Justin Harrison Marketing

Closing Bell 2011

Justin Harrison — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 12:12:56 +0000

2011 was filled with adversity, revolution, remembrance, and inspiration. It was a year of great change and challenge, but also a year of great opportunity and served as a reminder that we live in a truly global village.

Political uprising, toppled dictatorships, royal weddings, natural disasters, the world population surpassing 7 billion people, and the passing of a global tech icon proved that 2011 refused to be boring.

As always the Internet played a critical role in every single newsworthy event, and without question in 2011 the people of the world decided to speak their minds and the Internet gave them a much needed voice.

On the home front Justin Harrison Marketing experienced it’s own revolution as we continued our consolidation and restructuring which started back in 2009.

For starters we successfully completed our first year as a virtual company with a completely virtual workforce on 1 November 2011, and as part of our continued consolidation completed the sale and transfer of the bulk of our 300 + online investments collected over the past 12 years to concentrate on our 5 core markets, which now enables us to dedicate more time and resources to growing the remaining business units even further.

As always innovation was highest on our agenda, and in March 2011 we launched a revolutionary first of its kind performance based social media division called “Socialize IT”. Despite the usual bumpy startup, we pushed the envelope and pioneered our way ahead of the pack resulting in many leading brands entrusting us with their social media budgets.

The launch of Socialize IT has been an exhilarating journey that I am truly proud to have been a part of, and I want to thank every single client, staff member and partner who contributed to the Socialize IT success story. All I can say is expect great things from this division in 2012, because it is filled with truly amazing, talented and passionate people.

On a personal note 2011 ended on a conflicting note for me, on the one hand the sale of several of my “online babies” broke many records and generated game changing capital for Justin Harrison Marketing, but this also meant that I had to bid farewell to these projects and more importantly the incredibly loyal people who ran them, I can only describe this feeling akin to losing a limb.

To all of you who now have new homes, thank you for your support over the years and I wish you all the very best in your new positions, and please continue to treat our “online babies” with the care and respect you always have. I’ll be checking out regularly (pun intended).

As the last few days of 2011 dawns upon us I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my management team at Justin Harrison Marketing for always holding the ship steady and for never once letting me down.

Natasha, Melanie, Graham, Tom, Alice and Eric, you guys are truly an inspiration to work with and your relentless pursuit of perfection and growth is nothing less than inspirational. I am honored to share space on this planet with you.

I would also like to thank all our staff who work relentlessly behind the scenes to ensure we always produce results, your effort and dedication is never taken for granted.

Last but not least, to all our resellers and partners, thank you for not only entrusting us with your recommendations, and for representing us, but thank you for also sharing our vision that together we can change the world. You are as much part of the Justin Harrison Marketing journey as any internal member and it is an absolute honor to call you partners.

I wish you all a very happy new year and look forward to the next 12 months of our amazing journey together. To the New Year filled with opportunity and possibility!

See you in 2012!

Closing Bell 2010

Justin Harrison — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 14:26:07 +0000

As I sit here ready to pen the 5th edition of the “Closing Bell Newsletter”, I am understandably daunted by the prospect of summarizing the past 12 months into two simple pages.

2010 of all things I think reminded us of our shared humanity and codependence on each other. From ash clouds to earth quakes, and oil spills I think more than ever we’ve come to realize that we’re all interconnected in some way or another and thanks to tools like Facebook and Skype, we’re all starting to live in the same reality.

2010 has been a year filled with news, both good and bad, and we got to witness it all first hand, live and in a totally new way. From Google news, to Twitter and via our friends on Facebook we consumed media this year, faster, more intelligently, and more selectively than ever before.

Whether it was the EU debt crisis, “Beaver Fever” or the release of the IPAD, we “tweeted”, “facebooked” and “skyped” our way to a new reality, and that my friends is what I call a revolution. Frankly I am startled it all happened so naturally and in just 12 short months.

They say people are creatures of habit, and unfortunately the folks at Google have bought into that notion, and have continued to do the same old two-step all year long. They’ve unsuccessfully tried to copy just about everything that showed promise on the web, including Facebook, Skype and Twitter only to be taught a lesson they still seem a little slow to learn, which is stick to your core business and don’t try and be all things to all people.

2010 also saw the birth of the Microsoft and Yahoo search alliance, which still has not really amounted to much, but it’s a positive step to balancing the search market share and hopefully long term this alliance will break Google’s market dominance and force a culture change within Google, because frankly their arrogance is growing old.

On the home front, Justin Harrison Marketing continued an amazingly healthy growth pattern in 2010 and despite numerous challenges throughout the year, we’ve continued to innovate, refine and lead the way in terms of the way business is done online.

On the 1st of November 2010, after months of careful planning, consulting and testing we took the entire company virtual, and we’re extremely proud to be leading the way in terms of having all our employees home based and interconnected in a whole new way that will undoubtedly eventually become the norm for many office based businesses.

This bold move means that our employees get to spend less time commuting, and more time being productive so that ultimately they get to spend more time with the ones they love, and that’s something that as CEO and founder makes me extremely proud to be a part of.

From the business end of things, this means that Justin Harrison Marketing is more scalable, and is able to innovate more than ever before. The world literally just became our backyard, and this gives us an enormous opportunity and access to a truly global talent pool.

I want to thank all the consultants, providers, suppliers and most of all my staff who went above and beyond to adopt my crazy ideas and who bought into the notion that we can and must make bold and decisive moves to ensure we remain the best at what we do, and none of what we have achieved would have been possible without you.

