2020 is here and with that comes the typical, bold claims of what marketing trends and tech “deserve your attention” this year. But, let’s be realistic. There are many new, and exciting developments in the world of marketing that simply can’t be boiled down to one trend or a single buzzword.

Customer information (name, address, email, phone number) is privileged information. When this information is inadequately secured, your company or dealership could be risking millions of dollars and your company’s reputation. Take the biggest retail hack in history as a lesson: Target. In 2013, 40 million credit card numbers, and 70 million addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses were stolen because employees did not follow an established data security procedure. Today, Target is still suffering the results of this breach, with gross expenses totaling $252 million and counting. 

It’s not just security breaches that we should be concerned about, but also the adherence to customer requests. If a customer requests that your dealership not contact him or her via phone, email, text or direct mail, it is your responsibility to adhere to those requests and share this information with your marketing agencies. Communicating this request to all marketing agencies is particularly important if communications are sent over multiple platforms because your reputation, and financial security, is at stake