April 6, 2026
Advertising, Best Practices, Marketing

Small businesses create concrete reasons for people to engage before anyone knows who they are. There’s an important lesson about brand building that often seems counterintuitive: the brands that succeed from zero recognition create experiences, access, or education that give people reasons to care long before those people become customers. Sam Sterling, the Head of […]

March 24, 2026
Branding, Marketing, Strategy

Marketing managers with tight budgets often have to build an engaged community from nothing.  Sam Sterling joined The U.S. SailGP Team as a marketing team of one, facing a challenge any small business would recognize: explaining a product nobody knew existed. Her background at The Players’ Tribune taught her content operations and storytelling, but this […]

Split image showing a laptop with Vitaminwater site on the left and a roadside billboard reading ‘polar opposites, equally delicious’ for Smartwater and Vitaminwater on the right
October 10, 2024
Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Strategy

From brand awareness, to reach, traffic, lead generation, and conversions, many businesses run their ads a little haphazardly. Who can blame them—the advertising world is far from simple. Many lean on Meta’s how-to guides but often end up with lackluster results, blaming good ol’ Zuck while their ad spend remains unoptimized.  For those new here, […]