👋 I’m Dave
I run Authentic Matters, a digital marketing consultancy that helps organizations better use the internet to grow their businesses.
What kind of organizations?
Any, really, but the sweet spot is with companies that have been around for a while, typically are in the B2B, services, tech or healthcare spaces, are revenue positive, and have a firm belief that getting serious about digital can have a meaningful impact on their bottom line.
So we’re talking about digital marketing, yes?
Yes. Web. Content. Email. Paid campaigns. SEO. The list goes on.
Those are tactics and we do them well. But we don’t execute any of them without strategy. What are the goals, how are we going to get there and how are we going to know if we’re on the right track?
Baked into strategy are things like positioning, messaging, branding. Analytics, metrics and ROI too.
We work directly with executive teams to build and execute digital marketing strategies. And we love doing it.
👋 I’m Dave
I run Authentic Matters, a digital marketing consultancy that helps organizations better use the internet to grow their businesses.
What kind of organizations?
Any, really, but the sweet spot is with companies that have been around for a while, typical are in the B2B, services, tech or healthcare spaces, are revenue positive, and have a firm belief that digital can have a meaningful impact on their bottom line. They just don’t know how to make it happen.
So we’re talking about digital marketing, yes?
Yes. Web. Content. Email. Paid campaigns. SEO/SEM. The list goes on.
Those are tactics and we do them well. But we don’t execute any of them without strategy. What are the goals, how are we going to get there and how are we going to know if we’re on the right track?
Baked into strategy are things like positioning, messaging, branding. Analytics, metrics and ROI too.
We work directly with executives teams to build and execute digital marketing strategies. And we love doing it.
Who’s the royal we here?
Great question. When I started Authentic Matters back in 2011 (yikes), I didn’t do it to launch the next big agency. In fact, agency life – and all its bureaucracy and bloat – was one of the reasons I decided to do my own thing.
I am the lead on every client engagement, heading strategy and doing a good bulk of the work. (Gotta keep the skills sharp.)
But I also have a roster of on-demand specialists who are great at what they do and therefore do their own thing too. Designers. Animators. Engineers. Writers. Videographers. Project managers. Whatever the strategy calls for.
This keeps the overhead low and outrageous agency fees off your invoices.
Real quick, can you just list out your services so I can see if you do what I’m looking for?
Sure.
Strategy
- Market and audience research
- Positioning, messaging, branding
- Go-to-market strategy
- Strategic marketing plans
- Marketing tech stack design
- KPIs, ROI, analytics
Owned
- Web design, development, hosting and maintenance
- Content strategy and copywriting
- Email marketing and automation
- Organic social
- Foundational SEO
- Videography, photography
- Animation, illustration, graphic design
Paid
- Search
So who have you worked with?
Lots of companies. Some you’ve heard of: Microsoft, Virginia Commonwealth University, The Emmett Till House. Most, though, you haven’t: an incorporating services provider out of Delaware… A 3D, high-def mapping platform acquired by Toyota… A durable medical equipment company that’s changing chronic care… An electronic data interchange provider that keeps suppliers compliant with retailers… You get the idea.
Full logo spread is here. Got some testimonials too.
For some snapshot stories keep on scrolling. 👇
Know what every autonomous vehicle will need? A map.
As CARMERA grew from an A-stage startup to an industry leader in high definition mapping, we laid the foundation for their communications office, standing up everything from PR and events to blog content and email marketing.
Paychecks Up, Taxes Down.
Ever use an FSA, an HSA or commuter benefits? Ever love it? Didn’t think so. Instead of forms, math and confusing acronyms, Alice makes keeping more of what you earn as easy as texting. Our web, content, asset creation and PR work helped get this startup scaling fast. Cue press logos.
Razor sharp.
Razrbar isn’t a barbershop. It’s not a salon either. It’s somewhere in between. However you want to define it, they just opened their second third location. We helped get them there with a mobile-friendly web experience and an online booking tool.
Preserving a story that cannot be forgotten.
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and murdered by two white men in 1955. They were acquitted and later admitted to their crimes. Blacks In Green (BIG), a Chicago-based community organization, bought Emmett’s boyhood home and are actively developing it into a museum to honor his legacy.
BIG tapped us to spin up a site for their efforts. We were honored and humbled to participate.
For the solopreneur.
Doing your own thing has never been easier. Accounting, on the other hand, remains as awful and as necessary as ever. Kashoo reimagined small business bookkeeping so you don’t have to be a CPA to do what you love.
We started out doing PR for them. Five years in we’d taken on content, email automation, and retention. We even stepped behind the camera to script and shoot the team holiday video. Don’t laugh.
Suburban coworking.
Coworking’s huge in densely populated areas with high headcounts of young professionals. But what about the suburbs? Specifically, 30 miles northwest of D.C.? We co-created Brickyard, spun up a brand identity from scratch and built out a web presence to convince commute-weary workers who love where they live to work there too.
Improving financial health for all.
Payday loans. Check cashing. Making ends meet. Those are just some of the scourges the Financial Health Network fights every day. They are the voice of authority when it comes to how financial instutitions, non-profits, governments and innovators can drive financial health amongst the un- and underbanked. From media relations and content for their annual forum, EMERGE, to running mobile app development competitions, we’ve helped this group help those that need it most.
B2B buying has been Amazonified.
B2B sales used to be about your Rolodex, a round of golf and a handshake. Now it’s buying is by committee. Customers want to do their own research on their own time because if Amazon can make buying laundry detergent and sunscreen a self-guided, personalized experience, surely a seven-figure ERP purchase can be the same.
Smart Rooms give buyers the room they want while arming sellers with the data they need to guide the buying experience — all within Salesforce. We helped Journey Sales develop the visual assets, website, email marketing, content and demand gen workflows that got them the traction they needed to make in-roads with a number of Fortune 500s.
Contact form time!
If you know your org needs to up its digital game but you just don’t really know where to start or if you just need more strategic brainpower that can also get $h!t done, reach out.
No sell. No pitch. None of that stuff because ew.