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Food, Technology

Food Photography: A Growth Sector

August 22, 2020

Reports from last year suggested that 69% of millennials take photographs or videos of their food before eating — which suggests that showing images of what we’re doing when we’re doing it has grown in popularity and even importance over recent years.

The focus of Instagram is to look at and upload photos — so it’s no surprise that it’s the greatest social media platform for photography. With 800 million monthly active users, it’s undeniable that this platform is one of the biggest contributing factors to the increase in food photography around the world.

Canon lenses retailer, Clifton Cameras, has explored the advantages of social exposure with regard to companies in the catering and food industry, looking at how user-generated content can enhance profits and brand awareness. Can photography assist your business when it comes to development and growth?

Boosting variety and making your dishes attractive

High-resolution photos are essential to showing your customer why they need to enjoy your food over your competitors. Are you making the most of photography on your menus and print marketing products?

Many people, no matter which venue they choose to dine at, often opt for the same meal. By offering new and repeat customers a fresh menu featuring vivid, attractive images of food, you can boost customer retention rates, as people will be more impressed by the range on offer. Presenting your customers with a visual choice, not only helps sell the meal and make you more in profit, but also better informs you customer and encourages them to try more on the menu to boost repeat custom while helping you make use of all ingredients.

When it comes to selling food, there’s nothing that compares to a photo. Having close up images of courses or showing how meals are prepared by your chef are great ways to promote freshness, authenticity and flavour. You could also implement an Instagram widget on your website’s sidebar to display your latest posts and create a seamless user experience that connects your social activity to your home site.

Food influencers

When Mark Fidelman spoke to Modern Social Magazine, he commented that: “Influencer marketing as a practice has proved to reach far beyond the capabilities of most advertising methods.”

Reportedly, almost three-quarters of millennials feel they should help others make the right purchasing decision, while 92% trust real people over ads to help them buy. This is why using influencer marketing is so beneficial in 2018 — clearly, that’s where the trend is.

When Calsway, a Californian health-based catering company, tried to break the UK market; it used influencer marketing with great success. It employed the work of three, relevant influencers to upload food photos of Calsway products via their accounts and offer commentary on different dishes. Engagement rate in the UK for the company shot up, as a result. Seasoning company, Santa Maria, also used influencers to target the millennial demographic via enticing and action-based food photos — and the results were equally positive.

Employ the use of social influencers and let them help you spread attractive, tempting food photos of your menu. Invite them for a free meal and ask them to take pictures of each course, followed by a photo at your restaurant bar or enjoying your outdoor terrace to show off the quality of your eatery’s décor and services. This is great for enhancing engagement, brand awareness, and ultimately, sales.

Social media

Experts predict that there’ll be approximately 2.77 billion social media users by 2019. This means more people and businesses are connecting, which also means brands will have more scope to reach their audiences. But how can food photography assist? Through the use and popularity of social platforms, we’ve been able to gain greater insights to the lives of different people and cultures across the globe through a glance at our smartphones; once seen as an impossibility for many.

We now have the chance to see local dishes from all over the globe. Whether you’re sat in a restaurant, café or pub — it’s become the norm to see people taking pictures of their dishes and share them online using geotags, hashtags and more to achieve greater reach and visibility.

This is user-generated content — and businesses can make a lot of money from it. If more people are interacting with your brand across social media platforms, more people become aware of your business which could see an increase in custom.

If you try to encourage customer to snap pictures and document their time in your restaurant or café, you can advertise your business to the masses for free, as well as show how your eatery has credibility among its target audience and industry peers as an innovative and current place. One of the biggest benefits of user-generated content is that it will allow you to analyse the demographics of your audience and gain a greater insight to what type of people they are. This will enable you to tailor not only the type of food you serve to them, but the music that you play, specials that you offer and events that you host — giving people a reason to return.

