What are some reasons why you would shy away from looking into an outsourced marketing firm? Is it cost? Is it a bad experience previously? Or is it simply not trusting anyone outside the confines of your business?

Marketing is one slippery slope to take on. No matter how much time one can invest in understanding marketing, there will always be more to learn, especially with technology leading the way and evolving ever so relentlessly. With that being said, let’s take a look at some common problems that businesses come across when outsourcing marketing.

Finding the right work-life balance can be one of the most challenging feats to achieve for both businesses and for professionals in the workplace. Many times it seems as though we find ourselves on either side, either too focused on work, which affects our personal lives and relationships. And on the other hand, we may get too wrapped up in our personal lives that we let it affect the way we work. In this article we are going to take a look at what drives this work-play balance, and what it could do for you.

You have already created the ad script, the ad objectives, and the ad design...and you’re probably thinking “once this gets posted we are all set to start seeing results”. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. In most cases, developing an effective ad is much more than just aesthetics. In this blog we will examine 5 key drivers of best practice advertising.

It's a cold but sunny Sunday morning in Buckhead, Atlanta. After a nice of soft snow flakes and below freezing temperatures, the sun has decided to come out and shine, and everyone has decided to get out from beneath their doonas and brave the beautiful spring day.

I am sitting in a crowded coffee shop, sampling yet another Caribou carefully brewed coffee that lacks the lustre of Italian coffee but all the same, isn't so bad for a somewhat subdue coffee culture.

A marketing consultant is not necessarily a marketing consultant.

From one to another, they are completely different. Some have great skills in strategy, others in tactical development and execution of marketing plans. Some are great at communicating but not fully across social media or what role advertising plays in the digital age.

In the past year, I have travelled the world talking to marketers and each one has something different to offer. They all have honed their skills in one area or another.

I first started my involvement in the marketing industry 21 years ago at an advertising agency in  Queensland. I remember watching the owner of the business operate and being completely fascinated by his skills and creativity. He had started his career as a window dresser for a large retailer and way back in the early nineties was making more than a million dollars profit out of 5-man agency. Incredible.

What pb Human Capital said about Marketing Eye's development of their company website:

"We first heard about Marketing Eye some years ago, and were consistently impressed by the quality of Mellissah's blogs, her marketing & design ideas and forever upbeat attitude. When we wanted a new and updated website, we made sure we spoke to her. To be honest though, we still did our due diligence and met with three firms before making our decision.

Mellissah is exactly the same in person as her social persona. She's great! She blew us away with her ideas for our website which fit neatly into our social networking strategy, our ideal brand image, and the look and feel of the company as we really are. When you couple that with the price (which was amazing, but not our only criterion), we simply had to use Marketing Eye.

The process was seamless, we had an incredibly fast turnaround, and the result was everything we'd hoped for. We're stunned. The website is excellent. It's exactly what we had conceptualised. I would absolutely recommend Marketing Eye to any business - small or large - that needed an expert look at their design and marketing strategy."

Whether you are a big business or a small business, "none of us is as smart as all of us" (ref: Kenneth Blanchard, The One Minute Manager).

Truth be known, I don't think I am very smart at all, but collectively with the talents of my team at Marketing Eye, we help small businesses grow and most of our work is pretty awesome (if you ask me!).

Whilst we all espouse to work with companies that have the same ethics, culture, and key set of values – it doesn’t always happen that way for a variety of reasons.

Believe it or not, by the end of this week, you will have 100 ways to market your small business.