Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 40

Watching from afar, but being in the thick of it all at the same time, the US election has taken a toll on our perception of what is going on, and what we need to do moving forward.

What is there to not love about America? I am blessed with a life of travelling backwards and forwards from Australia to Atlanta, meeting amazing people and having a team of individuals in my office that are very talented and uber cool.

It's almost time to clock off for the year, and start a new one. Are you ready? In Chinese custom, they clean their houses and life so that they can start a new year fresh. In business, it's not too different. If you really want to make the most of the new year, finish off everything that hasn't been completed and clean your house and find a new way of doing business in 2017.

In life as a normal rule, I do not reward bad behavior and have spent a lifetime being disappointed by people because of it. But the truth of the matter is that sometimes, you have to, and as painful as it is, choose not to be the one to set the example. You have to make a choice to let something make you or others miserable or to move on gracefully.

When we reward bad behavior a few things happen:

Sitting in the Atlanta office, with the weather outside mild compared to other years, I am looking at the view with a new perspective.

We run an international marketing firm, but so what? What does that actually mean? The last few days in the office before the end of the year are the best days in which to look back at the year you have just had and think about the year ahead. What are you going to do differently? How are you going to stand out from the crowd? What is going to keep you and your team motivated? What road blocks do you envisage coming up and how can you get around them before they become a problem? What changes are you making to your business?

Technology has revolutionized marketing and where it is heading in the next few months, let alone years, no-one knows.

But what I do know is that all of a sudden, we have forgotten something that is really, really important - and that is people are human and the human connection will never die.

Over the course of a year, Marketing Eye writes about 100 to 200 marketing strategies. They are integrated in approach, and incorporate the use of technology, data science, creative, and human elements. I recently was given a marketing strategy from another company that had done some work for a new client, and I literally threw it in the bin. It could be a strategy for any company, and all it did was talk about the technologies that the company needed to "buy" to achieve their goals.

I can't believe how many mistakes I make every single day. Sometimes, I think to myself.... "I must be stupid." Then I realize that there are always reasons as to why we make mistakes and as long as we learn from it - then that is all that counts.

As an entrepreneur, I have found that being a woman has been hugely advantageous to our business and continues to drive our business to new heights as it opens more doors than it closes.

While I have experienced inequality, and yes it has come from men, but overall, it is women that are more likely to hold other women back - and that is fact in today's society.

It's no secret the world has made the shift to social media - it's time for your business to follow suit. 
There is so much talk on influencer marketing that at long last, they have a point, and in most effective marketing strategies, there is a new category that has to be integral to the overall tactical marketing outcomes of a business. 

There comes a point in every marketers career where they look at where they have been, and where they hope to go to next.