7 Benefits of Hiring a Social Media Manager for your Business

*Article sourced by LinkedIn

In today’s society, social media plays a huge role in the success of any business. Having a well-established social media presence is essential to building a brand and getting your company out there. However, if you want to stay ahead of the curve and make the most out of your exposure through multiple platforms, you’ll need a professional who understands how to market, build a brand and reach a wider audience — you’ll need a social media manager.

In this article, I will share what a social media manager is and the benefits they bring to your business.

What is a Social Media Manager?

A social media manager is responsible for monitoring the performance of your social media pages, generating content that drives LEADS, and also with the marketing strategies that can increase your brand’s visibility, traffic, and engagements. 

How can they help with your business?

Now that you know what a social media manager is, let’s talk about what they actually do for your business. Here are 7 things that they can do for you.

  1. Developing your brand. When it comes to increasing your brand awareness as well as establishing your brand reputation, a social media manager will be able to handle it for you. They got the necessary skills and knowledge that could really change and improve your online presence.
  2. Identify your target customers. If you want to bring your business online, you need to create your buyer persona, or know who your target audience. You need to know what their interests are, their behavior, as well as where they spend their time at.
  3. Setting clear objectives. Having clear objectives for your business will keep you on the right track and focus on the things that matter. A social media manager can audit your page and tell what needs to improve on and how you are going to do it.
  4. Creating visuals and strategies. When it comes to growing your brand, you need to create content that resonates to your audience. With that said, having creative visuals that can catch your target customers’ attention.
  5. Content marketing. Just like how important it is to create visuals that would really catch your audience’s attention, the content’s caption is also very important, especially how you can effectively strategize your marketing plan.
  6. Engaging with your audience. This is one of the most time-consuming tasks when it comes to building your online presence. You have to engage with your audience. Reply to comments and messages, provide value and share your knowledge in the community that you are in. If you have a social media manager, they can take this off your plate so you’ll have more time to focus on other things!
  7. Creating a marketing plan that fits your business. This is also one of the best things that they can help you with. You need a marketing plan that suits your business needs to effectively achieve the goals of your business. Social media managers have the knowledge to plan, strategize, and implement marketing strategies. 
birds eye view of buildings under construction
Construction Progress Flight

Hiring a social media manager will really help you save your time and connect with your target customers to increase your brand’s visibility and build your brand reputation. If you don’t have the time to build your online presence, then hiring a social media manager will be the best choice for you!

I hope that this article helped you in making a decision if you need a social media manager for your business. 

Spot Spraying With Drones: Using Technology to Cut Herbicide Use in Half

Cropland weed management is a global challenge. Weed pressure in the field decreases crop yield as a result of resource competition. To combat weeds and protect their crops, farmers are increasingly adopting herbicides in farm management. However, overuse of herbicides not only increases farmers’ operational costs but also undermines the health of the ecosystem. Many countries have set a goal to reduce agricultural chemical usage. The European Green Deal aims to decrease agricultural chemical usage by 50% by the year 2030. Drone and Aerial Software Developer DJI recently proved that precision agriculture and drone technology might help to achieve these goals by implementing multispectral scouting and precise spraying with drones.

Agriculture drone、Pesticide sprayer、Unmanned aircraft、Use of drones in agriculture、 Crop spraying、Agricultural technology

Cirsium arvense

Cirsium arvense is a widespread weed across many continents, including Europe. It competes with crop plants for soil resources and releases chemical toxins poisonous to other plants, causing severe yield loss. It can spread from seeds and from modified, underground stems, making land tilling and plowing ineffective in controlling Cirsium arvense spread. Herbicide spraying is the most commonly used management method. Traditionally, in autumn or spring, before or after seeding, farmers use a tractor to spray the entire field, 300L/ha, of an herbicide solution containing 5L of glyphosate.

The Mission

Noticing that Cirsium arvense often presents in only some portions of the field rather than the entire field, DJI partner, PlantaDrone, from Hungary, decided to adopt a spot spraying solution using drones to try to decrease chemical usage.

First, they flew a DJI P4 Multispectral drone over an 18-hectare cereal field to collect multispectral images and then used DJI Terra to process and generate an NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) map from these images. Given that this was before seeding and no other crop plants were present in the field, NDVI effectively located Cirsium arvense patches in the field (the green patches shown in the picture below).

Agriculture drone、Pesticide sprayer、Unmanned aircraft、Use of drones in agriculture、 Crop spraying、Agricultural technology
NDVI map of cropland field with Cirsium arvense distribution

Based on the NDVI map, they generated a prescription map. Three different dosages of glyphosate solution were sprayed, depending on the infection density of the weed spots (weak, moderate, and strong infection). An 8L/ha solution was sprayed on the weakly infected areas (0≤0.1), 10L/ha on the moderately infected areas (0.1≥0.2) (E. SZALMA (2021). Areas with NDVI≤0 were not sprayed. In every 10L of the solution, there is 3.5L of glyphosate (35% concentration).

Agriculture drone、Pesticide sprayer、Unmanned aircraft、Use of drones in agriculture、 Crop spraying、Agricultural technology
Prescription map and flight routes

This prescription mission was then sent from Terra to the DJI Agras drone for spot spraying.

Agriculture drone、Pesticide sprayer、Unmanned aircraft、Use of drones in agriculture、 Crop spraying、Agricultural technology
Spot spraying mission with Agras drone

Results

The drone used 83L of the solution, containing 29L of glyphosate. Compared with a blanket application with a tractor, which would use a total of 90L, 67.78% of chemicals were saved, meaning a savings of 14.57 EUR per hectare for farmers (E. SZALMA (2021).

Application MethodTotal Glyphosate UsageTotal CostTotal SavingTotal Saving Per Hectare
Blanket application with tractor90L387 EUR 00
Spot spraying with drone29L124.7 EUR262.3 EUR14.57 EUR

After successfully helping farmers to reduce glyphosate usage and chemical costs through spot spraying, Elemér Szalma, Engineer from PlantaDrone, believes that drone technology will be significant for the EU’s Green Deal. “If we want to achieve the agricultural chemical decrease goals of the EU’s Green Deal by the year 2030, our best chances are zone/spot spraying/spreading, and Variable Rate Application.”

FlyDragon Aviation co ltd developed an AI drone for oil palm tree spot spraying.

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The Ultimate Guide to Video Content Marketing for Increased Engagement

video content marketing
organic traffic

Video marketing strategy is not what it used to be a few years ago.

Today, it has gone to become a lot more serious, and much more effective, especially for businesses that have already managed to build an audience.

A large number of small businesses are taking advantage of this marketing tactic to stand out from the competition in order to achieve their goals.

Why video? Because it works. And it will keep working.

video content marketing

Look around and you’ll find that various types of video content are being consumed like never before.

