Team Members | RISE Strategic Marketing

The RISE Philosophy

RISE helps you plan and execute a complete, effective, and measurable marketing plan based on deep experience.

OUTSOURCING IS SMART
Outsourced marketing solutions offer growing companies access to higher-level staff and faster results than they can typically create in-house.
LEVERAGE THE CLOUD
Big-business tools, service and technologies can now be affordably implemented in businesses of any size.
AVOID THE GURUS
True “Special Sauce” consists of experience, intelligence, the right technology choices, competence, hard work, consistency and complete transparency. The real authorities are focused on promoting their clients over themselves.
KPIs ARE KING
Marketing initiatives must be accountable to measurable outcomes.
DESIGN IS NOT STRATEGY
Creative should be of the highest quality, but must always serve the strategic vision.
MARKETING & SALES: UNITY OR DEATH
The Marketing and Sales teams, platforms and processes must be completely unified in their joint effort to drive business.
TRANSPARENCY OVER PROFITS
RISE believes a skilled consultant will offer clients the best course of action, even if it means less business for us.
SMALL BUSINESS RULES THE WORLD
As 80% of the U.S. economy is driven by small to medium privately-held businesses, RISE is passionately committed to supporting this community through affordable resources, reliable information and accessible education.
WISDOM OVER FLATTERY
You come to us for direction based on sound experience, and that’s what we will give you. Our clients value our confident, direct style. We advise clients so they have the information they need to make decisions. However, if you choose not to take our recommendations, we continue to follow your lead and strive for your success.
AN ENTREPRENEUR’S VISION
We approach every client as if it were our own company—we continually ask, “With the resources on hand, what will bring the greatest success?” We bend over backward to fit into tight budgets, and we do research off the clock simply because we want to get results. You will be hard-pressed to find a marketing agency as committed to your brand.

A Complete Traditional & Digital Marketing Agency

Higher-level strategy and more experienced execution for less money and in less time.

Growing brands need more customers, not more overhead.

As a company grows, most get to a point where they can afford a mid-level dedicated marketing person. However talented, that one person can’t offer the CMO-level depth and breadth of experience that should steer an emerging brand’s marketing efforts. A less experienced marketing person hired to execute top-down ideas often doesn’t have the foundation to advise, propose, plan, provide data-driven direction, or the credibility to challenge flashy executive distractions. While good staff can implement, that still leaves the direction to a leadership that is strong in their core industry, but may lack the depth of marketing expertise their growing company needs.

With RISE, you have a vast spectrum of experience, resources, tools, and proven specialists at your disposal for less than the cost of a dedicated employee. You enjoy the benefits of large, experienced marketing department, yet you only pay for deliverables, not for time on the clock. We are as—or more—committed to results than any employee. Plus, our proactive style requires less management effort, and we’re easier to fire if we aren’t performing.

And we’re fast.

Too many branding agencies sell theory and “special sauce.” Really, marketing is a disciplined exercise in empathy, communication and execution, and RISE has mastered the process so you can focus on what you do best–delighting your own clients.

STRATEGY, MESSAGING & MANAGEMENT

RISE is headed by Valerie Christensen, a strategic marketer backed by decades of strategic marketing management, franchise marketing experience and world-class marketing production. With over 20 years of experience as an executive advancing both industry leaders and Fortune 500 brands, she specializes in franchising and similar member/owner models where motivation, buy-in, and expanding the network take top priority. Valerie also heads up the online marketing team of hand-picked experts to ensure strict quality control and unity with all aspects of the client’s marketing plan.
See our full array of marketing services.

ONLINE MARKETING

Once branding, messaging and web development is complete, our team of content managers begins the execution of the online marketing strategy, including all types of content across company-owned and third-party sites, social media, and paid search platforms. Our technical team is coordinated by superstar Abby Walker and is continually training in the industry. Our service is built on industry-leading cloud-based systems to help us provide authentic value that will be clear to both human prospects and bot algorithms.

CONTENT & CREATIVE

Our Creative department consists of a small army of skilled copywriters, designers, illustrators and production artists who bring deep experience building brands across a wide array of industries. For core branding work, we collaborate heavily with creative veteran Melissa Robison, founder of 72Design, who offers over a decade of agency and in-house experience serving regional, national, and international brands.
See the creative portfolio.

WEB DESIGN & DEVELOPMENT

Our technical team offers decades of online technical experience with a rare level of strategic focus. While we specialize in the affordability and functionality the WordPress platform provides, we also offer fully customized sites using Ruby, Java, PHP, etc. Our technical team also provides CRM implementations, custom front and back-end platforms and system integrations. The creative portfolio includes a few of our web projects.

VIDEO PRODUCTION

Video is an essential part of the RISE approach, as it offers maximum engagement to both humans and search engine robots. The RISE video production team works with the creative team to create a full spectrum of live and graphic animation videos for every budget. We also offer a complete optimization package to help you leverage your videos.
See the video portfolio.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

RISE offers a unique PR program where clients only pay for successful media outreach–a true “pay-for-play” solution. Our monthly content programs often include press releases, and when a particularly newsworthy story comes up, the client can elect to push it to the media for pick up through PRWeb, or pay our pitch team to get a placement in local, regional, or national outlets. This resource offers a tremendous asset to members of the RISE client family.

EVENT PRODUCTION

Event Lead Danica Talbot has worked with Valerie on several large-scale franchise owner conferences over the past several years. Danica is an operations prodigy and works closely with the creative team to execute the 400-page, time-tested RISE event roadmap to ensure revenue-driving events. Learn more about Event Production.

The rest of our talented team of creative, production, operational, technical and tactical staff works together to deliver unsurpassed impact, quickly and affordably, so you can RISE.

It’s Time to RISE

Call 844-811-5252 to get started, or click below to schedule a no-obligation consultation.

The RISE Philosophy

OUTSOURCING IS SMART

LEVERAGE THE CLOUD

AVOID THE GURUS

KPIs ARE KING

DESIGN IS NOT STRATEGY

MARKETING & SALES: UNITY OR DEATH

TRANSPARENCY OVER PROFITS

SMALL BUSINESS RULES THE WORLD

WISDOM OVER FLATTERY

AN ENTREPRENEUR’S VISION