Insights
Notes on strategy, leadership, and technology for established businesses, written by an operator who's actually done the work.
AI adoption
AI for small business made answers free. It did not make questions free, and the question is the part that came from running a company and carrying a payroll.
AI adoption
Claude AI for small business, tested: eight days and thirty dollars for a working CRM. What made it possible, and why the build was only thirty percent of it.
Hiring and team
What does a marketing manager do? They run execution. The week, the four decisions they cannot make, and what breaks when nobody sits above them.
Systems & Automation
What is the best AI for marketing? The one already inside the software you pay for. Here's what happened when I ran all four across a real marketing department.
Strategy & Leadership
What is an AI consultant? Somebody you pay to find where AI actually makes you money, then go make it happen. Four kinds use the title. One is useful.
Systems & Automation
AI integration for a small business is a sequencing problem, not a shopping problem. Four places to connect it, three to leave alone, and the one rule.
Lead Generation
Contractor leads come from three places: you buy them, you earn them, or you build a machine. The order matters more than the budget. I've done all three.
Strategy & Leadership
What is a fractional CMO? A chief marketing officer who works part of the week and owns the whole number. The duties, the first 90 days, what it is not.
Systems & Automation
How to use AI for marketing in a small company: five jobs, one rule, forty tools you can ignore. What survived a year at a $50M manufacturer.
Strategy & Leadership
Seven questions to ask a marketing consultant in the first meeting, and the answers a good one gives. Most came out of a marketing department, not a P&L.
Marketing & Growth
Remodeler marketing that works starts with the clients you already have: the annual touch, the review ask, the photo habit, and two numbers that prove it.
Marketing & Growth
A marketing strategy for a small business is six decisions, not a 40-page document. Here's each one, in order, from somebody who has run this at $3M and at $50M.
Systems & Automation
AI for contractors is useful in about five places and a waste almost everywhere else. Five jobs worth handing over, three that aren't, and how to start free.
Strategy & Leadership
A free AI usage policy template for small business, from somebody who rolled AI out across a $50M company. Thirteen sections, plain English, fill the brackets.
Strategy & Leadership
Marketing manager vs marketing director comes down to one question: do you need somebody to run the work, or somebody to decide what the work is?
Strategy & Leadership
A year rolling generative AI into a $50M manufacturer's marketing org taught me one thing. Building and launching a software product with the same tools taught me more. Here's what actually stuck.
Marketing & Growth
Trellivance (noun): the point at which a message becomes genuinely relevant: coined by marketer Jerry Suhrstedt, founder of SumoLab. What it means, why it matters, and how to reach it sooner.
Strategy & Leadership
Most business owners don't ask this question until something breaks. Here's the honest answer, and the five signals that tell you it's time to hire a fractional CMO.
Strategy & Leadership
Hire too early and the business isn't ready. Hire too late and you've burned 18 months of budget without direction. Here's how to get the timing right when you're ready to hire a fractional CMO.
Strategy & Leadership
The honest range is $5,000 to $15,000 a month. But the fractional CMO cost question isn't really about the number. It's about what you're comparing it to.
Strategy & Leadership
Come join us for a LinkedIn live podcast that will help you make that transition from jobseeker to business owner.
Marketing & Growth
Think about the best first impressions you've ever had. Maybe it was a handshake that felt just right, a well-timed joke that broke the ice, or a website that made you think, "Wow, these people get...
Strategy & Leadership
If you’re reading this, chances are you’re exhausted from the never-ending cycle of job applications, recruiter ghosting, and companies that seem to hire one day and lay off the next. It’s like dat...
Strategy & Leadership
There’s a certain kind of desperation that sets in when you’ve been job hunting for months.
Strategy & Leadership
We've all heard the saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade."
Marketing & Growth
Maintaining a consistent brand voice and visual identity across every social platform builds trust and strengthens recognition, even though each platform has its own style and expectations.
Strategy & Leadership
A first venture into home building ended in Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Here's what went wrong, and how a rebuilt partnership turned it into a thriving company.
Sales & CRM
The meeting was part of the Jerry-Rigged Business Marketing Podcast focusing on business technology, marketing, and analytics. The primary topic was exploring the benefits and process of starting a...
