November 2024

3 Cybersecurity Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore

3 Cybersecurity Marketing Trends You Can’t Ignore


Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

As a Founder and CEO in the marketing space for nearly a decade, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work with all kinds of cybersecurity and high-growth brands. Every day, I get new insights into the cybersecurity industry and the best marketing practices that are actually working.

I can’t wait to share some key trends I’ve noticed recently that aren’t just crushing it right now but are set to change the game in the next few years. In my opinion, these trends are must-knows for any cybersecurity company looking to capture or dominate market share as we head into 2025.

Related: What the Future of Marketing Means for Your Business

1. Embracing experts in the “New Media”

In cybersecurity, sales come down to trust. If your prospects trust you and your product, they will buy from you. However, trust isn’t something you can buy with more content, advertising or eyeballs — just because more people see your brand doesn’t mean they trust it whatsoever. This is where experts in “new media” come in.

If you’re not aware, there’s been a massive shift happening, and individual content creators are gaining huge audiences via newsletters, blog posts and podcasts. These are niche experts, influencers or whatever you want to call them, who’ve built industry credibility by consistently sharing valuable, actionable content. What’s key here is that they already have a deep level of trust from their audience, meaning if they were to recommend your product, their audience would automatically trust you too. If you’ve ever gotten a referral from a friend or someone you look up to, you know what this is like.

I remember chatting with a recent prospect who was fed up with their advertising approach, complaining it was too expensive and generating the wrong type of leads. We helped them switch up their strategy from advertising to teaming up with a well-known cybersecurity blogger to recommend them to their on-target audience.

By reaching an audience that was already engaged, trusting, and looking for a specific solution, our client’s ROI dominated their prior advertising efforts. What’s even better is that since our platform, Presspool.ai, has dozens of similar experts in our network, we could replicate this success for them again and again on a cost-per-click basis.

Successful expert collaborations can take many forms. Here are some examples:

  • Detailed blog articles that demystify how specific security solutions address emerging threats, focusing on educating rather than selling.
  • Podcasts where industry veterans discuss the impact of new regulations, providing listeners with diverse insights and practical advice.
  • Engaging social media threads that can make complex security topics easier to understand, reaching a wider audience.

Leveraging these thought-leader media channels will explode even more in 2025, in my opinion. These collaborations build near-immediate credibility and help form genuine connections with audiences who appreciate authenticity and transparency.

2. Company-wide thought leadership

One of the most rewarding trends I’ve observed is the expansion of thought leadership beyond just the founder or executive team. In cybersecurity, showcasing the collective expertise of engineers, marketers and analysts provides a comprehensive view of a company’s commitment to innovation and security. This approach also makes the company appear more relatable and human, which is crucial in a tech-centric industry.

I recall a project where we encouraged team members from every department to contribute. Engineers shared their experiences and solutions on our platform, offering insights that resonated uniquely with our audience. This strategy allowed other engineers to connect with us in a new way, leading them to refer us to their marketing decision-makers, which resulted in new business opportunities.

While visible executives remain important for conveying the company’s mission and vision, contributions from employees at all levels add considerable depth. It’s like a well-rehearsed orchestra, where each member brings their unique touch to create a powerful performance, rather than a solo act. This collaborative approach to thought leadership positions the company as a well-rounded authority in the cybersecurity field, making the brand feel more human, relatable and trustworthy.

3. Crafting technical content for conversion

I often chat with clients about the challenge of transforming complex technical jargon into language that non-experts can easily understand. The key is to simplify without losing the essence of the message and to use the language your target customers use — not the language you use. You might be amazed at how many terms you use that your audience doesn’t understand.

I like to compare this to a radio station: if the messaging doesn’t resonate, your prospects will just hear static, as if the dial is on the wrong station. But if your messaging is clear and concise, and your market connects with it immediately, it’s like tuning the dial perfectly to their favorite song, loud and clear.

When writing technical content, always relate it back to the core problem your prospects face and demonstrate how your technology provides a solution. Remember, people aren’t interested in you or your technology — they care about their own problems.

Always ask, “Does this content clearly illustrate the problem we solve and position us as technical experts to address it?”

