Authentic Brand Blog - Marketing Insights for Growing Businesses

Should we fire our marketer?

Growing businesses commonly reach out to Authentic Brand because they aren’t sure if they have the right marketing resources on staff. Typically they’re facing one of two scenarios: The business has capable and skilled “doers” who are loyal to the company and willing to work hard but aren’t strategic.The business has strong marketers and marketing leaders, but they don’t feel like marketing is progressive enough; their marketers aren’t pushing the bar or bringing enough fresh ideas to the table. Business leaders at these companies often come to us…

Brand Messaging Guide: 9 Moments to evolve your brand narrative

A brand narrative is the story your brand tells the world. It serves as the foundation of your marketing and communications strategy. This story should concisely describe why you do what you do, how you do it, and what makes you stand out from the sea of sameness. Most importantly, the story must be framed with your target audience in mind: helping them to “see themselves” in the narrative. When you create a brand narrative, it’s important to remember that it’s a journey, not a destination. The lifecycle…

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 stages of their…

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 the number…

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 options…

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…)

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…)