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Is your marketing team mired in tactical one-offs? Is poor alignment impacting your…
Articles by Justin
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Is Recycling in Your Marketing Plan?
Is Recycling in Your Marketing Plan?
It probably won't save the environment. But content recycling, or repurposing, will save you time.
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Ready to Bust Some Egos? That's Where Marketing Collaboration Starts
Ready to Bust Some Egos? That's Where Marketing Collaboration Starts
You know the pitfalls of silo marketing. Human sacrifice.
3 Comments -
Meetings Are Devouring You
Meetings Are Devouring You
I heard the cliches. But I was shocked when I first saw it.
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Everything You Need to Know About the "U" Word but were Afraid to Ask
Everything You Need to Know About the "U" Word but were Afraid to Ask
Maybe you’re the type of person who doesn’t say you’re looking for an opportunity. Maybe you’d rather pick up the tab…
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Just in Time for Small Business Week: Four Lessons from a Serial Restaurateur
Just in Time for Small Business Week: Four Lessons from a Serial Restaurateur
It’s National Small Business Week, and Maddog’s Creamery & Donuts in Eastern Tennessee is enjoying a feat many…
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Your Store's Music Playlist Can Affect Buying Decisions
Your Store's Music Playlist Can Affect Buying Decisions
Did you know that numerous studies have shown that 90-plus-percent of shoppers prefer to patronize businesses that play…
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Do You Know These Facts About EMV?
Do You Know These Facts About EMV?
If you're a merchant, you've likely heard about EMV chip technology. If not, here are the basics: Consumers now have…
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Apps Help Mom and Pops Deliver the Goods
Apps Help Mom and Pops Deliver the Goods
With same-day delivery options being offered by the likes of Amazon, Wal-Mart and other big retailers, what’s a small…
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Activity
2K followers
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Justin Rubner shared thisWe're drowning in customer data. Why do so many companies still struggle to understand their customers? After four decades studying human behavior, Mark Michelson has some ideas on how CMOs and CEOs should leverage AI to get better research results. Mark bridges traditional research expertise with artificial intelligence, teaching professionals how to use AI tools without losing the human judgment that actually make insights useful. He’s also the founder of AI Collective Atlanta. >>Spotify link in the comments>>
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Justin Rubner posted thisJust recorded a High Intent podcast episode with Sangram Vajre, GTM Partners CEO, co-founder of Terminus (by DemandScience), and author. If you want to hear some solid takes on new go-to-market trends and #fractional work, you won't want to miss this one.
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Justin Rubner shared thisIf you've run B2B campaigns lately with gated content that offer little differentiation from your competitors ... keyword-dense blogs that your competitors are also producing ... and ads that look like every other B2B ad, you've likely noticed attention and conversion are exponentially harder. AI is part of this. And it's a good thing — Because it certainly appears that narrative, category creation and authority —which require largely-ignored marketing fundamentals and experienced humans with journalistic abilities — are becoming important to smart companies that want to stand out. "Once the funnel stops being the battleground, the competition moves to brand," the article says. "Does the market know what you stand for? Is your point of view actually distinct? Will an AI engine name you as the authority in your category? Will a founder forward your story because it earned the forward? You can't grind that out of an MQL machine. It comes from a newsroom." https://lnkd.in/eDU22rkxMercury Will Pay $335K to Reframe a Category. The Job Description Reads Like an Editor-in-Chief's.Mercury Will Pay $335K to Reframe a Category. The Job Description Reads Like an Editor-in-Chief's.
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Justin Rubner shared thisThree recent search trends you'll want to address in your marketing strategy: Zero-Click Explosion They now account for 68% of all searches. That's an 8% increase from two years ago. The time to optimize for Q+A is nigh. Ride the Reddit train Reddit saw a 54% surge in search rankings following recent Google algorithm changes. Make friends with ChatGPT Websites recommended by ChatGPT are now 2.5 times more likely to receive direct referral traffic. Source: Ignite Visibility
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Justin Rubner shared thisSaw this quote in a newsletter this morning and had to share it. The author, Sangram Vajre, talks about how the AI company Clay generated 6 million impressions with zero ad spend — focusing, instead, on content, category creation and evangelism. Sangram, CEO of GTM Partners, co-founder of the ABM platform Terminus, and author of "MOVE: The 4-Question Go-to-Market Framework", knows something about category creation. He'll be on the High Intent podcast soon. Standby ...
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Justin Rubner shared thisStep 1: Visit an average SaaS homepage. Step 2: Drink a shot every time you see one of these. Step 3: Pass out.
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Justin Rubner shared thisHad an insightful interview today with Mark Michelson, founder of AI Collective Atlanta and ThreadsMR, a market research company. We chat about several research topics from how AI is impacting market research to how you can leverage composite digital personas. Stay tuned for the interview on High Intent!
