What Kind Of Score Would Your Business Get On Sales and Marketing?

Small business sales and marketing software company Infusionsoft has a new free tool called the Small Business Sales and Marketing Scorecard. It’s designed to show you what you could be doing better in your sales and marketing process.

Input your website URL and email address to examine your existing marketing strategy and sales performance. The scorecard grades you on specific areas where you can improve. Specifically, you’ll get feedback on how you are doing overall. But there will also be an evaluation of how you are doing with social media and lead capture. You then answer a series of questions to get deeper into the specifics of your sales and marketing process.

Specifically, the Scorecard grades on three stages of your company’s marketing and sales effort. The stages are part of what Infusionsoft calls the “Lifecycle Marketing Model.” The model is used to evaluate how you attract, sell and then “wow” customers. Here’s a look at what the scorecard evaluates in each stage.

Attract

The tool looks at who your ideal customers are so you can target them. This is best done by researching all useful information about them. It could include their demographics and where to find them online and in person. It could also include how you approach them and follow up with them later.

Sell

In this section, the scorecard looks at how you pursue closing that sale. As all good salespeople know, the best sales pitch is when you are solving a problem for the customer. A lot has to do with how and when you communicate with customers.

Wow

Here the scorecard evaluates how you deliver on your business’s promises. That way, they will refer you to their friends, and also keep coming back for more, too. This results in less marketing and promotion efforts, which will be cheaper for you in the long run.

Referrals are the key to keeping the business going. If people start referring you, then you know you’ve done something right. Word of mouth is invaluable.

Just to test the scorecard, we put in three well-known companies to see how they did. The results were surprising to say the least.

Apple, Microsoft, and Google all get an overall C!

Why the hiccup?

Seems they are all neglecting social media, and are lacking a subscriber email list. Oops, that’s rather embarrassing.

What New Opportunities Does Android Wear Offer for Entrepreneurs?

Google announced its plans for Android Wear recently. The adaptation of the company’s popular mobile operating system will allow it to be used for a variety of wearable technology including watches.

In a post on the Google Official Blog, Sundar Pichai, Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome and Apps explains:

“Today we’re announcing Android Wear, a project that extends Android to wearables. And we’re starting with the most familiar wearableâ€"watches.”

Google says it is working with watch and consumer electronic makers to develop new devices that operate on the Android Wear system, including Asus, HTC, LG, Motorola, and Fossil Group, among others. The company says some of these watches will be available later this year.

For small business owners and entrepreneurs, the new adapted operating system could create several opportunities.

Like other smart wearable devices, watches powered by Android Wear will give you basic information like time and weather. They will also sync with your smartphone to deliver notifications like texts and emails. A demo video show’s users able to connect with their Google contacts via Hangouts, too. All of it will happen on a full-color face plate on the watch.

Devices powered by Android Wear will allow you to keep your smartphone stowed away safely while still letting you keep in contact and get vital information. You’ll even send texts, make calls, and send Hangouts messages from your smart watch.

Android Wear will also enable voice search features. By simply saying “OK, Google” users will be able to get information based on their location - like location about nearby businesses, flight and travel information, or just general news updates on topics important to them.

For small app developers, Google has already opened a preview of the Android Wear system.

The system preview will also allow developers to create new apps specific for Android Wear devices. Later this year, Google will unveil Android Wear SDK to allow developers to create “more customized experiences” for users of smart wearable devices.

Image: Video Still

3 Parts Every Successful Sales Process Must Have: Referrals, Upsell and Special Offers

Small business is one of the greatest things this country has to offer.  The ability to build a livelihood around your passion is definitely The  American Dream.  Besides, what’s better than being able to be your own boss, work when you want and make as much money as your talents and desire takes you?

Guest post by Bill Baylis, who brings decades of problem solving, team building, and entrepreneurial skill to the business world. 

In fact, all you have to do is find what you do best, add your passion, find your target market and sell them your product.

Simple, right?

Wait a minute…  Sell?  A small business owner has to sell their products and services?

We didn’t sign-up for the selling part! #@!@#@!

Needless to say, for many small business owners being their own sales person is not a favorite part of the job.

It kind of makes sense… You went into business for yourself because you love ___________.

Not because you love sales.

If you’re one of those small business owners who loves what you do, but are not so crazy about the selling part, then hang in there, I got something in store for you right from our sales playbook at Online Marketing Muscle.  The 3 Sales Secrets that will get you selling like a pro in no time!

#1 Have a Referral System!

Having a referral system is one of the easiest and most inexpensive  ways to drive in more sales! By simply turning your customers (and even your competition) into willing sales representatives can be a game saver for even the most sales-savvy,  small business owners.

The most effective referral systems have a couple of essentials in common.  For example, starting with a little “smoozing” by either visiting or calling your best customers to remind them of the great impact you have had on their business or life. Then, reminding them that they may very well know the exact people who can also benefit from your product or services.

The possibilities are endless  and are limited only by your imagination. And, if you really want to kick things up a notch, include a special incentive to sweeten the pot.  Whatever system you put in place remember to keep it Easy, Lucritive and FUN!