Related: 3 Reasons to Increase Your Cybersecurity Protocols in 2024

Working with dozens of cybersecurity brands and seeing their results in my marketing platform has shown me just how powerful these trends are and their potential. By leveraging expert-led media, expanding thought leadership to the entire organization and crafting technical content that resonates, companies can build trust and establish themselves as industry leaders very, very quickly.



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The Highest-Paying, 6 Figure Technology Jobs in Each State

The Highest-Paying, 6 Figure Technology Jobs in Each State


A new study shows that the highest-paid tech job differs widely from state to state.

AI education platform DataCamp drew from 2023 salary data published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to find the tech jobs with the best average compensation by state. Though New Jersey’s top role was database architect, with an average annual salary of $158,930, the highest-paying position for its neighbor, New York, was software developer, with an average salary of $150,020.

California, too, had software development as the best-paying job on average, with a mean salary of $173,780.

“The tech industry is rapidly changing every day, and the diversity in the highest-paid roles across states reflects the different needs and priorities of businesses in various regions,” DataCamp co-founder Martijn Theuwissen stated. “From this, states like California, which are home to many tech startups, are pumping more money into the software development field, likely to increase productivity and quality.”

Related: Looking for a Remote Job? Here Are the Most In-Demand Skills to Have on Your Resume, According to Employers.

The highest-paid job that came up the most frequently, with 19 states featuring it, wasn’t software development but database architect. Fifteen states had computer network architect as the top-paying role, while only 12 had software development as the best-compensated tech job.

The researchers behind the list caution that the jobs on this list may change in a few years.

“As businesses increasingly rely on data-driven solutions and tools, the demand for experts who can maintain these things will also increase, and completely new job titles will likely pop up,” Theuwissen predicted.

Related: Worried About AI Stealing Your Job? A New Report Calls These 10 Careers ‘AI-Proof’

Here are the highest-paying tech jobs by state.

Alabama

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $126,860

Alaska

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $145,630

Arizona

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $128,040

Arkansas

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $112,890

California

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $173,780

Colorado

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $145,420

Connecticut

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $140,610

Delaware

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $153,570

Florida

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $125,730

Georgia

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $147,250

Hawaii

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $137,690

Idaho

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $142,600

Illinois

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $135,690

Indiana

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $112,560

Iowa

Highest-paid tech job: Information Security Analysts

Annual state mean salary: $143,960

Kansas

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $161,820

Kentucky

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $109,030

Louisiana

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $128,980

Maine

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $118,990

Maryland

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $151,840

Massachusetts

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $152,850

Michigan

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $116,130

Minnesota

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $128,380

Mississippi

Highest-paid tech job: Information Security Analysts

Annual state mean salary: $95,580

Missouri

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $115,800

Montana

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $131,380

Nebraska

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $130,230

Nevada

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $133,490

New Hampshire

Highest-paid tech job: Information Security Analysts

Annual state mean salary: $139,050

New Jersey

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $158,930

New Mexico

Highest-paid tech job: Information Security Analysts

Annual state mean salary: $127,860

New York

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $150,020

North Carolina

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $130,970

North Dakota

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $117,860

Ohio

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $123,290

Oklahoma

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $119,940

Oregon

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $132,460

Pennsylvania

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $121,960

Rhode Island

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $135,030

South Carolina

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $126,340

South Dakota

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $154,370

Tennessee

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $119,530

Texas

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $139,570

Utah

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $151,320

Vermont

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $152,540

Virginia

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $143,300

Washington

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $159,990

West Virginia

Highest-paid tech job: Computer Network Architects

Annual state mean salary: $104,250

Wisconsin

Highest-paid tech job: Database Architects

Annual state mean salary: $130,180

Wyoming

Highest-paid tech job: Software Developers

Annual state mean salary: $127,790



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Unlock Lasting Business Success by Instilling These 5 Family Values

Unlock Lasting Business Success by Instilling These 5 Family Values


Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A key to business success is the strength and prevalence of the company’s core values across all arms of its operations. These principles help shape the company, drive performance and boost employee engagement and retention, ensuring its sustainability well into the future.

A smooth sailing ship will endure volatile times, especially during black swan events such as the recent Covid-19 pandemic, which challenged the very fabric of business landscapes across the globe.

Customer loyalty is possibly the most important factor in a company’s growth and sustainability, but what creates this sort of dedication to a particular company or brand?