YouTube, although is really categorized as a social network and video hosting site, has turned into the second biggest search engine in the world.

That’s right, not Bing or Yahoo, but YouTube is where people are searching right after Google for everything.

Recipes, explainer videos, product demos, how-to videos – you name it, they’re searching for it.

Here are some more video stats to convince you about the power video holds on the web:

  • 82% of Twitter users consume video content on the microblogging site.
  • 92% of mobile video viewers like to share them with other people.
  • 87% of Internet marketers leverage video content to meet their business goals.

This simply means that as a business you cannot and should not take video content marketing for granted.

With time most of your competition will be leveraging video, which means it should be a part of your core marketing strategy now.

The value of video should not be underestimated if you want to taste real success with your content marketing efforts.

Storytelling Via Video

Before we delve into how you can use video content marketing, it’s important to first understand what actually makes video click.

While there are a number of reasons that come to mind, the biggest one is that videos allow you to tell stories.

Stories that you can use to connect to your target audience.

Stories that you as a marketer can leverage to create powerful impressions and long-lasting relationships. Stories that simply deliver.

Yes, a video has the potential to help your prospects and customers understand your business and create a ground for future promotions.

But it’s also an amazing way to spread your ideas with meaningful stories. And that’s what makes it so exciting.

You, as a consumer, which will you most likely engage to? A product video that sounds like a sales pitch or a narrative that tells you the value of the product?

Consumers now are more connected to a brand if they feel like their lives will change once they use it. Connect with them emotionally, that’s the key.

Also, you can use videos to experiment with new and brave content to touch the emotional side of your target audience.

Because videos are a mixture of visuals, motion, and sounds, they allow you to create deep and more meaningful connections with people — while positioning your brand in the best possible way.

video content marketing

However, in order to make the most out of video and find success with it, you as a business should understand and know how to use it the right way.

Until and unless you realize the true power of creating quality videos and take the right steps to leverage it, you won’t see the kind of results you want to see.

What Exactly Is Video Content Marketing?

Video content marketing, or video marketing, is a method of digital marketing that utilizes video content in order to engage viewers and promote your brand.

Content marketing in its purest form is nothing but the production and online distribution of content that is educational slash informative in nature.

The goal of this content is to convert online content consumers into prospects/customers. And also to provide enough information to current customers and convince them to become repeat buyers.

video content marketing


Content marketing is used across various channels, with the help of different types of content.

This means it is not limited to text, and video is a big part of it.

Since video is a strong and effective way to spread your marketing message, it can take your content marketing efforts to the next level.

But once again, this depends on how well you execute your video content marketing campaign. And what you want to achieve from it.

5 Reasons Why Your Business Needs Video Content Marketing

By now, you should know what video content marketing exactly is and how it’s growing rapidly.

It’s a tactic that your business needs to incorporate in order to reach more potential customers and get a higher return from your online marketing efforts.

video content marketing


Let’s now look into a few strong reasons as to why you should invest in video content marketing and make it a part of your core business digital marketing strategy.

  1. More Conversions
  2. Better Emotional Connection
  3. Higher Accessibility
  4. Stronger Engagement Levels
  5. Easier SEO Results

1. More Conversions

When it comes to running a digital marketing campaign, the ultimate metric that matters is the conversion rate.

Because if you’re not converting your prospects into leads or customers, your business isn’t growing, it’s as simple as that.

By leveraging video marketing, you’ll be able to get more people to sign up for your newsletter or buy your new product.

When compared to other types of content, video content can give your prospects the needed clarity to make the final decision.

It gives you a certain edge over the competition and since the high-quality video isn’t as easy to produce, it can take a while before others catch up with you.

video marketing conversion rates

A recent research conducted shows that 71% of marketers have found video content more conversion-friendly. When done right, it can easily help you get better results with minimal effort.

2. Better Emotional Connection

If you look around the social media landscape, you’ll find that videos are being shared the most in comparison to other content types.

While there are many reasons as to why people like sharing videos, one of the strongest “why” is that people connect to the right video content on an emotional level.

By creating videos that appeal to the emotions of your target audience, you not only give them a reason to consume your content but also spread it across their own network.

video content marketing

For example, if you look at a traditional blog post, you won’t find the emotional cues that come with video content.

Right from the tone of voice to the sound effects/music being used, everything can have a positive impact on the viewer.

Which ultimately makes your content stand out from the rest and also memorable.

When interested people watch your video that evokes their strongest emotions (happiness, awe, anger, etc.), it may not push them towards taking action immediately.

However, it will help them make a buying decision later on when they see more such content from you.

So whether you are in the B2B or the B2C market, impressing the emotions of your audience with video marketing, can and will help you bring in more business.

3. Higher Accessibility

Let’s face it, video production is no longer the difficult task it used to be a few years ago.

You no longer need to spend a ton of time on creating a video or have a huge budget to achieve studio-level quality.

Yes, we’re talking about video content that only the big guys were able to produce before.

video content marketing

Thanks to the advancement in technology and with new/innovative tools available, creating and launching your own video has become much more affordable.

In fact, it will keep getting easier in the coming years as more and more businesses jump into producing their own videos and starting their own channels.

4. Stronger Engagement Levels

Many studies have proven that visual content works great when it comes to engaging your target audience.

People today like to consume content that is visually appealing and engrossing. Now, this isn’t limited to pictures or photographs.

Video content is proven to be a big part of the “visual content” movement.

video marketing stats

With more and more people watching video content on social media sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, you can see firsthand how video is helping generate strong engagement from target users.

When you create and share video content with your social followers, you have a 10X chance of them engaging with your video, which often translates to more shares and comments.

However, do keep in mind that the quality of video content marketing matters to a huge extent and has a direct impact on the kind of results you are able to generate.5. Easier SEO Results

Does video marketing have an impact on SEO?

Can videos actually help you rank higher in the search engines for keywords that are hard to rank for? The answer is yes, given that you’re doing it right.

There is little doubt that Google and other major search engines like Bing love video content and won’t hesitate to rank it higher than traditional articles.

According to a study done by Comscore, by adding video content to your site, you have a 53% higher chance to end up on the first page of the SERPs.

This just goes on to show that quality video content can make a big difference to not only your conversion rate but also the organic search traffic you generate.

Understanding The Video Content Marketing Funnel

Using video for marketing becomes much more effective when you take a prospect through a well-defined content marketing funnel.

funnel

By implementing video, you will be able to generate more sales with your content strategy.

It doesn’t matter what type of video content you use, with the help of a proper video content marketing funnel, you can:

  • Create more awareness among your target audience about your product or service while creating a positive impression on them.This is the first and the most important stage of content marketing because, without awareness, it’s impossible to gain trust.
  • Focus on the problem and the solution you offer, clearly explaining the benefits of using your product and educating your audience.
    This is the second stage where you help your prospective buyers understand how exactly your product/service can help them.
  • Stand out from the competition and make it easy for prospects to reach a buying decision and do business with you.
    This is the final stage of the funnel where you can expect to actually close the sale.

