Buyer beware: Is that fractional CMO really the executive they claim to be?

Buyer beware: Is that fractional CMO really the executive they claim to be?

The fractional CMO Wild West The number of professionals who call themselves fractional CMOs has skyrocketed over the past few years. At Authentic, we see this rapid influx as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it validates what we hoped would be true when our founder, Jennifer Zick, started the company in 2017: Small businesses can benefit tremendously from having access to experienced marketing leadership on a part-time, flexible basis. Broad adoption of the term “fractional CMO” indicates there is a market and need for these services. However, on the other hand, the fractional CMO space has become the…
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Inbound Back Office Podcast Featuring Jennifer Zick

Inbound Back Office Podcast Featuring Jennifer Zick

Why Agencies Need Marketing Leadership Our founder and CEO, Jennifer Zick, was recently the featured guest on the Inbound Back Office podcast.  Jennifer explained why agencies need marketing leadership and shared how Authentic's fractional CMOs help agencies (and many growing businesses) overcome random acts of marketing to take the next right step toward healthy growth. Jennifer also covered the following: What is marketing leadership, and why do you need it? Different phases of business and when you need a strategic marketing leader What happens when no one "owns" the marketing role in a business How fractional CMOs can help you…
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Poised for Exit Podcast Featuring Jennifer Zick

Poised for Exit Podcast Featuring Jennifer Zick

Build a High Value Authentic Brand Our founder and CEO, Jennifer Zick, was recently the featured guest on the #PoisedforExit podcast with host, Julie Keyes.  In this episode, Jennifer discussed the important role of the CMO for growing businesses and the fractional CMO model. Fractional CMOs work with the internal leadership team of companies to quarterback the marketing strategy and implementation, and provide resources and insights to build the company's brand through measurable and effective marketing tactics.  Jennifer also discussed Authentic’s proprietary Authentic Growth™ Methodology that is designed to help our clients stay focused on the right marketing strategies to…
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Digital paid media: Understanding trends, leading with strategy, and measuring impact

Digital paid media: Understanding trends, leading with strategy, and measuring impact

The landscape of paid digital media can be tricky for businesses to understand and navigate. It seems new trends emerge daily (ChatGPT, Google’s Performance Max campaigns, a cookieless world), making it difficult to stay on top of the best channels, tactics, and approaches. Plus, without a solid strategy, companies can quickly burn through money with little return. (more…)
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Does your business need more leads? Balance quick wins with building a demand generation strategy

Does your business need more leads? Balance quick wins with building a demand generation strategy

Every growing business wants more leads. In fact, in new client discussions, it’s what businesses are often thinking about most. But, the reality is that companies need strategic demand generation programs in place to drive sustainable, long-term lead creation. While there’s no quick fix to solving all of your demand generation challenges, there are some opportunities that companies can leverage to generate leads quickly in the short term. (more…)
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What is the Authentic Growth™ Marketing Maturity Matrix?

What is the Authentic Growth™ Marketing Maturity Matrix?

Jump to the matrix attributes, which link to in-depth articles about what it takes to build maturity across each attribute. As a community of fractional CMOs, we’ve always rooted our client work in Authentic Growth™ methodology. This methodology is our proven process that helps small and mid-sized businesses build strategic marketing departments and create alignment between sales and marketing. (more…)
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Professional development is key to building effective marketing teams

Professional development is key to building effective marketing teams

Building an effective marketing team is always top of mind for businesses. And amid a talent shortage, economic downturn, and annual budget planning, it’s even more critical that companies make strategic and thoughtful talent decisions. Professional development is key to all of this and should serve as the crux of any solid talent strategy.  (more…)
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Marketing data: From information to intelligence

Marketing data: From information to intelligence

Every growing business wants to know the ROI of its marketing investments. They want to predict, with certainty, how much they’ll get in return for various marketing activities. But few of these businesses have done the strategic work necessary to mature their data practices. (more…)
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