Data and analytics provider NIC MAP Vision hires Authentic to help it plan for strategic growth, round out its marketing team, and develop its in-house leader into executive-level talent.
“We’ve gone from scrambling and being very reactive to taking a much more proactive approach to everything we do. That’s trickled down to more demos and more meetings.”
Kyle Gardner, COO, Nic Map Vision
Nic Map Vision at a glance
Company size: 75 employees
Business type: Data and analytics provider in the senior housing industry
Category: B2B
Headquarters: Raleigh, NC
Key initiatives: Strategic advising, marketing resourcing, employee development, marketing fundamentals, metrics
The Challenge
NIC MAP Vision, a data and analytics company that provides market data to the senior housing and care sector, was formed by a merger in 2021. Its small marketing team of three employees was led by a highly talented marketing director with a background in demand generation. Retaining this employee was critical to NIC MAP Vision, and leadership knew one of the best ways to do this was to hire an experienced strategic marketer to coach and advise the director.
Simultaneously, NIC MAP Vision knew that to fuel its next growth phase, it needed strategic guidance from a marketer who had broad marketing expertise and had successfully built and led marketing teams.
“We knew we needed help. The executive team already in seat didn’t really have a marketing background, but we believed in what marketing could do. So, we sought out leaders to help us get our feet on a strong foundation and build from there. We had experience with a fractional sales leader, so we felt very confident in the fractional model,” said Kyle Gardner, COO of NIC MAP Vision.
With its vision set on growth and talent development, NIC MAP Vision began its search for a fractional marketing leader.
The Solution
After vetting several fractional marketing providers, NIC MAP Vision hired Authentic. The company appreciated how well its dedicated CMO matched what the company needed and the depth and breadth of marketing expertise it had access to via the Authentic Mindshare™, which harnesses the collective marketing wisdom of Authetic’s fractional CMOs and curated network of agency and freelance providers.
“We picked Authentic as our partner for two reasons: One, the value was there. It’s a big investment, but we felt that what we were getting, in terms of time, the mindshare, and the skill set and experience of our fractional CMO, lined up well with what we needed and what was in budget. And second, we just really enjoyed the process of meeting the team — understanding how Authentic approaches marketing at large, and then, when we met our dedicated fractional CMO, it just worked,” said Gardner.
NIC MAP Vision’s Authentic Fractional CMO™ embedded into the company’s executive team, attending regular leadership meetings and helping the company:
- Chart a multi-year strategic plan aimed at growing the business while considering the brand and customer implications.
- Coach and develop its high-performing marketing director into an executive-level talent.
- Determine which resources it needed to execute its marketing plan and whether to hire in-house or outsource to specialized, external experts.
- Develop a more effective budget planning process.
- Revamp metrics and reporting to provide a clearer, more holistic view of marketing performance.
- Professionalize and standardize the marketing team, focusing on strengthening NIC MAP Vision’s marketing foundation and steering it away from random acts of marketing.
“When we look at multi-year planning of growing the business, our fractional CMO is asking us questions and challenging perspectives to say: ‘Well, how is your customer going to respond to this? Is the brand ready to take that on?’ And really helping us get our foundational stuff correct first before we try and do the fancy stuff,” stated Gardner.
The Results
With strategic marketing direction and leadership from its Authentic Fractional CMO™, NIC MAP Vision:
- Increased marketing-influenced revenue by 25% (from 60% of sales to 75% of sales).
- Promoted the marketing director to the VP of marketing, helping pave a future career path for her as a CMO.
- Strategically and thoughtfully doubled the size of the marketing team from three to six full-time employees and brought in key external resources, including several providers from the Authentic Ally Network™, to help the team execute marketing initiatives.
“Since bringing our fractional CMO and the Authentic team on, we have noticed an increase in MQLs and social activity. I think a lot of that comes from the strategy that our fractional CMO and Authentic have helped us develop and put into place.” —Kyle Gardner, COO, NIC MAP Vision
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