Our business is growing. Should we hire a marketer?

Our business is growing. Should we hire a marketer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awSP-FDhwQ Video Transcription Your business is growing and it's time to accelerate your marketing efforts. Should you make a full time hire? This is a common conversation that I have with leaders of growing businesses and most times, entrepreneurial leaders will default to defining a lower level entry level marketing role and then embarking on a search for a marketing unicorn who can be affordable in a full time role for their small business and who somehow can magically bridge everything from strategy through execution.  But those marketers simply do not exist. So let me offer you an alternative to…
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Marketing is simple. But not easy. 

Marketing is simple. But not easy. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bu6e75EI-PE Video Transcription Jennifer Zick: Marketing is the same as it's ever been, which is answering a few simple but really foundational questions for building your business, which is what is our business's purpose? What is our big why? Why do we exist in the world and how do we change lives?  Like literally, if you don't know how you change lives, I don't know what you're doing in business. So answering that question first, your big why, your purpose, however you want to get to that, and then you start answering the questions, then, okay, if this is our…
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Should I fire my marketer?

Should I fire my marketer?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gF9vxQB-MkE Video Transcription Should I fire my marketing leader? Believe it or not, it's one of the most common questions we're asked at Authentic® and our answer always begins with: slow down.  It might not be a people issue. In most cases, we find that marketing organizations are challenged for lack of strategic guidance, experience, or perspectives outside of their domain of expertise. No single marketer, whether they're young in their career and skilled at tactics, or whether they're very experienced executives, can have all the answers, all of the time, for all of the opportunities and challenges that your…
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There is no marketing silver bullet: Brand-building is a long term game

There is no marketing silver bullet: Brand-building is a long term game

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZeNJK8juVs Video Transcription Ryan Tansom: And like, I think where people get lost is they just got sold that like this one tool is like the solution to the whole customer journey. And it's just so wrong and it's paralyzing. When you think about, like you said, like, what is there a million probably SaaS tools that all fit somewhere in that customer journey. Jennifer Zick: Yeah, yeah. I've written extensively about these kinds of topics on our website and on our blog over the years. Because there absolutely is a lot of snake oil and pixie dust being sprinkled…
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Marketing through Channel / Partner relationships

Marketing through Channel / Partner relationships

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY1r1GW3T0M Video Transcription Partnership and alliances can make a huge difference in growing your professional services organization through strong referrals and qualified deals. But nothing happens automagically in partnership. Just because you sign a contract doesn't mean your pipeline will suddenly be busting with opportunity. Partnerships require a unique approach, and if you're thinking of making partnerships a core component of your business growth, you will need to radically rethink the role of marketing in your organization.  Hi, I'm Jennifer Zick, Founder and CEO of Authentic®. Our community of fractional CMOs helps growing businesses to Overcome Random Acts of Marketing®…
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Does your marketing program feel like an expensive, never-ending experiment?

Does your marketing program feel like an expensive, never-ending experiment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IjTgzY0MCM Video Transcription Is your company struggling with marketing on a 90 day experiment basis, feeling like you're launching campaign after program after project, but not getting anywhere in terms of understanding what kind of return on that investment you're receiving? If that's the case, you are not alone.  Hi, I'm Jennifer Zick, founder and CEO of Authentic®. Our community of fractional CMOs work with growing companies, usually between 5 and 100 million in annual revenue. And for these small growing businesses, we help them to Overcome Random Acts of Marketing® and confidently take the next right step to build…
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Hiring a marketer based on industry experience? You’re doing it wrong.

Hiring a marketer based on industry experience? You’re doing it wrong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kst0flupOvc Video Transcription Are you hiring for a marketing leader in your organization and prioritizing that hire based on finding somebody with deep industry experience within your particular business niche or vertical or market focus? If so, you're doing it wrong.  Hi, I'm Jennifer Zick, founder and CEO of Authentic, and I'm here today to dispel a very common myth among business leaders who are making perhaps their first ever executive decision for marketing leadership. So many businesses come to Authentic asking for somebody with a particular industry or business niche of experience, and in fact, they miss out on…
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Marketing budgets for growing businesses: How to think about investing in leadership and execution

Marketing budgets for growing businesses: How to think about investing in leadership and execution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOfHUzAeGk Video Transcription Great question about how you should think about the activation budget to do the things that marketing will require? In our scopes of work, we can only propose and price the services we directly provide, which are for fractional CMO services. As a management consulting firm, however, all of our clients do need activation and their budgets are as diverse as the clients that we serve.  A good rule of thumb for the businesses we work with, who of course, as I explained, are generally between five and 100 million in annual revenue. For those organizations. The…
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Part Time CMO, Full Marketing Accountability

Part Time CMO, Full Marketing Accountability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BftIq1uQtk Video Transcription Your growing business needs experienced marketing leadership but the last thing you need is an outside strategist providing you with more ideas and leaving you and your team to figure out how to execute those and achieve results.  I'm Jennifer Zick, Founder and CEO of Authentic®. Our community of fractional CMOs helps growing businesses to Overcome Random Acts of Marketing® and confidently take the next right step to build revenue. We do this as dedicated, retained CMOs and as a member of your executive team while our CMOs work on a part-time flexible basis. They assume full…
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