Content management systems (CMS) are a dime a dozen and selecting the right solution for your next website can be challenging. They have become a commodity and being able to objectively evaluate one versus another is hard. All of them do the same thing and when you’re done you will have a fully functional website that will hopefully serve your needs. What sets them apart are their processes. Specifically, how they empower you and your team to build and maintain your website. It’s these differences like licensing, installation, front-end coding, content construction, user management, extension and maintenance that you should focus on when comparing one system with another.
In this post we’ll use these factors to investigate the differences between two popular content management systems on the market today: ExpressionEngine and WordPress.
Licensing
Before wading in to the features and how-to’s of each system you first need to look at their licensing. Are they open source or propriety? If open source, what license do they use? Any commercial limitations? If proprietary, do you have access to the source code? Are there ongoing expenses beyond the initial licensing fee? How much does it cost? It’s important to answer these questions first and make sure the answers jive with your organizations’ rules and regulations before deciding to move ahead with any particular system. You have access to the full source code and there are no ongoing licensing costs or restrictions.
WordPress is one of the most, if not the most, popular CMSs on the market today due in large part to its open source license. Users are free to use and/or modify WordPress for any personal or commercial project without restriction. ExpressionEngine is built on LAMP technologies, just like WordPress, but is closed source and propriety. Users can purchase it for a one-time fee but will need to ensure they continue to use it within any requisite license restrictions.
Installation
Before you can start using either CMS you first need to install them on your server and run any necessary updates. WordPress and ExpressionEngine are both very straightforward and simple to install. WordPress has its famous “5-minute install” process as well as plenty of automated install options offered by hosting providers. ExpressionEngine’s install process doesn’t get as much hype, or have as many automated options, but it is equally straightforward to get up and running. The primary difference is that WordPress requires less IT support and resources where ExpressionEngine will likely require a helping hand from IT to get up and running.
Front-end Coding
When it comes to writing the HTML, CSS and JavaScript of your site, content management systems offer two clear options: those that are theme based and those that are template based. Theme based CMSs, like WordPress, are more plug-and-play and modularized. You can easily purchase pre-made designs and be up and running in a matter of minutes. Template based CMSs, like ExpressionEngine, provide developers with easier workflows and lower learning curves but are not as modular, making it more difficult to find available plug-and-play front-end components. This is important to consider when determining what kinds of internal technology resources you will have to work on your project. It is important to ask yourself which will they be more comfortable working with?
Content Construction
How does the CMS manage the content? All systems tend to work off a content categorization concept that closely resembles the information architecture of your website. Meaning that if your site has a news section, you will likely have a news content type or category where all content matching that footprint should be placed. Out of the box, WordPress provides two content types: posts and pages. Posts are meant for “dynamic content” or content where content will be added or changed often and pages are for “static content” which doesn’t change. ExpressionEngine provides a different set-up out of the box, allowing administrators to create their own completely custom content types in the admin area which tends to keep things a little more organized and straightforward for website managers.
It’s worth mentioning that WordPress allows for the creation of custom post types, which creates a very similar kind of workflow to ExpressionEngines. However, this functionality needs to either be defined within the theme (by a developer) for each post type or enabled by installing a plug-in which allows administrators to create custom post types and fields through the control panel.
User Management
Will visitors be able to register for an account on your website? Manage a profile or configure account settings? These are common features on a lot of websites today and using a CMS that provides a framework for this out of the box can save time and money. Both WordPress and ExpressionEngine have user registration capabilities but offer different levels of configuration. WordPress’ approach is limited out of the box requiring users to use the CMS log-in screen, not providing much in the way of user profiles or other capabilities. ExpressionEngines user management functionality is extensive and highly customizable, allowing administrators to create custom profile fields, custom log-in pages/workflows and additional advanced features.
Extension
Your website is unique and as such will likely require whatever CMS you choose to be modified slightly to fit your needs. Can this be done easily or will developers have to hack in to the core code of the system causing all sorts of headaches in the future? Both WordPress and ExpressionEngine provide robust extension options empowering developers to modify both front-end and control panel look, feed and functionality. WordPress plug-ins can be written to change everything from the CMS log-in process to how content is passed to the front-end of your site independently from the core code. Same for ExpressionEngine, where developers have the option of developing modules, plug-ins, extensions, accessories or field types without interfering with the core system code.
