Digital Marketing Consultant

There has been a paradigm shift in the way the world is communicating, the way objects are connected and the process in which information is transmitted. Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), every corner of the globe is connected to every other corner. We are in an era of IoT and the trends and sensors developed are a class apart from anything we have seen so far. IoT automation has taken the world by surprise at the way the IoT trends and devices interact with teh physical environment. One such use of the Internet of Things is something which is much needed for a sustainable life – environmental monitoring. Environmental monitoring systems using IoT is very important for the protection of our environment.

Any IoT interface, even in an environmental monitoring system, follows a seven layer framework on which it works:

Sensors – Sensors are the entry point into an IoT system. They act as the interface between the real and digital world and in the environmental monitoring system, the IoT devices help in collecting information about:

Waste management – the load the trucks can carry, the routes the trucks are currently taking and the load the trucks are carrying now

Vehicle tracking – Sensors to track the vehicle movement are used to feed data about the location of vehicle, speed of the vehicle, parking space availability and the route the vehicle is taking

Air & water safety – Air and water samples are monitored to analyze the impurities

Weather monitoring – IoT trends have improved to monitor the weather continuously to feed in details of current weather conditions and cloud movements

Sensors to gateway – This layer transmits the information from the first layer, sensors, to the next level, gateway. This follows a protocol with rules, syntaxes and semantics.

Gateways – Gateways are just transmitting devices to send the data collected to the back end, where the actual analysis of data takes place. This is the interface between the internet and the transmitting devices.

Gateways to internet network – This layer is responsible to transmit the data to wide area and far off locations and the protocols used include wi-fi, satellite and cellular networks.

Information processing – The main use of the IoT devices is not only the data collection, but the analysis of the huge amount fo data and using it in decision making. The raw data collected from the pervious layers is stored in the cloud and processed using advanced analytics and other processing systems to display value added information to the user:

Waste management data analysis helps analyze the optimum usage of the trucks, the areas where the garbage has to be collected and the best route to the destination

Available parking spaces highlighted in green lights, live tracking of the vehicle to track your/your package’s location, condition of the vehicles to protect the environment form harmful emissions and the optimum speed

On site testing helps reduce pollution and also prevents contamination of water bodies and related disasters

Valuable forecasts help prevent loss due to disasters and save human life, by taking necessary precautions

Internet to user – The final layer, where the information is displayed to the user, is mainly comprised of the internet, ethernet and wi-fi.

WatchNET IoT devices provide reliable, flexible, and more efficient environmental monitoring solutions to master growers’ greenhouse owners.

WatchNET IoT devices provide reliable, flexible, and more efficient environmental monitoring solutions to master growers’ greenhouse owners.

            Your SEO strategy is working fine. Your site is ranking decently well and you are happy with the SEO strategies used over the years. What would be the future of your rankings? As an SEO expert, it is your job to keep an eye on the future and anticipate the changes to implement any necessary strategies to combat the volatile algorithms. Google makes about 3000 algorithm changes per year! That's about 9 changes per day! Your challenge is to beat this company and rank higher. With the advancement in technology, life has become easier for SEOs and we have listed a few trends which seem to be the future of SEO in the year 2020.

1. Artificial Intelligence as a pioneer force - AI is evolving and the most recent step has been the introduction of BERT (Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding) by Google. BERT is Google's neural network-based technique for natural language processing. It is considered to be one of the biggest leaps in the history of Search. SEOs must now focus their efforts on writing teh most useful content depending on how algorithms like BERT interprets the questions!

2. Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness - 2020 is the year when Google will look at the overall reputation of a company and the content published. The most important aspect is how Google understands the entities on your website - Entities can mean anything vague like and idea or color. SEO strategy will need to be worked around how Google will interpret the entities - which can either be a product on the site or the site itself.

3. User Experience and Technical SEO - User experience is one field where SEO experts should focus in 2020. This includes the overall experience - landing pages, interaction with the search result pages, drip campaigns and even the experience when they leave the site. Technical SEO is an important part of user experience. It is increasingly important for SEOs to get a leg up on their technical foundations and promote good technical practices.

4. Entity and Knowledge Graph Optimization - Google's Knowledge Graph's expansion over the years has indicated that it will reach greater heights in the coming decade. Entities can be optimized as per your site to appear on knowledge panels. Being in the graph can add trust and authenticity to your brand.

