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"Same bed, but it feels a bit bigger now" is the lyrics in the famous Bruno Mars song "When I was your man". An apt description of Marketing Eye's business expansion into the US market. It's the same company, but it's a bit bigger now.
What started out as a step to expand the international footprint of our brand, has taken on a whole new dimension. Australia and America have long been tied and now more so than ever. The ebbs of the economy has led to an opportunity for Australian companies that are geared for expansion to leverage the strength of the Australian dollar, and affordable set up costs in the US market without breaking the bank. The downside, is US dollars are not worth as much, as the dollar loses its grip on parity.
Published in
Marketing
Who would have thought that a blog titled "Why married women are more successful" would receive 54,256 views in less than 24 hours, 555 likes, 634 comments, 702 Facebook likes, 2,632 shares on LinkedIn and 79 retweets on Twitter? I did. And that's exactly why I wrote it.
I am a new author on LinkedIn and I know a thing or two about blogging and going viral. If I just write about marketing, at most, I will get between 1,000 and 10,000 views over a week. If I write about something personal - more. But if I write about something that people have strong opinions on or that hits a raw nerve - the sky is literally the limit.
It also depends on the forum. The very same post "Why married women are more successful" was posted on this blog last week, with less than 1,000 unique views. The reason for this, as I explained to my team, was because people who read my blog are highly educated, entrepreneurs or CEO's, who 'get the value of a good blog'. They wouldn't respond because just by reading "kiss as many boys as they like" they realize that it is very "Sex in the City" rather than an article that is going to be backed up with a statistical line up.
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Marketing
As seen on LinkedIn:
When I examine our culture at Marketing Eye, one idea usually sticks out at people; that is, our stance on bad ideas. Taking a unique approach (remembering nothing we do here is status quo), I encourage my team to share their ideas daily; the great, the good and the terrible.
Why? Because I firmly believe there is value in bad ideas.
If you look in to the journey behind the biggest accomplishments in the world, they’re full of bad ideas. In fact, it’s the mishaps, the arduous trial and error procedure that leads to greatness. A bad idea simply paves the way for a new and improved one. Bad ideas are often discouraged and quickly discounted as failures, but in reality, they identify solutions.
I need my team; from the marketing managers to the interns, to feel that they have an open forum to exchange their ideas freely; we are, after all, a creative company. And during a consultancy, our marketing managers will implore our clients to lay all of their ideas on the table. And often we harvest gold from the very idea our clients are hesitant to tell us.
What I know - when you shut down the idea on bad ideas, you close it on future good ones too.
Published in
Culture
Recently US Airlines were left embarrassed when an employee responded to a customer with a cryptic tweet – an image of a woman and a very strategically placed toy airplane. Understandably, this social media marketing error horrified the world and the image went viral. In addition, the airline’s bizarre apology was retweeted over 12,000 times.
The PR failure from this ill-advised US Airlines post served as a reminder of the power of social media and how it can cause irreparable damage to a company’s brand.
Here are the six lessons to learn from this PR plane crash, as well as other social media disasters:
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Marketing
Flirting, business and software. I've got something to tell you.
May 06, 2014 Written by Mellissah Smith
What does a generous smile and a MacBook have in common? It's all science, computer science that is.
I'm talking about marketing automation; the web-based program that helps your court new clientele.
You walk in to your favourite shop and immediately, something beautiful captures your attention. You need it, you want it, it would be just right for you. Summoning all of your courage, you walk over to that breathtaking prospect and begin your introduction. And no, I’m not talking about a man, or a Georgio Armani suit - I’m describing else something that elates me; engaging with a potential new client; that instantaneous allure of a new connection. And I’m not going to lie; you must approach business like you would a date.
Yes, I’m encouraging you to flirt with your customers.
Marketing automation is your vehicle to woo and court business with every single element of the marketing mix taken in to account. This software is a platform that allows you to create chemistry with your potential customer by enticing interaction on multiple levels. It’s not a want but a need for you and your business.
And like any new relationship, marketing automation is initially hard to work out but if you remain patient with it, it is well worth the benefits. It’s a system designed to make lives of marketers easier (so much yes!), reduce headcount in your departments and increase return on your investment. Typically, businesses rely heavily on ROI and this system facilitates lead-to-revenue management, the foundation of most successful businesses.
But what does this have to do with flirting? Go back to the shop scenario. Your prospect is now surrounded by a number of people, and with every step you take, more individuals approach them. Once confident, you’re rendered hesitant by all of the attention your prospect is grabbing.
You ask yourself: how can I gain the acknowledgement of this person?
The only way to catch their attention, you realise, is relating to them in a way that no-one else does.
Due to the rapid rise of technology, we are swamped with information. Imagine several people at that shop bombarding your prospect with conflicting messages. No longer is there just one prospect to one marketer; marketing automation deals with this modern conundrum by offering a refined approach to relationship building, enabling you to appear as the only option in a sea of people.
The beauty of this system it treats the customer as knowledgeable. They know what they want. They’ve heard it all before. In fact, few are ahead of their marketers. Placing a heavy emphasis on analytics, marketing automation captures customer data; every web page they visit, tweet they send, link they click. This information allows the marketer to understand their customer’s needs like never before and relate to them in a completely new way. Rather than lead their customers, marketers become part of their process; remembering - it does take two to flirt.
Marketing automation encourages the marketer to help the customer through their journey by educating them and listening to what they’re saying. Sales have always been relationship-driven – that has not changed – but now our focus must be on building that relationship, using data to ‘flirt’ with our leads and pump out revenue.
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Marketing
Yesterday, I spoke at Cebit 2014 on sales process automation.
It was an interesting topic because so many Australian companies have yet to realise just how much more efficient their sales process can be through sales automation and the ROI in terms of revenue acquired because of having an effective sales process automation system in place.
