Month: May 2015

The Most Essential Farming Equipment You Need To Know About

The most important farm equipment without a doubt is the tractor. According to buy used equipment MN specialists, no other piece of agricultural or farm machinery is as versatile in terms of handling a variety of chores and projects.  Aside from the tractor itself, most other farm equipment is considered industry specific.

The Tractor

farm equipmentTractors come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and options. Farmers need to obtain the size tractor they need for the routine jobs they need to handle. For instance, crop and livestock farms benefit from a utility tractor that features a PTO drive and a front end loader.  Such a kind of setup allows for the use of pull behind attachments like mowing decks, harrows including front end attachments like hay forks and buckets.  Bigger operations and industrial farms benefit from larger tractors that have comparable setups using bigger attachments for larger acreage.

Field Management Attachments

Whether it be for pure farming purposes or for raising livestock, farming requires managing fields.  Tractor attachments like disc harrows and root rakes help farmers turn over fields for new planting or to prep lands for grazing livestock. According to equipment parts and service MN specialists, mowing decks in different sizes and configurations allow farmers to trim underbrush around planted fields or cut hay in preparation for winter storage.  Each of these field management attachments runs as a pull-behind connected to the tractor’s PTO, using the tractor engine as the power generator.

Road Maintenance Attachments

Just as all farmers must manage fields, so too must farmers need to maintain the roads within the boundaries of the farm.  Vehicular traffic and rain can take its toll on dirt roads, with one heavy night of rain capable of destroying smaller dirt paths.  Pull behind tractor attachments like box blades allow farmers to resurface dirt roads on a regular basis.  Buckets on the front of the tractor allow for deeper road cutting so as to repair drainage ditches and other roadway necessities.

If you are interested in getting a used or new tractor for your farm log on to Minnesota Equipment.

 

 

Almost a Million Malware Threats Released Every Day

While computer hackers get more and more creative and clandestine in their activities, companies are struggling to fend off cyber attacks almost every day. The latest report from reputable Internet security teams at Symantec and Verizon offer a disturbing look on how challenging it is for a computer user to stay safe while online.

Symantec’s security threat analysis in 2014 revealed that thieves are working much more efficiently and at an alarmingly faster rate than companies can defend themselves.  This has resulted in the launching of more and more malicious attacks than in previous years. About 317 million new pieces of malware, which are basically computer viruses and other malicious software, were created just last year alone.  This is equivalent to almost a million threats being released each day.

The hackers actually relied on ancient computer bugs that companies just have not gotten around to fixing yet, this is according to Verizon’s 2015 Data Breach Investigations Report.

In almost 90% of cases, hackers mainly relied on computer bugs that have been around since 2002.  The 3rd most commonly used method by hackers is through the use of a glitch in the way an IT manager remotely manages corporate PCs – one that has been in operation since 1999.  Conventionally speaking, companies should have already provided a patch to fix the flaw but surprisingly most have simply neglected it.

According to Verizon Security Data researcher Bob Rudis, “While it seems like a no brainer for fix some of these things, organizations care more about making widgets,” He says further that companies just do not have the time or manpower to tackle the issue.

Based on the same Symantec report, directed attacks and breach of data also grew with five out of six large companies being targeted by cybercriminals.   This represented a 40% increase based from the previous year.  Among the industries most affected, mining was the one that suffered the most brazen attacks. Hackers were mostly just trying to sell whatever sensitive information they can get on the black market for a quick buck.

 

The Role of Marketing Automation for Homebuilder Lead Generation

When it comes to getting a list of prospective customers, the first step is generating solid homebuilder leads.  This does not necessarily mean that you will get business from all of them and unless you have the manpower and resources to chase down each and every single lead, your conversion rate would be likely low to nothing.  According to remodeler sales training experts, very few customers are likely to come to you by themselves, without any assistance.  If you are a renovation specialist with very few admin staff, the best method is to automate your marketing.

Marketing Automation

According to remodeler sales conversion specialists, marketing automation is not simply a process by which you send a ton of emails to prospects each month.  While it is a good means of driving traffic to your website and get people more interested about your services, it can potentially do more than just that.  Through the development of software that is specifically targeted for managing relationships, you can maintain regular communications with your prospective clients, send special offers and promotions and monitor what they are interested in and what they are simply ignoring.

Why Marketing Automation Works:

  • It allows you to generate reports that can assist you in analyzing which marketing efforts are delivering the best results in terms of new business.
  • It frees you up so that you are able to focus on warmer leads while you develop cooler ones via email.
  • Track the activity of your prospects so that you know who to follow up with and when to do so.
  • Score leads according to different criteria so that you know which one to follow up.
  • Gives you the ability to collect information from possible clients via landing pages and online forms
  • Integrate email marketing and website lead generation efforts

 

 

Implement a Program

There are several ways by which you can setup a marketing automation program in order to deliver homebuilding leads for your company.  There are CRM software available such as Salesforce or HubSpot, but this will require some training in order to implement.  There are also some free programs out there such as Sales AutoPilot and leadsius.

If you want to learn more about marketing automation and how to do it quickly and effectively log on to New Home Sales Coach.