Technology Action Tip: Staying in touch is an important part of any referral system and technology can be your friend.  LinkedIn has upgraded its service by providing a smarter way to stay in touch with clients and networking partners. The new program almost acts as a ”personal assistant” that  will remind you when your colleagues are celebrating new jobs or birthdays. And even will pull up the last conversations you had with people before you head out to meet them. Pretty handy, right!

#2 The UPSELL

Think… “would you like some fries with that.”  The fast food chain McDonalds made that upselling line famous.  They knew the best time to sell more was when their customer already had their wallets out. The upsell is selling add-on services to your clients; this way they get a higher level of service from you for an additional investment.

The best part of the upsell is that it’s practically effortless since it’s done after the customer has decided to go ahead and buy.  You’ve already established rapport, identified needs, presented the benefits and handled objections.  The best approach  is to present  the offer  in a “by-the-way” manner.

No one knows your clients better than you, think through an upsell offer that deepens their experience and watch how those extra sales drop to your bottom line.

Technology Action Tip: Got a website? Why not add a “splash page” to your check out area. It’s a great way to grab the buyer’s attention to take them to a page that pops up with the details of your upsell product?  Almost too easy… right? But your customers will love it!

#3 Special Offers

The first big point is that there needs to be a WOW Factor in creating your special offer! Remember, special offers are a “one time only” type of event that makes people feel like they are really going to miss out if they don’t grab it right away!

Another big key is that it has to be rare or in limited supply. A big breakdown is that many small business owners put out too many special offers out there. Having too many in a short span of time can train your prospects not to buy because they know, if they miss out, the next one is coming soon.

Special Offers can be a really fun way to build excitement and to encourage your target market to buy now. So go out there, make them irresistible and tactfully add several to your marketing campaign calendars.

Technology Action Tip: Why not use technology to help you automate your special offers? Email marketing systems (Such as; Mail Chimp, AWeber and Infusionsoft!)  are perfect platforms for helping you get the right information, in the right hands. They are pretty fun to use too!

Feeling like a pro yet? More confident about tackling this selling part of running a small business?

Check out this 3 part video series from Bill designed to really kick up your salesmanship.

APT attacks use \'news of doomed flight MH370\'

March 25, 2014

A series of advanced cyber attacks have used the lure of news about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 to infiltrate nation-state and other targets, according to FireEye.

In a 24 March blog post, FireEye researchers Ned Moran and Alex Lanstein tracked at least six such spear phishing attacks between 9 and 18 March, all based on emails that promised news about the doomed plane.

One campaign, from known cyber espionage group ‘admin@338', successfully targeted “a government in the Asia-Pacific region” and a “prominent US-based think tank” on 10 and 14 March, using the Poison Ivy RAT (remote access tool) and WinHTTPHelper malware. Admin@338 is described by FireEye as a campaign group active since 2008 that mostly targets the financial services industry, as well as telecoms, government and defence organisations.

The two researchers record further MH370-themed attacks this month from other threat groups, using a mix of established and new APT Trojans named as ‘Naikon', ‘Plat1', ‘Mongall/Saker', ‘Tranchulas' and ‘Page'. The first attack was launched on 9 March, one day after the plane went missing.

They describe a series of campaigns using decoy documents such as Flash videos, PDF, Word and Office documents, and often linking back to command servers used in previous attacks - all with the common hook of the Malaysia Airlines plane.

The blog even records basic errors in the campaigns, such as in one case auto-starting the malware payload from a disk directory that doesn't exist until Windows 7. Despite that, the APT groups involved “convinced the targets to open a malicious attachment”, it says.

The report underlines the continuing success of spear phishing-led campaigns in penetrating even high-level cyber espionage targets.

Jason Steer, director of technology strategy for FireEye EMEA, told SCMagazineUK.com: “Spear phishing is successful, almost guaranteed. The reason is that, from an organisation's perspective if you've got a team of 50 people who are a target, one of them eventually is going to open something, the odds are stacked against them. It costs nothing to send but it costs an awful lot to detect and combat.”

Security expert James Moore, senior consultant at UK-based MWR Information Security, agreed adding: “If you were to ask me, based on several years of penetration testing experience, what the easiest method of getting into an organisations network is - it'd still be spear phishing every time,” he told SCMagazineUK.com.

“In terms of APT attacks, spear phishing attacks are still commonly employed because of their effectiveness. It isn't uncommon for us to see 80 percent-plus of the employees we target in a phishing assessment click on links or open malicious attachments.”

FireEye's blog warns: “Spear phishing via email-based attachments or links to zip files remain popular with many threat actors, especially when paired with lures discussing current media events. Network defenders should incorporate these facts into their user-training programmes and be on heightened alert for regular spear phishing campaigns, which leverage topics dominating the news cycle.”

Moore added: “There are several approaches firms can take to reduce their risk from phishing attacks. First we recommend they perform regular phishing assessments to maintain a heightened state of employee awareness and to track levels of susceptibility. We also recommend security awareness training to help further reduce employees susceptibility to spear phishing attacks and improve their ability to respond to attacks in the correct manner, which in turn facilitates a more effective response from internal security teams.”

