It's not by accident that creative marketers are paid more money, are in greater demand and hold the key to a successful marketing campaign. 

Some are born that way and can come up with a creative campaign on the way to work, other's like to spend their time being inspired by the environment in which they live in, and of course, the one's who are time poor and like to surf the net, find the internet a great source for inspiration.

I personally like a combination of both and collaborative creative ideas always seem to draw the best inspiration from each of the different sources.

If you are looking for inspiration online, here is where I like to go:

1. Behance: 
This is a designers go to point for inspiration. Mostly the designs are clean and creative, and they cross many industry sectors allowing for creatives to be inspired by variety and relevancy which is very important.

How many people can relate to "I started from the bottom and now I am here"? I certainly can. There are literally millions of people who can relate to the lyrics and inspiration that hip hop / pop artist Drake uses in his songs and his everyday sayings.

I spoke with a young lass that worked behind a bar the other day mentioning that I was going to the concert and she said, "Every woman wants to be with him, and every man wants to be like him."

Yesterday I spoke with Instagram and Snapchat king, Jeremy Jauncey, for a story in the Marketing Eye Magazine. 

He talked about why pictures tell the story more so than any other format whether it is in one picture or through a video. 

I couldn't agree more. Looking at a picture, it does tell a thousand words.

As an avid believer that your team should not be encouraged to work overtime, I am doing a few hard yards myself to keep our fast growing, dynamic and innovative business flourishing.

For the past few nights, I have a lot on my mind and everything has been working overdrive. Thank god, that for now, I don't have a personal life and I am on the go travelling doing the stuff that comes second nature to me.

With time up my sleeve, I've had a lot of thinking to do. Innovation is key to performance and success in the future, and if we are not innovating faster and more smarter than our competitors, we will fall to the way-side, and eventually will lose market share whether we like it or not.

As I sit at my desk in the Marketing Eye Atlanta office, I am surrounded by books; A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Fun is Good by Mike Veeck, The Girl in Times Square by Paullina Simons, Zero to One by Peter Thiel, The Art of Startup Fundraising by Alejandro Cremades, Start-up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, Scaling Lean by Ash Maurya, #askgaryvee by Gary Vaynerchuk and Tom Osborne on Leadership.

I am an avid lover of everything about Twitter. From time to time I become somewhat obsessed and with a combination of Ashleigh Cameron who is now 20 years old and has worked for Marketing Eye for the past 3 years, from junior through to social media curator - we have forged an organic growth rate of 80,000 plus followers.

Not trying to buy and build, these followers are real and with 97% authenticity, we have done a really good job. 

You've read it many times before "Robots will never replace humans". Incorrect. They will. They are. And you're job is on the line especially if you are in marketing, and work at Marketing Eye.

Clients are continually concerned with the length of time it takes a human marketer to do the work that they do. Mostly, they are being short-sighted, but equally so, they are right. Marketing Automation took over a few years back for a reason. It took away the time it would normally take a human being to nurture a lead all the way to a sale. All a human needed to do was write the content, but even that is not so necessary today - however, proof-reading is.

Go mobile

No, you’re not crazy, Millennials, in fact, are glued to their smartphones, I’m not joking there are facts to support it. According to a report done by Experian Millennials spend just about over 2 hours a day - 14.5 hours a week - on their smartphones. The report goes on to state that in fact, so much time is spent on their smartphones that it accounts for 41 percent of the total time that the American population spend using smartphones, despite Millennials only making up 29 percent of the US population. 

But wait, it gets even crazier.

One of the most important things we all strive for in the business world is standing out from the crowd. We want our audience to be able to differentiate us from the competition and, well, we want to be Lady Gaga. Let’s face it, we may not want to wear meat to corporate events but we want to be memorable and instantly recognizable. Lady Gaga has refined that skill to a tee. Here is what you can learn from her:

1. Not listening

As a marketer you have a pretty good understanding of what actually needs to be done for a client, however sometimes marketers go off on their own ideas and ignore what the client wants. STOP!  Remember the number 1 objective should be your client's happiness. That means listening to what the client wants and making compromises when possible.   

Do you have a system in place to organize your customers? Whether they are prospects or existing clients you need to have processes in place for keeping track of vital client information. Confused about what is an CRM system? A CRM system is simple a way to organize your clients and prospective clients. Yes, an excel spreadsheet can be considered a CRM system, but for some an excel spreadsheet isn’t enough.This is when they turn to software such as Salesforce. A CRM system is important for several reasons; organization of contact details, keeping track of the sales pipeline, and making sure everyone is on the same page.

You may have noticed, people live on their devices, I know I feel like I’m missing an arm without my cell phone. 82% of buyers research you online before they take action, be it buying your product or service or calling you to schedule a demo. This means your digital presence has to be up to snuff.

There are lots of great ways to help generate leads through your website. Having someone opt in by giving you their “almighty” email address can be very powerful. Previously we posted about subscribe boxes and pop up email collection apps but there are tons of ways to get someone to opt in and make it fun at the same time. One of my favorites is a quiz.

Finally, I have a printed copy of the 2016/17 Global Marketing Strategy for Marketing Eye and it is being developed out to the point where every single item in the marketing strategy is given to a person who is responsible for outcomes.

It's particularly exciting given that usually we only share part of the plan, but this year, we decided to share it all - along with our profit sharing strategy for employees. It's time for many of our younger team members to start investing in houses or apartments, and they cannot do that without getting some real money behind them.

An organically grown email list is key to a strong online presence. However, asking for someone’s email address can be tricky. I had personal experience requesting email addresses in a store and people treating me like I requested exclusive access to their first born child’s naming rights. Anyway, users are reluctant to just give out their email address when they first step foot on your site. They want to be certain they enjoy your content and find value in it. Below I will include a short list of useful lead gen tools to capture emails but first let’s go over a few polite ways to ask for users’ emails.

As most of you know, in a blink of an eye, the carefully curated “good girl” image of one Taylor Swift was destroyed by a series of snapchat videos exposing her to be a liar and destroying her reputation.  For those of you that live under a rock, you can read about it on vox.com.  

“What can we learn from this?” you ask, “How does this have any relevance to my business?” let me elaborate.  

Knowing your audience when presenting your business is essential. In order to succeed at selling your company you need to know when to lay it on thick and when to back off. Different scenarios call for different sales pitches. Speaking to someone in the hallway versus a formal business meeting should not be approached in the same manner. It can be a huge turn off to a prospect when you are trying to over sell them right off the bat.

Business cards. Easy, simple, and one of the best ways to gain new clients. Think about the last time you gave a potential client your business card. What did the client look like? What sort-of help were they looking for? Where did you meet? A restaurant? A convention? Maybe in line at a coffee shop? These questions may seem trivial, but they can actually mean the difference between gaining and losing a new client.

Do you network with industry leaders?

If you are a business struggling to get leads and you answered “never” to the above question then you are in for a big surprise.