Time To Take A Cold Hard Look At Yourself

Whilst many companies look at the festive season as a time to wind down and enjoy the fruits of the year, there still are a few of us that take this time to have a cold hard look at ourselves and make some very tough decisions.

If you notice, there are alot of big corporates doing the latter with large lay-offs over Xmas and a review of expenditure.

Today, I took the liberty of catching up with a good friend, someone I admire immensely who has been incredibly successful in business and in life. I talked about my vision for my business for the next 12 months, 2 years and 5 years and how I thought I would achieve it.

What is really good about friends who know you well, is that they tell you the truth. They don't sugar coat answers and they don't tell you what they think you want to hear. They're your friends and you have come to them to ask their opinion.

Whilst its great to hire external consultants, sometimes they have their own agendas or need to appease you so that you continue to hire their services.

My vision for 2010;

To help 50 new companies market their business in an affordable way with no hidden costs.

How I am going to achieve this;

By giving 50 companies an all inclusive package that has marketing, graphic design, branding, public relations and web development and campaigns as part of the services they receive for just $17.95 per day.

Why;

Because every business deserves every chance of survival.

How;

To do marketing for cost and allow customers to pay off their marketing services over a period of 2 years. No interest. No hidden costs.

When;

We will sign companies up in December and will take companies only over the January to June period.

What is a typical Marketing Eye in a company;

Someone who develops your strategy, website and brand and communicates it to your target audience leading to sales, brand building and ultimately profits.

How do you find out about it;

Ring 1300 300 080 and speak with Jacob Scott.

The downside;

There is no downside for businesses as it is the same successful service Marketing Eye has provided for the past 5 years, but it allows for a payment plan that is affordable to all small businesses.

For Marketing Eye the upside is;

We get to work with companies that are passionate about growing.

It's a typical WIN WIN...

Now, my good friend said to me,"Mel, so there are no surprises when they receive their invoices."

"No".

"Marketing Eye includes all the normal additional costs that agencies charge like design, web development and maintenance, public relations etc."

"Yes"
"No extra costs and they get to pay it over 2 years."

"Yes"

"Why don't you charge more?"

"Because we want to give businesses every opportunity to succeed. They succeed, we succeed."

"Great!"

And that was it. An endorsement that Marketing Eye in 2010 will be doing something that the market wants and needs that is a win, win for everyone.

www.marketingeye.com.au

Australia's number one small business marketing team that helps businesses grow and succeed.

2009 Kick-off Your Marketing

Having avoided heading to the office on the 5th January, 2009, by working from home on the company's business plan for 2009, today I am now ready to get started. Like any company, marketing in 2009 has become more important than ever before. Having only been in business for 10 years, I have never experienced such tough economic times, nor do I hope to again. Touch wood, it really hasn't hit me yet, but is this just the lag effect? Will it happen in the next quarter or will the new marketing campaigns that I am currently putting in place safeguard me from what is believed to be the toughest economic environment that I have seen in my lifetime? Whilst not all of our staff are back on board (some have taken longer holidays overseas to visit family, or in the case of our Marketing Director, Julie Schoneveld, a working holiday to Cambodia helping out in an orphanage) the ones that are, are refreshed and ready to take on the year. Now is the time to capitalise on their enthusiasm and the ideas that come from being fresh and innovative. In December we launched a campaign whereby clients that sign up for a 'Marketing Eye' get a free website (or a website revamp). This is worth $7,000 to each client, so it is an enormous saving. To do this campaign we had to weigh up whether giving so much away, dimishes the value of our brand and our service offering. In the end, we believed that given the fact so many companies are doing it tough, it is important to give a helping hand and ensure that they use marketing as the platform to stand out from the crowd. This campaign has been enormously successful and although we have had a long Christmas break, we are expecting the phones to keep ringing. One campaign is not enough though. This is not for everyone because some people don't realise the value in their websites. I do. In December, 59,000 unique page views showed me that our website is our most valuable marketing tool and combined with public relations, advertising and direct marketing, will showcase our value proposition to the market. Our website is also integral to growing our business in new markets. In December, we had people for South Africa, London, United States, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong approach us to join our team - just based on the information and branding of our website. Whilst we can all start the year focusing on the numbers and worrying about what is going to happen next, by taking an hour out of each day and focusing on marketing your company you will see a difference. Till next time.

http://www.marketingeye.com.au