Tag: technology - Page 5

It’s time to break your business out of the Stone Age! Without a proper marketing and communications strategy your business will not accomplish exponential growth. Think to yourself, is it okay to start a business without a business model/strategy? No.

So why are you still marketing without a marketing and communications strategy? It’s a waste of time and money and time is money so basically you just wasted a ton of money due to your lack of marketing efforts.

Marketing technology is an essential part of the marketing mix. To understand fully the implementations of various technology platforms, is hard and near impossible for most fulltime marketing managers navigating today’s competitive landscape.

This week, we have been completing our yearly in-depth training sessions with our U.S. based team. That means reminding ourselves about all areas of marketing, and what role technology plays in powering marketing performance.

Like most seasoned marketers, we break up the marketing technology mix into six categories; marketing experiences, operations, middleware, platforms, infrastructure and internet.

Yesterday I was bursting at the seams. Life couldn't get much better. I had a few meetings and they went so well, that I literally couldn't stop smiling and that feeling deep inside was one that I haven't felt in a long time.

How often have you received an automated text from your Telcommunications company, when you could have actually done with some personal service? In telecommunications, where SMS, VMS and social media platforms have taken hold of the way we communicate, it seems that some businesses have lost their personal touch. For those with a customer-centric or client focus, a lack of customer service can be highly detrimental.


It goes without saying then, that the most successful businesses are the ones who utilize new communication tools to their advantage, but never forget that the people they serve are just as important as the technology supplied. RD Direct is one such company: a telecommunications business that knows how to communicate.

There are so many things that entrepreneurs do right, and often it is for the world to see. Yet there are still some things that we don't quite get right. 2016 is going to be a huge year. There is so much in store and while we all focus on business, the Government has a few headaches not just with stimulating economic growth, but ISIS and climate change. 

The latter effects us all whether we like it or not, and also effects our businesses.

With that in mind, it is more important than ever before to put all the "right" things into play. They include:

The rise of robotics is nothing new; everyone from scientists to futurists and your average Joe has been talking about it for decades.
In fact, we’ve been watching TV robots since the 1950s, wondering when the predictions made on these shows would come to fruition.
We’ve been reading Isaac Asimov books since 1939 pondering whether robotics will one day usurp humanity to become the dominant being. 

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.

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:

Another weekend has just passed, and we went over the same old topic that keeps popping up; what do we want out of life and why do we do the things we do.

We read theories about entrepreneurs and what makes them tick; money, competition and passion. It's like a broken record that keeps on repeating itself. I for one wish that someone would come out with something a little different. Some piece of inspiration that is going to make me stop in my tracks and go "yeah!".

I am curious to know what makes one person in an organization really stand out from the rest. As a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 10 years under my belt, I am constantly being reminded, if not surprised by the most interesting individuals in my team.

Today, I found out two things; the first is that I am not as bad as I thought when it comes to finding a solution to a problem and secondly, that if you give someone an opportunity, its the only way to see if they have the ability to shine or not.

As a person who is no stranger to having to pull up my sleeve, my first thoughts are always that I have to do it on my own - but I have something to share with you and it is that that is not always the case. In fact, if you reach out to your team and share your experiences and problems, they are usually the ones who come up with the solution that is best suited to your business or you personally. Your staff know you better than you think, and if you are delusional enough to think that by hiding in your office, that they don't, then you have a lot to learn.

I have been in Sydney for the last few days and I am so happy to experience the city that I love dearly, with my team. I usually waltz in and waltz out, within a day or two, and have my time so filled with meetings that I don't spend enough time getting to know the people around me.