Last October, FireEye found admin@338 attacking the Central Bank of a Western European government, an international organisation involved in trade, economic and financial policy, a US-based think tank and a high-ranking government official for a country in the Far East.

There’s a Big Rebound by Big Banks

As the economy continues to improve, big banks are returning to what they are supposed to do: Make loans and make money.

During the “credit crunch” of 2009 - 2011 when the largest financial institutions closed the spigot on small business lending, approval rates sunk to single digit percentages at many big banks. During this dry period, credit unions and alternative lenders filled some of the void and small banks, in particular, were the most willing to lend.

Still, even the smaller regional and community banks granted less than half of the applications they received.

As the accompanying graphic shows, lending has rebounded among all categories of lenders in recent months. In fact, according to the most recently issued Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index (Feb. 2014 figures), loan approval rates at banks that have $10 billion+ in assets jumped to 19.1%. This is by far the highest figure since we began the Index in January of 2011.

Lenders such as Citizens Bank, TD Bank, and Union Bank, for instance, have aggressively marketed their small business lending products. Recently, Bank of America and Citibank have reported that they are making millions of dollars in loans to small companies.

February 2014 saw a 7 percent increase over January’s approval rate (17.8%) and the figure represents a 20 percent leap in a year-to-year comparison of lending approval rates at big banks.

1. Banks Need to Make Deals

Small business lending stalled during the “credit crunch” of 2009 - 2011. However, banks make money by making loans. A major catalyst is the fact that the economy has rebounded. Of equal importance is that banks are recognizing that small business lending is a profitable part of their portfolio. In fact, banks are trying to regain lost ground because alternative lenders stepped in and were willing to supply funding at a time when banks were stingy.

Big banks are improving their technology and enabling small business owners to apply for loans online. This improves the efficiency of the process. Additionally, big banks are taking advantage of their brand names and their marketing dollars. People tend to go with the names they know. As the banks returned to the marketplace, word has spread among small business owners that the chances of getting a bank loan have increased substantially. We will never see approval percentages of 40 percent again, but things have improved greatly.

2. Stronger Applicants

During the recession, big banks began to ask for three years worth of financial data, instead of just two years worth, when small business borrowers submitted applications. From 2009 - 2011, business performance was weak. However, as the economy picked up, small companies fared much better. Thus, big banks viewed small business loans as less risky.

In a recent Biz2Credit analysis of 10,000+ small companies, we found that the average credit scores rose significantly last year. For instance, two years ago, the figure for women-owned companies was 592, while in 2013, it rose to 610. Meanwhile, the scores of male-owned companies similarly rose. When business credit scores rise above 600, banks are more willing to lend.

3. Confidence in the Economy

During tough economic times, entrepreneurs fret about taking on debt to fuel growth. Since the fortunes of many small companies have improved, their owners are again willing to accept risk. Typically they only do so when they feel confident about the economy. Already, retailers are ordering their 2014 holiday season inventory.

Changing the cost of cybercrime

March 25, 2014

Oganisations need to cooperate and share threat intelligence in order to increase the cost of cyber attacks for hackers suggests Russ Spitler, VP product management, AlienVault

I have been thinking a lot about the economics of cybercrime and how our defensive measures have impacted the fundamentals over the years. I am no economist but I have read many books on the subject and I can recognise Kai Ryssdal's voice; so I would like to think I could at least qualify to advise a small, already-wealthy, nation somewhere in, say, the Caribbean.

The cost to attack and exploit a system is orders of magnitude less than the cost to defend - the sorry state of affairs is that most of what we have done to secure our IT environments has failed to change the fundamental disparity that makes cybercrime so lucrative. Nothing that we have done so far has changed this; and the advancement of technology in many ways has increased this gap.

This disparity is rooted to the connected nature of the Internet itself. There is no real cost to launching a cyber attack; a single machine can attack thousands of targets searching for one with susceptible defences. The cost of acquiring a new target is only the cost of generating a new random number. On the other side of this, each new attack vector requires additional effort on the side of the defender; they must deploy and maintain numerous security controls, while at the same time keeping all of their systems updated with the latest security patches. This is a substantial cost that anyone in charge of security is all too familiar with.

The advantage is currently  completely on the side of the attacker. While each defender must incur substantial cost to defend themselves, the attackers can easily find targets that have not paid that price. The question becomes, ‘how can we increase the cost that an attacker must pay for each target that they attack?' The potential for criminal prosecution is something the attacker incurs. However, the difficulty of attribution and the ease of crossing geo-political boundaries that complicates prosecution make this cost quite abstract.

It is with this line of thinking that I started looking at sharing intelligence in a new light. By allowing the information security community to share threat intelligence with one another, we have found a way to increase the cost of an attack. On hacker forums and other underground communities, attack tools and techniques are widely shared, discussed, vetted and promoted.  This sharing gives attackers additional resources to be more effective in their efforts and adds plenty of weaponry to their arsenals. Why shouldn't the good guys do the same while at the same time making it more costly for the bad guys?