This is a crucial question to answer since data is clearly showing that many, if not most, businesses across the world, particularly in the U.S., struggle to survive within the first five years of founding. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, approximately 20% of businesses fail during the first two years, 45% fail in the first five years, and 65% during the first 10 years — a trend that has been fairly consistent since the 1990s.

Related: Want a Company That Lasts Forever? This Simple Business Strategy is the Secret to Longevity

Despite statistics like these, some businesses are longstanding. And interestingly, many of the oldest companies in the world are family businesses. Family businesses tend to be better survivors during challenging times, as shown by those who managed to survive the 2008 recession in the UK.

The Kowloon Motor Bus Company is also a fourth-generation family business. Currently under the umbrella of the Transport International Group, it is the largest and oldest transportation company in Hong Kong. Since my grandfather William Louey Sui-Tak founded the company in 1921, it has survived the Japanese occupation during World War 2, economic crises and more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic.

My own experience and passion for family businesses has helped me to identify the application of family values to a company’s core values is the secret to success. Below are five values that make a healthy family dynamic, according to data provided by WebMD. I believe these key family values instilled into the core values of a company are highly important in ensuring the survival and sustainability of a business well into the future.

1. Empathy is good for business

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings of others, and this is a key personality trait that is important to nurture family relationships as well as longstanding business relationships, especially those within the company itself. This skill can be improved through conscientious training and practice and should be implemented as a core value.

Being empathetic within a company’s context means listening to the needs of staff and customers, which creates mutual trust that will help the business survive challenging times and thrive. According to the World Economic Forum, it is also a vital tool to ensure an organization’s sustainability, as it has the power to create a better environment for work. Empathy has also been identified as a key competency element for the future by the European Council.

Related: 4 Reasons Why Empathy in the Workplace Makes Business Sense

2. Honesty is the best policy

In any case, honesty and transparency are highly prized family values that can also be applied to your company’s core values. While honesty is often touted as an important value in the business environment, economists can argue that dishonesty can also bring in profits, in some cases more often than honesty itself. However, a Harvard Business Review article argues that there is a rationale for honesty, even if it doesn’t pay.

Business longevity can be linked to possessing a trustworthy reputation, and it shows in the example of the Exxon case study, where the oil giant persuaded the town of Valdez in Alaska to accept a tanker terminal by promising that a spill was highly unlikely and that it would be controlled within hours. When 240,000 barrels of oil were spilled, the cleanup promised didn’t turn up. Till now, the costs of this broken promise are estimated to exceed $2 billion, and due to Exxon’s actions, the oil and gas industry is restricted in Alaska.

3. Respect can help us move in unison

It often goes without saying that respect is hugely important in business, particularly when it comes to internal collaborations in the workplace. Respect reduces the probability of a conflictual workplace and creates cohesion among staff members and managers. This creates a harmonious work environment that is more likely to encourage staff to remain in the company and help the business grow and prosper.

4. Loyalty ensures longevity

Staff loyalty ensures workforce retention, which stabilizes a company and increases its chances of future survival. More importantly, what truly drives a company is the loyalty of its customers, which brings in consistent revenue streams and profits, which is the very essence of business longevity. Ways to build customer loyalty include providing high-quality services, creating memorable experiences, introducing attractive loyalty programs and communicating effectively with customers.

Related: You Need Loyal Customers For Long-Lasting Success — and Finding Them Is Easier Than You Think With These Tips

5. Perseverance ensures success

Perseverance predicts entrepreneurial success and longevity, according to research by MyCompanyWorks. While this trait is also an important family value, in business, it acts as a powerful mindset that can help you face market competition and economic uncertainty and solve problems by being resilient, adaptable, determined and focused.

Perseverance also helps businesses achieve long-term goals, and applying this trait as a core value will help a company build strategies that are suitably future-proofed and prepared for risks. This is one of my favorite traits, as I am a firm believer in learning from mistakes and finding ways to move forward despite setbacks.



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Susan Wojcicki Shares ‘Important Lesson’ in Final Letter

Susan Wojcicki Shares ‘Important Lesson’ in Final Letter


Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki died in August from lung cancer at age 56. She was Google’s 16th employee and reportedly rented out her garage to Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the late 1990s when they were forming the company.