In order to make the most of your content marketing funnel, it’s important that you use the right type of content to take potential buyers through it.

When you use video content, your funnel not only becomes stronger but you also end up getting a higher return on investment.

Right from building brand loyalty to increasing your conversion rate, you’ll find that video is the perfect medium to get more of everything.

7 Simple Tips For Efficient Video Content Marketing

If you want your video content marketing to deliver results, then you need to take a calculated approach to it.

You can’t just blindly play the video marketing game and expect to see returns.

Here are seven proven tips to help you make the most out of your video content marketing efforts.

  1. Grab their Attention Quick
  2. Deliver Real Value
  3. Go Beyond YouTube
  4. Stay Consistent in Your Approach
  5. Don’t Ignore the Quality Aspect
  6. Optimize for Silence
  7. Add a Call to Action

Tip #1: Grab their Attention Quick

Internet users are not as patient as they used to be. Today, it’s all about finding the best piece of content.

So don’t be surprised if people jump your video to look for another one if they don’t find it enticing enough.

how much video is typically watched

The solution is to hook your viewers without wasting their time and delivering on your promise.

You only have a few seconds to impress them (less than 10 to be precise).

So have an interesting, relevant start to the video, and don’t wait too long to reach the meat.

Whether your video is long or short, give your viewers a reason to watch it without skipping it.

Tip #2: Deliver Real Value

Powerful video marketing is all about giving immense value to the viewer in whatever form you choose.

Although it really doesn’t matter if it’s only a short video or a long one. Your content strategy should focus on adding value to the lives of your target audience.

How you provide this value is subjective. Because what’s valuable for your audience may not be that valuable for a different type of audience.

quality video marketing

So for instance, if you find that you can give value by creating and publishing entertaining yet informative video content, do that.

Or if you want to choose an even simpler route by creating videos offering specific (niche or industry-related) knowledge, even that’s fine.

Keep in mind that any video that you produce must be watchable and enjoyable. Because if it’s a drag, then it’s not valuable.

So be interesting. Stay relevant. Seek engagement.

Tip #3: Go Beyond YouTube

While there is no doubt that your video content marketing plan cannot be complete without YouTube, it’s not enough.

In other words, there are many other valuable video-sharing channels/platforms that you can tap into besides YouTube.

Platforms such as Vimeo, SnapChat, and using social channels’ features like Facebook live videos and Instagram Stories.

Your aim is to reach out to your target audience in the best possible way, and that can’t happen if you only focus on YouTube.

video marketing platforms

The most obvious reason why you need to consider other platforms is because of the potential to connect with a varied audience.

For instance, the kind of people you can reach with your videos on Facebook is not the same as YouTube.

Because Facebook users discover video content in a different way. Also, different platforms have people from various age groups using them.

This is why it makes sense to leverage as many video platforms as you can.

However, allocate the majority of your time to a platform where your target audience is most likely to be found.

Tip #4: Stay Consistent in Your Approach

Consistency plays a big role in making your video stand out from the competition.

Why? Because videos are visual, which means you’re not limited in how you present the content.

With every video you create, you can help your viewers resonate with your message by being consistent.

Your brand’s personality, look, and design matter to a great extent in keeping consistency high.

For example, if you are creating videos with people in them, then keep using the same cast so that your viewers see faces they’re already familiar with.

Similarly, if your videos only have a voice-over, see to it that the colors and the design in the video you use to stay consistent.

You may also want to plan your video content well in advance (create a video content calendar) to make sure you’re consistent with timing as well.

video content marketing

However, when it comes to video platforms, your videos need to be customized for each. The one size/look fits all approach doesn’t work here.

If you’re posting a video on Instagram, then it helps to create videos that look more natural, unedited, or spontaneous.

But on YouTube and Facebook, people expect a professional feel, so that’s what you give them.

Tip #5: Don’t Ignore the Quality Aspect

Just because you’re creating and uploading videos on YouTube or Facebook doesn’t mean that you should forget about quality.

In fact, keeping up with quality is extremely important on these social media sites because they’re moderated by real communities.

Users won’t think twice before giving your videos a thumbs down if they don’t see the quality.

video content marketing

So say no to low-definition video and hello to HD video content that people like to view and share with others.

As video platforms improve in quality and service, they expect to give their users a better experience.

Which will only happen if you stop testing the patience of your viewers with bad videos.

Remember, quality over quantity is the number one rule of creating amazing video content.

Tip #6: Optimize for Silence

Besides YouTube, other social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram tend to auto-play videos without sound.

The user may or may not choose to watch the video with sound.

But in a HubSpot study, the stats show that up to 85% of videos viewed on Facebook are watched with volume down to zero.

video content marketing

The simple reason for the “silence revolution” in the online video world (especially on social media) is that people are increasingly watching videos- whether an organic video post or video ad, on their mobile devices.

Since the social experience is largely silent, especially with people around, it’s no wonder that many users prefer to view videos with the sound turned off.

So how do you impress users when they are only watching and not listening?

By creating attractive yet relevant visuals that make the video feel engrossing.

If there’s a dialogue in your video, then add English subtitles. In short, have sound in your video but also optimize for silence.

Tip #7: Add a Call to Action

What’s the use of video content marketing if there’s no proper call to action in place?

Businesswise, if you’re investing in video marketing, then you need measurable results.

Having a clear CTA makes real business sense and it should not be ignored.

Call to action in videos needs to be complicated.

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Simply prompting viewers to visit your website and landing page or subscribing to your newsletter at the end of the video is usually enough.

But if you want to go a step further, you may have a call to action come upright in the middle of the video when the viewer is deeply engrossed in the video.

video content marketing

However, stuffing your videos with multiple calls to action is a strict no-no.

The last thing you want is to come off as salesy or pushy to your viewers. Because annoyed viewers will move away from the video and avoid sharing it with others.

4 Quick Video Content Marketing Ideas You Can Use Today

Coming up with creative video content ideas can seem daunting but it’s not impossible, especially with tons of marketing tools available to help you with this.

That’s why what you do with video largely depends on your goals, so if you’re clear about them it shouldn’t be difficult.

Here are a few ideas that you can use in your business, depending on your marketing goals.