For example, once an attacker has targeted any member of the Open Threat Exchange, the source (IP address) of the attack is known to be malicious throughout the entire network. This means that attackers can no longer benefit from the isolation of their targets, they must use a new IP for each attack that they launch. Instead of being able to launch thousands of attacks from a single IP, they have to pay the cost of acquiring a number of IPs that is proportional to the number of attacks they wish to mount.

Improving our defences will help us; we will be able to do more to defend ourselves from the latest threats. But we must focus on the other side of the equation as well, increasing the cost that the attacker incurs. The progress in collaboration of international law enforcement has been highlighted by a number of headline prosecutions. But this ultimately depends on near-complete cooperation of international law-enforcement; I am not going to hold my breath. We must look to deploy defensive measures that increase the cost and Open Threat Exchange is a substantial step forward in that direction.

Contributed by Russ Spitler, VP product management, AlienVault

Step Aside Kickstarter, SBA Loans Are Now Fully Online from SmartBizLoans

Getting financial help is arduous for many growing businesses. While credit cards are relatively easy to get and use, it’s harder to apply for a loan (so much paper work) and doing a crowd funded campaign is not easy either.

In steps a new service, from SmartBiz (www.smartbizloans.com) by financial services technology company Better Finance, Inc. and SBA preferred lender Golden Pacific Bank.

It’s the first fully-online, automated SBA loan program offering low interest rates, an easy application process, and a speedy decision for loans ranging between $5,000 to $ 150,000 to qualifying businesses in all fifty states. With longer repayment terms, low monthly payments, and no penalty for early payoff, SmartBiz lets small business owners keep more of their profit in-house to invest in growing a solid, sustainable business. SmartBiz has been available on a limited basis since late 2013 and has already received over $25 million in applications.

Before applying for a loan make sure you have discussed your overall business with an adviser who can help you understand IF you need the money and help you strategically plan for HOW you’ll invest the money.

Huawei responds to allegations of NSA hacking

March 25, 2014

Further Snowden leaks allege that the NSA targeted Chinese telecom firm Huawei for corporate data.

Huawei Technologies, a major networking equipment provider based in China, has responded to troubling leaks that the National Security Agency (NSA) hacked its networks to steal product source code.

The alleged intrusion was jointly revealed on Saturday byThe New York Times and the German newspaper Der Spiegel, after the publications received documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.  

According to the documents, NSA launched an operation in 2009, dubbed “Shotgiant,” to target Huawei, a competitor of Cisco, a US-based equipment provider. As a result of the mission, NSA was able to hack Huwaei's network to obtain data on customers and company training information.

The leaks also revealed that NSA accessed Huawei product source code, the Der Spiegel article said.

Ironically, Huawei has been the subject of espionage accusations taken up by Washington, specifically, claims that the company was spying on behalf of the Chinese government. Amidst heightened concerns in October 2012, a White-House commissioned study found that Huwei did not pose a cyber espionage threatto the US.

On Monday, Huawei emailed SCMagazine.com a statement on the recent NSA-related allegations.

The telecom giant indirectly addressed the leaks, saying that it “disagrees” with any activity that would “threaten the security of networks.”

“Corporate networks are under constant probe and attack from different sources - such is the status quo in today's digital age,” the Huawei statement said. “Huawei disagrees with all activities that threaten the security of networks and is willing to work with all governments, industry stakeholders and customers, in an open and transparent manner, to jointly address the global challenge of network security.”

The company later added that, “like other enterprises, we continuously block, clean and reinforce our infrastructure from cyber threats.”

On Monday, Martin Libicki, senior management scientist at RAND, a global policy think tank, told SCMagazine.com that, US officials have ultimately failed to produce the “smoking gun” that indicates Huawei in cyber espionage activities targeting the US.

In addition, recent leaks have worsened the already weakened relations between the US and China (and other countries), as it pertains to matters of cyber conduct, he added.

“The ability to pursue China over the economic espionage argument hasn't gone away, but it was considerably weakened,” Libicki said. “Which may have been just as well, because I don't think [the US] would have been very successful even under the best of circumstances.”

This article was first published on the US site of SC Magazine.

Anonymous Ukraine leaks seven million credit card details

March 25, 2014

Anonymous Ukraine says that it has information on "more than 800 million credit cards", and has leaked the first million of those with Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover accounts onto a public forum.

Anonymous Ukraine pasted the first batch of card information on Pastebin on Tuesday and initial analysis from researchers at Risk Based Security revealed that this comprised 955,579 cards in total.

The group - which reportedly hacked NATO in November - has archives containing Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover customer data, with this appearing to include valid credit card numbers, banking routing numbers and full user names.

“Today we publish the first part of our exposure of the international financial system Visa, MC, Discover & Amex, enslaved people around the world. More than 800 million credit cards. Over a trillion dollars (£600 million),” said Anonymous Ukraine on Pastebin. The message heavily criticised the US government, adding that the hactivisim group had “destroyed” the country's economy and banking system.

