Tim Cook’s statement “When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind I don’t consider the bloody ROI.”
You can make an equally strong statement with your own marketing materials and create a brand image that promotes inclusion and accessibility.
Accessible Marketing Plans
The benefits of creating accessible marketing content far outweigh the potential challenges. However, creating accessible content takes more than goodwill and some elbow grease. You need to complete a full accessibility audit and change the way you operate to ensure that accessibility is a foundational element of your marketing plan.
You can complete an accessibility audit by tweaking design thinking in data-driven marketing. Design thinking forces you to imagine your user from a range of perspectives. This requires you to educate yourself and use empathy to consider the changes you want to make. You can experiment by simulating users who may face particular challenges like low-vision or neurodivergence when using your site.
Once you’ve identified and implemented areas for improvement, you should open up a space for accessibility-specific queries and complaints. Accessibility-related queries and complaints should be easily located on your site map and provide a range of user-friendly data collection methods. Collecting data in this way will help identify further areas for improvement and ensure that you stay up to date with new technology and best practices.
Conclusion
Taking a progressive approach to accessible marketing is the right thing to do. It ensures that everyone has an equitable experience while surfing the web and engaging with branded content. Accessible marketing also gives you greater reach and engagement, as previously excluded audiences can now provide feedback and spread the word about your business online.
Employees often suffer burnout during stressful periods due to value disconnect, pressure, overload, and lack of managerial support. The signs of burnout include lack of concentration, physical fatigue, and reduced productivity. In the worst cases, it can cause some employees to leave their jobs.
Managers have a role to play in reducing burnout in the workplace and increasing productivity. Knowing how to do so will help managers to retain employees and improve their overall well-being. This guide reveals the best practices for managers to reduce burnout.
Holding walking meetings
Holding walking meetings is a great way to reduce stress and allow employees to recharge. They can get out of the office for a while and be active during the meetings. Walking meetings are more effective with small groups such as departments. Managers must ensure that the walking meetings are as productive as other meetings.
During the meetings, teams can discuss the roadblocks they are encountering at the workplace and suggest ways to overcome the difficulties. It is also a great opportunity to share project updates, upcoming tasks, and new opportunities. People can discuss how to outsource the calling process and other non-core business activities like IT infrastructure management, HR payroll, facility management, general accounting, and more.
Helping workers connect to their purpose
Encouraging employees to connect to their purpose can also help to prevent workplace burnout. Emotional connection to work means connection to the organization and the purpose, which could help employees cope with stressful situations.
Managers can connect the employees’ roles to the organization’s vision, mission, and values. They should make people understand how their work contributes toward achieving the organizational goals. It is also important to help workers participate in job crafting, so they reflect on the meaning of their work. This causes the employees to think of how making small changes in their roles can make a difference in the organization.
Promoting management training
There have been many cases of employees leaving their jobs due to bad bosses or poor working environment. Others prefer to stay in low-paying jobs if they are allowed to work with a great boss. If managers are not well-equipped, they can create a stressful environment, and this may hinder the achievement of organizational goals.
Managers must provide management skills and tools, such as functional computers with advanced programs. Slow computers can reduce productivity among workers due to frequent overtime, which is a major cause of burnout. Computers often begin working slowly due to many junk files. Showing the employees how to clean up system junk can help to avoid having slow working computers and boost productivity. Optimizing your Mac to get the best performance should always be your top priority.
Prioritizing workplace health and wellness
Managers should regularly provide their staff with opportunities to be away from work or unplug. Employees can also manage stress by finding a quiet place to relax, pray and meditate.
Investing in office aesthetics such as new pictures, plants, and inviting chairs could also create a less stressful environment. During periods of high workload and stress, managers can support their staff through mental health awareness. Other ways to promote wellness at the workplace include:
Allowing staff to rest
Encouraging staff to give back
Boosting morale by celebrating wins
Encouraging employees to remain calm during stressful periods
Maintaining flexible job options
The pandemic made many organizations shift to work-from-home or remote work mode. Many employers have known that people can be productive even when working from home. Leaders have learned how to manage remote teams and encourage collaboration. They should be open to people’s circumstances and offer flexible working options.
Managers can make arrangements to allow people to work from home on a part-time basis to facilitate time management. The employees don’t have to struggle with domestic activities such as medical appointments and coordinating family affairs.
Promoting work-life balance
Maintaining a work-life balance is also a practical way to prevent burnout. Many people juggle a lot in their work, and personal lives and the line between the two can be challenging. Even with days off, some people may resist using their free time for self-development.
Taking a break to work can improve employees’ moods and boost productivity in the long run. Managers can encourage the staff to use their time to completely unplug and recharge. Organizations with flexible work schedules can offer shortened Fridays to allow employees to have long weekends, especially during summer and spring. If an employee is on vacation, bosses should avoid calling them with job-related matters.
Encouraging social connections
Human beings are social-they cannot live in isolation- an employee will rely on their boss or other employees for support. Social support relates to factors such as well-being, stress, health, and engagement. Managers can foster community among their staff by boosting social networks and team support. Through social connections, workers can find support that can prevent stress and burnout.
Managers can encourage employees to design plans for social connections through meeting colleagues, family members, or friends. To motivate remote employees they can also schedule regular online coffee breaks or organize virtual team-building activities. Celebrating employees and bringing teams together are also practical ways to prevent burnout and promote a sense of belonging.
Monitoring work schedules
One of the major causes of burnout is work overload. Leaders must ensure that employees are not tasked with unrealistic workloads or rigorous schedules. Sometimes workloads may spike, but this is not a reason to overwork people. It becomes challenging for them to sustain demanding schedules and heavy workloads.
Leaders should monitor the work schedules to improve performance and ensure business success. They can do so in the following ways:
Planning tasks
Understanding resource availability
Allocating tasks evenly and fairly
Setting priorities
Encouraging employees to avoid multitasking
Managing change effectively
Setting realistic goals
Setting realistic work deadlines
Open communication
Communication is a game-changer in any organization setup- withholding information and having minimal communication can cause stress among the staff. Managers should encourage open communication within the organization to ensure that everyone receives transparent and timely updates.
Leaders should help employees to understand expectations and how their performance can bring change to the organization. They can give members of staff opportunities to discuss stress factors and voice their frustrations. Setting feedback options could give employees a voice concerning the problems they are facing. Open communication options may help employees to relieve issues that could lead to stress and burnout.
Offering growth opportunities
Lack of growth opportunities and advancement is a leading cause of stress in many organizations. Technology is evolving, so it is important to help employees to acquire new skills to enable them to adapt to changes in the business environment.
Employees can find new opportunities within and outside the organization. Managers should help employees to take stressful situations positively rather than see them as threats. Involving employees when setting goals makes them understand their expectations at the workplace, and this may boost their job engagement.
Conclusion
The relationship between managers and employees helps organizations to succeed in the long run. It also offers career advancement, drives collaboration, and alleviates workplace stress and burnout. Heightened stress levels at the workplace can lead to reduced productivity, absenteeism, and employee turnover, which may be costly to the organization. Managers can implement the above strategies to prevent burnout and create a better working environment. Although other factors outside an organization could lead to stress, managers have a bigger role to play.
