Authentic Brand Blog - Marketing Insights for Growing Businesses

How to build an effective on-demand marketing team

The modern marketing ecosystem has changed the way businesses market themselves. Marketing programs now require an entirely different array and a longer list of skill sets than they did 20 years ago. The agency of record no longer makes sense because one agency cannot provide all services a business needs or provide all of them effectively.Companies now need access to a long menu of service providers skilled in various areas, including content, creative, search, paid media, events, analytics, and more — and they need different services at different…

Kent Huffman, Brand Builder & Published Author, Joins Authentic Brand as Fractional CMO & Consultant

Huffman, an experienced growth driver and fractional executive, ushers in Authentic Brand's national expansion of regional and remote CMO solutions. MINNEAPOLIS, MN - April 27, 2021 Authentic Brand announces the expansion of its fractional CMO team with the addition of Kent Huffman, a veteran fractional CMO, brand builder, growth driver, customer advocate, change agent, and published book author. Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, Huffman joins Authentic Brand at a time when the fractional CMO firm is actively shifting gears from its origin as a regional…

Is the agency of record irrelevant in today’s marketing landscape?

Twenty years ago, most businesses outsourced their marketing capabilities to an agency of record: One single agency that provided the entire landscape of marketing services. At that time, there were only a handful of traditional marketing services that businesses needed their agency to provide, including branding, public relations , advertising, copy, and creative.Fast forward to today, and the marketing landscape has changed dramatically and exponentially. One indicator of this is how much the marketing technology landscape has grown. From 2011 to 2020, there was a 5,233% increase in…

In-house marketing vs. agency or freelancer: What’s best for you?

There comes a time in every business’s lifecycle when it needs to invest in marketing to continue growing. Some of the most important decisions are when and who to hire to develop and manage your marketing programs. Your business has what seems like endless options: in-house marketing vs. agency, consultant, or freelancer.But these resources also vary in their seniority and experience in various functional areas (e.g., digital, content, analytics, traditional). Without strategic marketing leadership at the helm, it can feel impossible to make sense of all of the…

When should my business hire a marketer, and who’s the right fit?

One of the most challenging business decisions a growing company faces is when the right time is to hire a marketer and build an internal marketing team. Many scenarios prompt this decision, but it often comes when the business reaches a critical growth point. (We often see this happen when the business generates between $5 million and $10 million in revenue.) The company may have been founder-led or sales-driven until this point, but its sales are plateauing. It realizes that to continue growing, it needs to invest in…

How remote collaboration in marketing has changed — and why it’s here to stay

In a matter of days, the COVID-19 pandemic altered where marketing teams got their work done and how they collaborated with colleagues. Research suggests that the remote work environment is here to stay in some form, with less than one in five executives saying they want to return to the office as it was pre-pandemic. Employees are eager for hybrid office and remote options, but some executives express concern over the impacts these hybrid work environments could have on company culture. (more…)

Interim CMO vs. Fractional CMO: What’s the difference, and what do you really need?

You know you need a marketing leader: someone to move your go-to-market strategy forward, guide your team, and integrate activities. While the requirements of the role might be straight-forward, the solution is often anything but. In a world of increasingly diverse and flexible marketing leadership options, how do you define the ideal fit for your organization? (more…)

Marketing budget allocation: Why there’s no silver bullet

At Authentic Brand, we work primarily with small to mid-size growing businesses that have started to invest in marketing activities but aren’t sure if they are allocating resources in the best way to support their business growth goals. One of the most common questions we get from clients is, “How much should I spend on marketing?” It seems like a simple question, but unfortunately, the answer isn’t. The not-so-satisfying answer we often give to questions about marketing budget allocation is, “It depends.” (more…)

Marketing Technology — Your biggest headache or significant business driver?

Choosing and implementing marketing technology can be an overwhelming process. There are thousands of martech solutions on the market, making it challenging to determine which ones your business should invest in (and perhaps more importantly, which it shouldn’t). Without a strategic marketing plan or experienced leader, marketing technology decisions can be daunting. Too often, businesses end up committing random acts of marketing in their technology decisions. (more…)

Is your business committing random acts of marketing? [Part 3]

If you haven’t read part one and part two of our random acts of marketing series, we encourage you to start there! If you’ve been following us here for a while and reading this series, you know by now what we mean by “random acts of marketing.” If you’re getting up to speed, here’s a quick definition: Random acts of marketing: When growing businesses activate marketing on a reactive, tactical, “shiny object” basis or with short-term, experimental bursts. Ultimately, random acts of marketing burn through resources without building…