In the rapidly evolving digital marketing landscape, leveraging the right tools can significantly impact a campaign’s success. One such tool that’s often overlooked is a Virtual Private Network, or VPN. While VPNs are commonly associated with enhanced online privacy, they offer a variety of benefits to marketers that go beyond just the safety. These benefits range from streamlining search engine marketing (SEM) efforts to optimizing advertising strategies on platforms like YouTube and others.
Understanding the digital marketing landscape isn’t only about studying metrics and analyzing the data. It’s about immersing in the consumer’s digital environment and viewing the marketing landscape from their perspective. This inevitably leads to the question, should I get a VPN? This is where VPNs come in handy.
How does a VPN Work?
Using a VPN on your desktop, smartphone, or tablet, is like giving your device a disguise. It tricks your device into thinking it’s on a local network with the VPN, instead of the network you’re actually on.
The VPN reroutes your device’s internet connection through its private server, not your usual internet service provider (ISP). This makes your device operate as if it’s part of the VPN’s network, and all your network traffic is sent over a secure connection.
The moment you activate a VPN program, it begins to encrypt, or code, all your data. This happens so rapidly that not even your ISP or WiFi provider can decipher it. This scrambled, coded data then travels to the VPN server, and from there, to its final destination.
What a VPN does is, it ensures your data remains unreadable until it gets to its intended destination. It establishes a safe passageway from your computer or phone to the internet, safeguarding your important information. This includes files you download, websites you visit, and interactions with individual apps, among other things.
10 possible ways a VPN can help with marketing
Now we know a few things about VPNs. Without any further ado, let’s explore the top 10 reasons why every marketer should consider incorporating a VPN into their digital marketing toolkit. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, these insights could change your approach to online marketing.
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Ensuring a Secure Connection
A VPN offers a safe, private internet connection, a necessity for every marketer. Whether you’re working from home or using public Wi-Fi in a café, a VPN protects against cybercriminals looking to exploit unsecured networks and steal sensitive data. Take the example of digital marketing agency teamDigital; they unintentionally risked client data when they exposed certain environment config files. Clients included big names like NFL, Mastercard, and Soundcloud. Until vulnerabilities like this are resolved, a VPN allows marketers to work securely by encrypting all their web activities.
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Protecting Client Data
Marketers often manage sensitive client information that must be shielded from cyber threats. VPNs encrypt this data, making it difficult for hackers to access. This extra layer of security for your client’s data builds trust with your customers.
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Preserving Network Speed
ISPs sometimes throttle bandwidth when they notice heavy data usage. As a marketer, you might find yourself in such a situation while conducting extensive market research or data analysis. A VPN can prevent ISPs from seeing your online activity, thus maintaining your connection speed unthrottled.
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Accessing Blocked Services
Some marketing tools and services may be blocked or have limited functionality in certain countries. Using a VPN, marketers can access these blocked services, ensuring they have all the necessary tools for a successful marketing campaign.
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Bypassing Censorship
Some countries implement restrictive internet controls, blocking access to specific websites or platforms. A VPN allows marketers to bypass these restrictions and access the information they need, particularly useful when targeting audiences in these regions or researching international competitors.
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Conducting Competitor Research
Marketers can use a VPN to change their IP address, enabling them to view competitors’ websites, blogs, ads, and keywords without revealing the traffic source. Monitoring competition can help marketers find SEO backlink opportunities or learn about negative customer feedback. However, it’s crucial not to cross into unethical practices.
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Enhancing SEO Efforts
Different parts of the world are interested in different trending topics and search keywords. With a VPN, a marketing team can ‘browse’ from a specific country or region, seeing what search engines display to people there. This is especially useful as businesses on the first page of search results capture about 92% of organic traffic.
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Streamlining Search Engine Marketing
Google suggests that companies earn $2 for each dollar spent on Google Ads. To maximize their effectiveness, marketers need to understand the biggest advertisers in specific locations and study their ads closely. With a VPN, they can see the online marketing landscape exactly as customers do.
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Optimizing YouTube Advertising
YouTube isn’t just a popular video platform; it’s the second most popular website overall. A VPN allows marketers to see YouTube ads as if they’re in other regions, allowing them to tweak their ads and content accordingly.
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Geo-Testing
VPNs can be used to ‘locate’ you in a specific place, handy for marketers who want to test how their content performs in different regions. Using a VPN to ‘travel’ digitally, marketers can review and optimize their content for various locations without leaving their desks.
Conclusion
All these points highlight why a VPN is a game-changer for marketers in our increasingly digital and global business world. As we face more cyber threats and intense global competition, a VPN isn’t just a nice-to-have extra. In fact, it’s a must-have for any marketer who wants to run a successful, secure operation, especially now it is easy to find vpn coupons online.
