Author
Nick Irmo.
Nick Irmo started Irmo Marketing in 2008 and has run marketing in-house ever since, usually as the first or most senior marketer in the building. He has led teams of up to ten, owned budgets past $5M, and built the plumbing that connects spend to pipeline: CRM, attribution, dashboards and the handoff to sales.
Founder, Clicking Awesome
Writes about
Credentials
- Founded Irmo Marketing in 2008 and Clicking Awesome in 2017
- Marketing Director, Gordon Law Group & Gordon Tax (2026–present)
- Former VP of Channel Marketing, Guaranteed Rate; Head of Marketing, Alpha Mortgage
- Google Street View trusted photographer, Google 360 program
- National conference speaker, Cartridge World franchise system
- Co-author of seven books on Amazon KDP
Selected results
- $40M in qualified mortgage opportunities in 30 days from a social and video lead system (Alpha Mortgage)
- 110,000+ real estate agent partners supported through one channel program (Guaranteed Rate)
- 700+ page Next.js site at 98/100 PageSpeed, up from 34 (Amplify HR)
- Two law-firm websites rebuilt in 12 weeks with a 235-term glossary (Gordon Law Group)
Articles by Nick.
HubSpot vs Salesforce for a 20-Person Company: A Build-Out Lead's Honest Comparison
HubSpot vs Salesforce for a 20-person company: 2026 license costs, build-out effort, who should pick which, and what to decide before you sign.
Loan Officer Marketing in a 6–7% Rate Market: The 5 Channels Still Producing
Loan officer marketing at 6–7%+ rates: the five channels still producing purchase business, what each costs, and the follow-up system that makes them pay.
LLM Optimization Explained: Why Ranking #1 No Longer Guarantees ChatGPT Mentions You
LLM optimization for local businesses: why Google rankings don't carry into ChatGPT and AI Overviews, what does, and the fixes that get you recommended.
Fractional CMO Cost in 2026: What You Pay, What You Get, When It Beats a Hire
Fractional CMO cost in 2026: typical retainers and hourly rates, what is included, how it compares to a full-time hire, and when it is the wrong call.
How Much Should an HVAC Company Spend on Marketing in 2026? (With the $153 CPL Benchmark)
HVAC marketing budget math for 2026: 8–12% of revenue, the $153 cost-per-lead benchmark, and how to split spend between LSA, Google Ads and your site.
Choose Your Poison, I Mean, Err… Channel: Not Every Marketing Channel Is Meant for Every Business
You don't need a billboard if you sell a local service 100 miles away, or Pinterest if you sell ethernet cables. Here's how to pick the few channels that fit your business, and quit the rest without guilt.
Claude Skills for Productivity: How to Stop Repeating Yourself to AI
Claude Skills package your instructions, templates and scripts so Claude follows your process every time. What skills are, how they work, and ten marketing skills worth building.
ChatGPT Business Hub: What It Is and How to Claim Your Business
OpenAI's new Business Hub lets companies claim and manage how they appear in ChatGPT, see how often they're mentioned, and, for some US businesses, launch a Business Agent. What it does, who can use it, and what to do this week.
ROI vs ROAS: What's the Difference, and Which One Should You Use?
ROAS tells you what your ads brought in. ROI tells you whether the business made money. Here's how they differ, how to calculate each, and when each one misleads you.
What Is NAP+W? The Local SEO Basic Most Businesses Get Wrong
NAP+W stands for name, address, phone number and website. Keeping those four facts identical everywhere online is one of the simplest ways to rank in local search and get named by AI assistants.
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) in 2026: A Practical Guide for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses
AEO is the work of becoming the answer ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews give. What it is, how it differs from SEO, and the eight things to do first.
Google AI Overviews and Zero-Click Search: What Small Businesses Should Do Now
AI Overviews answer the question before anyone clicks. Here is how zero-click search changes what a small business should publish, measure and pay for.
How to Track Your Visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Answers
A simple, repeatable way to measure whether AI assistants mention, cite and recommend your business, and what to do with the results.
Schema Markup for Small Businesses: The 8 Types That Actually Matter
Structured data helps search engines and AI assistants understand who you are and what you sell. The eight schema types worth adding, and the mistakes to avoid.
GA4 Setup Checklist: 15 Things to Fix Before You Trust Your Data
Most GA4 properties are collecting the wrong data. Fifteen checks that make your analytics trustworthy enough to make decisions with.
Marketing Attribution for Small Businesses: What to Use and What to Ignore
First touch, last touch, data-driven: a plain-English guide to attribution for businesses that need to know which marketing pays, without an enterprise budget.
How to Build a One-Page Marketing Dashboard in Looker Studio
One page, ten numbers, reviewed weekly. How to design a Looker Studio marketing dashboard an owner will actually read.
Speed to Lead: Why the First Five Minutes Decide Who Wins the Job
Most leads call more than one company. The one that answers first usually wins. How to measure your response time and build a system that never lets a lead wait.
Lead Scoring for a Small Sales Team: A Simple Model That Works
Lead scoring does not need machine learning. A points model built on fit and intent, agreed with sales, that tells reps who to call first.
The 10 HubSpot Setup Mistakes We Fix Most Often
HubSpot is powerful and easy to set up badly. Ten mistakes that quietly break reporting, routing and follow-up, and how to fix each one.