  1. Share your company’s or business’s value using videos which could be anything from repurposed blog posts to staff testimonials.
    The idea is to create video content that makes your brand stand out from the crowd.Remember, the more your audience sees your brand as unique and trustworthy, the better it is.
  2. Deliver company news and make important announcements with the help of videos that can be shared through your social media channels.
    Added a new feature to your product? Use a video explaining the benefits.Have a special event coming up? Create a video detailing the ins and outs of it, and how viewers can become a part of it.Running a special promotion? Run a video Facebook ad and share it with your target audience.
  3. Provide a product demo so that people who don’t want to read can see your product working.
    When your prospective customers see your product in a running condition, it positions you as a trusted brand.Show your audience what your product is about so that it sells itself.Make the video demo powerful enough to remove any doubts from your prospective customer’s minds.You can also create or add short customer testimonial video clips to add to your product demo video.
  4. Show that your brand or business is a thought leader by creating videos about your industry and about evergreen topics related to your subject matter expertise.
    Help your audience understand the difficult areas of your market.Make their lives easier with your videos and in return they will give you more business.

Regardless of the type of business you run, video content marketing can and will help you grow.

However, if you find creating and marketing with videos intimidating, you can contact us and we will be glad to help you execute your campaign

12 Reasons Why You Should Hire A Professional Web Designer

Nowadays, people depend a lot on the internet. They seek any sort of information on the internet through search engines. A website is not only a source of information but also a marketing platform for the organization. The first impression is the last impression, works in case of websites too. So having a best-designed website is highly important. Whether it is a business, an NGO, or an individual website, it benefits everyone. The best website comprises SEO friendly, attractive, quick & ease of use. Such a website helps to fetch more & more traffic.

There are website builders that offer a platform for people to build their own sites. But, it doesn’t offer the full range of services as a professional web design company. So, you need a separate platform for graphic design, SEO writing, & content marketing. Here follow the reasons to hire a professional web designer.

Reasons Why You Need a Professional Web Designer

1. High-Quality Work

This is the most important reason to hire an expert web designer. A professional web design company delivers high-quality work. The expert team members have mastery in web designing. They are very well aware & responsive to current market trends & new technologies. It eases them to design webs according to Modern trends.

2. Customized & Unique Design

An expert designer has solutions to your every need. They have the ability to build a customized website judging customer needs. A customized website differentiates itself from pre-designed templates. The web designing platforms may have templates, but the uniqueness is not assured. It’s like feeling in the skeletons. Whereas, the experts assure you of the uniqueness in content placement.

3. Planning Online Strategy

A professional web designer can create a solid strategic plan for your website. They will design your website by keeping your business model & future goals in mind. They lay a solid strategic foundation for your web to ensure its success.

4. Making Brand Perception

Brand perception is yet another important factor that helps you grow. The designers have the ability to create that perception to strengthen your brand. Professional web design helps you improve your status in the industry. It also makes you look serious.

5. Get Full-Time Support

The professional web designer will provide you 24×7 supports. Their team is always ready to assist you whenever needed. Whether it is bug fixing or updating the web pages, they are accessible to you at any hour. Being specialists they can solve your technical issues & queries easily. They ensure that your query is fully resolved. And follow up until you are completely satisfied. So you can count on them.

6. Making Website User-Friendly

It is a need of every website. The users feel comfortable while using such websites. There should have user-friendly content on web pages, as well as ease of use. It directly impacts user engagement with the website. The users are likely to visit your website more often. This results in buying your product or services frequently.

7. Getting Ahead in Competition

In this competitive world being one step ahead is always beneficial. A professionally designed website gives confidence to visitors. Having a fresh & modern website helps you stay ahead in the competition. The web designing expert can deliver extra features to your website.

8. Building SEO-Friendly Website

A website that tops in search engine results gets more traffic. An SEO-friendly website gets found easily search engines. One needs to follow SEO techniques & practices to stay on top of the search engine results. And only an SEO-friendly website allows you to perform all practices & techniques. Hence, a professional web designer is essential. They design web pages that help to perform all SEO techniques. This increases your web page visibility in search engines.

9. Keeping Website Updated

A website needs to be regularly updated to keep it trendy. Updating the website means to not only update the content but also the structure. You may able to update the content, especially using web builder platforms. But re-structuring website & web pages is not a child’s play. Sometimes the entire website needs a fresh look to keep-up in the race. A professional web designer is a must in such cases.

10. Build a Responsive Website

Following the current trend, a responsive website is the modern world’s need. The Internet has become handy & users tend to access webs through mobile phones. Having a responsive website is like halfway across to reach-out to your customer. A website designed by expert web designer performs well on all screen resolutions. Also, run perfectly on all platforms.

11. Fast Loading Webs

The website loading time is the most important factor in fetching online traffic. The websites that load fast receives more traffic. Slower websites are frustrating & make users leave the website. It is also true that people won’t return to such websites. There are various factors that affect website loading time. Only a skilled & an experienced web designer can provide a solution to this.

12. Time-Saving

Hiring a web designer means saving you valuable time. You can design your own websites through web building platforms. These platforms have ready templates & various tools. There are tutorials available on how to build a website. But learning through tutorials is time-consuming, yet no guarantee of perfection. So you end up wasting your productive time. So it is best to outsource it to web designing professionals.

These are some of the main reasons to hire skilled designers. Budget & offerings play a vital role in choosing a designer. The highly professional designers may charge you heavily. But they are also able to guarantee you the best output. But charging high doesn’t mean that they are experts. You need to make sure that they are well experienced to handle your website. You also need to cross-check their market credibility before finalizing. So choose your designer wisely.

The Benefits of Hiring a Professional Graphic Designer

*Article source from Yadonia Group

Visually appealing and eye catching graphic design is a must for every business today. A distinct visual presence can help your business stand out in the crowd. A great l…

Visually appealing and eye catching graphic design is a must for every business today. A distinct visual presence can help your business stand out in the crowd. A great logo can go a long way towards providing a face for your business that your customers can relate to. In fact, go over a list of the leading businesses around the world and you will see that they invest heavily on graphic design. This is because customers today are savvier than ever. Professional graphics capture their attention and convince them that the business is reliable.

However, when it comes to designing graphics, it is important that you don’t go DIY. As a business owner or manager, you probably have enough on your plate without you having to become the de factor graphic designer. Therefore, the best option is to hire a professional to design the graphics for your business. You can enjoy numerous benefits by hiring a professional graphic designer. Here’s a look at the top 5:

1. Save Time

Since you don’t have to do much except sharing your ideas and selecting the designer, getting a professional to handle your graphics helps you save time. You can focus on the core areas of your business that really impact performance and growth rather than trying to come up with designs that you feel will appeal to your target audience. Plus, since graphic designers have the skills, experience and tools to do the job, they can complete the project quickly.

2. Cost-Effective

One reason businesses feel they should handle graphic design on their own is because of the cost involved. After all, when you hire a professional for the job, you will have to pay them for the work they do. However, what you may not realize is that hiring a professional will prove cost-effective in the long run. You can discuss with them the different ways in which you can keep costs down when it comes to marketing. Plus, you can specify the budget at the start of the project and not have to spend a dime more than that.

