images/bannerimages/Blog-Banner.jpg 
Marketing Eye Marketing Articles
Getting ready for the artic freeze with a 12 degree chill expected tomorrow, I am gladly sitting in my warm office in Atlanta.
The team is fired up for the start of the new year. At this time of year, many people rethink where they sit in this world; life, work, health. I for one, have been doing a lot of that lately.
As I embark on the next phase of our global expansion, I am left with some thoughts on the people I employ and those who would best suit our company going forward.
The team is fired up for the start of the new year. At this time of year, many people rethink where they sit in this world; life, work, health. I for one, have been doing a lot of that lately.
As I embark on the next phase of our global expansion, I am left with some thoughts on the people I employ and those who would best suit our company going forward.
Published in Marketing
Entrepreneurs, managing directors, CEO's, Presidents, CMO's, marketing managers and digital marketing directors are all thinking about how their 2015 marketing strategies are going to be executed - after all it's that time of year.
While most B2B organizations have been fine tuning their marketing strategies for months, other's are only now just scrambling to put one together. At Marketing Eye, December and January is our highest inquiry month predominantly due to so many companies waiting until the last minute to develop their marketing strategies.
It's crazy because by leaving it to the last minute, you are already starting behind the 8-ball and giving your more organized competitors a head start.
Here are some things that you should be thinking about:
While most B2B organizations have been fine tuning their marketing strategies for months, other's are only now just scrambling to put one together. At Marketing Eye, December and January is our highest inquiry month predominantly due to so many companies waiting until the last minute to develop their marketing strategies.
It's crazy because by leaving it to the last minute, you are already starting behind the 8-ball and giving your more organized competitors a head start.
Here are some things that you should be thinking about:
Published in Marketing
December was a short month in the office; only two weeks in length, yet it produced the most sales on record. We surpassed our sales forecast by 62 percent in the first week, and finished off hard with two contracts coming in from Geelong Grammar and Parramatta City Council on the last day in the office.
Internationally, we are in a fast-growth phases and this holiday has been spent working out how we will accomodate the extra sales and at the same time keep moving forward, leveraging our unique positioning.
We now have three inside sales executives in the company, with that set to double by the end of the first quarter next year. This investment has paid dividends as it allows marketing managers to focus on their jobs and not be tied down by talking to prospects that are warm and not hot. They no longer put together the proposals or the contracts, which are all done by our well trained inside sales executives.
Internationally, we are in a fast-growth phases and this holiday has been spent working out how we will accomodate the extra sales and at the same time keep moving forward, leveraging our unique positioning.
We now have three inside sales executives in the company, with that set to double by the end of the first quarter next year. This investment has paid dividends as it allows marketing managers to focus on their jobs and not be tied down by talking to prospects that are warm and not hot. They no longer put together the proposals or the contracts, which are all done by our well trained inside sales executives.
Published in Marketing
While a sex tape is a good way to get media exposure for some; Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton and alike - it's not the right way to get the type of media exposure to escalate your business's chance of being written about.
When I first started doing PR, I used to write a media release and fax it to a media outlet - all with varying results. The headline, like it is today, is worth it's weight in gold, and if you have a strong first paragraph, you may get that call back you have been waiting for.
That was soon followed up with 'pitching' on the telephone and depending on what mood the journalist was in or your ability to 'sell' a story to them, you either walked away with a published article or your press release was thrown in the trash can.
In 1998, the faxing part changed to emailing which was fantastic because it was a much faster and less tedious way of getting a media release out to journalists. It also was a much more environmentally friendly way to operate and allowed for changes to be made to ensure that each email sent out to a journalist was a one-to-one marketing piece rather than an everything to everyone, hit and miss style approach.
Published in Marketing
The lines blurred sometime in the last 10 years, but I don't know exactly when it happened.
Having started my first business at 25 years of age, specializing in technology marketing, I thought I had it all. A marketer who understood technology marketing and who could talk the talk which at that time seemed to be, the height of the dot com boom, the most lucrative marketing position one could hold.
