Blog Author Mellissah Smith - Page 71

Everything you do from design to search engine optimization and social media, online advertising and content marketing, effects your ability to increase your market share and drive sales online.

If you look at your website, it is the home base. The place where you want everyone to come "home to" and feel comfortable to let their hair down and take off their shoes. In fact, you don't even mind if they put their feet up on the coach - as long as they feel comfortable enough to want to come back time and time again.

To get your visitor to feel this way, you have to be hospitable. You need to make them "feel" at home and as if your place is theirs. They need to have all of their home comforts and you have to keep them entertained.

It was opportune that I met with Jennifer Guarton from Atlanta Business Chronicle last week because without her, I would not have been sitting at this morning's 2013 Eggs and Issues Breakfast.

My belief is that you cannot market to a market you don't understand. While marketers tend to understand the psychology of why people buy, they can often be caught out by glazing over the state of the economy and not understanding both Government influence and Economic  conditions in regions in which they market.

In today's New York Times, there is a full page advertisement that says:

THIS IS NO PLACE TO DREAM SMALL.

IN NEW YORK STATE, A BUSINESS CAN GROW
AS BIG AS ANYONE CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE.

THIS IS A PLACE WITH A WHOLE
NEW APPROACH TO BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT.
WITH THE FASTEST-GROWING TECH SECTOR IN THE U.S.,
ONE OF THE BEST EDUCATED WORKFORCES IN AMERICA,
AND OVER $1 BILLION IN INCENTIVES AND TAX BREAKS,
IT'S NOT SURPRISING THAT OUR ECONOMY LAUNCHED OVER
50,000 NEW BUSINESSES LAST YEAR ALONE.

NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE,
OR WHAT YOU DREAM OF BECOMING,
REMEMBER THIS:
NO ONE EVER CAME HERE TO TAKE A BACK SEAT,
PLAY SECOND FIDDLE,
OR MAKE IT SMALL.

It's been an exhilirating week to say the least and my excitement levels are sky high.

The magnitude of market opportunity in Atlanta and the ability for a bespoke marketing services company like Marketing Eye to provide small businesses with a complete outsourced marketing department is incredible.

When you move to a new city, the first thing you do is connect or reconnect with people you know or have met before. It's a great opportunity to touch base and to engage with people, get updates on everyone's lives and start off where you left off.

There are few decisions that sit on the top of the pile as most fall lamely into the category of part of life's journey running a business. 

But, thankfully, life really isn't that boring and there are more than enough decisions to keep you awake at night or in the office until the wee hours, going over reports and analysis trying in vein to make the right decision for your business.

All while of course, people are saying to you that you need work, life balance and those long hours in the office, isn't really what you should be doing.

To say that I have had the amazing week ever is an understatement. I have met with the most giving, kind and thoughtful people this week by accident, coincidence or by sheer luck.

As most of you would be aware, Marketing Eye Atlanta is now full speed ahead. We are working with small businesses in Atlanta and surrounding cities in Georgia to help grow their businesses by providing an outsourced marketing department capable of identifying marketing needs in their businesses and leveraging our creativity and marketing talents to take them to new heights.

I have been dipping my toes personally in Atlanta for the past 12 months and late last year, started employing talented marketers to start building the business and identifying companies that would benefit from Marketing Eye's services.

Up until this week, I have been travelling backwards and forwards to Atlanta thanks to Qantas and the comforts they provide, and speaking with businesses in the area. Now, with my feet firmly on the ground, its time to really get this business in motion and start making inroads into becoming Atlanta's number one small business marketing firm.

Well, to say we are off to a good start is an understatement. 13 clients and/or very hot leads in 4 days isn't a bad outcome. I never dreamt that the uptake would be so good. But there has been a few things along the way that have helped us out.

They are:

First day back at work after the festive season and I decided to pop out to Lennox Square in Buckhead to buy a few emergency items. You know the ones that you just cannot possibly live without that sit in the cosmetics section of Macy's? 

As I approached the Chanel counter, I was greeted by familiar faces. I had met the staff there a few times before and they remembered me and my blog. After all, I read the blog out to the regional manager when I was last at the counter - a highlight of my year!

If you always do what you've always done, you will always get what you have always got. Henry Ford

It's one of my favourite sayings and yet it is so true.

I was thinking about one of my friends the other day and they keep doing the same old things over and over again with the same result. He keeps thinking it is everyone else, yet the common denominator is him. So without standing up and taking responsibility for their actions and where they are in life, they will no doubt continue down the same path. It's sad but true and you always want the best for them, but you know that ultimately, perhaps they would be happier if they made a change. That's certainly what I keep telling my friend Andrew anyway.

In business, if you are not where you want to be, then take stock. Is it because you keep repeating the same mistakes? Are you not learning lessons from one failure after another? Can you dissect how your business has run over the past year and look at ways you can improve upon your businesses performance?

There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth… not going all the way, and not starting. -Buddha

A new year, a new beginning. A chance to make wrong right and to deliver on your inner most ambitious, hopes and loves.

Each year, in January, like millions of others around the world, I make new years resolutions. They tend to be ones that are relatively achievable or that are aligned to my values and/or dreams. By writing them down and looking at them each day, it gives me a reminder of what my hopes were for the year ahead. 

As an entrepreneur and business person, there are many things that I would love to achieve; worldwide domination, more visitors to websites, greater client experiences, more sales, bigger profits, improved employee engagement and the list goes on and on. In short, like most entrepreneurs and business people, I want to be better at business and I want everyone around me to see my visions become realities.

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect. -Alan Cohen

Who out there is looking deeply into their sales performance over the past 12 months to help model a sales process for 2013?

As we look back at Salesforce records and reports and ascertain who made the decision to buy, postpone or sit on their hands, it's alarming how many people are doing the latter.

What happens in marketing and sales for that matter is that people don't make decisions. Many businesses are underperforming because they are unable to attach performance goals with real business needs.