The group followed up by announcing the leak of more than six million more cards on Twitter. Risk Based Security has analysed the data dump and revealed there to be 6,064,823 new cards, with this figure breaking down as 668,279 American Express, 3,255,663 Visa, 1,778,749 MasterCard and 362,132 Discover. 

That, when combined with the initial million, makes a grand total of 7,020,402 and the majority are said to have come from the United States, according to researchers. They add that 4,000 of these details include social security numbers, credit card numbers, card expiry data, full names, PIN, floats, dates of birth, states and zip codes. 

Anonymous Ukraine could not be reached for comment, but Risk Based Security researcher Inga Goddijn told SCMagazineUK.com that its investigation continues. 

“The investigation is on-going as our researchers continue to analyse the data contained in the dump. Early indications show a substantial number of Visa and MasterCard accounts could potentially be at risk,” she said via email. 

“We will continue to update the post on DataLossDB as more information is discovered about this incident.” 

There's no way of telling where the data has come from although, given the nature of the data loss, it seems like an ATM or POS system is to blame. 

A point-of-sale vulnerability was the primary reason behind the Target data breach late last year, which eventually encompassed 110 million records, including 40 million credit cards. The attack saw memory-scrapping malware installed on the firm's point-of-sale devices and, as security researcher Brian Krebs documented in December, a number of these details ended up on the black market. 

Writing on his blog, Krebs detailed that some of these credit cards details were dumped on popular underground stores like rescator.la - which Ukrainian Andrew Hodirevski allegedly used to sell the credit card data for up to US $100 (£60) on cheapdumps.org, cpro.su and vor.cc. 

Speaking shortly after this news was discovered, Martin McKeay - security advocate at Akamai Technologies - said that it is still not overly clear if Anonymous Ukraine is behind the attack, as well as its intentions of posting the data. He added that some of this data could even be duplicated from other recent data breaches where customer data has found its way onto the black market - something Goddijn said was "too early in our research" to speculate on.

“How did they get the data? I've no idea but there are a number of ways. The first place I would look is to see if the records are duplicates” McKeay told SCMagazineUK.com. 

“Seven million [data records] is quite small compared to the standards we're looking at right now,” he added, citing Target's attack and the reported California DMV breach. 

“It's very possible that someone got hold of this data on a forum or database, and is claiming it to be from Anonymous Ukraine. Look at Sony's breach - it turned out that they sat on the data from months and then claimed it to be political.” 

Neira Jones, independent advisor and former board of advisor member for PCI  - as well as former head of payment security at Barclaycard, suggested that the find is likely to be the result of a “set of breaches” but, as many of compromised banks have re-issued vulnerable cards, believes that the data may be of limited value. 

“One thing to note here is that quite a few US banks have already re-issued 17.2 million of the cards that were potentially at risk,” she told SCMagazineUK.com. “So the cards in the dump may not be all that useful depending on further analysis of which are still valid. What is more worrying is that the data set includes social security number, name, dates of birth, states, and zip codes, so the risk of ID theft further down the line is very real.”

12 Ways to Improve Your Website Without Completely Overhauling It

What is one simple way I can improve my business website this year without totally overhauling it?

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

1. Try LiveChat

We’ve been using LiveChat on many client projects and absolutely love it. It conquers a few key areas with one app â€" instant sales insights to know what a prospect is most interested in, real-time feedback on what’s confusing with your current site and an easy-to-use messaging system to contact you for support requests if you’re offline.
- Patrick Conley, Automation Heroes

2. Experiment With Video

We found that integrating well-produced videos into a page can dramatically increase conversions. Integrating video is generally simple and can be done without redoing the basic design or navigational structure of your site. Of course, the hard part is generating great video content!
- John Rood, Next Step Test Preparation

3. Create Clear Calls to Action

Many businesses lose customers because they do not provide a clear path for customers to navigate through their websites. Having clear calls to action that explicitly state what you would like the customer to do is an easy way to raise revenue with little work involved. Think about the most important business objectives you have, and then place logical CTA buttons throughout to support the goals.
- Lawrence Watkins, Great Black Speakers

4. Include Testimonials

Putting up customer testimonials greatly improves your conversion rates and social proof. If you can add a few killer testimonials â€" in the form of tweets, videos or quotes â€" it will really increase your business website’s impact.
- Vanessa Van Edwards, Science of People

5. Rewrite Web Copy From Your Customers’ Perspective

So many business websites are written in a language that’s not relevant to their customers. Take a step back and look at your website copy through your customers’ eyes. You should first slash the word count by half, and then rewrite it with an eye for using plain speak versus jargon, put it into their words and facilitate skimming versus reading.
- Leah Neaderthal, Start Somewhere

6. A/B Test Potential Changes

Test out changes before making them with tools such as Visual Website Optimizer orOptimizely. They’re affordable and simple to use. Sometimes, little changes can yield big gains.
- Josh Weiss, Bluegala

7. Upgrade Your Fonts

You’d be surprised how different the same content looks with a few simple font changes. Make an update. Go modern. Websites are trending more toward a brochure style. Up the font size, and use a Google Web font to expand your options. It’s a simple change that yields a big effect. The same content will stand out in the crowd.
- Trevor Sumner, LocalVox

