Discussion is rife among critics across the world on the differences inherent in services marketing as opposed to traditional product marketing. Whilst some argue that they should be approached in a similar manner, the majority acknowledge the differing approaches required for the successful execution of  either in their respective markets. However, a clear cut strategy is made much more difficult when the lines between product and service become blurred. For instance, it’s reasonable to assume that a company with a cloud ‘product’, which is referred to and primarily marketed as a service, would address their marketing strategy differently from those companies which fall neatly into the traditional product or service box?

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Allowing unwanted email to reach your organisation goes beyond the issue of hindering productivity. There are now laws on both sides of the Atlantic to expose employers to charges of liability and harassment. These charges can be brought even if the harassment comes from a faceless, unknown global Spammer. Being ‘unaware’ of having to shield your employees is no excuse in the eyes of the law and taking such issues lightly with a low-end solution for Viruses, Spam, Sexually Explicit Material and Unwelcome Content will not protect employers from litigation.

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It’s ONLY 49days, 15hours and 34mins to Christmas!!! Well at least it was when I started this blog, but you get the gist, it’s that time of year again. The pandemonium is descending upon us as quickly as the associated bills will flood many hall floors in January.

Love it or hate it, the festive season is very hard to avoid particularly if you intend doing any sort of shopping. It’s a retailers dream Christmas, a huge percentage of the population all buying mindlessly at once, so I suppose you can’t really blame them for shoving it in our faces before the last apple has been bobbed for… however if you’ve opted to avoid the total madness of the shops and opted for the peace of shopping online, then take note of the following and don’t run the risk of online security forcing you to adopt a wholly bah humbug opinion of the festive season!

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I’m forever going on about how great social media is for both promoting businesses and researching the market and I totally stand by this. However with so much variety out there it can be difficult to generate the volume of followers that supposedly scream popularity or worthiness (naive I know that filling your page with irrelevant followers that will never do business with you can actually boost your status but that appears to be the trend).

In order to achieve high volume traffic to your social media platform I have come across numerous different hints n tips to ‘reach 500 followers’ or ‘get more followers’, most of which involve paying to advertise your page or spamming other peoples pages until they know who you are… not the best first impression to make especially if your business is in spam filtering.

I’m not a big fan of these methods but I understand the necessity that’s placed on them by the pressure of appearing popular. However I have to say that personally the biggest hook I have come across to date was on PR guru Paul green’s twitter page… and I fell hook and line.

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I think it’s fair to say that the land of IT may as well have its own flag because they’ve already got the ITenian language all sewn up!

Ok so every specialised industry has its own words and phrases directly relating to what they do. However, what we have to understand with regard to IT and in particular online security, is that it affects everyone who opens up an internet browser whether that be for work, to chat with friends, gaming, shopping, sharing pictures, learning or general browsing. It’s safe to say that not everyone who spends time online are IT security experts which means when they decide they need to protect themselves online, the jargon that gets thrown around can be pretty confusing.

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You walk into a shop, you want to buy a bar of chocolate, you’ve nothing in mind when you go in so you stand in the confectionary aisle staring at the rows and rows of options. Ok, it’s not a big purchase but it still requires a decision making process. So what do you base your selection upon? …recognition of a favourite brand, fancy packaging, a new product which you’ve seen on the telly or a special 2 for 1 offer! Subliminally your brain probably covers most of these options on some level and to be fair 90% of the time the old favourite will win.

But what if you’re a newbie trying to break through. Position yourself as the manufacturer and consider then how you break through to be the chosen one…. brand loyalty level isn’t quite so high for fast moving consumer goods, so tactics involving price, promotion, packaging and all those selling aids can easily overcome loyalty when creatively implemented! The benefit with pitching your sale as a physical product is that the customer can see exactly what they are buying and the benefit at the point of purchase, which is the major preference make up of most of the population. Selling a less tangible product or indeed a service such as email security presents much more of a challenge.

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Selling SaaS can prove a challenge to businesses due to the service nature of the offering. All services can represent marketing challenges for organisations given their intangible nature. The average consumer is much more market savvy and the core service offering supplied by the business is now not enough. Instead customers are looking to the added value of the peripheral services that are additional to their purchase, such as 24/7 technical support, first language technicians, accompanying data sheets, promotional add on and overall a more tailored offering.

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Software as a service (SaaS), sometimes referred to as “software on demand,” is software that is deployed over the internet and/or is deployed to run behind a firewall on a local area network or personal computer. With SaaS, a provider licenses an application to customers as a service on demand; through a subscription or a “pay-as-you-go” model.

So what is it about SaaS that makes businesses weary about introducing it to their sales model? They’re afraid SaaS will ruin their business, be an added drain on resources and ending up costing them in time and money. Sound familiar? But this should never be the case MORE