Authentic Blog - Marketing Insights for Growing Businesses

What is this “Voice of the Customer” thing and why is it so important?

There are several types of primary marketing research that businesses can use to help them gain valuable business insights. Many companies are looking for opportunities to become more customer-centric in their offerings, messages, and brand experiences. In that process, Voice of Customer research is growing in popularity. (more…)

Now is the time to build.

We're already so busy... This is a surprisingly common sentiment and statement made by business leaders when sales are strong and the project backlog is full to overflowing. With all of that work already in the pipe, why on earth should the company put focus and resources into additional marketing and sales efforts? (more…)

Beehive Strategic Communication: Client Story

Strategic communication firm invests in a Fractional CMO to support next-level growth. We knew that something had to change to drive our own consistent growth. That's when we turned to Authentic for a Fractional CMO partner, and that's been game-changing. [...] In order to grow and be competitive in environments that are transforming faster than any of us can predict, we have to invest in our own businesses. There’s no choice. Those investments have to be smart, focused, and strategic. And that’s what Authentic helps us do." - Lisa Hannum, CEO, Beehive Strategic Communication Continue reading

Coherent Solutions: Client Story

A large software development company engages a Fractional CMO to accelerate growth. We knew we needed [marketing] leadership... but to hire a full-time marketing leader, we didn't really have the function structured, we didn't have any momentum in it, we didn't even have a common vision among our leadership team as to what the marketing leader would do and how the function would integrate with the rest of the company. Authentic introduced the idea of Fractional CMO as an alternative solution. That was very appealing to us, to hire someone at a lower allocation...but still get access to great leadership,…

Boundary Waters Bank: Client Story

Expanding community bank matures in their marketing efforts. As bankers, we like to think we know a lot about [marketing], but in all actuality, we don’t. We know nothing about marketing or advertising. And what we tend to do - and what this bank has done in the past - is waste dollars on different types of advertising or marketing, thinking we were getting our name out or the product out to the people. What brought us to Authentic: We were getting nowhere, we needed some traction, and we needed somebody with the expertise to bring this bank into the…

Fueled Collective: Client Story

Marketing fuel for growing co-working and event brand. We were suddenly facing a lot of competition at the same time. Originally, we had no marketing. Then we moved to "Random Acts of Marketing", and we finally had to really professionalize that whole area, and that's when we sought out Authentic. [Since] that initial engagement, we’re headed towards being even more than just marketing focused, we’re headed towards being sales focused." - Don Ball, Co-Founder, Fueled Collective Continue reading

GoKart Labs: Client Story

Digital innovation firm drives awareness for a national audience. The Authentic team has been really instrumental in helping us organize and focus in on a really specific strategy. We have a tendency to want to do everything all at once, and they helped us pick out the most important things to focus on, drive the right metrics around that, and to tackle things in sequential order and gain a lot of confidence in what we’re doing in our marketing efforts." - Elli Rader, Vice President of Client Services, GoKart Labs Continue reading

Pro-Tec Design: Client Story

Growing ESOP levels up marketing strategy and leadership. Random Acts of Marketing: That would have been Pro-Tec prior to us associating with Authentic. We decided last year that we needed to focus, we needed a roadmap, we needed somebody to help us to create a real marketing program at Pro-Tec. That’s how we engaged the Fractional CMO program.The biggest benefit was getting people onboard and understanding how important it is to tell our story, and how important it is to build our brand. Hiring a professional (Fractional CMO) who can actually sit at the table with the management team and…

Measuring Marketing Success: Where to Begin

I have a confession. I like to think that I’m a pretty hip guy but if I’m really honest, I’m pretty nerdy at my core. I like to read biographies of 19th century business leaders. The majority of my wardrobe is free corporate swag. I subscribe to This Old House magazine and am fascinated by genealogy research. These are not the activities of the “Cool Kids Club.” (more…)

Building an Authentic Brand in an Era of Fake News

Jennifer Zick makes guest appearance on "Marketing Is Broken" with Josh Braaten of Brandish Insights (more…)

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