8. Add a Phone Number

Great customer service is critical to creating happy customers. While most startups try to streamline their service with robust FAQs and a “24-hour reply” promise on emails, the most effective way to grow sales is to add a phone number on your site. Make it front and center â€" talk to people when they are on your site and ready to buy!
- Aaron Schwartz, Modify Watches

9. Refresh Your Home Page

Redesign your home page with an eye for user experience. What type of information do new visitors need most? Figure out what resources help users make the best use of your site, and then relocate the links for your most important tools and information to the highest-visibility areas of your main Web page.
- Heather Lopes, EarlyShares

10. Create More White Space

Find ways to create more white space around the most important areas of your website. Chances are, you’ve cluttered areas of your website as new ideas and content have emerged over the years. Take some time to review what is critical to your business and what is not. Remove what isn’t, and find new, cleaner ways to present the refined content.
- Janis Krums, OPPRTUNITY

11. Focus on Conversions

What can you do to improve website conversion? It could mean making a phone number more prevalent on your home page if you’re a service business or making small tweaks to the wording and action items.
- Andrew Fayad, eLearning Mind

12. Pay Attention to Your Analytics

Google Analytics is free and incredibly powerful if you use it correctly. Add the tracking codes to your site, and analyze the data at least twice a month. Pay attention to the customer flow and drop-off rates for each page. Make the pages that have the highest average time easier to find. Analyze the lowest-performing pages and look for ways to make those stickier to keep visitors engaged longer.
- Brittany Hodak, ZinePak

What You Can Learn from the H&R Block Hipster Ad Campaign And Do Low Budget

Hipsters are everywhere these days. They’re a large portion of the Millennial generation and you shouldn’t have any trouble spotting them in public. Their pants are usually too tight, they often sport bizarre haircuts or retro fedoras and the males often sport beards. The ladies don those too-big eyeglasses popular in the 60′s - even if they don’t need them. They’re being “ironic.”

H&R Block is targeting this group in an online video campaign about a supposed “Hipster Tax Crisis.” The online video campaign shows hipsters being interviewed about what they plan to do with their tax returns. If you’ve somehow missed it, here’s the first video:

Of course, the campaign isn’t about a hipster crisis at all. Instead, it’s an attempt to get them to use the service and give H&R Block a new image as a hipper brand ready to reinvent itself, H&R Block’s director of social influence Scott Gulbransen explained to the New York Times:

“[They] look at us and say, ‘That’s my dad’s, my granddad’s tax company.’ And our competition, TurboTax, is a little more hip, if you will.”

So what can small businesses learn from a large, well-established business launching a huge re-branding campaign?

Well, you don’t need to hire big names like ESPN’s Kenny Mayne or spend close to a half-million dollars to make an impact.

Below are some of the basics any business can employ to create a campaign that resonates.

Use Video to Connect With Your Target Audience

While H&R Block may not necessarily get a flood of hipsters to begin using their services this tax season, the company stands to gain some new customers who may have overlooked it in the past. When it comes time to prepare your taxes, people who haven’t decided on a tax prep service will likely remember these rather comical ads.

Creating a memorable online video, humorous or otherwise, doesn’t need to break the bank, either. Remember this recent video that elevated fashion startup Wren. Done for just $1,300, it has amassed more than 64 million views on YouTube in just 10 days.

Use Hashtags to Help People Track the Conversation

The new campaign uses #HipsterTax to help others follow the conversation on Twitter and other social media.

You can do something similar by using a promoted hashtage to encourage others to share, follow and add to the conversation in social media.

Boost Engagement and Measure Impact

H&R Block also set up a special website, Hipster Tax Crisis, and is encouraging viewers to share videos from the campaign at the site during the 2014 tax season. In return the company says it will make a donation to Covenant House, an organization for homeless youths.

You can encourage similar sharing among your target audience as a way to increase engagement with your message and measure overall impact. It’s an easy way to determine whether your audience is really paying attention.

Microsoft rushes out fix for zero-day Word flaw

March 25, 2014

Microsoft has rushed out a quick fix for a Microsoft Word zero-day flaw that is now being used in cyber-crime attacks.

The previously unknown vulnerability was discovered by members of Google's Security team and reported to Microsoft. It is a nasty ‘drive-by' bug that can infect a Word user who simply looks at an email in their Outlook preview pane - they don't have to open any attachment or click on any link.

The remote code execution bug enables an attacker to gain the same privileges as the legitimate user and so access corporate networks. It works by getting Word users to open a specially doctored Rich Text Format (RTF) file, or to view/open a specially crafted mail in Outlook while using Microsoft Word as their email viewer.

The bug is present in multiple Word versions - on Mac platforms as well as Windows. Microsoft has so far seen “limited targeted attacks directed at MS Word 2010” but the vulnerable software includes Word 2003, 2007 and 2013, and MS Office for Mac 2011.

The flaw can also be exploited through Outlook when the user has Word as their email viewer - and Word is the default email reader in Outlook 2007, 2010 and 2013.

