Eric Dickmann

Chief Marketing Officer▪️Helping B2B Companies Build Cost-Effective Marketing Strategies for Revenue Growth

I help B2B technology, SaaS, and professional-services firms turn “random acts of marketing” into predictable growth engines.

As a fractional Chief Marketing Officer and founder of The Five Echelon Group, I partner with CEOs and leadership teams who are frustrated by marketing that feels disconnected from business goals. Whether they’re scaling after funding, preparing for an exit, or simply tired of agency churn, I help them build clarity, structure, and measurable outcomes.

My approach bridges strategy, sales alignment, and modern marketing systems, including the smart use of AI, to create sustainable growth.

Through The Virtual CMO Podcast, I share insights from top marketing leaders on how to thrive in an era where automation is everywhere but strategic leadership is rare.

Let’s connect if your company has hit a growth plateau, lacks marketing direction, or needs a trusted partner to turn marketing into a true revenue engine.

Founder and Chief Marketing Officer

- Develop and execute tailored marketing strategies as a Fractional CMO.
- Deliver Marketing as a Service (MaaS) to simplify strategic planning and execution.
- Implement cost-effective solutions to increase brand awareness and lead generation.
- Specialize in Financial Services, FinTech, SaaS, Technology, and Professional Services

It was great attending this year's Podfest Multimedia Expo in Orlando, FL. The podcasting space is booming, as evidenced by the number of podcasters in attendance and the diversity of shows being produced.

After a hiatus, I'm excited to share that The Virtual CMO podcast is recording new episodes, and we're launching a new podcast for AdParlor focused on influencer marketing! 

It's going to be a busy year for podcasting, and I look forward to sharing more details soon!

Strategic Fractional CMO | Helping B2B Leaders Build Visibility & Growth Systems in the AI Era | Host of The Virtual CMO Podcast

AI is transforming influencer marketing, but it’s making authenticity more valuable, not less.

Four takeaways from the National Retail Federation's 2026 conference:

1. Authenticity > brand scripts  

The highest-performing creator content feels like the creator, not the brand. Overly prescriptive briefs handcuff creators and erode trust and performance.

2. Different creators for different jobs  

Mega-talent is driving reach and awareness, while micro/mid-tier creators are winning on credibility and conversion. Smart brands are mapping talent tiers to specific funnel roles.

3. Creators as the content engine  

Creators are now the primary content engine, with AI helping scale, repurpose, and personalize their content across owned and paid channels.

4. Measurement is maturing  

Brands are moving beyond vanity metrics and last-click sales to frameworks that balance reach, resonance, and reaction, plus sentiment and conversation quality.

If you’re leading creator or partner programs in 2026, the direction is clear:  
- Loosen the script
- Clarify the role of each creator
- Plug AI into your workflow
- Upgrade your measurement

#influencermarketing #marketingstrategy

Serial Entrepreneur & Coach

Hi, I'm Itay 🫶🏼

We live in an AI era where output is cheap, and speed is everywhere. 

I care about staying human, finding your own pace, and coming back to the part of you that is real and present. Each of us is literally one of one. Our fingerprints and DNA do not repeat, and neither does our way of seeing, creating, and leading. My work is helping people reconnect with that, then build from it.

I'm a deliberate optimist, an entrepreneur at heart, and a coach. For the past 18+ years, I've helped people, companies, and ideas find alignment.

A while back, I co-founded a startup that grew to 400+ employees and tens of millions in revenue. We were backed by YCombinator and investors like the founders of Reddit and Gmail, as well as Joe Montana.

From the outside, it looked like a success story. Inside, I felt disconnected from myself.

What began as a mission to solve a personal problem, leaving my six-figure job in Manhattan to bootstrap a company from scratch, slowly became a machine. Eventually, I felt lost within it.

I learned how to scale a business, raise capital, build teams, and make hard decisions under pressure. The deeper work came later.

When I finally stepped back, I rediscovered my own alignment.

That shift changed everything, not just how I live, but how I support and work with others.

Now, I coach, mentor, and advise founders and high performers, helping them navigate growth without losing themselves amid pressure and tough decisions.

I help them slow down so they can gain clarity, make more confident decisions, improve resilience, and build progress they can actually live with.

I help clients with:
✔️ Product-market fit and go-to-market clarity
✔️ Returning to presence and instinct when things get chaotic
✔️ Leadership, energy, and resilience
✔️ Strategy, decision-making, and pivots
✔️ Scaling and building culture
✔️ Fundraising and investor alignment

I don't offer a generic playbook. I bring perspective, presence, and pattern recognition that comes from having lived it myself.

In addition to one-on-one work, I run small forums and group coaching for founders and high performers seeking a space to be real with others on a similar path. Each group is carefully curated through a simple application and short conversation, because the quality of the room matters. The goal is to create a circle where people can speak honestly, listen deeply, keep things confidential, and leave feeling more grounded, clearer, and less alone.

Clarity is a founder's greatest asset, and meaningful success is about who you become along the way.

Itay Forer

AI changed the rules for organic traffic in 2026.



A few years ago, Alex Prober and I were running a handful of SEO sites on the side.

We liked the game. Find a topic, publish consistently, watch traffic climb.
What we did not like was the friction between ״this keyword is worth writing״ and ״the post is live.״ SERP research, pulling the right angles, keeping structure consistent, finding visuals, publishing, scheduling, then repeating it across multiple sites.

So we built our own system.

At first, it was a private tool. A set of flows that turned a keyword into a publish-ready article with a repeatable process and a steady quality bar.
Then other companies and operators asked to use it. They had bigger portfolios, higher standards, and zero patience for generic output. Their feedback shaped the product.

Today, this little side project is running at a scale that still surprises me. Across customers, we generate tens of thousands of articles every month. Some are big companies, some are small teams, and a lot are agencies that live and die by organic growth. The common thread is simple: they want consistent publishing without turning content into a full-time job.

And the timing is perfect, because the way people search is changing in real time.

Google still matters. A growing percentage also ask inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, and Gemini. When the page is clear and specific, those tools grab parts of it and cite it. When it is vague, it gets ignored.

We rebuilt Content Zen around that reality. SEO plus LLM visibility, in one workflow.

The newest piece we shipped is the one I am most proud of, and it is pure Alex.
He built the ability to launch a full blog on your subdomain, like blog.yourdomain.com, hosted by us and styled to match your brand. Your main site stays untouched, and the blog publishes on schedule like a real asset under your domain.

We are already running this setup for a few brands, and the early results are strong enough that we are opening it up to more companies now.

If you are serious about organic growth in 2026 and want a system that is already working at scale, DM me "BLOG," and I will send you a demo link. 

Feel free to tag a friend who needs it :)

taplio

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taplio

The Battle

Eric Dickmann

Itay Forer

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Eric Dickmann's LinkedIn Performance

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