The Value of Authenticity & Transparency in Marketing

Like so many others, I was personally hit hard by the great recession. 

At the time, I had been working as an operations exec at a real estate investment group. I'll leave you to decide how that ended. 

Coming out of that experience, I felt a need to switch gears and go a different direction. On a whim one day, I applied on LinkedIn to a VP of Marketing position with a cloud focused software group. 

I was quite surprised when they replied and said they wanted to interview me.  

I was not surprised, however, by the first question asked of me in that interview. I knew it was coming. 

"Eric, tell us about your marketing experience" the recruiter asked, who was seated next to the CEO. I took a breath and uttered my reply in a transparent and straightforward manner, stating that out of all of the applications they had received for the position, I probably was at the very bottom of the list by way of dedicated marketing experience. "However”, I added, “I'm a hard worker, a fast learner, and will do whatever it takes to make your company's marketing machine as effective as possible."  

Leaving the interview, I would have bet the farm that I'd never hear from them again.

But I did hear from them. The very next day, actually. And I was offered the position over more than a hundred other marketing professionals who had applied, and had far more experience, in the marketing space. Now it was time to step up and prove that I could fulfill the promises I made in that interview. Trust me, I felt the pressure.  

Not long after that pressure compounded.  

At the first executive retreat a couple of weeks after my hiring, an influential business consultant was flown in from Boston to help guide the company's strategy for the upcoming year. The very first thing he said in that meeting was "At it's core, this is company is a marketing company." 

I felt every eye in the room immediately turn to me, the new guy.  It was certainly going to be an uphill climb, more so now than even I had anticipated.  

From there my crash course continued. I put in long hours learning the details of everything from A/B testing, lead & demand gen, social outreach, buyer's journey, PR initiatives, marcom, blogging technique, SEO, and repurposed content, just to name a few. It was like drinking water from a fire hose.  

But I loved every moment of it. I had found a new passion.  

The greatest lesson I learned was that being authentic, true to yourself and to your cause, was the most compelling marketing strategy of them all.

In 2016, Inc. Magazine reported a study once found that nearly 94% of all consumers are likely to be loyal to a brand when it commits to full transparency. The same article stated that 81% of consumers would be willing to sample a brand's entire range of products if they were comfortable with it's degree of transparency.  

Really though, do those numbers surprise? It just makes sense.  

I went on to have a successful tenure at that company, leaving only after receiving a stronger offer at a larger organization, but not before helping it win multiple awards within the industry space and increasing company revenue along the way.  

Now I'm a bit more seasoned and capable within the marketing realm, thankfully.  But the profound importance of remaining authentic and transparent to our cause is never far from my mind, and is always be a primary focus within my work.

Interested in talking? Contact me today.