Maintenance
You should always be keeping the concept of maintenance, as in “how much will this solution cost to maintain?”, in the back of your mind. Beyond the strictly financial cost there is also staff time and required skill level to consider as well. It’s very important that your CMS be updated and maintained on a regular basis to keep your website secure and ensure everything is working correctly. WordPress has the clear upper hand when it comes to updates and maintenance as it’s largely automated. The system will, from time to time, automatically install minor updates to ensure your install remains current. But other major updates can be completed with one click and little to no IT intervention. ExpressionEngines update process is much more traditional and requires IT intervention throughout.
Picking a content management system today is hard. Trying to filter through the marketing lingo and hype to find the right solution for your organization is difficult but extremely important. The next time you find yourself in the CMS isle of the Internet superstore try using some of the above criteria to help you choose the right software for your project.
Need help with a content management or other digital marketing project. Please contact us.
As trends and technologies continue to accelerate at a pace faster than many marketers can match, the New Year is going to provide even more challenges for business-to-business marketers. With that in mind, here are what I believe are the top five most essential strategies you need to consider for 2015.
Omni-Channel Marketing
B2B marketers have been disproportionately focused on the shiny new marketing toy du jour – from mobile to display to social media to content marketing and back to mobile. With the rapid growth of digital consumption and what seems like the daily proliferation of social media channels, marketers are faced with more choices than ever when considering how they want to reach the business customer.
With each choice comes a certain amount of risk as marketers choosing to put a heavy investment in one channel may miss the untapped potential of another. This leaves a smaller margin for error as highly informed business consumers have become acutely aware of how to seek out information across a myriad of interactive channels, poll their networks and complete transactions.
Any effective B2B marketing strategy for 2015 should be one that integrates every channel across every device. This approach requires marketers – with the help of their agency – to understand the experience the customer is seeking when interacting with their brand. Omni-channel is a reflection of the wide variety of choices that customers have in how they engage a brand. The successful brand will enable their prospects to use all of the available channels.
Micro-Targeting
The proliferation of mobile, search and social analytics give us marketers all the tools we need to develop custom B2B strategies to hyper-target target customers with surgical precision – allowing us carve out the waste of traditional print and broadcast media and touch each prospect with the near intimacy of a one-to-one conversation.
Critical to creating these targeted messages is knowing who you’re talking to. Developing buyer personas allows you to craft and aim your marketing messaging with a higher degree of accuracy. As a digital-first agency, every campaign we develop is informed by the buyer personas of our clients. We look to yield as much information on these personas as possible, honing in on attributes such as their challenges, goals, background and the channels they use to research their decisions.
Committing to persona development lets you deep dive into needs, lifestyle, and motivations of your buyers. The work is well worth the results, which is the ability to construct more relevant content strategies throughout the buying cycle, post-purchase efforts, and account-based marketing activities. The more we understand their pains, the better we can create content that will point them in the right direction to address that pain.
Social Advertising
A dramatic shift has already begun towards paid social media advertising, a result of the decline in organic reach as social networks surge in popularity. This is a natural result of the growing competition for audience across these social platforms from bigger brands with more resources to spend on both organic and paid social.
As social networks and large publishers move away from earned media and towards paid media, B2B marketing teams will have to spend more time – and money – investing in paid or sponsored placements to engage hard-to-reach business targets. Changes to the Facebook algorithm in late 2013 have already produced a 44 percent decline in non-sponsored brand content in users’ newsfeeds. LinkedIn, Twitter, and even Pinterest now offer sponsored content placements and ads that promise specific reach.
The days of free social exposure are over and the only way to gain mindshare over the competition is to establish a budget to supplement your organic storytelling.
The key is to invest in those social properties that are working best for you and reinforce posts with strong calls to action (CTAs) and other supporting elements. For example, rather than embedding a link to a whitepaper download in the post, send interested users to a content landing page to extend the conversation. Then split test CTAs so you can get the right piece, in the right place, at the right time to further optimize every dollar spent.
Mobile
With more than 50 percent of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, B2B marketers must keep in mind that business prospects are still the same consumers outside of work that expect the same kind of omni-channel access to the types of digital experiences that consumer brands offer.
