The marketing world moves at a dizzying pace. It's a sponge that absorbs the latest technology, social trends and consumer habits. Then marketers touch this sponge with that magic wand of imagination to bolster a brand's image and bring in new customers.

Unless you're directly in the advertising industry, you probably don't think too much about the creative minds and intrepid leaders behind the billboards, the commercials, the banner ads or the subtle brand mentions and references in any number of outlets.

Today we're going to take a look at three women who are leaders in the marketing world and who exemplify how marketing brings together both the analytical and creative sides of the brain.

1. Andrea Van Dam, CEO of Women's Marketing

For almost two decades, Van Dam has worked her way up through the ranks at Women's Marketing Inc., an agency that specializes in high-growth industries that matter to women. Since she was named CEO in 2014, she has brought a transformative vision to the agency. Where once the agency was more focused on fashion and beauty, Van Dam has expanded their expertise to other categories that affect the lives of women. Under her leadership, her agency has proven that it excels at taking great ideas and exciting ventures and growing them into international brands.

Below Andrea discusses how busy today's Millennial moms are, and how they can manage balancing work, family, and personal satisfaction.

2. Barbara Jones, Founder and CEO of Blissful Media Group

Ten years ago Jones saw an emerging opportunity and decided to take advantage of it: the rise of so-called influencers. For those who don't know, an influencer is someone with a significant social media or blog presence who talks about anything from motherhood to adventure travel. Jones saw an opportunity to connect brands with influencers and create a new marketing space, and that's what she did with Blissful Media Group.

And just to make you feel a little more in awe of her accomplishments, she also owns and runs Blissfully Domestic, a women's digital magazine that focuses on home, food and life. She is also the founder and CEO of One2One Network, a networking service that connects influencers and brands with content, strategy and digital services to reach female consumers.

3. Karen Kaplan, Chairman and CEO of Hill Holiday

Everyone loves a story of humble beginnings, and Kaplan's story of how she started as a receptionist looking to earn enough money for law school and ended up running the show is one such story. For over 10 years, Kaplan has been president of Hill Holiday, where she has been recognized as a dynamic leader responsible for the agency's significant growth, and is regarded as one of the most influential women in advertising.

Check out some of the work they've done by simply clicking the image below.

While the advertising world is still very much a man's world, there are hundreds of powerful, influential women making inroads, bringing fresh, intriguing vision to this constantly changing space.

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Apple started in a garage, Facebook was conceived in a dorm room and the first Walmart was a five-and-dime store in a small town in Arkansas.

But, what made them into international giants was the fact that they had big ideas. These big ideas don’t always entail disrupting the industry they’re in or reinventing the wheel; sometimes these innovative ideas have to do with how a business is run.

Here are some of the biggest, most inspiring ideas small businesses are putting into practice today.

Employ guerrilla marketing

No matter how big or niche your target market is, you need to advertise. You have to get the word out that you are in business and offer a great product, but that doesn’t come cheaply. While you can likely forget about producing the most popular commercial for the big game, for the savvy small business owner, there are myriad other opportunities.

Guerrilla marketing refers to a marketing strategy that maximizes creativity at minimal cost. These tactics often take advantage of social media platforms where companies can carry their message or engage in conversations at no cost. Local contests and fun events that engage customers and the community are just a couple of the categories that are not only inexpensive, but are highly personable in a way those big expensive ad campaigns are not.

An example of a great guerrilla marketing campaign is when, in 1999, San Francisco-based Casa Sanchez offered free lunches for life to anyone who got a tattoo of their logo. They capped the number at 50, but a decade later, in the wake of the great recession, they revived the offer, calling it a “stimulus special.”

Break out of silos

Everyone has defined roles, but many small businesses know that to stay competitive in their industry, these roles need to be flexible and collaboration needs to be prioritized. According to research, almost three out of four people surveyed say that teamwork and collaboration is “very important.”

Small businesses have a great opportunity to get workers out of their “defined roles” (or silos) and into collaborative spaces. This kind of flexibility leads to greater communication among people at all levels. It’s a simple idea with big consequences, as we’ll see in the next point.

Foster a culture of innovation.

Richard Branson once said, “Small businesses are nimble and bold and can often teach much larger companies a thing or two about innovations that can change entire industries.”

Small businesses have the advantage of being just that: small. Employees can communicate easily with leadership or with those who work on different projects or in different departments. Small businesses take advantage of their structure by allowing people to have a voice when it comes to innovating their product, their service or their operational structure. Because employees tend to work closer with leadership, they also tend to be more invested in the company. This makes the incentives for innovative thinking — and the rewards — that much higher.

Less baggage, more flexibility, greater innovation and a whole lot less red tape. These are just some of the advantages of being a small business instead of a large corporation. With creativity, small business owners can put these ideas into effect and reap big rewards.

For even more techniques you can employ in your business here are “4 Reasons Why You Need to Street Market!”