On a personal note, 2010 has been thrilling, engaging and life changing in every way imaginable. From witnessing the birth of my daughter, to the awesome growth and innovation at Justin Harrison Marketing, I feel truly humbled to be on this journey, but most of all I am humbled by the people and relationships around me.

To my staff, management, business friends, partners and loyal suppliers, thank you for your continued faith and belief in my values and vision, and thank you for your unwavering support, I promise you I will never take this lightly.

To my mentorship group, whom I am personally grooming as the next big movers and shakers on the web and hopefully infusing with the same passion for business, life and leadership that I become privileged to, I want to encourage you to keep your heads down, your focus tight and most of all encourage you to continue having fun along the way.

Continue to relentlessly pursue your goals with single minded determination; continue to choose innovation and leadership over moderate success, and most of all don’t be scared to push boundaries, that’s why they were invented in the first place. I am proud of all of you, and I can’t wait to share 2011 with you.

On that note, I am taking the time off to read, reflect, invigorate and rejuvenate myself for the year ahead, because it’s going to be one hell of a year.

See you in 2011

Closing Bell 2009

Justin Harrison — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:07:28 +0000

This post was originally published via email and on the CEO’s Personal Blog.

The closing bell newsletter has become somewhat of an institution, and as I sit here ready to pen this, the 4th edition of my closing bell newsletter I am totally overcome by emotion, gratitude and excitement.

The closing bell newsletter started 4 years ago as a medium for me to communicate notable events in the online market and within our company, to our clients, suppliers, partners, staff and other stakeholders, so in the spirit of tradition let’s sit back, and take a nostalgic walk back over 2009.

Without a doubt the single biggest driver in the online market during 2009 was the recession, and exactly as I predicted back in my closing bell newsletter of 2008, the recession proved to be an incredible opportunity for the online market, as savvy consumers turned to the internet for pre-purchase research, comparison shopping, and convenience.

Despite all the offline economic doom and gloom, e-commerce sales were up 13.7% in 2009 compared to 2008 on Cyber Monday (which of course the ceremonial kick-off of the online holiday shopping season), and this is the 3rd successive double digit growth curve in as many years.

Even more interesting is that in 2009 the average dollar amount spent by consumers per online order rose by 38.2%, from $130.24 to $180.03, and additionally per order, consumers purchased 30% more items at checkout in 2009 than they did in 2008.

And if you have any doubt about the future of business online, consider that this Cyber Monday saw a staggering 7,666,119 million visitors per minute between the top 1000 online stores, resulting in a whopping 4.3 million sales a minute as reported and verified by CNN.

I have always maintained that a recession is nothing more than a shift in balances, and only the naive would believe that the money has disappeared.

The online market has proven exactly that, not only taking away from the traditional business space, but bucking the trend and showing growth in one of the biggest economic downturns in recorded history.

It is safe to say that we are no longer on the edge of opportunity, but rather fully entangled and engaged in one the single biggest business opportunities you and I will ever see in our lifetimes.

As a company we have continued to aggressively, passionately, and logically pursue growth. We have reinvested heavily into improving, developing and creating systems to meet the demands in the years ahead.

60% of our net profit has been ploughed back into systems staffing, training and product development, not only because we realise that to remain the worlds leading internet marketing company we have to reinvest, but because we believe in the future of the online market.

We have progressively turned global, thanks in part to our brilliant digital communication engineers who deserve an immense amount of credit for designing and building a one of a kind system from the ground up that connects our company hub with staff, clients, agents, partners, suppliers, and consumers spread across 17 different countries.

As our own online portfolio continues to expand along with our clients, suppliers and staff, we remain forever loyal to our core founding mission statement as we head into an exhilarating and challenging 2010.

We will continue to hire the best staff, using the best technology, investing in the best resources, associate with the best clients and partners, and above all, we will remain committed to being the best at what we do.

Above all else we will always stick to the basics of business, and continue to place more value in our relationships with people than in any other part of our business.

As 2010 summons a change, and a dramatic shift in business, and economics, I would like wish everyone associated with Justin Harrison Marketing a prosperous new year.

I would also like to extend a very heartfelt and special thank you to all my closest staff, management team, advisors, clients, suppliers and partners who have become more than business associates, but people I am honoured to call my friends, may we all march to new heights in 2010.

South African Mortgage Web Site Hires Industry Leader Justin Harrison Marketing

Justin Harrison — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 06:00:08 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Mendham, New Jersey, USA (January 2009)—Justin Harrison Marketing is pleased to announce the company will handle all internet marketing for a leading South African mortgage web site.

Home Loans South Africa (http://www.homeloans-southafrica.co.za) takes the hassle out of applying for a home loan. Applicants simply fill out an online form and are then matched with a Home Loans South Africa mortgage specialist to guide them through the application process. The service is free and there is no obligation to purchase. Home Loans South Africa offers new home loans, bond extensions and second mortgages.

Justin Harrison Marketing (http://www.justinharrisonmarketing.com) is a specialized internet marketing company that helps businesses connect with the online market. The company was founded by internationally renowned online marketing expert Justin Harrison, and under his leadership, has grown into a global service provider that continues to define industry standards. In addition to providing specialized internet marketing services, the company has a portfolio of over 64 ecommerce investments in the software and information publishing niches.