As B2B marketers, our challenge is to create these digital experiences to fit the preferences and needs of our buyer persona. More and more B2b brands are achieving omni-channel success with highly targeted digital properties that speak to very specific business users. And these efforts aren’t just flashy websites. They fold in mobile-optimized elements, offline activities and dynamic content offers to round out the personalized digital experience.
The key is to consider a “mobile-first” digital strategy so that it incorporates the totality of your content marketing and distribution strategy into dynamic display technology that adjusts content offers and image sizes based on the users’ screen resolution. Mobile is quickly becoming the hotbed of engagement in B2B marketing – if there is one race where you don’t want to get left behind – this is it.
High-Quality Visual Content
As brands turn into publishers, their content needs will span beyond grammatical accuracy and into the finer points of writing compelling copy adaptable across omni-channel platforms, crafted to resonate with the hyper-targeted personas we talked about above.
We are in an age of visual content where the need for well-crafted copy and visuals goes hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, one of the content marketers’ consistent pain points is not being able to produce enough to fill their content pipelines. This has lead forward-thinking marketers to seek out experienced agencies that specialize in creating masterfully written and visually gorgeous content specific to their buyer persona.
To do this most effectively, you must develop in-depth creative briefs with documentation that provides a complete view of what you’re trying to accomplish. Why?
- Articles with images get 94 percent more total views
- Including a Photo and a video in a press release increases views by over 45 percent
- Sixty percent of buyers are more likely to consider or contact a business when an image shows up in a search result
- Sixty-seven percent of online buyers say the quality of a product image is “very important” in selecting a brand or purchasing a product
- Online buyers think that the quality of a products image is more important than product-specific information (63 percent), a long description (54 percent) and ratings and reviews (53 percent)
- There is a 37 percent higher level of engagement for photos over pure text
When it comes to marketing and communications, government contractors and public sector IT providers face a set of unique challenges. For one, the customer base of Federal, state and local decision makers responsible for purchasing technology products and services – ranging from CIOs and CTOs to program managers, IT managers and procurement officers –represents a finite group that can be difficult to reach.
Compounding this predicament is the fact that government contractors must not only market their brand, product and services to these decision makers, but also time these marketing efforts strategically. This means building awareness far enough in advance of a contract award, and then sustaining marketing and PR efforts throughout what can be a multi-year process from pre-RFP to the contract award – and even beyond due to potential contract protests, delays and budgetary obstacles.
Marketing to agency decision makers is just one piece of the puzzle. For small to mid-sized contractors, marketing and public relations efforts must often extend to larger prime contractors in order to ensure these lesser-known firms are on the radar when Primes are assembling teams to pursue contracts. Large contractors, for their part, must also market needs and capabilities to smaller partners that might hold an elusive product/service, market expertise, status or agency relationship.
We have assembled 6 ways that forward-thinking contractors and IT providers can grow their business and contract opportunities by looking beyond traditional marketing, advertising and public relations tactics.
Leverage responsive landing pages
esponsive design is a critical website approach for providing customers with a seamless experience across all device sizes. With a responsive website, government contractors and IT providers can be in front of buyers at every step of their online journey. A user viewing a website on the go via a mobile device can have the same powerful experience as when sitting in their office.
Responsive websites provide continuity between different viewing contexts, remaining completely agnostic to the type of device used and the size of the screen the user has. Responsive websites also rank higher in search engines’ rankings, as Google recommends responsive web design because having a single URL for desktop and mobile sites makes it easier for Google to discover content and for Google’s algorithms – which are constantly changing – to assign indexing properties to content.
It was the need for a responsive website that brought GovDelivery, which enables public sector organizations to connect with more people and to get those people to act, to Bluetext.
As the number one referrer of traffic to hundreds of government websites, including IRS.gov, SBA.gov, FEMA.gov, IN.gov, and BART.gov, the GovDelivery Communications Cloud is an enterprise-class, cloud-based platform that allows government organizations to create and send billions of messages to more than 60 million people around the world. Bluetext was hired by GovDelivery to help them reach public sector organizations that can benefit with tremendous cost savings while reaching more people, automating complex communications and driving mission value through deeper engagement with the public.