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Justin Rubner posted thisI've talked with several SaaS company executives recently at an inflection point: They've seen growth with hustle, a sales-led organization, tactical marketing and no CMO-level leadership. Now, that growth is stalled. The marketing is stale. Competition is fiercer. The pressure is on. This is predictable. Marketing typically generates 45% - 85% of pipeline, even with strong channel operations and dedicated BDRs. Whether fractional or full-time, having strategic marketing leadership is proven to bring: Better sales alignment. SaaS companies that have solid alignment are shown to generate 24% faster revenue growth, according to Forrester. Better positioning. It's often a top reason why ads, websites and pitches fail to convert. Having someone to focus on this is crucial at growth stages. Better reach. 95% of B2B buyers are not in the market, according to the LinkedIn B2B Institute. By focusing on lead generation and tactical marketing only, you are essentially only targeting 5% of the market. CEOs hire sales leadership when revenue is unpredictable. They hire finance leadership when forecasting gets messy. But they wait until growth slows before hiring marketing leadership. That's completely backwards. A great CMO doesn't just generate demand. They create the conditions that make demand generation work.
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Justin Rubner shared this72% of corporate marketers don't know what their data says. Worse, 86% of corporate marketers have no idea what's driving performance. That's with Hubspot, Claude, Semrush, Tableau and <insert martech tool here>. It's also with the well-reported increased scrutiny on marketing spend by the C suite. A direct cause of this? Specialization. You have a content manager, a social media manager, a content producer, a growth strategist, an outbound specialist, a product marketer, an events marketer. You may have multiple lines with specialists in each line. Meanwhile, your CMO's busy working on strategies to penetrate new markets, diagnosing pipeline problems, focusing on lagging results. Who is looking at all of this leading work to tie them together? Who is looking at work at all business lines? Before AI, and after AI, marketing needs generalists — holistic marketers — more than ever. Think campaign managers and brand strategists. In the age of data-driven decisions, the data is clear: We have the data. But we're too siloed to do much with it. #analytics #AI
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Justin Rubner reacted on thisJustin Rubner reacted on thisBREAKING: Freelance Copywriter Completes 2nd Day Of Briefing For Wingstop BOGO Ad
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Justin Rubner reacted on thisJustin Rubner reacted on thisWhy do so many well-run services firms follow all the growth advice and still come up short? After nearly 25 years working alongside the leaders of high-value business services firms, I keep watching the same pattern. Under pressure, firms reach for growth they can buy through acquisition or manufacture through volume. Both can be right moves. I have helped clients do both. The damage comes from what those two moves quietly demote: a third kind of growth that most firms stopped investing in without ever deciding to. And the dependency runs in a direction most leaders have backwards. The acquisitions and the marketing engine need the third kind to pay off, not the other way around. Today I launched Earned Growth, a publication written for the people who lead these firms. The first issue defines the third kind, shows why it comes first, and makes a promise about what this publication will do for you. It takes about as long to read as an espresso takes to drink. Subscribing is free. Link in the first comment.
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Justin Rubner reacted on thisHad a nice chat with Justin Rubner about how AI is impacting marketing research among other professions. I'll be leading free a hands-on workshop about AI Fundamentals for Qualitative Researchers in-person this coming Monday, July 20 at Improving in Alpharetta. This is part of a series on AI Fundamentals for Professionals produced by The AI Collective Atlanta. Registration link in comments.
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Justin Rubner liked thisJustin Rubner liked thisAfter interviewing 30 CMOs with PE backgrounds for a recent search, one thing jumped out to me...... The strongest candidates are not looking for a larger team to manage. They are looking for something meaningful to build. They want to: - Reposition a brand: not just a new website - but a new brand - Create a category: not just a new product or feature, but a new category - Modernize the go-to-market engine: It's AI for sure, but its more then that - Bring sales, product and marketing together: they want to be the catalyst that brings these teams together - not the loudest voice in the room - Turn marketing into a measurable commercial function: marketing is not a support function but a strategic and instrumental part of the broader GTM In other words, they are looking for a transformation role - not a maintenance role. That distinction matters when recruiting a marketing leader. A company may describe its opportunity as transformational. But experienced candidates quickly start testing that claim: Does the CEO truly want change? Is the organization prepared to reconsider its positioning? Will the CMO have influence over product strategy and the customer experience? Is investment available, or is the expectation simply to produce more with the same resources? Will the company accept that meaningful transformation may require changing people, processes and priorities? Hiring a CMO does not create change by itself. The mandate, authority and organizational willingness to change are what attract transformational talent - and allow that talent to succeed. When recruiting your next marketing leader, do not only ask: “Can this person transform our marketing?” Also ask - and really ask “Are we actually ready to be transformed?”