You can also use social media to create hype around your brand in other ways. Why not, for example, introduce a “Picture of the Month” competition. People will upload and tag in your establishment to multiple images of their food and then you can select the best picture. Make the prize a free meal and you can bag yourself a load of free advertising for very little expense.

Don’t underestimate how much people want to get that ‘perfect shot’. Businesses must understand that it’s all about aesthetics and presentation when it comes to food photography; from unique serving boards to the interior décor of your building. If you don’t offer attractive looking surroundings, tables, artwork, and tableware to complement your delicious looking food, then this could harm the chances of a customer snapping, uploading and tagging an image.

Clearly, food photography is key to the success of a business. If you aren’t up to speed with food photography, how to implement it and its benefits, your eatery may suffer. Are you ready to introduce the above to your business?

Technology

The Uses of Synthetic Diamonds

August 13, 2020

The Applications of Synthetic Diamonds

Natural diamonds are formed from geological processes which take thousands of years. Synthetic diamonds, on the other hand, are created using artificial processes in just a matter of weeks inside a laboratory. www.e6.com prides itself on making superior-quality synthetic diamonds using state-of-art technology.

Synthetic or man-made diamonds are also called CVD diamonds or HPHT diamonds after their production methods, that is chemical vapor deposition methods and high-pressure high-temperature respectively.

The Properties of Synthetic Diamonds

Synthetic diamonds have many unique characteristics which include:

  • Extreme thermal conductivity
  • The hardest known substance
  • Chemically inert
  • Exceptional electrical insulators
  • Sonic velocity is low
  • High resistance to wear
  • Thermal expansion is extremely low
  • Biologically compatible
  • Optically transparent

Diamonds, because of their stability, thermal conductivity, hardness, and the aforementioned properties have many applications in the world of modern technology.

Some of their uses are:

Radiation Detection

Diamonds have a broad band gap and are radiation hard. These hard gems also have a density that’s similar to those of soft tissues. These qualities make it possible for them to be excellent devices for detecting radiation.

Electrodes

Since diamonds are inert in nature, they can be used as electrodes. Synthetic diamonds also have the ability to detect redox reactions. In some cases, diamonds can degrade organic contaminants as a result of redox reactions in water supplies.

Machining Tools

PCD (PC diamonds) are used in different types of machining tools. Diamonds bits which are micron-sized are inserted in a metal, usually cobalt, matrix, making it harder. PCD tools are used in machining aluminum for the automotive industry. PCD drills are also used in oil and gas drilling.

Acoustic Electronic Equipment

Acoustic-electronic equipment based on synthetic diamonds have electromagnetic oscillations which activate the hyper sound of acoustic vibrations with frequencies ranging from 1-2 GHz. This is a major improvement compared to the analogous system whose frequencies were restricted to only 10 GHz.

Dental Applications

Developing synthetic diamond ultrasonic drill tips used in dental surgery.

Optics

Optical settings are now using CVD diamonds. These diamonds are 20 times stronger than the Raman laser. This new laser system embedded with CVD diamonds is able to cut through dense steel with an output power of about 400,000 pointers.

Diamond Two-Dimensional Thin Films

The 2-D diamond films are the thinnest film diamonds ever made whose applications are useful in spintronics and the nanoworld.

Thermal Management in the Electronics Industry 

Electronics are now more powerful and smaller. One major challenge that these advanced electronic devices are facing is heat management. The leading cause of electronic failure is heat-related and as such, there is an urgent need for thermal management. The solution? Synthetic diamonds. Diamonds have extraordinary insulating and thermal conductivity properties. This makes synthetic diamonds effective in reducing the thermal resistance in different electronic applications.

Multiple-Use Technology

The thermal conductivity of diamonds is high while their friction coefficient is very low. This makes them suitable for rapid cooling or heating. Depending on the manner in which they are doped, diamonds can be used as semi-conductors as well.