For this responsive design project, Bluetext conceived and designed a responsive landing page with an infographic demonstrating the benefits of using GovDelivery for government agencies as the centerpiece of the campaign. We also developed a responsive email template and infographic poster to be used across many marketing channels.
Extend reach and share budget with partner campaigns
While going it alone from a marketing and public relations perspective provides a company with more control over a campaign, it also can be costly and restrict the reach and impact that could otherwise be achieved by aligning in an innovative way with industry partners.
Bluetext has worked on numerous occasions with industry partners that align around a specific campaign targeting government decision makers. Govplace, a leading enterprise IT solutions provider exclusively to the public sector, turned to Bluetext to develop FedInnovation, a destination designed to help government agency executives get the latest information on current technology challenges and solutions for big data, cloud, security, mobility and storage. Developed in conjunction with leading technology providers including Dell, Intel Security and VMWare, it includes exclusive content, videos, blogs, and real-time social feeds.
FedInnovation combines relevant, fresh content, complementary offers, and financial resources to deliver an educational platform to drive awareness and leads for Govplace across its target market. The development of platforms is a continued focus for Bluetext as we look to conceptualize, design and develop creative solutions that deliver measurable business impact for our clients. It is increasingly clear that customers of our clients demand unique experiences with premium content delivered in an easy to consume manner.
Another partner campaign targeting U.S. public sector executed by Bluetext was FutureAgency.com, a digital content experience effort on behalf of McAfee and Intel that depicted virtually a “future government agency.” For this project, Bluetext created a virtual experience around client subject matter experts in an effort to present content for government decision makers in a more engaging fashion. Rather than static white papers and marketing slicks that often go unread or unfinished, Bluetext created an experience whereby avatars of actual company thought leaders were created, and they delivered presentations on topics in a virtual conference environment. The clients found length and quality of site visitor engagement superior to that of traditional white papers and similar content.
Create compelling digital experiences to reach decision makers
The web has become a go-to resource for decision makers to research products and services prior to purchase. Product sheets, white papers and other pieces of online collateral can be useful supporting resources for government decision makers, but will hardly help contractors stand out in a crowded marketplace.
Recognizing this, government contractors and IT providers are creating more dynamic, immersive digital experiences that can more effectively engage target constituencies and impact the decision making process. Additionally, these experiences are molded to be as valuable as any in-person interaction site visitors would have with products and services.
A recent Bluetext project showcases a forward-thinking technology provider, CSC, which was seeking to ensure prospective customers could have a similar experience as they would if they were physically at CSC’s corporate headquarters.
Bluetext designed and built CSC’s Digital Briefing Center, a virtual experience where clients and CSC’s entire ecosystem can come to learn about CSC’s key technology conversations across its target verticals.
Bluetext designed a virtual office building where each floor represents a specific vertical industry, and visitors can learn about CSC’s key solutions and experience across cloud computing, big data, applications, cyber security, and mobility. While not specific to the government market, it is indicative of how “stickier” digital experiences are reshaping how existing and prospective customers interact with content.
Highlight customer innovation
No matter how large or well-known a government contractor/Federal IT provider is, gaining approval from an agency to speak publicly about a technology project is often mission impossible. Agencies must be careful not to appear to endorse a specific vendor in public comments or a press release quote, and even when project leaders are amenable, the process often grinds to a halt with the more conservative public affairs officers.
As such, vendors often have their hands tied on how to showcase a successful project so that other agencies – or even other decision makers within the same agency – will take notice. An approach that can bear more fruit involves shining the spotlight on an agency leader or the agency itself through awards and speaking opportunities.
Multiple editorial publications and associations hold annual award programs that showcase outstanding IT projects and agency leaders at the federal, state and local government level. Agencies tend to be more open to sharing an IT story through an award because it demonstrates innovation and can assist with employee morale and retention.
Beyond award programs, there is also significant benefit in generating media coverage and awareness of state & local customer projects. These agency customers tend to be more amenable to participating in public relations campaigns, and the drawing attention to these projects can demonstrate capabilities to prospective Federal customers as well.
Develop targeted campaign to pursue a specific contract
As contractors and IT providers know all too well, winning an agency contract requires a very different sales cycle than a small business user signing up online for Dropbox or a similar “as-a-Service” software offering.