On Monday, YouTube shared a letter they titled, “From Susan,” that Wojcicki wrote before she died. It was to be a blog post she created for Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

“Susan wrote a post in the final weeks of her life that she planned to publish this fall,” Neal Mohan, the current CEO of YouTube, writes of Wojcicki.

Related: Silicon Valley Pioneer and Former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki Dies at 56 — Here’s How She Transformed the Tech Industry

Wojcicki fought lung cancer for two years and spent the time educating people on the disease and advocating for research funding.

“Through Susan, I learned that lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death in women,” Mohan said. “She wanted to change those odds.”

In the letter, Wojcicki said that she was “totally shocked with this diagnosis” because she never smoked and was running a few miles a day.

The ‘Most Important Lesson’ I Have Learned

In the letter, Wojcicki, who was CEO of YouTube for almost a decade (2014 to 2023) said that “the most important lesson” she learned “is just to focus and enjoy the present!”

“Life is unpredictable for everyone, with many unknowns, but there is a lot of beauty in everyday life,” she added. “My goals going forward are to enjoy the present as much as possible and fight for better understanding and cures for this disease.”

Read the full letter, here.



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Why Personal Health and Wellness Are Key to Business Longevity

Why Personal Health and Wellness Are Key to Business Longevity


Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The Kowloon Motor Bus Company, which my grandfather William Louey Sui-Tak founded in 1921, has always believed in investing in human capital as a priority. His commitment to staff welfare is what I believe has fuelled the success of our business. It’s a dedication that has consequently spurred my own passion and interest in health and wellness.

My father passed away at the age of 49, and my grandfather and uncle also passed away in their 50s, which exacerbated my concern that I too would die young. This sudden realization of my mortality made me acutely aware of my own health and even more dedicated to my family business.

Many family businesses struggle to survive beyond their second generation of inheritors. While the business founders are credited for being the pillars of the company, the second generation is often feared to be passive inheritors who can make or break a business. As a fourth-generation businessman, I strive to encourage the company to embrace change, especially in an age where green technology is becoming more important than ever for business viability in my industry.

Related: Is it Possible to Balance a Career and Personal Wellness? 26 Entrepreneurs Share Their Own Tips

Health is wealth

A business leader who focuses first on their health and wellness will be fit enough to carry their responsibilities and inspire their management teams and staff members. New data released by Babble in 2024 — a survey of 500 business leaders in the UK — showed that 76% of business leaders wanted to strengthen their own physical, mental and ethical fitness in order to succeed.

Following these three pillars of fitness, according to the report, means that business leaders can be more focused and be equipped with the ability to inspire teams. Physical fitness is of paramount importance, as shown by Howard Schultz, the Starbucks CEO who is keen on cycling challenges. He believes that pushing his physical limits can develop both mental strength and the discipline one requires to lead by example.

CEO burnout

Overexertion, whether it be physical or mental, can lead to burnout that will harm your overall efficiency. Many business leaders suffer from this. A 2022 research by Deloitte showed that 82% of senior leaders in Canada, Europe and the U.S. have experienced burnout symptoms such as stress, depression and extreme exhaustion. Of 1,100 respondents surveyed for the research, 96% of those who reported exhaustion also showed that they also experienced a decline in their mental health.

An over-exhausted, sleep-deprived leader is also more likely to be a less effective negotiator, less capable of empathy and understanding different viewpoints and is not able to drive innovation and change within the company. This combination of effects will surely drive the organization’s overall performance down.

In fact, there is evidence showing that poor CEO health is correlated with poor business outcomes. Moreover, poor health will often result in long-term illnesses that result in unwanted absences from the company, hampering its progress and creating greater uncertainty among staff and shareholders.

A decline in company performance will also worsen a business leader’s health and well-being. Another study by the National Bureau of Economic Research conducted in 2021 also shows the devastating longer-term effects of senior executives’ declining health and wellness. The study found that CEOs whose companies declined looked older and lived two years less than their counterparts.

Related: Watch What Happens When You Invest in Employee Wellness

A healthy work culture

The fate of a company weighs heavily on the business leader being fit and healthy. A leader should set a good example for their team members to follow suit, with physical and mental performance being no exception. By doing this, a business leader has the power to shape the entire company culture, and a healthy leader will surely instill more health and well-being-focused programs to create a better work environment for employees, too.