Technology

Show Off Your Work Style with Business Cards

April 19, 2020

It is a widely recognized phenomenon that having a certain sense of style in your business doesn’t only set it apart from its competitors, but also provides you with the confidence of having a distinguished brand image.

Whether it is through your office décor or your promotional material, projecting your business’ style and personality in a holistic manner opens many doors of opportunities for you.

And when that is done in the form of some of the best business cards, it carries a few additional benefits in itself.

Using Business Card Enhances the Appeal of Your Business

As an analog contact sharing medium that has been used for centuries, business cards have an effect of their own. Regardless of how advanced of a smartphone you carry around, you cannot argue against the connection that you can invoke by sharing your info in the form of a business card instead of a digital contact.

When you think of it, there’s a simple logic behind it. As humans, we respond more strongly to things that we could sense more profoundly, as compared to the ones that we could only perceive in one way.

For instance, a chic jacket or scarf cannot have the same effect through a picture as it does when you could hold it in your hands. This is because by looking at the picture, you are using your visual senses exclusively. But when you are able to see, touch, and feel the very same jacket or scarf all by yourself, it elevates your experience to a whole new level.

Similarly, while digital contacts can do the job of sharing letters and numbers in what is a fairly monotonous way, they fail to invoke the memory, the connection, or the positive feelings that you want to establish for your business.

That is where business cards come in.

How Business Cards Help You Achieve Your Desired Business Image

Through various color schemes, materials, and designs, business cards give you an option to turn away from the mundane looking digital contacts and project your style the way you want.

From foil business cards to clear business cards, and from photo-printed business cards to embossed business cards, ensure to find something that goes right in line with your business’ image.

With vendors such as Basic Invite, ordering business cards that are the right fit for your personal and professional vision is now easier than ever.

How Basic Invite Makes Sure You Can Project the Style You Want

Basic Invite has a state of the art online design tool that lets you customize your card to the very last detail. Whether it’s about the shade of your card’s background or the color of your business’ name, you can count on the popular stationery provider to fulfill all your personalization needs.

With over 180 different color options in each element of your card, you have almost unlimited color options at your disposal. This is clearly something that sets Basic Invite apart from other vendors. But that’s not all.

With the ability to order custom samples for each iteration of your design, you can hold your new card in your hand and see if it evokes the feeling you wanted. If it does, you can order a whole bunch right there. If it doesn’t, then you can redesign your card until its picture perfect.

There are different varieties in each card design as well. For instance, in foil business cards, you could have the option to have your raised or flat design done in gold, silver, or rose gold. While in other business cards, you could enjoy options such as two sided business cards.

Basic Invite also offers over 40 different colors of envelopes, so you do not only have the option to project your style through business cards but your other business stationery as well. With that, you also have the option to enjoy an online address capturing service, so you could keep all your mailing information in one place.

Basic Invite is currently offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51 – keeping this in mind, if you want your business cards to enforce their association with all what’s good in the world, this would be the time to start designing them.

Technology

Email Marketing Tips for Small Businesses

October 22, 2018

By virtue of having a limited budget in a very competitive landscape, small companies do not have access to a plethora of marketing strategies. This is why email marketing is very crucial for such local businesses. It gives them the opportunity to establish long-term success and to reach a great many people with a limited budget.

The following describes some important email marketing tips to improve your business metrics:

Promotions

Fair promotions are always likely to get some traction from the customers. Timely promotions will have a positive influence on sales and create more site traffic. Research has shown that people are interested in hearing about discounts and promotions offered by local businesses and 64% of them prefer to receive such offers via email. Promotions have a high success rate of kick-starting sales growth. For instance, a restaurant could email its subscribers special offers like coupons or lunch discounts.

