The role of marketing is to provide the platform for sales to occur. That means generating leads, warming them up and then passing them on to our sales counterparts. When sales teams are cold calling and chasing leads, and you have a fully functional marketing department, there is something going wrong.

It’s that time of year when every business is re-thinking their business plan and marketing strategy – with good reason. A new year is about to begin and the next decade will either make or break your business. 

With the right plan in place, the chances of “making your business” become so much higher.

They are a weary bunch of people - those marketers. You find them hanging out at conferences, marketing events and sometimes the opening of an envelope. Other times, you find them sitting next to you on a flight, and that's really the one time you can find the one pearl of wisdom that will help you along your way.

Out of sight, out of mind — it’s an old saying, but it’s especially true about customer relations. We have all been given something with a logo on it, and we often use them every day. But how do you know that what you are doing with your marketing placement is working? How do you continue to ensure that your brand is at the forefront of a customer’s mind, and how do you stand out from the competition? Here we give you 10 good reasons why we believe that every marketing strategy can benefit from including promotional products as part of the overall campaign.

Today I was asked the question, "what inspires you to come up with blogs?"

The answer is simple: "things that happen in every day life often inspire me."

If the truth be told, the blogs have been few and far between of late because inspiration is being cluttered with real life work, legals and end of financial year in Australia.

Jackson, a talented young guy on a 3-month internship with Marketing Eye asked the question and then followed with, "what do you think of tattoos?"

I had to think - not much. I don't have one myself, but many people do. They don't offend me, nor do I think that it would affect my decision in hiring someone or giving them a promotion, but this is not the case with all organizations it seems.

Is it a bribe or clever promotion?

'Super Saturday' they call it. Woolworths is giving away $1 million dollars to shoppers through an instore promotion on Saturday between 10am and 2pm. Every 15 minutes, average and not so average Australians shopping in Woolworths have the chance to win $25 Gift Vouchers. The snag is, you have to be instore to win it.

I had a dream and it wasn’t to run the biggest company. It was to run a company that recreates the expectations of an industry and that is exactly what I am doing.