A company culture that focuses on overall health and wellness will eventually increase staff retention, which ultimately contributes to the longevity of the business. Two-decades-long research into the predictors of company longevity conducted by McKinsey & Company revealed that healthy organizations, particularly those that not only have an efficient operational ability but also an emphasis on the health and wellness of its people, are more likely to perform better on a long-term basis.

Healthy companies are also those that are better equipped to manage downside risk and are resilient. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was found that healthy companies were 59% less likely than unhealthy organizations to reveal signs of financial damage.

Related: Inspire Wellness in Your Workplace, and Watch Productivity Soar

It is becoming clearer than ever that the future of a company depends on the overall health and wellness of its workforce and its visionary leader. Organizations that realize this are better equipped for the challenges ahead and are more likely to survive in this ever-changing and increasingly volatile global business environment.



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Retail Shopping Trends for 2024 Holiday Season, Black Friday

Retail Shopping Trends for 2024 Holiday Season, Black Friday


According to the data from the National Retail Federation and consumer research firm Prosper Insights & Analytics, 183.4 million people in the U.S. will shop (in-store and online) from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday. Meanwhile, Black Friday alone is expected to see 131.7 million shoppers.

But where, how, and why are consumers spending their cash? Shopify’s 2024 holiday retail survey examined trends for the holiday season by looking at responses from 2,000 consumers in the U.S. and another 16,000 in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the U.K.

Here are some key details about consumer behavior this holiday season:

Related: 5 Black Friday Strategies to Turn Holiday Browsers into Instant Buyers

What Is the Outlook for Black Friday?

In the Shopify survey, young adults (25-34) reported that they will be increasing their Black Friday spending, with 28% planning to spend more this year and 55% aiming to finish their shopping by the end of November.

For those who aren’t shopping on Black Friday, 65% reported doing most of their holiday shopping between October to December, while 23% percent were found to start shopping for the holidays in June.

Related: Shoppers Spent $17 Billion on Small Business Saturday Last Year. This Expert Says It’s Not Too Late to Make It a Huge Day for You This Weekend.

What Shoppers Care About

A notable trend included how valuable “free shipping” was to shoppers. The perk would influence 47% of consumers if offered, according to the report, much higher than when a company provides “a great customer experience” (31%) or “loyalty schemes” (20%).

Related: The Bold Moves That Drive This Family-Run Company’s Success

27% of people surveyed said they will wait for the big sales to start shopping, and spend time comparing prices at different retailers.

Of the 35 to 44 age group, 85% reported having clear brand preferences. Younger shoppers ages 18 to 24 were more influenced by recommendations on social media.

The report found that conscious shopping was important with 26% of shoppers planning to shop more sustainably this year. One in five (22%) surveyed said they were looking to buy from independent brands.

The report found that 60% of consumers use a “hybrid shopping” approach to the holidays, buying small items online and larger ones in-store. There was also a “shift towards in-store product discovery” among younger shoppers. Shopping and recommendations on social media were still popular—55% of shoppers surveyed reported being active on Instagram and TikTok.

Related: This Is the Most Important Part of Starting a Business, According to Daymond John, an Entrepreneur Worth $350 Million



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5 Ways AI Can Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Journey

5 Ways AI Can Accelerate Your Entrepreneurial Journey


Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

In increasingly competitive markets, small business owners and founders must have an edge, and for many, it’s their intellectual property (IP). Often considered your most valuable assets, your IP is your idea(s) and invention(s) in legally documented form.

Your IP is pivotal to your founding and growth journey, allowing you to establish your company’s market position, differentiate from other product offerings and protect yourself. But the global IP landscape today is hyper-complex, with more than 15 million active patents registered and hundreds of thousands of organizations holding those patents.

For the tech-savvy entrepreneur, artificial intelligence (AI) means you can work smarter, not harder, when it comes to sharpening your edge. Leveraging AI as part of your IP strategy is an effective and affordable way to accelerate innovation, streamline processes and proactively manage your assets.