Security expert Adrian Culley, a global technical consultant with Damballa, believes the bug has likely been used by cyber-criminals for some time.

He told SCMagazineUK.com via email: “This vulnerability gives an attacker full access to the machine at the same privilege level as the current user and has been in the wild for some time. Unfortunately the term zero-day is rarely very helpful, as it begs the question zero-day for whom? Certainly not for the attacker who, more often than not, may have been exploiting particular vulnerabilities for months if not years."

Microsoft says it is “working on a security update to address this issue“ - likely to be released on a future ‘Patch Tuesday' - but is urging users to adopt its quick-fix which is available here. This prevents Word users from opening RTF files.

In its 24 March security advisory admitting the flaw, Microsoft adds: “The Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) also helps to defend against this vulnerability when configured to work with Office software.” EMET 4.1 with recommended settings is already suitably configured. Microsoft also shows users how to read all emails in plain text (not using Word).

Security specialist Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys, confirmed in an email to journalists that “to work with plain text in emails is generally a recommended safeguard that prevents the ‘drive-by' characters of these types of attacks”.

Culley added: “The vulnerability that this exploit relates to is alarming as it involved RTF format text, which is very common. Microsoft has chosen to issue an out-of-cycle patch for this, which everyone would be well advised to download and install as soon as possible.”

In its advisory, Microsoft details how the bug can be exploited: “In a web-based attack scenario, an attacker could host a website that contains a web page that contains a specially crafted RTF file that is used to attempt to exploit this vulnerability. In addition, compromised websites and websites that accept or host user-provided content or advertisements could contain specially crafted content that could exploit this vulnerability.”

But Microsoft adds: “In all cases an attacker would have no way to force users to visit these websites. Instead, an attacker would have to convince users to visit the website, typically by getting them to click a link in an email message or Instant Messenger message that takes users to the attacker's website”.

The company's public admission of the flaw is bound to increase the risk to users who do not react. Microsoft confirmed: “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user. Customers whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than those who operate with administrative user rights.”

Microsoft credits Google's Drew Hintz, Shane Huntley and Matty Pellegrino with discovering the Word RTF memory corruption vulnerability, CVE-2014-1761.

Need a Business Loan? Get In Bed with Your Banker

Most small businesses still need banks. They provide valuable financial services daily for companies. Banks can still be a major source of capital for the promising business.

How do you make sure that they are there when you need them?

Get your business in bed with your banker! While this many not conjure up a pleasant image, it must be part of your strategy. Getting the banker to know your company’s capital requirements must be established far in advance of when you may need them. Here is what to do and why it works:

Establish Yourself as a Customer

Open checking and money market accounts at the bank. Use their merchant, ACH and wire services. Pay fees to use their services.

Why it works: Bank employees are trained to help customers and you want to be a part of that group as soon as possible.

Go Into the Bank Weekly

Be seen at the bank and get to know the branch manager and key staff. Visit at least a few times a month. Talk to them about the bank, their family and your business.

Why it works: People do business with other people they know, like, and trust.

Participate in Common Community Events

Go to the events that the banks sponsors locally. Show support for their causes. Get on joint committees.

Why it works: You can demonstrate what it is like to work with you and share a common goal.

Share the Progress of Your Company

Sit down with loan officers before capital is needed. Show them your sales and profit projections. Impress them with your knowledge of the financial statements. Revisit them when you make progress toward your goals.

Why it works: Numbers are power. They are easy to take to a loan committee. Bankers trust business people that understand them.

Get a Small Loan

This may be a home equity loan (or similar secured asset) to be used by your company. Pay the loan back on time and then try to increase it.

Why it works: This builds a reputable track record the bank can reference.

Keep Your Personal Credit Score High (and Dunn and Bradstreet Number)

Bankers like numbers that increase.

Why it works: A high credit score will show that you can be trusted to borrow money. They believe that past performance predicts the future.

Bring More Customers to the Bank

Everyone loves referrals. Be responsible in helping the bank grow their business.

Why it works: If you help them, they are more likely to help you.

Go for the Big Ask

It’s time to apply for the bigger loan for your company. This can be a term note or line of credit.

Why it works: Because the bank now trusts you and your company.

How have you got a banker in bed with you to get a loan?

This article, provided by Nextiva, is republished through a content distribution agreement. The original can be found here.

Banker Photo via Shutterstock

Cyber black markets get upper hand

March 25, 2014

Cyber attackers now outgun defenders according to a new report out today looking at the multi-billion-dollar cyber criminal black economy and its infrastructure.

The way to defend against such an organised opponent is to hit their economic viability, increase the effort and expense of exfiltrating  valuable data, IP and cash, and increase the likelihood of criminals getting caught says the report ‘Markets for Cybercrime Tools and Stolen Data: Hackers' Bazaar ‘ by Rand Corporation for Juniper Networks.

