If there’s one word that gets the most lip service but the least follow-through, it’s strategy.
Every business owner knows it’s critical to growing intentionally rather than opportunistically. But forming an effective strategy is an enormous task. Founders of small-to-medium-sized businesses are pressed with the demands of the moment, and examining strategy can feel like an exercise in futility.
It’s much easier to pick tactical executions and hope something works.
Let’s try a new series of eblasts.
How about putting out some direct mailers?
What if we tried TikTok?
Maybe it’s time to up our pay-per-click (PPC) advertising.
There’s nothing wrong with exploring new channels, but if there’s no clear strategy guiding everything, the marketing dollars you allocate to them will circle the drain.
Keeping your current marketing, advertising, and branding efforts as they are is comfortable and predictable. But it won’t move the needle. So if you’re a business owner, this is where it takes courage to ask for help. Generating warm leads, acquiring new customers, and upping your existing customers’ lifetime value is not a part-time job.
That’s why partnering with The Commercial Store can take you from settling for tactical executions to scaling with strategy.
The Strategy Behind Fractional Marketing
Fractional Marketing is a model where businesses access senior-level talent without the expense of full-time team members. It’s one thing to work 1:1 with these experts. It’s another to know what services you need, whom to choose, and how to make sure their efforts deliver results.
And while fractional marketing has shot up in popularity in the 2020s, its emergence has presented a hiring gap. There’s no shortage of talented marketing professionals, but it’s difficult for founders and business owners to sift through the options and choose the right ones.
Terry Brennan, founder of The Commercial Store, addresses this gap by connecting marketing professionals with local businesses. An innovator in the industry, Terry is a fractional marketing vendor broker, one of the first ever in the Pittsburgh area and across the nation.
He has built relationships with leading marketing professionals—graphic designers, video editors, web designers—so that businesses can choose from a ready-made network of proven talent. Fractional marketing allows companies to form a go-to-market strategy and implement it at lightning speed without the expense of full-time employees.
With the problem of procuring talent solved, we’ll shift to the strategic implications of choosing The Commercial Store for fractional marketing services.
The Many Merits of BrandCurrent
Terry is not only a fractional marketing vendor broker but also a lead strategist for his clients. He can operate as a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), creating a cohesive plan to address problems, capitalize on opportunities, and unite the efforts of the fractional marketing experts you work with.
Terry is the creator of BrandCurrent, a proprietary model he developed to help businesses achieve maximum growth in just three to six months. To start, he’ll perform a brand and marketing analysis that provides clarity about where you are, where you can go, and the best route to get there.
Strategy formation is the most essential aspect of BrandCurrent, because Terry takes the time to get the full picture of your business operations and tailor a plan around it. Many ad agencies promise best-in-class strategy, but promises and results are often miles apart. Ultimately, your strategy is only as good as the people you surround yourself with.
Terry has decades of experience in a broad range of specialties, giving him a holistic perspective that you just don’t find at your run-of-the-mill creative shops.
- Sales: He understands the value of a closer, because he was one himself.
- Marketing: As a leader of marketing teams, he knows that brand awareness and nurturing leads are bolstered by targeted marketing efforts.
- Business Development: Without the right partnerships and growth opportunities, your business will remain stagnant. Terry has led business development initiatives at several Pittsburgh companies.
- Media Buying: Terry has many years of experience negotiating for TV, radio, out of home, and more to get the best rates for his clients.
With The Commercial Store, strategy isn’t a theoretical exercise. Check out our case studies for Pittsburgh businesses who have seen powerful growth after working with us.
Book Your Free 2026 Marketing Snapshot
While Q4 2025 is winding down, there’s still time to lay the groundwork for a successful 2026. Schedule a call with Terry and in just 15 minutes, he’ll develop action steps your business can take to attract more customers, increase profits, and scale faster.