IP-specific applications of AI are increasingly common these days. Buyers must be discerning and ask themselves, is this tool secure? Is it accurate? Is it cost-effective? Solutions like Patlytics are leading the charge of unburdening businesses from complex administrative work, accomplishing many IP workflows in minutes instead of months.

Here are five strategies for how to use AI to drive significant IP wins for your small business.

Related: Top 5 Intellectual-Property Challenges Businesses Face

1. Accelerate comprehensive patent searches with AI

Conducting a thorough prior art search is a prerequisite to the patent application process. According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), nearly half of all patent applications face rejections due to prior art. By confirming the uniqueness of your idea, you increase the chances of your application being approved.

To prove uniqueness, you must search and compare. But try this with 15 million registered patents, and you won’t be done for years. Traditionally, patent searches are labor-intensive and time-consuming. AI is enabling deeper, faster and more accurate searches. Through machine learning algorithms, AI-powered patent search tools quickly sift through vast databases to identify relevant patents and highlight potential overlaps or opportunities. For small businesses, this means a faster path to securing patents and reduced risk of infringement from the start.

2. Stay ahead of the competition with AI

Always stay one step ahead of the competition. This is particularly meaningful in the IP sector, where similar products are constantly invented. It’s also particularly hard to do, given the potentially hundreds of millions of different products, patents and companies to stay ahead of.

Use AI to quickly and continuously scan for infringing products. Diligently monitor the market with an AI-powered infringement detection tool to identify potential products that may infringe on your innovation — and therefore represent a threat or opportunity — and help you find the evidence you need to take action. This intelligence enables timely, winning decisions and successful asset protection.

3. Use AI to transform patents into profit

Patent licensing offers small businesses the opportunity to monetize their inventions without shouldering the costs associated with production. But this can be a guessing game. According to many IP experts, most patents are worthless — perhaps even more than 95% never recoup their filing costs. How do you know which big bets to make compared to your competitor’s products, the market landscape and your own patents’ strengths?

AI introduces much-needed precision by eradicating guesswork from complex comparative decisions. It allows small businesses to pinpoint their most valuable assets and make informed decisions based on competing products, the market landscape and their own MVPs.

Related: 5 Ways To Create Value From Your Intellectual Property

4. Build a strong and diverse portfolio with AI

Consider the portfolio strategy of building strong patents around your core innovations. Holding multiple related patents can create a patent thicket, making it harder for competitors to challenge or work around your IP. Also, consider the strategy of diversifying. Diversifying your patent portfolio can protect against industry shifts and technological advancements. Having patents across sectors gives you multiple revenue streams and the ability to adapt to market changes with agility.

Both portfolio strategies assume a baseline understanding of your current portfolio. This may seem basic (shouldn’t we all know our own patents?), yet once scaled to hundreds or thousands of patents, how do you surface meaningful intelligence points at a glance, such as invention sector, jurisdiction, value or expiry? An AI classification tool can auto-tag your assets and triage which patents to action on.

5. Simplify the drafting process with AI support

Proper documentation is vital. Developing detailed notes, sketches, and descriptions of how your invention works and why it’s unique is required for your patent application and also serves as evidence if legal issues arise. But gathering all this information from various groups and compiling it can be painstaking and often takes over a year. That’s a year when your idea is not yet fully protected, enforced or monetized. Leverage an AI patent drafting tool to help you discover and capture your inventions faster, reducing your time from idea to file and making the journey from idea to patent approval considerably easier.

Related: 5 Benefits Patent Management Software Must Deliver

The stakes and constraints of IP challenges compel small business owners and founders to adopt smart, efficient methods to maximize successful IP outcomes. Now leveraging new AI for IP tools, they can secure their place in the market better and faster than ever before. Your IP is the driver of innovation and business growth. We hope these strategies and tools will help accelerate your success.



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Shoppers Who Buy Via Email Spend 138% More Than Those Who Don’t. Here Are 9 Email Hacks to Capture Their Sales

Shoppers Who Buy Via Email Spend 138% More Than Those Who Don’t. Here Are 9 Email Hacks to Capture Their Sales


Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Email is a goldmine for businesses: people who make purchases via email tend to spend up to 138% more than those who don’t. During key shopping days, like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, email campaigns can significantly boost your last-quarter revenue. But sending a few random emails to your list isn’t enough to make a difference. To see results, you need to be strategic in how you reach out to your prospects.