3. Competitive Edge

As mentioned, a professionally designed logo can help your business stand out in the crowd. You need to be distinct and unique to capture the attention of your target audience. This is simply not possible if your graphic designing project is handled by a novice or an inexperienced person. Therefore, you should hire a professional to gain a competitive edge.

4. Consistency

One of the key factors people look for in brand marketing and promotion is consistency. Your message has to be consistent and a professional graphic designer can help you achieve just that. From your logo to your website, the design should be cohesive and consistent throughout. Maintaining that same level of consistency without an experienced hand to guide you can be next to impossible.

5. The Professional Touch

Last, but not the least, professional graphic designers have several years of experience in the field. They bring all their knowledge and expertise to bear when working on your project. Sometimes, you might have the right ideas but don’t know how to bring them to life. In some cases, businesses have no idea about what their branding and graphics should look like. In either case, a professional graphic designer can make up for the shortcomings and deliver the results you expect, providing 100% satisfaction.

So, as you can see, there are numerous reasons why investing in professional graphic design is the right option for your business. If you want your business graphics to stand out, get an experienced graphic designer on board right away.

THE BENEFITS OF ANIMATED LOGOS AND WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS ONE

Every business needs a logo. They play a crucial role in your business by establishing a good first impression and creating a strong foundation for brand identity. Your logo not only helps people remember your brand, but it separates you from your competitors, builds trust, and honestly, it’s expected.

However, an animated logo is not something that’s expected, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why you need one.

Animated Logos Increase Brand Awareness

Like we said above, logos in general are an integral tool for promoting awareness of your brand. You can safely assume that if a static logo does this, an animated logo will do it even better. They’re memorable, recognizable, and versatile. It may take a few different interactions for consumers to have any brand recognition with a static logo, but you can count on an animated logo imprinting in someone’s mind almost immediately.

Animated Logos Make for Better Storytelling

Not only does an animated logo help you tell your company’s overall narrative, it becomes a flexible asset for video content., too. This narrative and the video content you produce help your audience make emotional connections to your brand, and if your brand has a strong story to tell, people are much more likely to relate to it.

Animated Logos Elevate Your Brand’s Presentation

We all know first impressions are important. Consumers want to do business with companies that appear professional and trustworthy. In more instances than not, one of the first things we consider when judging the standard of a company is how they present themselves, and in this determination, we look at the quality of their logo.

As consumers continue to transition to online video content over television, their expectations for websites and how companies present themselves change, too. When you choose to have a custom animated logo designed for your brand, you’re keeping up with current trends. When consumers see you meeting the demands of the market, you appear more professional to them.

Animated Logos Are Incredibly Versatile

You don’t need a video content library to utilize an animated logo. In fact, there are several ways to leverage an animated logo if you don’t have a backlog of videos:

  • Social media posts
  • Your website
  • Presentations
  • Online promotions

We strongly believe that if a company is serious about building a strong, memorable brand, that they have to invest in a logo. When you add animation to that logo, you’re taking things to the next level and putting yourself head and shoulders above your competitors. Here at Terrier Tenacity, we love creating animated logos that give our clients the edge they need. If you’re interested in how we can help, just reach out! We’re happy to provide our clients with no-obligation consultations.

Why Develop a Brand Identity? 4 Benefits of a Strong Brand Identity

Have you ever walked into an Abercrombie & Fitch?

If so, you probably noticed a few things like: Blaring pop music, dimly lit rooms, the stench of overly-priced cologne and the smiling faces of American teenagers covering the walls.

Love them or loathe them, the clothing retailer succeeded in creating a level of brand recognition most of their peers never will. Abercrombie’s unique brand identity allowed them to charge premium prices and dominate the teenage apparel sector, during the late 90s and early 00s.

You may not have a storefront, but you do have a brand.

Is it strong enough?

4 Benefits of a Strong Brand Identity

Too many people overlook their brand identity and go straight to promotion. They promote, promote, promote without giving much thought to how the identify of what they are promoting impacts the final outcome.

We live in a world of “me too” marketing, where we just want to be noticed. Most brands don’t care if you compare them with the competitor, and pricing is usually the only differentiator a prospective customer can decipher.

That’s why brands need to start adopting a growth marketing mindset. Marketing is not just about attention, it’s about changing beliefs in the target audience.

It’s not about promoting your brand. It’s about promoting how your brand is different.

Ultimately, brand is about caring about your business at every level and in every detail, from the big things like mission and vision, to your people, your customers, and every interaction anyone is ever going to have with you, no matter how small. Whether you know it or not, whether you have a swanky logo or not, you do have a brand. The question is whether or not it’s the brand you really want.

A clearly defined brand identity is like a North Star: It guides you in making a variety of important decisions that create a consistent company experience for customers, employees and key stakeholders alike.

1. Strong Branding Makes You Memorable

While many consumers take the time to research and compare options, others choose whatever they happen to recognize. It is for this reason, established companies like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and KFC spend billions a year on advertising.

They are capitalizing on the concept of brand recognition.

While you might not have the budget of a Fortune 500, you can still employ the same tactics in your online marketing. And, honestly, it doesn’t even have to be a tactic — making yourself recognizable to customers is just good common sense. A solid brand identity consists of standardized font, color and logo choices that are used to represent your business in all marketing materials.

2. Brand Recognition Builds Trust

Another less obvious benefit of perfecting brand identity? A smartly designed website can make your company appear stronger and bigger than competitors. Customers tend to place greater trust in more established companies.

A strong brand identity says, “We won’t take your money, and run away to Aruba.”

As a bonus, people also expect to pay more for established products and services. Send them the link to a janky WordPress site, or a poorly designed promotional offer, and they may say to themselves: Do these people really know what they are doing?

Of course, there will always be independent thinkers who won’t judge a book by its cover. However, those types of buyers are far and few between. Going the extra mile with a professionally branded site fosters trust.

3. Strong Branding Filters Out Bad Leads

Next, curating a strong brand identity filters leads on your behalf. The reality is you don’t want to do business with everyone; you want to do business with the people who are most aligned with your core values. The reason being? Those individuals will be your best customers.

For example, say you sell a premium coffee subscription service. Your ideal customer isn’t Mike who gladly pays 79 cents a cup at 7 Eleven every morning. Your ideal customer is Susan who considers coffee an affordable luxury and has been eyeing slow drips on Amazon since last Monday.

A thoughtfully curated brand identity will simultaneously attract Susan and detract Mike, thus making it easier for you to close sales and develop long-term customer relationships.

4. Brand Identity Supports Product Launches

No matter your vertical, opportunities to introduce new products and services to the marketplace will always exist. Listening to customers, anticipating their wants and creating innovative solutions is good business. The question is always: Can we afford to introduce something new right now?