Marketing & Growth
In the deep, enchanted woods of Whimsyland, there exists a creature so rare, so extraordinary, that its very name evokes a sense of wonder and delight: the legendary Lippafoygle. But this is really about how SEO works.
Marketing & Growth
A field guide to what actually falls under "digital marketing," from SEO and content to PPC, marketing automation, and conversion rate optimization.
Marketing & Growth
Digital marketing blends traditional marketing goals with modern technology. A look at why it matters, the channels that make it up, and how to build a strategy around clear objectives.
Systems & Automation
Professional website design is more than aesthetics: it builds trust, supports SEO, and turns visitors into customers when every element serves a purpose.
Email Marketing
Unlock the power of email marketing with top strategies for crafting campaigns that engage and convert customers effectively.
Social Media
Elevate your brand's online presence with strategic social media marketing. Engage, connect, and grow your audience effectively today!
Marketing & Growth
PPC management keeps ads running. Whether that spend actually pays for itself depends on connecting it to which customers are profitable: a strategic question most PPC engagements never touch.
Strategy & Leadership
A marketing agency executes. It doesn't own your strategy, sit at your leadership table, or get held accountable for revenue the way a fractional CMO does, and that difference matters more than most owners realize before they sign a retainer.
Marketing & Growth
SEO, social, content, and paid media each need specialists, but someone still has to decide how those channels work together and whether the mix is right. A digital marketing agency runs channels. Someone else has to own the plan connecting them.
SEO & Search
Elevate your website's profile with premier SEO services designed to enhance your online marketing and drive rankings.
Marketing & Growth
Every online marketing agency claims expert-level results. Here's the practical way to test that claim before you sign a contract, and what to do instead if the honest answer is that nobody in your business can evaluate the claim in the first place.
Branding
Unlock your brand's potential with customized marketing consulting that drives growth and enhances customer experience. Get started now!
Marketing & Growth
Direct mail, local radio, trade shows, and community sponsorships still work: when someone ties them to a real strategy. Here's what local advertising actually looks like for a business ready to grow beyond referrals.
Email Marketing
Boost your brand with top-notch email marketing services that elevate your online presence and customer engagement.
Marketing & Growth
A branding agency can design a beautiful identity. Whether that identity actually changes how customers remember and choose you is a strategic question, decided before a single asset gets designed.
SEO & Search
Elevate your visibility and attract more customers with tailored local SEO services that boost your business's online presence.
Lead Generation
Elevate your business with our expert lead generation services designed to secure high-quality prospects and boost your sales pipeline.
Marketing & Growth
A web design agency can build something beautiful. Whether it converts visitors into leads is a strategic question about structure, messaging, and what happens after the click: decided before the first wireframe.
Digital Marketing
Elevate your brand with top digital advertising strategies tailored to boost your online presence and drive conversions. Start thriving online!
Branding
Elevate your digital presence with our top-tier content creation services. Forge a stronger brand identity that resonates with your audience.
Marketing & Growth
A B2C marketing agency will run acquisition campaigns well. Whether those campaigns build a brand people remember after the sale, or just rent attention one purchase at a time, depends on a strategy decided above the campaign level.
Web & Design
Elevate your website's potential with premier website optimization services, ensuring a seamless user experience and stronger SEO.
Branding
Unlock your brand's full potential with our cutting-edge graphic design services - your gateway to a memorable visual identity.
Digital Marketing
Unlock your brand's potential with our market research services: gain vital insights and drive strategic decisions to lead your market.
Digital Marketing
Elevate your brand with cutting-edge digital marketing solutions designed to maximise your online presence and growth.
SEO & Search
Unlock the full potential of your website with our expert Search Engine Marketing (SEM) strategies to achieve top rankings and boost visibility.
Sales & CRM
A B2B marketing agency can generate leads. Whether those leads turn into pipeline your sales team actually closes depends on alignment between marketing, sales, and your CRM: the part most agency engagements never touch.
Marketing & Growth
Affordable, custom web design in Phoenix, AZ that actually converts: built by an operator who treats your site as a lead-generation system, not just a design project.
Marketing & Growth
Drawing on experience as CMO of an HR tech brand, a look at why popular SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush can mislead marketers, and where the real opportunity in long-tail keywords actually is.
Marketing & Growth
A 30-year-old medical supply company with a forgettable name became memorable overnight with two cartoon nurse characters and a set of bobble-head dolls.