Then of course, someone came along and started talking about company culture, and marketers took a turn to start embellishing the on-boarding process of new recruits, with a mixture of "people marketing" with "technology marketing" - and for a time, that was all the rage. It seemed to be the only thing people were talking about and marketers starting play a role in human resources, giving recruiters and in-house HR managers the tools to "sell their brands" like they were a front line sales executive needing to close the deal in order to reach their quotas.
Published in Marketing
Why your marketing agency needs a flat organizational structure
Jul 09, 2014 Written by Mellissah Smith
The next 12-months is going to be incredibly different for people who work at Marketing Eye. After years of working hard at establishing a product and service that is unsurpassed by industry standards, driven by technology, systems and processes, we are now working tirelessly on how to build the right culture going forward.
There have been many hit and misses and lots of unnecessary frustration, but finally I think as a team we have hit the nail on the headand I am about to test it to the enth degree.
Flat Organizational Structure
Weaning employees off hierarchy-driven decision making has been a test of both patience and perseverance. Gen-Y's have been told that they need leadership in order to be successful, yet some of the most successful companies in the world, like Google, are saying quite the opposite. Their investment in a flat organizational structure has not only shown dividends on the balance sheet, but it has created a workplace and culture that the world-over admires and respects.
For smaller companies that have an established organizational structure, driven largely by an entrepreneur, it is more difficult to adapt to a flat organizational structure with the primary reason being that both parties; the entrepreneur and the employees, find it difficult to let go.
I have been travelling the world growing "my small business" and have found that it is almost impossible to be the leader I would have hoped to be, living the life I do. I certainly am no role model in this department, nor do I follow the many books I have bought over time on"how to be a good leader" no matter how much I try but ultimately fail in my pursuit.
If nothing changes, nothing changes
We learn most from failures, and it is with these experiences that we equip ourselves to adapt our ways to do things better and hopefully learn from our lessons.
Published in Marketing
Recently, a client shared a sage piece of marketing advice, he said “If you have just $100 left in your advertising budget, your best investment is to use it to travel and share your story with your market face-to-face”. Today Marketing Eye put this advice to the test, with great success for one of our clients – Papa Gusto.
A marketing plan does not have to boast an exorbitant budget to be effective, nor does it have to be overly complex and multi-levelled to achieve your goals. We have proven this.
Published in Marketing
There have been many lessons I have learned this year; some the easy way and some the hard way.
The past six months have been exhausting. It has tested me in ways that I never imagined possible and at the same time, made me realize a few things about myself that will help shape the person I am moving forward.
I have learned:
Published in Marketing
Everyone at some time in their lives has felt that their world has curved in. Things become heavy, dark and almost impossible to keep afloat - but there is light at the end of the tunnel, if only we all can see it.
It's how we handle these experiences of difficulties that show our real character and ability to be resilient in the face of adversity now and in the future.
Published in Marketing
The Wolf of Wall Street was in many people's opinions a celebration of the bad life - drugs, sex, expensive toys, opulent homes and super expensive suits.
As we watched on as Leonardo DiCaprio spruiked, "The way I look at it, their money was better off in my pocket," many of us couldn't believe that world existed quite like that. But it does. And it's right here on our doorstep too.
Published in Marketing
There is one thing that employees can learn from a Navy Seal that will be life changing - and that is to make your bed every morning to perfection. By completing this task, according to Navy Admiral William H. McRaven, who gave a talk to 8000 graduating students from the University of Texas last month, you would have completed the first task of the day.
I watched the video of his speech that clocked up 1.7 million views in 2 weeks on YouTube a few weeks ago and was inspired.
Of his 10 Life Lessons From A Navy Seal, here are 4 that resonated most with me:
Published in Marketing
"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.
Published in Marketing
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:
Published in 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.
Published in Marketing