Businesses with established strong brands, and loyal customer followings, have a leg up here. It’s easier and less expensive to introduce beta products to customers who already trust you, than to convince strangers to try something different. Consistent inbound marketing coupled with strong brand identity work together to create enthusiastic followings who want to hear from you.

How to Strengthen Your Brand Identity

There are several things you can do to support a cohesive brand identity. If you’re unsure where to begin, start with these quick tips:

  • Take a Visual Inventory: Are you using the same logo version across all platforms? How about your fonts, color schemes, photography and other design elements? Are they consistent and are they accurately representing the prices you charge?
  • Analyze Messaging: Is your website’s content an accurate representation of who you are as a company? Does your messaging have a clear point of view, and is it consistent across all platforms? Are you providing material for each stage of the Buyer’s Journey.
  • Create a Game Plan: Are there things you can update yourself right now, to at least make it more cohesive? If bigger changes are needed, what is your budget?
  • Get Staff On Board: Brand is about more than appearance, it’s the experience customers have when interacting with any facet of your company. Embody your brand values as a team.

Stand Out from The Crowd

As previously discussed, the question isn’t whether or not you have a brand — the question is whether or not it’s the one you really want. A strong brand identity can both initially attract customers to you and keep them coming back for more.

Due to increasing online competition, having a distinct identity and message has never been more important. The companies who take the time to really get clear on what they stand for, and communicate it in a way that makes people care, will always have a competitive edge.

Drones Are Turning Photogrammetry Into Big Business

*Article originally posted by builtin

This past January, at a clay mine near Golden, Colorado, Alena Iskanderova made a startling discovery: The tracks of an ancient relative of the crocodile — once preserved for some 100 million years — had been largely erased by erosion.

In the 11 years since paleontologist Martin Lockley, an associate curator at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and professor emeritus at the university, first documented the tracksite, the fossilized footprints left by the animal had lost much of their depth — from roughly 7 to 12 millimeters down to 3 to 4 millimeters, Iskanderova said.

That the effects of the elements could visibly diminish the tracks in such a short time points not only to their fragility in the face of climate change and other anthropogenic threats, Iskanderova said, but the importance of photogrammetry as a means of preserving the geologic record.

WHAT IS PHOTOGRAMMETRY?

Photogrammetry is the science of reconstructing objects and environments in the physical world through photographs. The technique involves stitching together large collections of overlapping photographs to create topographical maps, meshes, and lifelike 2D and 3D digital models. Software tools help create these digital assets using pixel data from aerial photographs taken by drones or close-range photographs with handheld cameras. From surveying construction sites and flood zones to exploring fossil sites and assessing crop health, the technique has a variety of applications.

“Sometimes tracks are the only presence of animals in any paleoenvironment. So [photogrammetry] is very important for us to know what kind of animals were there,” she said. “The tracks also show us their behavior. Sometimes we can tell, for example, that there was a group of dinosaurs migrating from one point to another.”

Iskanderova is a close-range photogrammetrist with a specialization in paleontology. She uses a Canon 5D Mark II camera with a 24-mm lens to do much of her work, which has included documentation of ornithischian (“bird-hipped”) dinosaur tracks, small invertebrate burrows and the first reported Mesozoic track of a small heron-like bird called Ignotornis mcconnelli. Most of her work occurs in the South Platte formation — a sandstone-rich rock bed in the foothills of Colorado’s Front Range.

“Sometimes tracks are the only presence of animals in any paleoenvironment. So [photogrammetry] is very important for us to know what kind of animals were there.”

After snapping hundreds of overlapping pictures, Iskanderova uses Agisoft Metashape Pro 1.7 to patch them together into a single 3D image. By aligning pixels in the photos, the software renders something called a point cloud — a three-dimensional constellation of colored dots that reveal the contours of a surface. These points are then layered with a textured mesh to create lifelike visualizations, including depth maps showing the geolocated contours of a surface.

“This is why photogrammetry should be taken as a best practice for fossils and tracks studies,” Iskanderova wrote. “[Many scholarly] papers give measurements as numbers but don’t document how the measurements are made in connection to the start and end points. Each scientist, or a fieldwork assistant, will take the measurements differently. With photogrammetry, you can record not only the length, width and depth [of tracks] but also the start and end points.”

MORE ON 3D VISUALIZATIONSDigital Twins: What They Are and How They’re Shaping the Future

Cretaceous crocodilian tracksite near Golden, Colorado.
A photogrammetric rendering of one of the most complete and well-preserved Cretaceous crocodilian tracksites

Ground Control to Major Robot

Photogrammetry is nothing new. The centuries-old method of reconstructing measurements is rooted in principles of perspective and projective geometry practiced by artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, and formalized into a science by German mathematicians Rudolf Sturm and Guido Hauck in the late 19th century. Yet the field is rapidly evolving through innovations in software and aerial photography.

Today, photogrammetry is used in commercial applications as diverse as public safety, construction, civil engineering, automotive manufacturing, agriculture and military reconnaissance. And a growing number of use cases has been a boon for the software companies that provide 3D modeling and post-production tools.

Analyses from Data Bridge Market Research predict the photogrammetry software market will see a compound annual growth rate of more than 13 percent between 2021 to 2028, with photogrammetry software expected to reach a market value of $2.56 billion by 2028.

“I think the big revolution has been with drones,” Tristan Randall, a strategic project executive at the architectural software company Autodesk, said. “In the context of a construction project, for example, where you want to monitor your site conditions, you can purchase drones that cost a couple thousand dollars. So capturing the photogrammetric data has become much, much easier.”

Photogrammetry does not require highly sophisticated cameras, Randall told me. It can be performed using digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras, video reels, satellite photos or even images captured with an iPhone — virtually any digital camera that can store multiple images.

“I think the big revolution has been with drones … capturing the photogrammetric data has become much, much easier.”

But the low-cost availability of drones has opened a once largely terrestrial application to a range of new airborne possibilities — from creating large-scale maps to assess crop health or plan for emergency relief operations to producing lifelike 3D models of buildings, roadways and flood zones.

A photogrammetrist can buy a serviceable drone for as little as $800, said Christopher Kabat, the owner and founder of the drone consultancy ProAerial Media. Once programmed, the drone can capture hundreds of photos of a large-scale real-world environment, like a subdivision or city district, in hours.

Prior to the flight, the pilot selects the flight path and the number of photos the camera will take, based on their desired output resolution. Outfitted, typically, with a 1- to 2-inch diameter camera on a rotating gimbal, the drone passes back and forth over the landscape taking pictures — hundreds of them — for later processing.

“It’s literally taking every image and taking all the pixels in each image and looking for another image with at least three matching pixels,” Kabat said. “And it’s going to do that for every single photo that you have.”

