MARKETING & BRANDING

Patience. Strategic Preparation. And a Whole Lot of Concrete.

Inheriting a Legacy, Building a Brand In 2007, Stephanie Hickman’s uncles were sunsetting a concrete company they’d been running since 1967. After spending a prior 25 years in the utility, law, and lobbying space as an executive, while also watching the country’s current infrastructure strain, Stephanie saw a different foundation worth building on with her…
Your Brand Can Disappear from AI Search, No Matter How Much You Spend On PR

Gartner predicts brands will double their earned-media budgets by 2027. Publicity For Good founder Heather Holmes says the businesses that win won’t be the ones who spend the most. They’ll be the ones the media already trusts. A few years ago, getting your business into the news was about awareness. You wanted people to see…
Why Unknown Brands Keep Losing, and the 21 Principles That Can Change Everything

The biggest marketing mistake small businesses make has nothing to do with social media, logos, or ad spend. A retired USC professor with nearly 50 years of experience says the real problem starts much earlier. Most small business owners believe they need more customers. Gary Frazier says they need fewer. That counterintuitive idea sits at…
The Slingshot Strategy: How to Build Your World Cup Marketing Plan Before the Clock Runs Out

The World Cup is coming to Atlanta and the minority founders who are winning this summer aren’t buying a single ad. Inside this article: Nobody in the marketing world wants to say this out loud, so I will. The World Cup is not the time for small and mid-sized businesses to compete with corporations. But…
Strategic Partnerships Drive Visibility for Small Business Products and Programs

When you partner with organizations that already have community trust, your visibility compounds without starting from zero. Most entrepreneurs approach visibility the hard way. They focus on building their own audience from scratch by posting daily on social media, optimizing their website, sending newsletters to a small list, hoping momentum will eventually catch up with…
2026 Marketing Trends: Taking Advantage of Yesterday’s Lessons About Today’s Tools

As the calendar turns to 2026, it’s a good time to take stock of all the marketing industry has learned about the tools at our disposal — both those that emerged in the last decade (i.e., influencer marketing, artificial intelligence) and those that have existed much longer (i.e., live event marketing) — in light of today’s…
8 Proven Advertising Strategies for Small Businesses

Small business owners wear many hats, and marketing often feels like one of the trickiest to master. Advertising is your chance to tell the world who you are, why you exist, and why they need what you’re offering. With intentional strategies, a small budget can go a long way toward building an engaged and loyal…
Turning Professional Expertise into Digital Authority

You can be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but if you’re stuck in the back where nobody sees you, it doesn’t matter how well you cut. That’s what happens when professionals rely only on expertise without building authority online. Digital authority is what transforms “I’m good at my work” into “others know I’m good…
Grow Your Business Through Public Speaking

You are leaving money on the table if public speaking is not a key element in your branding strategy. Public speaking is a “must-have” capability for every business owner. It is time to come out of the shadows and into the spotlight for your business to achieve your dreams, goals, and legacy. Engaging in public…
“We Need a New Logo!” … Or Do We?

How to Diagnose Before Redesigning, With Evidence-Based Brand Strategy Tools When a business leader says, “We need a rebrand,” they’re rarely reacting to just a logo. More often, it’s a sign of deeper misalignment between who the business serves, what it promises, and what it delivers. Business leaders might see a consistent drop in sales,…
7 DIY PR Tools for Smart Entrepreneurs

For entrepreneurs who want to build visibility without the agency price tag Let’s be honest: hiring a PR agency can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $15,000 monthly. For most entrepreneurs—especially those bootstrapping their businesses or investing every dollar back into growth—that’s simply not realistic. But here’s what the PR industry doesn’t want you to know:…
The 3.43 percent Rule: Why Most PR Pitches Fail (And How to Be Different)

For entrepreneurs who want sustainable visibility without burning out Let’s get real about PR. Most advice tells you to “be everywhere, always be pitching, never stop networking.” But here’s what they don’t tell you: the most successful PR strategies aren’t built on hustle. They’re built on systems that work even when you’re running at 60…
Compete With Big Brands Using the CMO-In-A-Box Marketing Strategy

High Peaks Marketing founder Cynthia Irons revolutionizes small business marketing with her innovative CMO-In-A-Box approach, delivering executive-level strategy without the Fortune 500 overhead. After 25 years navigating the corporate corridors of Fortune 500 companies, Cynthia Irons discovered a troubling pattern that would ultimately reshape her career and revolutionize how small businesses approach marketing. “I had…
How Healthcare Influencers Are Changing the Game

What do a YouTube doctor with 13 million subscribers and a hospital with a Facebook Live series have in common? They’re winning hearts—and health decisions—online. As traditional media outlets have seen their power and influence decline in the digital age, a new category of content creators rose to fill the information gap. But the influencer…
Integrated vs Specialized Agencies: Navigating the Two Approaches to Marketing

Media consumption has undergone a massive shift in terms of which content (news, advertising, entertainment) is consumed on which platforms (television, social media, websites). Numerous means exist for reaching a targeted audience. Against this backdrop, marketers must remain vigilant about how to optimize their messaging for specific audiences across a broad spectrum of mediums. That’s…