Authentic’s Proven Process: Creating Long-Term Value
Our client engagements are designed to deliver value throughout – and well beyond – our fractional CMO services. We don’t simply lead marketing for a period of time. We build high-performing marketing teams and programs to achieve predictable outcomes and create transferable value.
We do this through our Proven Process, which includes four essential phases to help growing businesses Overcome Random Acts of Marketing® and confidently take the next right step to achieve healthy growth.
Central to our Proven Process is our proprietary methodology: Authentic Growth™.
Authentic Growth is not a “one size fits all” or cookie-cutter approach to marketing. It’s not a short-term engagement to create a “marketing strategy”. Authentic Growth is a complete marketing operating system that will transform the way your business understands marketing: helping you execute against near-term goals, while building critical foundations and systems for long-term brand value creation and successful scale.
Our Proven Process includes four essential phases:
Phase 1 – ASSESS: Each new client engagement begins with a deep discovery through 1:1 interviews, diagnostic baseline scoring, a strengths and gaps analysis, and the development of an Initial Action Plan (next 90 days). Each quarter throughout the engagement, your Authentic Fractional CMO™ will revisit your diagnostic scores to demonstrate how your organization is progressing in building marketing foundation, health, and maturity.
Phase 2 – ALIGN & ACTIVATE: Your Authentic Fractional CMO is “at the helm” as a member of your executive leadership team, and with full accountability for your marketing team and programs. While your fractional CMO leads day-to-day marketing strategy and execution, they are also actively implementing and coaching your team on Authentic Growth™ Methodology. Over time, through and beyond a fractional CMO engagement, Authentic Growth builds marketing alignment, accountability, and aptitude – so your growing business can keep scaling up.
Phase 3 – APPOINT: Throughout our engagement, your Authentic Fractional CMO will advise on your marketing resourcing strategy, helping you to confidently determine which roles should be hired in-house, and which should be augmented by contractors and agency partners. At some point, your growing marketing team will be ready for a full-time marketing leader. For most small and mid-sized businesses, this will be a Director or VP-level hire, as most businesses will not require a full time CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) until they are $100M in annual revenue. During this phase, your Authentic Fractional CMO will define your ideal full-time leadership role, screen candidates, and support your new hire through onboarding.
Phase 4 – ACCELERATE: At this stage, it’s important to keep your momentum and ensure that your team continues with the accountability, alignment, and breakthrough momentum that you’ve achieved so far with Authentic Growth and your CMO’s leadership. You’ve hired a talented marketing leader, but no marketer – regardless of tenure or experience – has all of the answers. Authentic is a powerful extension of your marketing team – providing ongoing access to the wisdom of our CMO community, the talent of our Ally Network, and the power of our proven methodology. An ongoing relationship with Authentic ensures that you never hit a growth ceiling that you can’t break through.
Authentic's Unique Approach
Marketers + Methodology + Mindshare
The value of a fractional CMO: Quick impact and low risk
There’s a point in a company growth cycle when businesses recognize that they need to invest in marketing for continued growth. Often these companies have been sales-driven until they realize they need a marketing leader dedicated to building brand awareness and driving meaningful engagement to support business objectives. They often choose between hiring a full-time leader, a fractional CMO, or a marketing agency.
The Components of Authentic Growth™ Methodology
Authentic Growth™ Methodology is Authentic’s proven and proprietary marketing operating system that helps small and mid-sized, growth-focused businesses build strategic marketing departments and create alignment between sales and marketing. It’s a habit-forming system that teaches a simple, but powerful, set of components that drive alignment, accountability, and activation.
The power of the Authentic Mindshare™ and CMO peer community
Clients have learned that they get more than a solo independent consultant when they hire an Authentic Fractional CMO. They get the collective expertise of senior-level marketers with diverse experience across a variety of business models and industries. We call the power of this community our mindshare, and it’s part of everything we do.