Depending on the goals of a project, teams can use drone-based photogrammetry to create photorealistic orthomosaic maps corrected for the curvature of the Earth, capture valuable volumetric data — like the amount of soil a building team needs to extract to dig a foundation — or generate interior models for virtual home tours on real estate sites like Zillow. Aerial photogrammetry, though, tends to work best for large-scale projects, not fine architectural details, which are often represented with laser scanning.

The Google Earth project to map cities in 3D actually used both technologies, Randall told me, capturing large regions with photogrammetry and applying signature building features with manually scanned data.

“The key thing to remember is that [a point cloud] is a very, very accurate representation of the physical features of a site,” Randall said. “We call it ‘mowing the lawn,’ because you’re basically moving the camera in lines that overlap. And then you use those photos in, say, an engine like Autodesk ReCap, to stitch them together.”

3D  textured mesh of a 4-acre office park in Nevada rendered from 275 photos.
A 3D textured-mesh of a four-acre office park rendered in Pix4Dmapper from roughly 275 drone photographs.

Photogrammetry Has Dozens of Use Cases. But Construction Is Where Most of the Excitement Lies.

Over the past decade, aerial photogrammetry has radically transformed the construction industry. Instead of hiring a survey team to spend weeks photographing a site with GPS-synced tripods, developers can send a drone — like DJI’s Phantom 4 RTK or Autel’s Evo 2 RTK — into the air to capture site conditions in hours, often at a much lower cost, said Ryan Sweeney, a sales manager at the Denver office of the photogrammetry company Pix4D.

Drones are good at capturing high-resolution photographs, in part because they fly so low — a maximum of 400 feet above the ground (or higher, if within range of a structure), compared to at least 500 feet above the ground for a human-piloted plane, as stipulated by Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Drones can also capture a site from multiple vantages and reach places that might otherwise be dangerous for humans to be — like hazardous chemical sites.

At a typical construction site, about 500 images captured by a drone in a 30-minute flight can be processed on a personal desktop computer in roughly two hours, Sweeney said. Flight height, camera quality and the level of photo overlap all affect the quality of the point cloud and final outputs. A 75 percent horizontal and vertical overlap is a good target for a quality data set.

“Implementing photogrammetry gives you the ability to almost have your eyes on location. You can monitor the progress [of a construction site] visually, very simply.”

In addition to knitting the photos together, software modeling tools like Recap, Pix4D, or all-in-one aerial photogrammetry platforms like 3DR and DroneDeploy, align geotagged pixels against cartesian coordinates ground sampled locally or imported from networked GPS data. The reconstructed image files are, thus, correlated one-to-one with their real-world locations — what some refer to as digital twins. These outputs can be represented as 3D building models, topographical maps, depth maps, contour line drawings and 2D orthomosaics.

Because these renderings are accurate to within inches, architects and engineers can use them to update working “as-built” models so they reflect on-the-ground conditions.

If a construction crew moves a planned sidewalk four inches to the west to avoid a root system, the design team doesn’t need to manually update their renderings, Kabat said. They can import updated point cloud data to virtual environments to correct such discrepancies on the fly.

Meanwhile, construction managers can use the 3D models to keep tabs on large-scale development projects, while working remotely.

“Implementing photogrammetry gives you the ability to almost have your eyes on location,” Kabat said. “You can monitor the progress [of a construction site] visually, very simply.”

Drone flight path planning in Pix 4D for an office park photogrammetry project.
A drone flight path map created in Pix4Dmapper. |

Laser Scanning vs. Photogrammetry

Laser scanners can produce high-resolution 3D models and maps, often at a higher resolution than what can be achieved using photogrammetry. Yet they tend to be expensive — sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, Randall told me — and they must be moved into position by human operators to “see” their targets.

“You can imagine a construction site 20 miles from the city,” Randall said. “A pilot has to fly all the way from the airport and then go back. Even inside a building, you have to move the scanning instrument all over the site to capture different viewpoints.”

But drone photogrammetry has its limitations too. Most U.S. airports, Kabat said, are surrounded by LAANC (low altitude authorization and notification capability) grids that require formal FAA airspace authorization. A flight can be ground sampled at a given height — say, 137 feet — but fall within a restricted zone that limits the flight ceiling to 100 feet. If not coordinated in advance, that can throw a wrench in a mapping project.

And a recent spate of criminal incidents — drones dropping contraband into prisons and flying within range of airports, leading to shutdowns — have led to more stringent drone flight guidelines, Randall said.

The FAA’s Part 107 guidelines already require all small commercial drone operators to pass a knowledge test and be registered, but a new rule that went into effect in April requires most drones flying in U.S. airspace to be equipped with remote ID. According to the agency’s website, this “helps the FAA, law enforcement and other federal agencies find the control station when a drone appears to be flying in an unsafe manner or where it is not allowed to fly.”

“If you were flying in North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin — anywhere there’s much denser vegetation, photogrammetry will never be able to interpret the ground data because it can’t penetrate past the canopy roof of the trees.”

Randall told me it likely implies they have the ability to disable drones that pose a potential threat.

Drones — more specifically, their cameras — also have trouble seeing through foliage. Kabat’s company operates in the desert landscape of southern Nevada and areas of Arizona and Utah, where photogrammetry works well.

“But if you were flying in North Carolina, Illinois, Wisconsin — anywhere there’s much denser vegetation, photogrammetry will never be able to interpret the ground data because it can’t penetrate past the canopy roof of the trees,” he said.

Building edges can also be problematic. Unlike laser scanners, which measure distances as a function of the time it takes light beams to reflect off a target and return to their source, photogrammetry uses pixel matching to approximate distance.

“So depending on what’s in those pixels, you may run into challenges. If you’re shooting from directly above a building, you’re not going to be able to represent that vertical edge with as much accuracy,” Kabat said.

Documenting and Preserving Fragile Environments

But the technology is quickly getting more advanced and adaptable. Newly developed aircrafts scheduled to arrive on the market soon, such as the DJI Mavic Pro 3, are expected to have swappable payloads, Kabat told me, meaning they will let users exchange a standard camera for a zooming camera, thermal imaging camera or LiDAR (light detection and ranging) camera.

The promise of modular camera options is exciting to practitioners like Kabat, but the market for newer technologies will likely take some time to ramp up.

“Most people still don’t even know what photogrammetry is,” Kabat said. “That’s the biggest challenge: just making people aware that you can use photogrammetry to solve problems.”

“It’s not something new,” Iskanderova added. “But in certain fields, like, for example, paleontology, it’s a relatively new and growing field. And, right now, I see many, many students studying photogrammetry and doing projects. Many old-school professors are also interested in photogrammetry.”

“Most people still don’t even know what photogrammetry is. That’s the biggest challenge: just making people aware that you can use photogrammetry to solve problems.”