At some level, there will always be marketing activities designed to reach decision-makers across multiple civilian or military agencies – and in some cases both segments. These external efforts may involve communicating product capabilities, service chops, or the expertise of the contractor’s team. But in today’s hyper-competitive market for agency contracts, developing innovative, targeted campaigns in pursuit of a specific contract or that are designed to reach decision makers at a particular agency, can make the difference between a game-changing contract win and a devastating loss.
Bluetext is increasingly tasked to partner with contractors in developing innovative branding and outreach campaigns around a specific contract pursuit. In early 2014, L-3 Communications, in partnership with Harris Corporation, hired Bluetext to help them pursue the Air Force’s $1B Satellite Control Network (AFSCN) Modifications, Maintenance & Operations (CAMMO) Contract.
Bluetext worked with the L-3/Harris Capture teams to develop a campaign strategy that would position them as a Prime by highlighting the many advantages they bring to the table. The overarching campaign theme Bluetext developed is:
“The Power of Partnership, From Vision to Reality”
The creative strategy of this project began with the core concept of the ad, “from vision to reality.” The left side of the ad is a wireframe representing the vision with the right side representing its reality. After the wireframe of the satellite was created, it was overlaid on top of the red diagonal to create a striking visual element to draw attention to the campaign. The first series of ads were placed in high visibility areas inside of Colorado Springs Airport, a key travel hub for Air Force brass. The media plan for the campaign also includes online, print and OOH media placed strategically to maximize reach and frequency throughout the entire contract RFP and award lifecycle.
Focus on agency challenge, not yourself
Dramatic changes in staffing and mission of government IT media outlets means that the days of getting a product reviewed or corporate profile written are for the most part a thing of the past. As such, contracts and IT providers must get far more creative when it comes to communicating capabilities.
Government IT press don’t want to hear about products. They want to hear about trends and challenges sweeping through agencies, and how contractors and IT providers are developing solutions to solve those challenges.
This was the backdrop for a media strategy Bluetext architected for Adobe Government. Over the past few years, government-wide budget cuts have been swift and relatively unsparing in their impact on agency in-person conferences and training events. This presented a significant challenge for agencies seeking to maintain the collaboration and education benefits these events delivered.
The challenge dovetailed with Adobe’s web conferencing solution Adobe Connect, which was seeing a rise in demand in the public sector due to pullbacks in physical, in-person conferences. Bluetext built a PR campaign around this angle that included a pair of thought leadership articles (one targeting the broad federal IT community and one targeting military decision makers), generating multiple articles around this topic in key federal, state and local media outlets, including:
Federal Computer Week – Budget cuts push conferences online
Washington Technology – Budget cuts, scandal fuel videoconferencing boom
Federal Computer Week – Could virtual meetings replace conferences in sequestration age?
Defense News – Communicating in an era of canceled conferences
Federal Computer Week – Defense Connect Online hits milestone
State Tech – Mobile Video Conferencing Powers Collaboration on the Go
Federal Computer Week – DOD connects online to cut travel
Government Executive/NextGov – Agencies are saving millions with virtual events
Federal Computer Week – Cutting costs with virtual conferencing
Reaching and impacting government decision makers requires government contractors and IT providers to push beyond the status quo and engage with partners able to help develop and deliver innovative campaigns to grow their business and increase contract opportunities.
Bluetext Survey Shows How Government Executives Make IT Decisions
Survey Results in Federal Computer Week
Federal agencies can be great customers because they remain some of the biggest spenders and their budgets stay fairly stable even during economic downturns. Yet sales and marketing teams used to marketing to consumer or commercial enterprise customers often find that their efforts fall flat in the government space — wasting everyone’s time in the process.
That’s because talking to the government customer can require a different approach, including the channels used to reach that audience and the messages included. Understanding those needs and preferences can help contractors and feds alike.
