Authentic Blog - Marketing Insights for Growing Businesses

Jennifer Zick featured on Intentional Growth Podcast with host Ryan Tansom

Marketing Doesn't Have to Feel Like Hocus Pocus and Pixie Dust: Demystifying Marketing and the Role of a CMO with Jennifer Zick The following is an excerpt from the Intentional Growth Podcast Episode #273: with Jennifer ZickHosted by Ryan Tansom “Marketing is just hocus pocus and pixie dust” — does that feel familiar? Most of us are tired of wasting time and money on the latest marketing strategies that never seem to work. Jennifer Zick of Authentic shares why one of her clients said this (and why it’s one of her favorite quotes of all-time) on today’s show. Not only…

Jennifer Zick featured on Agency Growth Mastermind Podcast

How to Build A Community & Expand Your Networks With The RIGHT People Wondering how to build a community and expand your networks? Jennifer Zick, founder of Authentic, shares her experiences and elaborates on how to authentically build relationships to generate new business. Learn how Jennifer and Authentic's unique approach combines Marketers + Methodology + Mindshare to build strong, strategic, sales-aligned marketing teams and programs at https://authenticbrand.com/ (more…)

A business guide to marketing leadership models

How does a fractional CMO compare to interim CMOs and strategic consultants? You know you need marketing leadership: someone to move your go-to-market strategy forward, guide your team, and integrate activities. While the requirements of the role might be straightforward, the solution is often anything but. How do you define the ideal fit for your organization in a world of increasingly diverse and flexible marketing leadership options? Finding the right answer for your business begins with a clear understanding of various marketing engagement models, leadership responsibilities, and commitment levels. Table of Contents What to Consider When Searching for Marketing Expertise…

Demand Generation 101: Build a foundation for a strong program

Small and growing businesses are often laser-focused on demand generation. They want more “at-bats,” or opportunities, for their sales team. But demand generation isn’t as simple as putting your company’s message out into the marketplace. Demand generation is the process of creating brand awareness with relevant, targeted stakeholder groups (i.e., prospects) and then building on this awareness by nurturing prospects to create new revenue opportunities. (more…)

What should growing businesses include in their entrepreneurial marketing plan?

We start many blog posts with a similar story because it resonates with the many businesses struggling to drive alignment, accountability, and activation in marketing: A business has ambitious ideas for its growth, but leadership hasn’t agreed on or documented a clear vision with achievable goals that the entire company understands. Downstream, this lack of clarity and direction leads marketing to develop a plan based on wishful, hypothesis-driven thinking. (more…)

How to hire a marketing leader: A guide to discover what your business needs

The task to hire the right marketing leader has become increasingly difficult. Growing businesses need experienced marketing direction, and they can’t afford to get this hire wrong. A bad hire in the marketing leadership role is not only painful from a talent turn-over and expense perspective, but it runs the risk of damaging the company’s overall brand reputation, culture, and revenue potential. This reality begs some important questions, which we’ll address in this Guide to hiring a marketing leader: Why is it so hard to hire a marketing leader? How can you confidently bring strong marketing leadership to your table?…

Random Acts of Marketing Guide

It’s a story we hear all of the time: A business grew rapidly in its first years by focusing on sales and pursuing whichever opportunities came its way. Eventually, though, growth leveled off. The company needed to do something to jumpstart its sales and fuel its next-level growth. Executives recognized it was time to invest in marketing. (more…)

What’s to come with corporate events? 4 Considerations for Business Leaders

Many of the businesses we work with at Authentic have long relied on traditional, paid corporate events to increase brand awareness and support business development efforts. Nearly every Authentic client has (or had) a line item for events on their budget. The future of corporate events and their role in a company’s marketing strategy got thrown into question in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic halted all travel and in-person events. Some businesses quickly, nimbly, and effectively pivoted in-person events to virtual ones, while others canceled their participation in events altogether. Today, as the world begins to return to its…

How to Harness Trust to Build Brand Equity and Grow Your Business

There is nothing more valuable to a business, its relationships, and its brand than the trust it creates and maintains with its stakeholders. Trust is your most valuable brand currency, one that builds on itself over time to increase your brand equity, the brand’s worth in and of itself. Companies with higher brand equity experience all types of financial benefits: greater profit margin and better customer acquisition and retention. Building brand equity through trust can be an overwhelming effort for company founders and CEOs. But as a business leader, you don’t need to strive to achieve the brand equity of…

How Business Leaders Can Build a Personal Brand

Your personal brand is how you show up in the world personally and professionally. It extends beyond what you do for work to encompass deeper and more personal attributes, including your hobbies, passions, values, and beliefs. But too often, business leaders stop short of developing and sharing their authentic personal brand. Instead, they tie their personal brand exclusively to their employer’s brand, limiting it to what they do for work, who they work for, and the organization’s values. The trouble with this approach is that your brand isn’t really your personal brand; it’s simply how you relate to your employer’s…