It's 2 a.m. — Do You Know Where Your Marketing Data Is?

Cybercrime is an epidemic. In fact, damage from cyber-related crimes will total  $6 trillion by the year 2021. As a result, organizations are spending $1 trillion trying to fight the problem in just this year alone.

But it's not just businesses in the financial sector — banks, online payment system operators, insurance companies, etc — that need to worry about hacking. Marketers are at risk of data theft, too. Ask yourself the following questions: Do you know where your data is stored? How secure is it? Where is your data at 2 a.m.?

If you don't know the answers to these questions, now's a good a time as any to ramp up your data security strategy. Here are just some of the reasons why you should invest in marketing automation software in 2018.

Marketers collect loads of valuable data, such as customer names, addresses and dates of birth. Companies accumulate all of this information to fine tune their marketing strategies and move prospects through the sales funnel.

But how safe is this data? While governments and banks spend billions of dollars a year on data security, some marketers might not have the necessary safeguards in place to protect customer information. As a marketer, you might think you are protected against cybercrime, but how robust are your security measures?

After all, data theft has become a huge concern in the industry. In 2015 alone, cybercriminals targeted  175 million consumer records in data breaches, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. Marketing automation software is one way to protect important information. This software lets you track your campaigns and keeps data safe. It's no wonder, then, that  59 percent of B2B Fortune 500 companies use some kind of marketing automation application.

As a marketer, you are only as strong as the data you hold. But what happens if customers stop giving you information? Research shows consumers are unlikely to hand over their data to hacked companies.

In fact,  59 percent of internet users say they are unlikely to engage in business with a company that has previously suffered a data breach, according to the Internet Society's 2016 Global Internet Report. This is just one of the reasons why you should invest in marketing automation software. In fact, companies like the BBC and Suzuki and already use  marketing technology to generate leads, improve social shares and guard data.

While data theft seems like a scary prospect, there are a number of simple ways to safeguard your data.

Marketing automation software provides you with a security solution while you plan and execute campaigns. In short, these programs keep consumer data safe as you communicate with consumers and track key performance indicators, making them a safer option than conventional data collection tools like spreadsheets.

Marketing automation also offers more security advantages than other types of software. These platforms manage all of your marketing tasks, for example, so you don't have to keep sensitive information in several places. Plus, as these programs track everything in real time, you can keep an eye on sensitive information. Australia's University of Wollongong, for example,  modernized their recruitment processes while keeping student data safe when they adopted marketing automation platform Marketo.

You should  work with other departments in your company in order to protect customer data, says Christopher McClean, VP and research director at Forrester.

"Get legal, marketing and information security to talk. They need to ask themselves if the data they're collecting violates any legal or regulatory requirements. Do they know enough about that data to enforce the policy? Where does that data reside? Is it encrypted? What third parties are involved? Information security, legal and marketing need to talk about these risks — and the prospect of customers walking away if they feel the business has overstepped," says McClean.

You've probably heard about the large-scale data breaches in recent years. Yahoo, for example, recently suffered a data breach that affected  3 billion user accounts.

There are examples of data breaches in the marketing sector, too. Earlier in 2017, British multinational advertising company WPP experienced a cyber attack that froze many of its computer systems, which hampered productivity and impacted digital communications. "We are working with our IT partners and law enforcement agencies to assess the situation, take all precautionary steps and return to normal operations as soon as we can,"  said WPP CEO Martin Sorrell at the time. Yes, some data breaches are inevitable, but secure software can minimize the damage associated with cybercrime.

As a marketer, fighting cybercrime should be at the top of your to-do list for 2018. As hackers become more sophisticated, ramping up your data security credentials should be one of your biggest concerns. Marketing automation software keeps valuable data safe while you measure campaigns and experiences. These programs track activations, leads and sales in real time without compromising sensitive consumer information, so you know exactly where your data is at any given time — even at 2 a.m.