We recently surveyed 150 top government executives involved in the decision-making process for IT purchases, to understand directly how they get the information that helps inform their purchasing decisions. The results provide a road map for targeting this audience — and a valuable look in the mirror for agency leaders who wonder if there are better ways to gather the information they need.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT FCW.COM
6 Ways Government Contractors Can Use Innovative Digital Marketing and PR Strategies To Win Business
When it comes to marketing and communications, government contractors and public sector IT providers face a set of unique challenges. For one, the customer base of Federal, state and local decision makers responsible for purchasing technology products and services – ranging from CIOs and CTOs to program managers, IT managers and procurement officers –represents a finite group that can be difficult to reach.
Compounding this predicament is the fact that government contractors must not only market their brand, product and services to these decision makers, but also time these marketing efforts strategically. This means building awareness far enough in advance of a contract award, and then sustaining marketing and PR efforts throughout what can be a multi-year process from pre-RFP to the contract award – and even beyond due to potential contract protests, delays and budgetary obstacles.
READ THE FULL BLOG POST HERE:
6 Ways Government Contractors Can Use Innovative Digital Marketing and PR Strategies To Win Business
Federal agencies can be great customers because they remain some of the biggest spenders and their budgets stay fairly stable even during economic downturns. Yet sales and marketing teams used to marketing to consumer or commercial enterprise customers often find that their efforts fall flat in the government space — wasting everyone’s time in the process.
That’s because talking to the government customer can require a different approach, including the channels used to reach that audience and the messages included. Understanding those needs and preferences can help contractors and feds alike.
We recently surveyed 150 top government executives involved in the decision-making process for IT purchases, to understand directly how they get the information that helps inform their purchasing decisions. The results provide a road map for targeting this audience — and a valuable look in the mirror for agency leaders who wonder if there are better ways to gather the information they need.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE AT FCW.COM
Ok, admit it. Marketing these days feels like high school. The cool kids are throwing around new terms every day. As you sit in meetings, meet with agencies and follow “thought leaders” on Twitter, someone uses a new term and you have no idea what it means but don’t want to raise your hand to admit it. You finally feel confident when someone talks about a responsive website, and then they start talking about adaptive response…UGH!
It’s ok. The web, content marketing, digital, inbound, lead scoring, social…they are all changing so fast it is very hard to keep up.
Don’t despair. Here it is. The “I’m No Dummy Guide to Marketing Lingo.” A list of terms that get thrown around all the time that we all wish we knew.
Go ahead…Print it out…Post it on your door… turn it into your own little study guide. You will feel like the smartest kid in class in no time. And let us know if terms are missing as new ones are emerging every day.
2015 is upon us and it’s time to start acting on those resolutions we have set for ourselves in the new year. One goal we should all have on our list is to make sure our websites and networks are as secure as possible. With sources reporting as much as a 75% increase in cyber attacks this past year alone, this is the time to ensure that your company’s website and data is safe and secure. Below is a list of tasks that will help you get a jump start on hackers and ensure that your website starts the year off right.
Update Your CMS
Whether your website is running an open source content management system (e.g. WordPress, Drupal) or a proprietary one (e.g. Adobe CQ5, ExpressionEngine), it’s important that you update your install with the latest releases and patches promptly. Software providers are constantly pushing out updated features and functionality, but you will likely find new and updated security patches and safeguards sprinkled in as well. You should get in the habit of reviewing your software providers change log as new versions are released so you know what security updates are being included.
It’s important to note that updating your CMS can sometimes cause unforeseen issues and should be done on separate copies of your site first, to ensure that they don’t adversely effect your set-up, and then deployed to your live environment.
Maintain Your Server
Your CMS isn’t the only way attackers can gain access to your website. The environment your website is hosted on must also be secured to prevent attackers from gaining access to your websites raw data and files. If you are using a fully managed hosting solution like WordPress VIP or a shared hosting environment like GoDaddy then you are covered as your provider will take care of your servers updates and security for you. However, if you are hosting your site on a cloud environment or dedicated/virtual private server (VPS) then the responsibility is yours.
As with your CMS, your server should also be updated regularly. Operating system patches are constantly being released and should be made to your server on a regular basis. Firewalls (software or hardware) are another good way to protect your servers by giving you fine grained control over who can access your website or server and what they can do. And finally, you should scan your server for vulnerabilities on a regular basis. Attackers commonly scan servers looking for weak spots, like open ports, they can exploit so it’s important for you to have the intel first so you can beat them to the punch.
