We've all heard about 'why companies fail to grow' with literally thousands of books, blogs, articles and shows talking about why businesses have failed to grow or have had a sudden death.

When you ask someone who has had a business fail, why, they usually give you one reason. We all know that there is never one singular reason why a business fails, it usually is combination of things; market size, competition and demand all feature highly on external factors while operations, leadership, complacency, technology, marketing and lack of investment feature highly as internal reasons.

But the real story that we all should be following is 'why businesses grow and succeed' because in that, there are lessons and patterns we all can follow.

I have never been shy of talking about Marketing Eye to my marketing blog readers. The reason being is that through my own experiences, perhaps small business owners reading this marketing blog will get ideas, make changes in their businesses or understand that they are not alone as an entrepreneur or a company growing in what can only be described as a volatile and unpredictable environment.

It is the latter that makes many small business owners hesitant to take risks, invest more in technology and marketing and in general, make changes to their business.

As a marketer, I know that when the market is like it is today, it's time to vamp up your operations, re-invest in your business, improve customer service delivery and invest in marketing and sales initiatives.

Putting my money where my mouth is, Marketing Eye is investing heavily in marketing and sales initiatives and expanding internationally in what many proclaim to be a very stupid time to do so due to the economy and current business environment.

I cannot wait to say to all the knockers that I not only invested in these areas when people have said not to, but my company has grown leaps and bounds.

What is Marketing Eye doing in October from a sales and marketing front?

Public Relations

Marketing Eye was featured in a 4 page spread in the leading entrepreneur magazine Wealth Creator Magazine in October which was followed by a story in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers on direct marketing and using competitions to create leads.

We can sit back and be happy with that, but we are not. After all, we are investing in marketing and part of the marketing mix is public relations. Fortunately we have a big announcement to make this month and this will no doubt generate public relations. In the past we have had many journalists ring up and ask for interviews in which we have declined. There is a valid reason for this. If the story is about entrepreneurs then it is potentially a story one of our clients can be featured in. Therefore, we do not steal from the mouth that feeds us. Why many people love seeing themselves in the media - I do not. It is a means to promote a business but not at the expense of a client.

Be aware of marketing and public relations companies that get more publicity than their clients!

Marketing Eye Magazine

We have in production a magazine on entrepreneurs, marketing and business which will be delivered to 10,000 business leaders in Australia in the month of October. This magazine features stories on inspirational entrepreneurs, leading technology, innovations and general interest features for businesses. Stories have come from all over the globe and the editorial is a great read for anyone in marketing or business.

Website

Marketing Eye's website is fairly impressive! I love it! Every single thing about this website makes me smile, but it can be better. All of our websites can be better. We, like most companies, have not updated our website other than our blog for a couple of months. Marketing Eye's website is in for a big revamp. New copy, new features, video, interviews, case studies and more. Our website is on the first page of google for nearly every keyword that we focus on so our lead generation from our website is enormous. They say 71% of leads from websites are not maximised. We fall into this category and therefore need to qualify leads online rather than receiving inquiries that are not relevant or not in our company's best interest.

Direct Marketing

Marketing Eye is doing a direct marketing campaign to 10,000 businesses in Australia over the next quarter and will be following this up with an integrated marketing campaign. Our aim is to double our business by June 30, 2013 and use technology to be more efficient and effective in our delivery.

Blogs

It's been a quiet few weeks on the blog front and don't we know it. The more I write blogs, the more client leads we get. People relate to the blogs that are written on this website and feel as though they personally know the people in our business, long before they actually meet us. Quite often people ring up and sign an electronic copy of a contract, because they feel as though we already have a relationship. For Marketing Eye, it is important that we write blogs daily and it is now an expectation of our marketing blog readers. We have hired a full time writer to assist in continuing our commitment to Marketing Eye's marketing blog.

Social Media

Where would Marketing Eye be without social media? Probably not on Google nor would we be known to hundreds of thousands of small business owners in the US and Australia. We continually invest between 2 and 5 hours a week on social media and it has paid dividends. Our business is thriving because Twitter alone brings in a client a week and combine that with our preferred social media platforms; Linkedin, Facebook, Blogs, Pinterest- and we have a one-to-one engagement we would not otherwise have the privilege of obtaining.

e-Marketing

I noticed a group I am involved in on Linkedin in relation to e-marketing has more than 300k participants. It makes sense. Companies that do it well - succeed. Simple. Marketing Eye will integrate an e-marketing campaign with a direct marketing campaign to 10,000 business owners. Can't wait to see the results.

There is more that Marketing Eye is doing in October from a marketing perspective, but this gives you an indicative marketing activities list of what a professional services firm is doing in marketing, just in one month. We are doing more this month than any other month of the year. Expansion is imminent and its a big leap from being a small business to being a large business. Now is the time to vamp up the marketing activities and be strategic on the entire business front. If all of your competitors are going one way, go the other.

A handy tip is to ensure that your entire team sees value in marketing, from the reception to the IT guy. If they all buy in, you will be surprised at what some people can bring to the table.

Note: Marketing Eye is focused on  providing marketing consultant services backed by an outsourced marketing department to Sydney, Melbourne, Newcastle, Townsville, Perth, Geelong markets.