And it remains an active field for hobbyists. During his off-hours, Kabat traces the history of remote stretches of the American southwest with drones and handheld cameras, capturing artifacts in ghost towns and abandoned mines near Las Vegas, and Native American petroglyphs he finds along the Old Spanish National Historic Trail running from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles.

Recently, he engaged the nonprofit Friends of Pando about the prospect of mapping the Pando, a clonal colony of a single aspen in south-central Utah that looks like a cluster of individual trees, but is connected by a genetically identical root system that spans 106 acres. The threatened tree, among the oldest in the world, has been deemed the heaviest living organism.

“If you were to Google, ‘largest tree,’ it’s still going to be General Sherman, the sequoia tree in California,” Kabat said. “But as far as the largest organism, it’s the Pando. What they’re ultimately looking to do is provide visitors to their website the ability to walk through the aspen forest, virtually, as it changes seasons.”

Though the scale of the project is different, it’s not so far removed from what Iskanderova is doing at a more granular level with dinosaur tracks — reconstructing the fragile outlines of an environment with photogrammetry to document its existence and, hopefully, preserve it for posterity.

“With tracks or any fossils, it’s pretty much detective work,” she said. “You just go in and slowly find more details, making a story behind the remains.”

The Insider’s Guide to Why SEO Matters

*Article from engaged digital

Looking for a way to transform your website, company, and profit margins?

It may sound like a dream, but it isn’t. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is your answer to changing the game on your digital presence and staying competitive in the industry.

The good news is, you don’t have to get a degree in marketing to understand SEO or even to implement it. Businesses of all sizes are upping their SEO game and seeing immediate payoffs.

Read on to learn why SEO matters now in your digital strategy.

1. SEO Gives You Organic Traffic

This is the number one reason for why SEO matters today. When you optimize your website for search engines, you give your website the chance to rank highly in searches.

The higher your website appears on search results lists, the more likely you are to get clicks from interested users. This is organic traffic.

The best thing about organic traffic is that it is free! You need to put some time and effort in, but over time, the ROI is really good.  Organic traffic is a great channel for leads and conversions, as they find you due to searching for products or services your business offers.

2. Get Your Brand Noticed

As a business owner, you are likely seeking ways to get your brand noticed. SEO will let your website soar to the top of search results so that your brand can easily be recognized by a wide variety of users.

The more highly and consistently your website ranks, the greater the odds of your brand image sticking in the minds of consumers–and staying there. Top of mind awareness is something you should be striving for.

3. Increase Conversions

Because SEO gives you organic traffic and ‘free’ marketing, it is also a fantastic tool for increasing conversions. More leads mean more potential for conversions. The mere fact that people found your site because of a search increases the chance of a conversion.

Businesses are also able to rank highly because they are “trusted” by search engines. This means that they comply with SEO guidelines, have good, solid backlinks, contain quality content and are generally more credible.

4. Organize Your Website and Impress Users

For SEO to work effectively, you have to structure your website around certain keywords and subjects. This leads to carefully curated and fresh content.

Because of Google’s SEO guidelines, websites that use SEO professionally will have organized and distinct pages. This can lead to a more positive user experience overall.

5. Broaden Online Reach

Because so many consumers are comfortable relying on search engines to buy products, query information, and find jobs, you’ll be able to expand your audience from local to global with SEO.

The higher your ranking on a search results page (SERP) due to your SEO efforts, the more likely you are to appear on the radar of companies and searchers from across the globe.

The greater your online reach, the greater your potential to gain more conversions.

6. Maximize Social Media Efforts

Social media in and of itself can lead to increased sales for your business, with the right strategy in mind.

SEO can contribute to your social media presence. Sometimes users will be searching for recent rather than dated content. Social media posts will surface as fresh content that works collaboratively with Search Engine Optimization.

Why SEO Matters

Search Engine Optimization is becoming the leader in inbound and digital marketing. If you’re wondering why SEO matters, take a look at what it can do for your business.

SEO matters because it keeps your business competitive and enables you to get more (free) organic traffic to your website. It organizes your site effectively, increases conversion rates, and reaches more audiences.

All of this can lead to greater profit margins, a larger customer base, and an elevated brand image.

At Engaged Digital, we believe in the power of SEO. Let us help you today with your SEO so that you can take advantage of its amazing benefits, stay competitive as a company, and grow your business.

Why Agriculture Benefits With Drones

*Article from EasternPeak*

Drone best top applications in agriculture

The use of drones for precision agriculture is gaining momentum because of their capability to deliver the most up-to-date info fast and efficiently. The evolution of drone software and its overall affordability also account for the increased application of drones. Let’s now explore how drones can be used for agriculture, more specifically. 

Estimating soil condition

Smart farming is data-driven, enabling farmers to take action based on accurate information on soil conditions. Extracting this data had previously involved physical visits to the field and gathering metrics manually. Equipped with agriculture smart sensors, drones can collect and deliver this data – needless to say, they can also do it in a faster and more precise manner. 

Planting future crops

The soil gets prepared for planting and a drone shoots seeds in it, rather than using outdated planting techniques. Using drones for seed planting is relatively new, yet, some companies are experimenting with this approach.

For example, Agmaps (One of the software’s we use) is an Ohio based company that uses drone technology to gather various field data and provide field side reports.

Fighting infections and pests

Not only can agriculture drones inform farmers on soil conditions using thermal, multispectral and hyperspectral technology, they can also detect field areas inflicted by weeds, infections and pests. Based on this data, farmers can decide on the exact amounts of chemicals needed to fight infestations, and not only help reduce expenses, but also contribute to better field health. 

agriculture-drone-use-cases

Agriculture spraying

Smart farms also use drones for agriculture spraying, which helps limit human contact with fertilizers, pesticides and other harmful chemicals. Drones can handle this task faster and more efficiently than vehicles and airplanes; they are also a great alternative for farms that still use manual labor.

Drones are also irreplaceable when it comes to spot treatment. They can detect infected areas with sensors and cameras and work on them while leaving the healthy part of the field intact. This not only saves time and increases safety, but also helps reduce expenses.

Crop surveillance

Agricultural fields occupy large areas, and it’s often nearly impossible to estimate the overall state of crops. By using drones for agriculture mapping, farmers can stay updated on the health of plants in a particular area and indicate which field areas require attention.

To estimate the state of crops, drones inspect the field with infrared cameras and determine light absorption rates. Based on accurate, real-time info, farmers can take measures to improve the state of plants in any location.

Livestock monitoring

In livestock farming, drones can keep an eye on the cattle as it grazes on pastures, reducing the need for human workforce on horseback and trucks. Using thermal sensor technology, drones can find lost cattle, detect injured or sick animals, and calculate their exact numbers. Admittedly, drones are capable of doing a better cattle surveillance job than herding dogs.