Restrict Access
Hackers can only attack what they can gain access too. One of the more restrictive, but effective, steps to take is to limit access to your websites server or CMS to select IP addresses. This means that only requests coming from a certain IP (like your offices) will be able to access your websites or servers controls. While this is an effective defense it’s important to mention that most internet access comes from shared IP addresses which means your trusted users won’t be able to access your systems from home or other locations without a dedicated IP.
Create Strong Password Policies
Every user account you create in your CMS or server adds one more potential vulnerability to your infrastructure. Once a hacker has determined a username they can easily run a dictionary attack and determine simple password without much trouble. Make sure that your users are doing their part to keep things secure by creating secure passwords. Policies can be created in most content management systems and servers requiring users create passwords of a certain length, containing symbols and special characters and that don’t contain common terms found in the dictionary.
Review User Permissions
One preventative measure to take, in the event that an attacker gains access to your website posing as one of your users, is to ensure that all users have only the permissions that they need. Too often users are given more permissions than they require to complete their jobs, being assigned admin or greater permissions. While you may trust the user you have given these permissions too, an attacker who gains access to this account now has more than enough permissions to take down your site. When adding users to your system you should always follow the principle of least privilege.
Enable Dual Factor Authentication
As an added layer of protection on the user side you should also enable dual factor or two-step authentication. Enabling this requires that users not only enter a password but also provide an additional credential (typically a numerical code) which is sent to them via SMS or email before gaining access. This requires that attackers posing as recognized users must also have access to that users phone or email account in addition to their password. Many content management systems have modules or plug-ins available for this or you can use a full service provider like Duo.
The DC tech startup community has a chip on its shoulder. That’s not a bad thing; it motivates entrepreneurs and area leaders committed to advancing the interests of the DC tech community to fight for respect. This respect can assume many forms, including funding, an available pool of highly educated, skilled workers, or just positive publicity and attention relative to Silicon Valley, New York, Boston and other tech hubs that seem to glisten more in the eyes of venture capitalists and industry pontificators.
As I networked and dined at MAVA’s annual holiday luncheon last week and reflected on the week that was in the local tech space, a scene from Jerry Maguire popped into my head. It was when Tom Cruise and Kelly Preston feed each other breakfast in the buff. Ok, that’s not the scene, but figured I’d throw it in there to make sure everyone is paying attention. It was Jerry Maguire racing home after the football game, bearing his soul to his wife, and exclaiming, “Tonight…our little company had a very big night. A very, very big night.” The flurry of venture capital raise announcements by local companies last week in fact represents a very, very big week for the DC tech community.
The three venture capital raises undermined a prevailing but increasingly antiquated notion that technology innovation emerging from the nation’s capital is government-skewed, exclusively b2b or, for lack of a better word, boring. Optoro, a startup that caught my eye approximately five years ago as a presenting company at a MAVA event, announced a $50 million funding raise on December 10th. The company stood out to me that day because the business model was simple (heck, even I could understand it which is no easy task) and it was clear to everyone in the room what the industry pain point was (retailers were not efficiently and cost-effectively able to sell excess and returned inventory), and that Optoro has developed a very clever way to address it (a cloud-based, multi-channel selling technology enabling retailers to optimally manage their reverse logistics).
The day before Optoro announced its massive funding raise, marketing software firm TrackMaven snagged a $14M Series B round from NEA, Bowery Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and others. TrackMaven is striking a chord with overwhelmed digital marketers seeking products to help better track and act on relevant data related to earned media, SEO, ads, content marketing and social media efforts.
The final venture capital raise last week is a company I’ve been privileged enough to call a client for the past several years – Canvas. The Reston-based company, which raised $9 million, has quickly emerged as the global leader in mobile apps for collecting and sharing business information. Canvas is truly disrupting how work gets done by enabling businesses to replace expensive and inefficient paper forms and processes with customizable mobile apps for smartphones and tablets, with no programming or IT required. There are also now more than 15,000 apps in the Canvas mobile business application store – apps that can easily be downloaded, customized and shared by Canvas’ growing community of partners and subscribers.