5. Visual Image Search as the biggest change - Google Lens roll out created a drastic change to image search. Google has slowly started leveraging image searches - images should be optimized and marked, revamping image search for desktop and the search engine result pages to give a universal result including images, videos, maps and listings. Google added visual image search attribute to search results. 35% of Google product searches return transactions in less than five days and this is why SEOs should take an advantage of such changes.

6. Evolution of SERPs - Search engines will continue to evolve and transform to the effect that appearing first on the search result will no longer be the goal! SEOs need to consider a whole new range of strategies to appear in various platforms through organic search results. Strategies should be flexible and evolve as per the requirement.

Effective keyword research is an important skill in digital marketing. Keywords are not only limited to developing a list for PPC or SEO, but it has evolved into much more than that! Smart marketers use keyword research to explore on topics they should write about and the phrases to be used to gain the required traffic.

 So why are keywords important?

 50% of the world's population is on the internet today and decision making is from what they see online. Making your content available to them is your foremost goal to create your brand identity. Content marketing has the biggest share and preferred choice of digital marketing experts, with 20.3% of them using content to market their brand. Though SEO is used only by about 4.1% of them, keywords is much more beyond all this. Keywords define your company, your brand and helps you connect to the right audience!

 It's just about jotting down a few words, right?

 No! Keywords are much more beyond that! The usage of the right keywords helps spread the base for your business. Content marketing and SEO have come a long way and to stay up to the competition, it is time you play in the new arena and leave out the old ideas.

 1. Use keywords as per context - Using generalized keywords will no longer get you the desired results. Extensive keyword research helps identify the right keywords which help your brand reach a larger base. Include all possible keywords so you don't miss out on any of the target audience.

 2. Long tail keywords for the win - Over 70% of the search queries are for long terms and hence using them in your content will fetch your website more traffic. Long keywords can be anywhere greater than 2 words and up to 4 words or sometimes more than that. The more specific the keywords the higher the click rates.

 3. Google's Search Algorithm - Google used over 200 factors to determine a site's ranking. The closer the H1 tag is to the search term by Google and the user, the higher is the ranking of your page. The placement of the keywords is as important as the phrases used, as Google prioritizes a few sections over the others.

 4. Placement of keywords - Using the right keywords is as important as placing them right. Search engines look for relevant keywords in these places and rank you site higher, though using keywords throughout your content is suggested:

  Insert keyword phrases in the     headline and sub heading

Image alt text - Insert text in     images

Insert long tail keywords into the     title tags

Include meta descriptions

Insert keywords into URLs

Respond to your blog comments by     suing keywords

 5. Do your research - Have an effective keywords research strategy in place :

  Know your keywords already in use     and rank them as per their performance and find keywords closer to the     ones which are doing better than the others

Scout what your competitors are     doing and familiarize yourself with the keywords which are working best     for them

Google is a powerhouse of     information. Pay attention to all the Google suggestions

Think from the customer's     viewpoint and use keywords which they would search for

Use as many keywords as possible

What used to be reading an ad in a newspaper and switched to watching an advert on a television and deciding to purchase a product has now undergone a revolutionary makeover! This is the digital era, where the average person spends about 8.8 hours per day. Marketing has always been about connecting with the audience and in this age and time, meet them where they are - the internet.

 So, what is this going online?

 Online marketing, alias digital marketing is any engaging or marketing activity through online channels. Businesses leverage search engines, social media, email and other websites to connect with their audience.

 Why is digital marketing important?

 With 97% of the population looking online for products, it only makes business sense to reach out to the customer online. To beat other competitors, you need to embrace at least a few of the many aspects of digital marketing.

 Are there different types of marketing?

 Here is a quick run through about the various faces of marketing:

 SEO - Search Engine  Optimization- This is the process of     optimizing your website to rank higher on the search engine's results, thereby increasing the traffic to your website. SEO includes:

On page SEO - This type of SEO focuses on content that exists on a page and researches keywords for higher rankings.

Off page SEO - This type of SEO focuses on off the page elements, called back links.

Content Marketing - Content marketing is the process of curating and promoting     content in the form of blogs, white papers and info graphics to attract     leads and hence traffic to your website.

Social Media Marketing     - This promotes your brand on social media     channels, thus increasing brand awareness and helps generate leads for     your business. Face book, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest are a     few most sought after social media channels.