Here are nine hacks to improve your holiday email marketing strategy and drive more sales.

1. Get your holiday marketing emails ready now

“It’s later than you think.” It’s one of my favorite quotes from the show “Mad Men.” Although the character of Roger Sterling was referring to “the finite nature of life” and urging us to enjoy every day more, I often think about this quote as it relates to my business. It also applies so well to holiday email marketing.

Many business owners underestimate the effort it takes to create effective email campaigns. Nearly 46% of consumers start their holiday shopping before November due to delivery concerns, so you don’t want to launch your emails too late. Give yourself enough time to decide on your offers, audiences and email sending cadence.

Related: Want to Boost Sales This Holiday Season? Here Are 5 Tips to Make Your Holiday Email Campaign a Success

2. Slowly increase your email volume

Your sending rhythm has a dramatic impact on your email deliverability. Depending on how often you’ve been sending emails in the past few months, start increasing your cadence slowly. Any sudden spike may trigger spam filters, so pace your volume to avoid having your emails go to spam. It’s natural to send more emails during the holidays, but in the meantime, reach out to your list regularly to build trust with email service providers.

3. Offer exclusive holiday deals

People love feeling special, especially during the holidays. So, think about how you can reward your email subscribers for being part of your club. For 40% of consumers, email is a discount treasure trove — they check their inboxes looking specifically for brand deals. During the holidays, your prospects may be even more inclined to shop via email, so show up with relevant offers to boost engagement and sales.

4. Give your email list a scrub

The junk folder is the last place you want your holiday emails to land, but a messy email list can cause that. High bounce rates and spam complaints may make you look like a spammer, so your campaigns will fail to reach the inbox.

Use an email verification service to weed out obsolete contacts and ensure your email list is healthy. With Google deleting dormant accounts and Yahoo also tightening sending rules, your data must be fresh for your campaigns to be effective.

5. Make the most of automation

Automation doesn’t just save you time; it can also increase your holiday email conversion rates. Nearly 40% of people who click on an automated email go on to make a purchase, so if your resources allow it, set up the right emails to go out at the right time. Welcome messages, back-in-stock and cart abandonment emails see the most engagement. Automating them now means you won’t leave any money on the table.

6. Ensure a smooth experience across devices

Your emails can look great on desktop, but do they render properly on phones and tablets? The 2024 holiday shopping season will be “the most mobile of all time,” Adobe predicts, with a record $128.1 billion spent through mobile devices.

A broken image or poorly formatted text can turn your customers off, so remember to test every email before you send it. You don’t want a small mishap to prevent someone from making a purchase. Plus, it leaves a poor impression of your brand, and it may cause your future emails to fall flat or get deleted.

Related: 3 Tips and Tricks You Can Use to Drive Email Deliverability During The Holidays

7. Create a sense of urgency with your subject lines

During the holidays, inboxes are so packed that your subscribers may just scan subject lines, so you have to make each one worth clicking. It’s smart to avoid overused, spam-trigger words like “free,” “buy” or “urgent,” and find other ways to convey the value you offer and instill a sense of urgency. Calls to action like “last chance” or “don’t miss out” perform well for my business. Feel free to experiment with less common approaches.

8. Consider a countdown timer

Countdown timers add even more urgency to your campaign, so test them this holiday season and measure their performance. Add them to your website and marketing emails to give people a quick visual representation of your offers and build anticipation.

9. Monitor metrics and adjust quickly

Finally, don’t just set your holiday email campaigns and forget about them. Instead, monitor your performance metrics in real-time. Track open rates, click rates and conversions, and be ready to adjust if results are weak. You can always tweak your offers, improve your copy and test different send times to make your campaigns resonate more.



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Warren Buffett’s Thanksgiving Letter to Berkshire Shareholders: Read

Warren Buffett’s Thanksgiving Letter to Berkshire Shareholders: Read


Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett, 94, is making more changes to his philanthropic plans.

The iconic investor, who is No. 7 on Bloomberg’s billionaire list with around $150 billion as of press time, announced new donations and provided details about how he plans to continue to give away his fortune in a letter to Berkshire shareholders on Monday. Buffett is donating 99.5% of his wealth to a charitable trust that will be overseen by his children (his daughter and two sons) after his death.