Not only do these funding raises reflect the diversity of startups and challenger brands that now call the DC area home, but also strengthens the region’s global position. Canvas’ Jason Ganz reaffirmed as much in his recent blog post that analyzed every startup funding round the last ten years. Among several compelling pieces of data, Ganz calculated that the DC region has 138 funding rounds listed so far in 2014 – making it the 7th highest region for startup funding globally. For the sake of comparison, there were 52 area funding rounds in 2009 and 157 funding rounds last year.
It was a very, very big week for the Greater Washington technology community, one that holds the promise for even greater activity and growth next year.
We love to tout the great work we are doing for the major, market-leading brands like Adobe, CA, CSC, Cisco, Google, Intel and McAfee. All one-time challenger brands in their own right, each came to us because they recognize that our more progressive, digital-first approach to brand engagement allows them to deliver the kind of real-time customer experience that so perfectly meets their goals. These companies need to continue to feel very now…hot, innovative and culturally relevant…and stay one step ahead of the new generation of brands challenging their dominance.
This becomes increasingly more difficult – and as a marketer…equally more exciting – as these original mavericks of technology begin to slow with age and become mired in bureaucracy. It’s the challenge to make a difference within such a tight box that fuels our creative firepower to think outside of it and deliver game-changing results for even the most established brands.
It is, however, for quite the same reason that we love to keep our thinking fresh with a healthy client mix – and working with less established, but well managed startups and challenger brands is a key part of that. Their nimble and enterprising character allow our teams the freedom to create and rally around new ideas and deliver the forward thinking digital and creative strategies to help our clients in this category disrupt and realign market perceptions and redefine the boundaries of the category to challenge, deposition and ultimately displace the number one brand in the market. Here are some recent examples of that work:
Canvas
Canvas has rapidly established itself as one of the fastest growing mobile business application services in the world, with thousands of organizations leveraging Canvas’ cloud-based, “as-a-Service” mobile app platform to replace cumbersome paper forms with highly customizable mobile business apps that work on nearly every smartphone and tablet on the market.
When Canvas first turned to the Bluetext team as its global PR agency of record, Bluetext put in place a public relations program designed to support high growth and market leadership, penetrate target verticals and also support expansion into global markets. Bluetext has supported Canvas the past two years through triple digit revenue growth and the opening of international offices in Sydney and London.
The media relations and thought leadership program developed and executed on behalf of Canvas represents how Bluetext successfully elevated Canvas’ brand and services to business and national press. It accomplished this by honing in on this through multiple strategies, including a unique use case for Canvas technology that would hold appeal to a new set of media. In this case, it was the use of Canvas by an African reserve to combat Rhino poaching. Bluetext focused on messages that would still communicate the technology’s value proposition, and placed Canvas-centric articles with Associated Press, Bloomberg Business Week and The Washington Post. This coverage snowballed into dozens of additional global articles and led directly to new customer acquisition.
Gamescape, the brainchild of two die-hard fantasy sports enthusiasts and marketing entrepreneurs, came to Bluetext with a clear mission: create a gamification experience leveraging daily fantasy sports that drives customer loyalty as a brandable solution for bars, restaurants and other venues nationwide.
Bluetext took this concept and, with the Gamescape team, and did every aspect of their branding, marketing, and platform design and development. Gamescape wanted to create a sophisticated application that included a robust sports fantasy system, a messaging system for patrons to interact together, and profile creation with location-based geo-fencing. On top of all of that the new platform had to be visually striking, extremely intuitive and easy-to-use.
From loyalty-building rewards points to new ways to communicate with your customers, the mobile-first digital platform Bluetext developed for Gamescape offers an impressive suite of features focused on increasing the opportunities to interact and connect with your guests while offering them new entertainment options. Gamescape’s geofencing technology requires players to be in your establishment in order to join a game.
HelloWallet
HelloWallet, a financial services provider for large enterprises backed by AOL founder Steve Case, wanted to make a big splash in the national media with the value it brings to the market. Bluetext helped package original research on 401k challenges, and crafted a media rollout strategy that leveraged the research and pitted competing publications for the best coverage. The result– a front-page article in The Washington Post followed by major network coverage and more than 50 separate articles in national and business publications including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Bluetext is an equal opportunity branding, digital marketing and strategic communications agency – from leaders of global industry to the upstarts that may one day threaten them.