Pay Per Click (PPC) - Google Ads - as most of you would have come across is a form of     PPC. This is driving traffic by paying per click of your ad or paying for     the top slot on Google's search result pages.

Affiliate Marketing - This allows an affiliate to promote your product for a certain     amount of commission.

Email Marketing - One of the first form of digital marketing, this is still     widely followed. Email allows you to promote content, events, blogs and     also allows you to directly market the website.

Video Marketing - As the name suggests, this involves marketing using a short     video. Videos are proven to get 50% more organic page ranks than plain text.

 Does digital marketing work for my business?

Regardless of what you sell, digital marketing helps identify the customer's needs and creating a lead base. Unlike traditional marketing efforts, the ROI of all aspects of digital marketing are measurable.

 Do I need to allocate a huge budget?

 There is no hard budget to be set aside for digital marketing. It all depends on the aspects you want to implement. SEO, content creation and social media marketing hardly require a budget. Online advertising, creating a website and purchasing an email list will incur expenses.

 Excited to go digital?

Search engine optimization is a very crucial digital marketing strategy to place your brand at the top of the search results. It helps in increased visibility to boost traffic to your site. Though this may seem straight forward, there are some drawbacks in this too. It takes a pretty long time for SEO to catch Google’s attention and then come forward in SERP. While, although “paid” unlike SEO which is completely dependent on strategy and time. While some industries / businesses work best with SEO as they have the time and need the strength of Google’s listing, there are some who need immediate attention and leads who choose the paid campaigns ways. This does not mean you do not need both, in fact, you absolutely have to

 What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a digital marketing strategy that is organic and uses tactics to place the brand among the top results of a search engine. For SEO, brands don't pay and it is done using the below techniques:

 On-page SEO - targets a specified keyword of the pages on a website and     appeal to the search engines. Strategies include content creation and     keyword optimization.

Technical SEO - uses the     non-content elements of your site and improves the backend of your brand.     Strategies include data, security and crawlability.

Off-page SEO - links to other     high quality sites to build your brand's reputation. The main strategy     here is link building which in turn build the site's credibility.

  What is SEM?

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)  is often referred to as paid marketing and it involves strategies to optimize the ad and pay to place your brand's ad. This is also commonly referred to as PPC (Pay per click) marketing. The SEM process goes like -

 Perform a keyword research

Create campaigns

Place ads at the top after a search

Pay as per the number of clicks

 Are SEO and SEM similar?

Both of these are search marketing strategies to offer more visibility to your brand. Here are a few similarities:

 Place your brand at a prominent position

Drive traffic to your site resulting in more conversions

Analyse the most popular keywords to target them

Continuous testing and optimization is a must

 Then why choose between SEO or SEM?

Irrespective of the similarities, there are a number of differences which will force your brand to choose what suits you best:

 SEM is a paid tactic and appears as an "Ad". SEO     results appear as a search option

SEM results include ad extensions, while SEO results appear as     featured snippets

SEO is absolutely free, SEM is paid of course

SEM is target audience specific, SEO is keyword specific     (indirectly the target audience’s thought process)

SEM results are immediate, SEO takes time to grow visibility organically     – slow and steady

  So how do I choose?

Once you have understood the difference between the two search marketing strategies, it is important for you to analyse which is better for your brand.

 SEM is better for brand's with higher competition

SEO is better for those who know the target audience and want     long term benefits

SEM is better for short-term, higher budget strategies, while     SEO is preferable for higher valued industries that would like to     establish their brand on the internet well

For newbies, SEM will help put you on the map immediately at     least for a short while, while SEO helps establishes your brand

 Plan and choose your strategies or as you dive deeper, you may understand that a combination of both works for you! It is a must have an SEO strategies for any small to huge organizations in the world of Google (or any other search engine like Bing) – its race and the brands that occupies the first page always are seen with a stronger value. SEM is required for the same brands, say when they introduce a new product or when they need to generate leads sooner for some reason or other, there is no way to depend on inbound leads that ae organic and may or may not come at the time you wish for it.

How do you tell a good Hyderabadi Biryani from anything else?

If you are a Chennaite and a hard-core non-vegetarian, the word Biryani is synonym to any special day, event, function, party; treat, weekend, or you just want to have lunch! This brings us to finding biryani at every road corner with every Munnusamy-Kuppusamy-Ramasamy selling it in their Potty Kada. We also have to a variety to choose from – Chettinad Biryani to Kashmiri ones! Nevertheless, there is one Biryani we all love and crave for – that’s our Bhai brothers’ (Islami friends / family) that bring from home!

