Who tracks you online – and can you stop them?

Who tracks you – Living in a connected world sucks sometimes. By browsing the Internet we are exposed to thousands of the unseen and unknown tracking technologies connecting you and your browser data to companies across the globe. What do they do this for? Well, they can customize how they target you with ads and communications, they can analyze your browsing behavior, and integrate their own third-party web browser technology. These trackers generally slow down page load times as they transmit and download data, increase clutter on websites with ads and pop-ups, and often put your information at risk as they share your browsing behavior with other companies.

This is happening hundreds of times a week, thousands of times a month on all your devices. There are many third-party companies which will allow you to block most tracking software. Take a moment if you haven’t done that yet and do a little tiny bit of research. In the long run it will pay off.

Track your e-mail campaigns with real-time data

e-mail campaigns – It may seem like once you’ve gone through the process of preparing content and images, designing and sending your e-mail campaign that the work is done, but it’s only just begun. Moments after you hit send on your e-mail campaign data is starting to be collected and categorized.

For nearly 15 years Constant Contact has been our e-mail marketing partner primarily because of it’s ease of use and it’s awesome reporting system.

The overview report provides the data results in a one-sheet format. It displays the number of contacts you sent your campaign to, the open rate, bounce rate, SPAM notices and click though rates.

From the overview report you can click on the open rate and see specifically who opened the e-mail and the exact time that they opened the e-mail. Click on the bounces and view the contacts that bounced as well as the reason for the bounce. Click through rates will allow you to view the hyperlinks within your e-mail and the contacts that clicked on those links. All of this data is critical in keeping an up-to-date database of contacts.

Spear Phishing campaigns

Spear Phishing campaigns – You have received them in your inbox all the time, “open attached, invoice attached,” Emails from people you do not know and sometimes from companies you do business with, be careful what you open. A few simple steps you can take to make sure you’re not a victim or malware of phishing are:
1. Make sure you have virus protection installed and up to date.
2. Don’t click on links you do not recognize.
3. Hover over the link and make sure the links matches the email description.
4. If you know the person email them back from a new email requesting confirmation.
5. Delete the email ASAP.
These simple steps you can take to add an extra level of protection. Also, remember to update and back up your computer files every day.