Collaborating CRM, marketing automation, workflow automation and email marketing, sales process automation is one of the most important areas for businesses to focus on in 2014.
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Marketing
As a person who has employed hundreds of people in my career, I am always amazed at how some people stand out from the crowd, while other's don't.
In today's work environment where work-life balance seems to take precedence, and the millennials and gen-y are looking for more than their predecessors who were mainly happy to be gainfully employed and on a career path that funded their lifestyle - it appears that fewer employees are seeking to be outstanding. They are looking for more than just to be an outstanding employee, but rather a career that is fulfilling, balanced and with the right perks to help them get the outcomes financially they are looking for in their lifetime.
Now, this is not a bad thing. As you get older, you realize that you only live once. This new way of thinking and the younger generation putting life first and career second, can only benefit generations to come.
Where the real problem lies in the blurred line between how to advance your career or how best to maintain your status quo in the workplace.
Published in
Culture
Sure, this is not a top-tier newspaper gig or a glamorous television job, but we do have Timtams and laugh alot. Our deadlines are not as dramatic, but we do have a magazine to get out. You will meet lots of interesting people from all walks of life, namely entrepreneurs that may one day be 'the next big thing' and some big businesses that choose us as their marketing arm.
It's true, we are looking for a journalist, because we like journalists. They seem to be smarter, more diverse and faster than having a PR chick (or bloke) in-house, and let's face it, communications people suck at writing real stories for quality magazines - but you seem to have that one sorted.
And... we aren't a bad place to work. Our people are nice, all with interesting and diverse backgrounds. We work hard and as much as I would like to say that we play hard, its possibly not the case other than for a few Gen-y'ers that work for the company.
We have a dog, but she is stuck in the US at the moment. Hopefully one day she will join us back on these sunny shores.
Published in
Culture
When writing my business plan 9 years ago, I took many things into account like how the business would look in 10 years time, who we would employ, what services we would provide, and how we would expand into new markets.
But what I didn't take into account is how I would actually make it happen. You see, like many entrepreneurs, I have struggled with working in the business and trying to at the same time work "on" the business - never quite getting the mix right.
At long last, since I made some smart strategic business moves last year, including changing management, I have become the entrepreneur I always wanted to be. I am implementing our business plan that was written so long ago, and it feels really good. There is a sense of satisfaction that is growing deep inside me and I believe in every single thing that we are doing.
Published in
Small Business Marketing
Chase Performance has created successful business solutions through an award-winning combination of consulting and services. They work across a wide range of industries, developing the expertise required to deliver the most premium consulting services available.
Published in
Marketing
When I started Marketing Eye more than 9 years ago, I had a vision to be the world's best small business marketing firm. I dreamt that I would open offices all over the world that would sell marketing services backed by sophisticated technology platforms, media and education, to businesses that had revenues of $1 million to $200 million.
Primarily, the companies that would be ideal clients were one's that were entrepreneur-led, like me, and who had a dream to significantly grow their businesses and mostly be industry game-changers - although the latter wasn't exactly necessary.
In the early days, we had hurdles. The first was our own mind-set of being use to working with funded startups or medium to large corporations and shifting the way we interacted, engaged and nurtured our clients to success to cater for burgeoning SMB market.
It took time. More time than I ever imagined.
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Small Business Marketing
"Leadership is lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations." —Peter Drucker
If you look at Steve Jobs and his role as a leader and marketer at Apple Inc., it's easy to see how the two roles work closely together. Without marketing, no-one would be any the wiser about Steve Jobs role at Apple Inc nor would we have had the opportunity to be captivated by his performances each time he launched a new product. Instead, we would simply wait for a product to be on the shelves and without all the "sizzle" we probably would never have been as enticed to stand in line and buy each product the minute it was launched.
Some leaders fail to see the value in marketing, and although they may have a role in the organisation that is responsible for certain outcomes, they may see it more as a sales related function which is why it often falls under this umbrella.
Smart, insightful, charismatic, thought leaders understand the value of marketing. They use it and often abuse it to become leaders that everyone follows. Rather than focus solely on a product or service marketing campaign, they use it to elevate their position in the market with a double edge sword, by at the same time ensuring that the company brand and positioning benefits from association.
3 Ways Leaders Use Marketing
Published in
Small Business Marketing
Why patience is a virtue - how to implement more patience in life
Apr 04, 2014 Written by Mellissah Smith
Something was brought to my attention yesterday by two people; I am not patient. I want everything there and then, and in that lies what is possibly one of my biggest failures.
I admire people who 'wait it out' and watch, carefully understanding a situation in its entirety before making a decision. Having patience often means that you have the choice of a small reward in the short-term, or a more valuable reward in the long-term, with human nature being that most of us prefer a short-term reward over a long-term reward, despite the latter reaping greater benefits.
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Mellissah Smith
I am continually amazed by the number of professional services, technology, manufacturing and logistics companies that fail to see the value in communicating via social media.
The question I pose to you is "how did you find this blog?" and "how do you now know the Marketing Eye brand?"
I know the answer - do you?
Published in
Small Business Marketing
It's a Saturday and I am sitting in my friends living room talking business while at the same time reading emails and catching up on the latest in business news.
As we talk I realize that entrepreneurs are no different from celebrities, movie stars, singers, musicians or any other career that is centre stage.
The reality is we all have a bit of neurotic behaviour in us - whether we like it or not. Some entrepreneurs are more neurotic than others - micro-managing, controlling, double A-Type personalities that find it hard to accept another person's way of doing things, and then others just tip the iceberg.
Many entrepreneurs have a goal, or an idea of where they want to be. They are achievement orientated and often lack discipline, needing to hire the latter in to complement their existing skill base.
Published in
Management