Is it the homely touch? Is it the secret ingredient their mommies make at home? What is it makes Bhai’s Biryanis special! Here’s a quick survey I did (yeah I am crazy about Biryani like that, aren’t everyone in Chennai?). I should agree for a long time I was content with the biryani made by others, but there was the time I realized the ultimate truth about Biryani as said above. It was a time when I had (fortunely) attended many Bhai functions – Nikkas and house-warmings and it was a Biryani overload month. Ahhh! Still can’t forget that month of that year… bliss!! Okay, pinching myself back to reality and the survey of foodies from around Chennai, by which I mean those who can cook a mean Biryani in style (or eat like there is no tomorrow when their mommy or wifey does it!).

Three lessons I learnt – 1. It’s all about how you marinate! Overnight margination, tenderizing the meat, infusing the spices, I mean its in your hands, quite literally! 2. Caramelizing the onions – seriously it matters.. did you think? 3. Knowing when to turn the heat off (that’s a tough one lol)! Knowing the exact moment to turn off the rice is an art by itself. Oh the delicate aroma and the tenderness……

Get ready Chennai !!

Having recently started working with Mental Health Frist Aid (MHFA) India I wanted to understand the activities happening related to mental health in our city. With this intention, I attended “Frame of Mind” which is a biennial International Film festival conducted by SCARF last weekend. It was a two-day event which saw the screening of four feature films based on mental health problems and its impact. The festival featured 4 full length movies and numerous short films which were entries for a competition.

                  The event stirred a good response and one of the movies which caught my attention was North 24 Kaatham, Malayalam feature by the debutant Anil Radhakrishnan Menon. The movie attempts to depict a character played by Fahad Faasil who suffers from severe OCD and his struggles to maintain social relationships at home and office. The character of Hari was picture perfect depiction of OCD though the condition can manifest in forms more than one type of obsession. Hari struggles to get along with members of his family and his colleagues at work and is ridiculed for his compulsive customs. He ends up hurting people’s emotions by his behavior, but he doesn’t realize his actions cause hurt.

                     One fateful night changes Hari`s life when he is forced to join an elderly person and a young social worker on their quest to meet the ailing wife of the latter. The journey takes several twists and turns exposing Hari to situations and pushing him do things which he would never do. The story concludes with Hari falling in love with the Social worker and he realizes life is more about cleanliness and personal customs. On the silver screen it’s a fairy tale however in real life people living with OCD seldom have such happy endings.

           OCD is considered a form of anxiety disorder and can have overlapping symptoms. The common symptoms of OCD are the compulsive need to perform some chores or activities like regular hand washing, moving hands in a specific manner, counting in pattern, taking very long time in the shower, having repeated thoughts and words in the head. OCD could be very disabling to both the individual experiencing and the wider family. Without proper education and treatment, the condition can drastically impact the quality of life of person and family involved. The movie is a good eye opener for someone who is not familiar with OCD and its symptoms, however it is majorly fictional for entertainment and presents a mis-interpretation that relationship can cure OCD. Love and care do play a role in the recovery however professional help is needed in most cases.

                        Following the movie, the audience got a chance to clarify their misconceptions about OCD from experts. However, the population by and large have a poor understanding of mental health problems in general. This is where evidenced based programs like MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID plays a crucial role in providing the right information about mental health problems and illnesses. The MHFA not only breaks down the stigma of mental illness but it also guides the person/ family how to help a person who is experiencing mental illness. The course teaches signs and symptoms of a spectrum of common mental health problems including depression, anxiety, substance use disorder, eating disorder etc. It equips the public with the right skills on how to approach and help a family member, a friend, or a colleague who is developing a mental health problem or is in crisis.

              Researchers conducted on the impact of MHFA has reports the increasing of mental health knowledge, reduction of stigma and change of attitudes towards mental health. The program which is present in 25 countries has trained not only the public but also professionals from different sectors like media, academia, law, police, IT etc which has helped to advocate for a more a more open conversation about mental health.

 Do not look further your mental education fix is here with MHFA. Do visit our website for more details on the training that commences next month - http://www.mhfaindia.com/courses