Easy Subscription

Your customers should not struggle to subscribe to your newsletter. A difficult subscription process will put off many potential customers which will eventually hurt the business’s sales. The sign-up process can be made easier through:

  • Minimizing the fields on sign-up boxes to make the registration process easier
  • Including the social share buttons in your emails. This will allow subscribers to share the email content with other people and thus increase your subscribers, as well as, create brand awareness
  • Add CTAs (Call To Action) on your blog posts and on your social media pages

Let People Have Information Beforehand on What to Expect

Be transparent and forthcoming with your content. This helps prevent your emails from being viewed as spam or just irrelevant. People should be aware of the content to expect before they subscribe. The newsletter subscription form should clearly detail what the subscriber can expect to receive by signing up. This will not only protect you from legal repercussions but also lessen the likelihood of your audience unsubscribing.

Audience Segmentation

 

Ensure your email campaigns targets a specific customer base. Your marketing strategy must consider the different needs of the customers. Get to understand your target audience. This will help you to create smaller sub-groups with offers and content designed specifically to match their unique needs and wants. Segmentation can be done through a number of ways including personalization, geo-targeting, and demographics.

Approximately 760% revenue boost is expected from segmented campaigns. It is hugely profitable. Elements like visuals, subject line, CTA, and offers can be extremely helpful in establishing audience segmentation.

A/B Testing

As a business, it’s vital to know what your customers want. In the same way, it’s important to know which strategies are working and which ones are not. This is where the A/B testing method comes in. An effective A/B testing will require knowing exactly what to test. Things to test include the subject line, call to action, personalization, testimonials to include, and body text.

Testing will help you gather valuable information on your customers, which will be very important in decision-making. A/B testing will also improve user engagement, boost conversion rates, and improve the content. Data analysis will be needed afterward to measure certain metrics like conversion rates, unsubscribe rates, CTR rates, and open rates. The results will tell you what you are doing right or wrong.

Technology

How to Correctly Use WordPress Tags and Internal Links

September 13, 2018

Improved readability is one of the main benefits of SEO for me. Although WordPress provides an optimized platform for publishing your web content, over time, not everything you publish will be visible. #SEOmyblog

You believe in your content and what it can do to help people change, improve, or achieve certain goals in life. Therefore, you should make sure that the process of browsing through your site is easy.

In a nutshell, if you have a better interlinking structure, more people will be interested in reading your content.

But how do you know if the tactics you’re using are bearing any fruits? Click Consult can help you with detailed statistics on a number of things such as page and content metrics. The aim of such and other kinds of analyses is to give you recommendations on how to improve your site and your visitor’s experience.

WordPress Helper

To link your existing content on WordPress, use the insert link box. That is, when you are on the editing screen, highlight your desired text then you can either select the “link to existing content” option or the link icon.

The search field will pop up followed by a number of posts which match what you’re looking for. After you choose one, all you need to do is click on the Add Link option.

Internal Links

A significant factor when it comes to on-page SEO is internal linking. And there are a number of things you can do when working on your SEO including:

  • Keyword usage
  • Interlinking
  • Meta tags
  • Using headings and sub-headings
  • Good HTML and URL structure

Internal links work almost the same way as backlinks. The only difference is that internal links are hosted on your website. So, when Google looks up your site, they follow these links to access your content and come up with the most important parts of it.

Using Related Posts

You can also opt to get plugins for related posts. Simply put, these plugins analyze your content then display a number of links to related posts.

Whichever plugin you choose, the goal remains the same- to keep readers on your website.

Manual Interlinking

One strategy I use is picking some of the important posts then linking to them internally from other posts.

When interlinking, use the following tips:

  • If you have to link several times, then use a variety of anchor texts to give your post a more natural feel.
  • Where does your link rank in the HTML structure? Your link will be more significant to Google and your readers if it ranks higher. So, it’s best to link your post in the first 200 words of your page.
  • Place your link after at least an average of 150 words. You don’t want your post to appear too spammy. This, however, isn’t the case for all kinds of resource posts or list posts.

Automatic Linking

There are some plugins that automatically link your posts. The idea behind them is pretty straightforward. The plugins index your content, then analyzes it, and finally automatically links to the relevant posts, all without supervision.