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Justin Rubner liked thisJustin Rubner liked thisThis Range Rover stunt got 100M views — because it followed a rule many brands ignore. The rule: Go where your customers actually live. Car ads love to show SUVs climbing mountains and cruising coastlines. But Range Rover's customers more likely to navigate potholes and sit in traffic. So Range Rover built a massive speed bump in a London neighborhood — and filmed its SUV conquering it. The message was clear: "This car can handle any problem you ACTUALLY have." Customers live in a messier world than most marketing acknowledges. So when reflect their real frustrations, you become instantly relatable. The result for Range Rover: International news coverage and 100+ million views. Ask yourself: When customers see your marketing, do they see themselves? If not, they should. If you found this useful, share it and follow Jason Feifer for more. 🎉 STAND OUT ON LINKEDIN! In my free course, I teach you how to get attention (and drive sales) right now https://lnkd.in/eRumk4Mw
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Justin Rubner liked thisJustin Rubner liked thisI’m NOT excited to share that I’m exhausted, frustrated, loosing my confidence, had so many sleepless nights, trying to hustle and make ends meet. Disgusted by the hiring process, the ghosting, the promises & deals made that never come to fruition. I’m just tired……
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Justin Rubner liked thisJustin Rubner liked thisIn coming years, 'CMO' will be rarer and marketing under CRO will be normal. A peer CEO told me this and we had a debate. No, we didn’t throw punches, but I feel this assumption is wrong. His logic makes sense on a spreadsheet. He looks at the corporate landscape, the rise of AI automation, and figures a CRO simply has a better handle on the math. The CRO sees which clients convert, how the costs line up, and where the budget needs to go. To him, shoving everything into one big revenue department just keeps things clean and under control. But I don't buy that at all. And I say this as a guy who used to be that exact CRO with marketing reporting to me. I already know how that movie ends. Look at what’s happening out there. With new AI tools dropping every single day, anyone can generate endless content or blast out thousands of automated emails for pennies. The internet has become an incredibly loud place, and B2B buyers have developed a total immunity to the corporate noise. That is exactly why the demand for elite CMOs is about to skyrocket, not vanish. When the technical execution of marketing becomes a commodity, the entire premium shifts right back to strategy and psychology. You need a marketing head who knows how to crack buyer bias, understand true brand building, and cleanly map the complex journey an account takes before they ever talk to sales. No single revenue executive can just copy-paste that level of specialized mastery into a standard sales spreadsheet. If you turn marketing into a sub-bullet under a 90-day sales target, you stop building a market and just start buying expensive clicks to survive the month. The title isn't going anywhere. We’re just finally separating the tactical asset managers from the true growth strategists. And the companies I believe will win over the next few years won't be the ones hiding marketing under the sales floor, they’ll be the ones that realize a world-class CMO is completely irreplaceable. The debate is still very much open, until he admits I'm right.
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Education
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The University of Georgia
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Activities and Societies: News editor, science writer and columnist at The Red & Black, an independent student-run publication serving UGA.
Licenses & Certifications
Volunteer Experience
Courses
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Emory University's Screenwriting School
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General Assembly Digital Marketing Bootcamp
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Projects
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Breaking the Law
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Can you go a week without breaking the law?
Breaking the Law investigates victimless crimes, the everyday American lawbreaker and laws so crazy, they're criminal. With Congress introducing 55 new crimes each year — with 50 states and 40,000 cities following suit on a daily basis — our TV show demonstrates how it’s pretty much impossible to not break the law.
Breaking the Law is non-partisan. And non-preachy.
Our talented crew just filmed a demo episode and are seeking a…Can you go a week without breaking the law?
Breaking the Law investigates victimless crimes, the everyday American lawbreaker and laws so crazy, they're criminal. With Congress introducing 55 new crimes each year — with 50 states and 40,000 cities following suit on a daily basis — our TV show demonstrates how it’s pretty much impossible to not break the law.
Breaking the Law is non-partisan. And non-preachy.
Our talented crew just filmed a demo episode and are seeking a development deal.Other creators -
Organizations
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Atlanta Filmmakers Alliance
Executive producer, creator, writer
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Agency Management Institute
AI won’t fix your agency if leadership is the bottleneck. Drew McLellan joins the Happy Clients Podcast to break down smarter scaling, how agencies are actually using AI, and the shift from account management to strategic client leadership. If you want to grow in 2026 without losing control, this episode is a must-listen: https://lnkd.in/g48d_NxC
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4 vision Co Ltd
B2B marketers swear Mapping events to the full funnel isn't random. From awareness buzz at trade shows to mid-funnel deep dives via workshops, and bottom-funnel closes with VIP demos, events now fuel every stage. Align with sales for 67% better wins ditch siloed tactics, embrace integrated impact! #B2BEvents #FullFunnelMarketing #EventStrategy #RevenueGrowth #MarketingAlignment #TradeShows #B2BTrends
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