Mark Quartermaine, vice president UK and Ireland, Juniper Networks told SCMagazineUK.com, “In the early days of hacking, 80 percent of hackers were solo operators; now its 80 percent who are organised (within a community) with all the attributes of a mature economy, with robust infrastructure and social organisation.” This includes sophistication of tools, attacks and responsiveness to changes in the market; specialists focussing on particular ‘skills'; reliability of practitioners to deliver as promised; and accessibility with a low cost of entry.

Evolution of the cyber black markets mirror other free markets with both innovation and growth.  Like a metropolis, the black market is described by Rand as a collection of skilled and unskilled suppliers, vendors, potential buyers, and intermediaries for goods or services surrounding digitally based crimes.

Storefronts range from instant messaging chat channels, forums and bulletin boards, to sophisticated stores (not unlike an Amazon.com)

Service Economy - Criminal services are available from the hacker economy.

Rule of Law -Many parts of the cyber black markets are well structured, policed and have rules and those who scam others are regularly banned. As cybercriminals move up the chain, there is an extensive vetting process to participate.

Education and Training-Widely available tools and resources teach people how to hack, including YouTube videos and Google guides on topics such as exploit kits and where to buy credit cards.

Currencies -Transactions are often conducted by means of digital currencies. Bitcoin, Pecunix, AlertPay, PPcoin, Litecoin, Feathercoin, and Bitcoin extensions, such as Zerocoin are discussed.

Diversification/specialisation -Cybercriminals from China, Latin America and Eastern Europe are typically known for quantity in malware attacks, those from Russia tend to be thought of as the leader in quality. Many Vietnamese cybercriminals mainly focus on e-commerce hacks. Cybercriminals from Russia, Romania, Lithuania and Ukraine focus on financial institutions. Many Chinese cybercriminals specialise in intellectual property. And US-based cybercriminals primarily target US-based systems and target financial systems.

Hierarchal Society- Getting to the top requires personal connections, but those at the top are making the lion's share of the money.

Criminals - Criminal cyber black market criminals, known as “rippers,” do not provide the goods or services they claim.

Other observations include that:

The cyber back market is seen as more valuable than the drug trade as the ‘product' is so easy to transport internationally - unlike drugs -  and the revenue is gathered more securely with fewer intermediaries and far lower barriers to expansion.

UK credit card credentials are more valuable than American ones as, not being signature based thanks to Chip and Pin, they have a longer life and higher credit balances.

Twitter credentials are increasing in value as they provide access to paypal etc,

Asked about the option of retaliation, Quartermaine told SCMagazineUK.com “Jupiter has chosen not to go down that route and prefers to enable actions that make it no longer economically viable.  We are looking at how to disrupt the market, identify bad behaviour of hacker and guide them (attackers) to false data, false code.  (Using our tools) We can be reasonably certain of identifying the actions of a bad actor whereas previously there may have been more false positives."

Commenting on the findings, an unnamed spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium agreed on the need to tackle the growing menace of online fraud, telling  SCMagazineUK.com, “Most fraud is now committed online and the majority of retailers suffered some form of cyber attack in 2012-13. There has to be a more effective, joined up law enforcement response to cyber crime. Retailers already invest considerable resources to protect their businesses and want to work with the National Crime Agency, police and others to help tackle the cyber threat."

And its not all gloom as the report also notes how law enforcement agencies are also getting more sophisticated in their defences.  And for organisations, active defence approaches like intrusion deception to actively identify, disrupt and frustrate attackers and waste a criminal's time or make the exploit tools they purchased on the black market ineffective. Other options include inserting fake data as tar traps or hacking forums to flood the market and breed distrust among actors.  Overall these measures may make your organisation less vulnerable, but they do not reduce the market, they just send the attackers to weaker targets.

Zimbra Launches Freemium Version of Its Community Software to Appeal to Small Businesses

Zimbra, creator of collaborative and social software for businesses, has announced that its new Zimbra Community 8.0 will include a freemium version. It will be free for  businesses and organizations up to 50 users.

Zinbra’s software is already used by about 3,000 companies worldwide, the company says. Those companies include names like Mozilla and Vodafone.  The free version of the software is available to any small business that wants it. But the company is also promoting a 60 day free trial of the paid Standard and Professional editions. The hope is that the free version will entice businesses to start using Zimbra. These companies might then eventually upgrade to one of the paid versions.

The free version includes blogging, forums, Wikis, events sections, polls, file galleries, messaging services, chat, public and private groups, drag and drop page design tools, social media tools and email integration among other features.

But it doesn’t include premium features like custom reports and dashboards.

You can check the Zimbra website to learn more about the differences between the new feemium version of Zimbra and the software’s paid versions.

Businesses where many employees telecommute, or perhaps live in various countries â€" or half  way  around the world â€" might use Zimbra’s freemium or paid services to tie their team together. The software lets a team be in constant contact even over great distances. It also may make it easier for the team to work together, enabling your staff to communicate quickly and easily without lengthy meetings. The company also says the software will keep track of projects, keep up with company news, and much more.

The package, when downloaded, runs on Zimbra’s servers in the cloud. The company assures customers Zimbra will be free of downtime. And you can keep sensitive business information on your Zimbra community. The company claims its security makes customer information on its servers safe.