Authentic Blog - Marketing Insights for Growing Businesses

Is Your Marketing Muscle Weak? Five indications that you need to pump some serious marketing iron

It's a common situation for growing businesses: marketing is one of the last roles in the company to be prioritized. And it makes sense, to a certain point. Many businesses reach their first $5M, $10M, or even $50M through a focused sales-led effort, building relationships and expanding accounts and referrals. (more…)

Building Your Strongest Team: Five experts weigh in on what it takes to attract, retain and grow high-performing talent

No business leader sets out to build a losing team, and yet, many organizations suffer from low productivity, poor morale and high turn-over. The fact is, strong teams don't happen by accident, nor as a product of good intentions. Building and maintaining a strong team takes vision, discipline, systems, consistency, and the willingness to make hard decisions that impact real people. (more…)

Getting Traction in the New Year: Actionable advice to move your business forward

It's the perfect time to provide some actionable advice on getting traction in the New Year! Many business leaders are focused on driving hard toward a strong year-end, while also looking ahead and setting objectives for the year ahead. What will growth look like in the next 12 months? And what commitments does the business need to make to get there? (more…)

[Podcast] Make It Authentic: Jennifer Zick on The Mavericks Project with Collin Graves

Join Collin Graves as he and Jennifer dive into her background as an entrepreneur, her experiences building Authentic, and why shifting your message to "So What" is so important for your business. - Episode 017 (more…)

From “What” to “So What”: Building a Messaging Foundation for Modern Marketing

By the time I'm meeting with a business leader, it's because he or she is ready to invest in strategic, proactive marketing. Most often, the business has grown steadily through a sales focus and a bit of marketing "here and there" (with no clarity on what works or drives ROI). But now the business is at a point where sustained growth will require new approaches to pipeline development. It's time to invest in building a modern marketing team and program, focused on demand generation and expanded engagement. (more…)

Everything Marketing Automation: A Virtual Panel of Expert Perspectives

What do you get when you pick the brains of five digital marketing experts, representing partnerships with some of the most popular martech platforms on the market? You get everything marketing automation: the good, the bad, the ugly, and a whole lot of wisdom gleaned from the trenches. Welcome to Authentic's first "virtual panel": a Q&A exchange with five leaders in the Twin Cities digital community. (more…)

There’s no such thing as balance. How life and EOS® showed me a better path.

Balance. I once thought it was possible. Until I hit the proverbial wall. My career wasn't moving in the direction I had planned. I had just had my second child. I was spending too much time commuting, not enough time sleeping, and was nowhere near living up to the expectations I'd set for myself as a wife, mother, friend, community member, and business leader. In short, I felt like I was half-assing every category in my life. (more…)

Beyond Buzzphrases: How emerging tech could actually change everything for marketers

For the past several years, there's been plenty of buzzphrase mania around topics such as IoT (internet of things), connected devices, big data / deep data, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, machine learning, and virtual / augmented reality. And while many of these concepts may still feel abstract and fuzzy, these emerging technologies are taking tangible shape right now in many businesses. In fact, new research just released by Forbes today, based on Salesforce's Fourth Annual State-of-Marketing Report, shows that: (more…)

Let’s be friends: How sales and marketing can help each other

What can salespeople do to help marketers? And conversely, what can marketers do to support sales? I love this question because I've been on both sides. I cut my professional teeth in B2B sales before shifting my focus to marketing, and then marketing team leadership. I've experienced the tension between these departments, and the reality is that it doesn't have to be that way. So, here's a little bit of advice for both sides, from someone who gets it. (more…)

How Do We Get More Customers?

“How do I get more customers or clients?” It sounds like a smart question, right? Because it's not asking "How do we get more leads?" but rather "How do we get more sales?", which should be the core metric of a growing business. But be careful here. We're living in an era of MORE. (more…)

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