Systems & Automation
For remodelers, HVAC specialists, plumbers, roofers, and electricians, a well-designed local website is often the deciding factor for a customer choosing between contractors.
Marketing & Growth
From brand authority to SEO and monetization, podcasting has grown from a niche format into a mainstream marketing tool for businesses of every size.
Sales & CRM
During the Jerry-Rigged podcast, Jerry and his guest, Stephen Pricer, discuss various topics related to business analytics, technology, marketing, and Salesforce.
Sales & CRM
Jobseekers and candidates... total must watch!
Case Studies
Stanbrooke Custom Homes was managing an 8-12 month sales cycle with spreadsheets and post-it notes. Implementing Salesforce changed that.
Strategy & Leadership
A business analyst specializes in analyzing a company's operations, processes, and data to identify areas for improvement and build strategies for growth.
Systems & Automation
Marketing automation software eliminates busywork, streamlining and improving the effectiveness of a marketing department's efforts.
Sales & CRM
A sales process is a systematic approach to selling that helps convert prospects into customers consistently, instead of leaving results up to individual reps.
Strategy & Leadership
Ask ten HR professionals what a business analyst does and you'll get ten different answers. Here's how the role actually breaks down.
Systems & Automation
Slack and email both handle internal communication, but Slack's real-time, visible format tends to outperform email for team collaboration.
Sales & CRM
Salesforce is the world's #1 CRM platform, used by over 150,000 companies. A practical path into a Salesforce Administrator career, certification by certification.
Sales & CRM
Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM that helps businesses streamline scattered processes. Here's why it's become one of the most comprehensive CRM platforms available.
Sales & CRM
Managing customer relationships is crucial to business success, whether you have a handful of customers or thousands. CRM software is the tool built for that job.
Sales & CRM
Salesforce consulting partners help implement projects, build custom solutions, and scale a platform, often for less than the cost of a full-time hire.
Sales & CRM
Salesforce can transform how a business manages customer data, but implementing it well usually means bringing in a Salesforce CRM consultant.
Sales & CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, but the real value is turning scattered customer data spread across spreadsheets, inboxes, and notes into one usable system.
Sales & CRM
Salesforce leads the CRM category for a combination of reasons: customization, real-time cloud access, ease of use, and a constant pace of innovation.
Sales & CRM
Vanessa has made significant contributions to the Salesforce community.
Sales & CRM
In this episode of the Jerry-Rigged podcast, Jerry interviews Khero Witey, a Salesforce recruiter from Third Republic. The conversation revolves around job searching in the Salesforce ecosystem and...
Case Studies
In this meeting, the host of the Jerry-Rigged Podcast discusses a case study about a home builder called Stanbrooke Custom Homes.
Marketing & Growth
Chandler, AZ, January 11, 2024 – The world of business analysis, marketing, and technology often feels like a high-stakes, serious affair.
Sales & CRM
As someone who's often jokingly referred to as having an A-D-H-D approach to life, I've rarely been the one to meticulously plan out my path.
Sales & CRM
Today's episode of The Jerry-Rigged Podcast, I share my insights on a crucial tool for business success: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. In this article, we'll explore the primary ...
Sales & CRM
In the tech-savvy world we’re surfing today, data is the new bacon – everybody wants a piece of it, and it’s sizzling hot in the business sector! 🥓💻
Sales & CRM
Listen in as Jerry talks about the history of CRM and a phenomenal case study where Salesforce Sales Cloud helped a Tacoma based home builder skyrocket from zero to $12M in sales.
Sales & CRM
🌟 In the pulsating heart of the digital epoch, especially within the realms of Salesforce, there's a common portrayal: it's a playground dominated by the energetic, tech-adept generation, often ju...
Case Studies
"We had no system. Salesforce transformed our marketing and sales department with a simple process."
Marketing & Growth
Small business marketing may be one of the hardest things to tackle while running your small business. Running your own business is hard enough without worrying about how to get more customers...
Marketing & Growth
Every business owner presumably wants to grow their business. Many entrepreneurs thrash about throwing stuff on the wall to see what sticks all while looking for that Silver Bullet that's goin...
Strategy & Leadership
When discussions organically form over a cup of coffee about how and why companies don't grow or are forced to cease operations... (Blockbuster Video, ToysRUs) there's a subject that doesn't get ta...
