#273: Marketing Doesn't Have to Feel Like Hocus Pocus and Pixie Dust: Demystifying Marketing and the Role of a CMO with Jennifer Zick

“Marketing is just hocus pocus and pixie dust” — does that feel familiar? Most of us are tired of wasting time and money on the latest marketing strategies that never seem to work. Jennifer Zick of Authentic Brand shares why one of her clients said this (and why it’s one of her favorite quotes of all-time) on today’s show. Not only did her company coin the phrase “Random Acts of Marketing,” Authentic Brand provides fractional chief marketing officer (CMO) services that get businesses back on track and making better marketing decisions for the long-term. Jennifer’s mission is to help bring big company marketing resources and planning to the middle market, so tune in to learn a few things about strategy and team alignment to achieve your sales and clientele goals particularly in the B2B space. We go over how to eliminate the random acts of marketing, including all the associated costs, headaches, and — most frustrating of all — lack of progress that comes with them. Authentic Brand’s unique approach combines marketers, methodology, and mindshare to deliver real revenue results for any business owner.

What You Will Learn

What makes an elite fractional CMO
Why the key truths of marketing hasn’t changed with new tools and technology
The questions you have to answer when marketing - and why they haven’t changed
What random acts of marketing means and why most companies are doing that
When to use an agency versus a marketing leader
How marketing helps the long term view for all divisions in a business
How sales is different from marketing and how they are similar
How to identify proof points - how to know if a plan is working when community building
How to budget for a community building plan that reaps its rewards years down the road
What marketing investment strategies have in common with baseball
Why it’s so important for your marketing leaders and resources teams to be focused on the main goals
The ways people are pivoting their marketing strategy when the supply chains are all messed up

Bio:

With nearly twenty years of B2B marketing experience in innovative, entrepreneurial, and accelerated-growth companies, Jennifer brings a wealth of experience to B2B growth organizations.

Jennifer’s career has included several leadership roles for high-growth B2B professional services organizations, primarily centered on sales and marketing innovation through digital and SaaS technologies. Prior to launching Authentic Brand, Jennifer led marketing teams and programs for Magnet 360, PwC, and Corporate Visions.

Jennifer is Past-President of the Minnesota Chapter of the Business Marketing Association – a national non-profit business association focused on B2B marketing – where she also served a prior term as VP of Events & Development. In 2014, Jennifer was honored by the Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal as the recipient of their “40 Under 40” award which recognizes young leaders who have been successful in business, while also making significant contributions to their communities.

More recently, Jennifer has leveraged her network to create “two or more“- a grassroots community service movement that brings together business professionals from across the Twin Cities to volunteer, serve, and support local charities and social causes.

Quotes:

11:13 - “[Our CMOs] know what it takes to be at ground level and build from there, as good stewards of those resources. Right? Because there’s not established brand and market share already that provides this assumed brand air cover.” - Jennifer Zick

12:29 - “There are thousands of tactics, hundreds of channels, thousands of technologies. The amplification and the diversification and the complication of the marketing ecosystem has just blown up.” - Jennifer Zick

17:24 - “But if your brand is not strong and your message is not strong, you’re just going to make your message suck faster to more people.” - Jennifer Zick

20:06 - “Your market is not everybody. You’ve gotta drill down deep. And once you know who should matter to you and why you should matter to them, then you need to ask (to your point), ‘Then where do we intersect their world?’” - Jennifer Zick

24:04 - “It feels like you’re using random acts of marketing.” - Jennifer Zick

26:05 - “Data is part of [marketing]; it’s not the whole.” - Jennifer Zick

34:42 - “[In B2B], everybody deserves credit for every win. The most toxic thing you can do in a B2B culture, is try to separate out the credit for who got which deal.” - Jennifer Zick

34:58 - “There is no straight line to revenue in a B2B organization.” - Jennifer Zick

42:05 - “But guess who’s really influential in the search for authentic brand services? Not just the CEO, but their operator. Their integrator. Their COO or CFO.” - Jennifer Zick