Buffett continued his Thanksgiving tradition of giving away Berkshire stock with a new donation of $1.14 billion to his four family foundations (Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, the Susan A. Buffett Foundation, and the NoVo Foundation).

Related: Warren Buffett Just Changed Up His Will and Locked Out the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“Father time always wins. But he can be fickle – indeed unfair and even cruel – sometimes ending life at birth or soon thereafter while, at other times, waiting a century or so before paying a visit,” Buffett wrote. “To date, I’ve been very lucky, but, before long, he will get around to me. There is, however, a downside to my good fortune in avoiding his notice. The expected life span of my children has materially diminished since the 2006 pledge. They are now 71, 69, and 66.”

Buffett’s children will have about 10 years to give away his remaining wealth after his death. Disbursement requests must be unanimous.

“Wealthy friends have been curious about the extraordinary confidence I have in my children and their possible alternates,” Buffett notes. “Hence, the ‘unanimous decision’ provision. That restriction enables an immediate and final reply to grant-seekers: ‘It’s not something that would ever receive my brother’s consent.’ And that answer will improve the lives of my children.”

Related: Why One Prominent Investor, ‘Britain’s Warren Buffett,’ Is Staying Away From Nvidia Stock

But due to everyone’s ages, Buffett announced that he named three potential successor trustees to oversee the foundations should his children pass away before giving away all the money.

“Three potential successor trustees have been designated. Each is well-known to my children and makes sense to all of us. They are also somewhat younger than my children,” Buffett wrote. “But these successors are on the waitlist. I hope Susie, Howie, and Peter themselves disburse all of my assets.”

The successors were not named.

In the letter, Buffett also talks about how the world has changed in his almost 100 years on the planet and offers a hopeful outlook for the future. Despite the changes, Buffett did not step down from any work-related responsibilities.

Berkshire is a $1 trillion conglomerate.

Read the full letter, here.



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Gen Z Is Using AI, ChatGPT at Work and Proud of It: Survey

Gen Z Is Using AI, ChatGPT at Work and Proud of It: Survey


Despite most of Gen Z thinking that their jobs could be replaced with AI in the next decade, the vast majority are still using AI to help complete office tasks — and they’re open about it.

A new survey released on Monday from Google assessed the AI habits of 1,005 full-time U.S.-based knowledge workers aged 22 to 39. Google called the group “young leaders” because they’re currently in leadership positions or aspire to hold one at work.

The survey found that 93% of Gen Z respondents from 22 to 27 years old are using two or more AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini AI per week. In comparison, 79% of millennials ages 28 to 39 indicate that they’re doing the same.

Related: Worried About AI Stealing Your Job? A New Report Calls These 10 Careers ‘AI-Proof’

These AI users are utilizing the technology to take meeting notes, write emails, and overcome language barriers.

They aren’t secretive about talking to ChatGPT either: More than half of them share AI-fueled insights and experiences with their coworkers. Three in four have even recommended AI tools they have had positive experiences with to their peers.

“Rising leaders are not only advocating for AI—they’re deploying this technology in meaningful ways, from improving communication with colleagues to freeing up time for strategic work,” said Google Workspace VP of Product Yulie Kwon Kim in a press release.

Related: Google’s CEO Says AI Is Now Responsible for 25% of ‘All New Code’ Created at the Company

AI’s writing abilities appeal to Gen Z and millennial workers who use it in the workplace. 70% of the survey respondents said that they have used AI to help draft an email response, while 88% said that AI can help them find the right tone when they write.

AI also brings out leadership potential and carries promise. About four in five respondents want to use AI to become better managers and better lead teams. Half say AI carries great potential to automate repetitive tasks so that they can focus on strategic work.

These emerging leaders “are not simply using AI as a tool for efficiency, but as a catalyst to help grow their careers,” Kim stated.

While AI can help grow careers, it also has the potential to replace jobs. Another survey released earlier this month by tech education firm General Assembly showed that 62% of Gen Z believed AI would replace their jobs within the next 10 years while a separate study from Duke University found that 61% of large U.S. firms plan to use AI to automate tasks previously carried out by humans within the next year.

Related: Google’s AI Is Now Appearing in Gmail and Docs



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