The Marketing-Sales SLA: Definitions, Handoffs and the Weekly Pipeline Review
Sales ignores the leads, marketing blames sales. A service-level agreement fixes it with shared definitions, response times and one weekly meeting.
CRM Migration Checklist: Moving to HubSpot or Salesforce Without Losing Data
A CRM migration is a data project, not a software install. The checklist we use to move contacts, deals and history without breaking reporting.
Google Business Profile Optimization: The 2026 Checklist
Your Google Business Profile often decides who gets the call before anyone sees your website. A complete checklist for categories, services, photos, posts and reviews.
Local SEO for Service-Area Businesses Without a Storefront
Plumbers, cleaners, consultants and mobile services can rank locally without a public address. How service areas, location pages and reviews work together.
How to Get More Google Reviews Without Breaking Google’s Rules
Reviews drive local rankings and conversions. A simple, compliant system for asking every customer, responding to every review and handling the bad ones.
Local Services Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Should a Contractor Run First?
Local Services Ads charge per lead and sit above everything else. Google Ads charge per click and give you control. How to choose, and when to run both.
How Much Should a Small Business Spend on Google Ads?
Start from what a customer is worth and what a lead costs, not a round number. A simple way to set, test and scale a Google Ads budget.
The Landing Page Checklist: 12 Things That Raise Conversion Rates
A landing page has one job. Twelve checks for the message, proof, form and speed that turn paid clicks into leads.
Redesigning Your Website Without Losing SEO: A Migration Checklist
Redesigns are where rankings go to die. The checklist that protects traffic, leads and AI visibility through a new site launch.
Topical Authority: How to Plan Content Clusters That Rank and Get Cited
Search engines and AI assistants trust sites that cover a topic completely. How to map a pillar page and its cluster, and publish in an order that compounds.
Why a Glossary Is One of the Best Pages for AI Search
Answer engines love clear definitions. How a well-built glossary earns citations, supports every other page and keeps your team using the same words.
7 AI Marketing Workflows a Small Team Can Set Up This Month
Practical, low-risk AI workflows for content, reporting, research and follow-up, with a human in the loop on everything that ships.
AI Content Guardrails: A Policy Marketing Teams Can Actually Follow
A one-page AI policy for marketing: approved tools, data rules, review steps, disclosure and the claims AI must never make.
AI Agents in Marketing: What to Hand Them Today, and What to Keep
AI agents can now take actions, not just write. Where they help a marketing team right now, where they still need a person, and how to start safely.
LinkedIn Ads for B2B: When They’re Worth It and How to Start
LinkedIn clicks cost more than anywhere else, and for the right offer they are still a bargain. When LinkedIn Ads make sense and a starter plan.
Meta Conversions API: Why Your Facebook and Instagram Ads Need Server-Side Tracking
Browser tracking misses conversions. The Conversions API sends them from your server or CRM so Meta can optimize. What it is and how to set it up.
The B2B Marketing Funnel for a Company Under 50 People
Small B2B teams do not need an enterprise funnel. A lean version: the few assets, channels and handoffs that turn strangers into pipeline.
How Much Should a Business Spend on Marketing? A Budget by Stage
Percent-of-revenue rules are a starting point, not an answer. How to set a marketing budget from your growth goal, margins and what a customer is worth.
Franchise Local Marketing: Giving Every Location a Fighting Chance in Search
National brand, local customers. How franchisors give every location strong local search, reviews and ads without losing brand control.
Mortgage Marketing Compliance: Building Templates Loan Officers Can’t Break
Loan officers want to market themselves. Compliance wants control. Templates, approvals and disclosures that let both happen. Not legal advice.
Call Tracking for Home Services: Know Which Ads Actually Book Jobs
Most home services leads call. Without call tracking you are guessing which marketing works. How tracking numbers, recordings and CRM sync fix that.
Google 360 Virtual Tours: Are They Worth It for Your Business?
A 360 tour lets customers walk through your showroom, resort or store from Google Maps. When it is worth doing and how to get it right.
Email Deliverability for Marketers: SPF, DKIM and DMARC Without the Jargon
Major inbox providers now require authenticated email from bulk senders. What SPF, DKIM and DMARC do, and the checklist to keep your emails out of spam.
What a Barrington Marketing Agency Actually Does for a $3M Home-Services Company
What a Barrington, IL marketing agency should do for a $3M HVAC, plumbing or roofing company each month, in plain terms, with the numbers that matter.
Do you know your business? The right marketing channel for ten kinds of company
A restaurant, a PEO and a Shopify store should not be marketing the same way. Which channels fit which business model, industry by industry.
AI in marketing: the best tools for copywriting, design and social media
A 2024 field guide to the AI tools that earned a place in a working marketer’s stack, by task: copy, design, social and planning.
Why your brand’s feel-good story could double your engagement, and how to craft it
Why emotional stories outperform promotion, five big-brand examples, and a practical playbook for small and local businesses with no budget.
Internal efficiency and streamlined workflow drive customer service and sales growth
What a fast-growing mortgage lender changed inside marketing, sales, operations and HR during a growth cycle, and why customers felt it.
How to turn an in-house marketing team from loan officer support into a scalable brand function
Marketing teams that start by "supporting" sales end up run by sales. Treat loan officers like franchisees, and the brand gets its team back.
Before you spend another dime on digital marketing, read this
Stop renting the land you build your house on. Fix the website, tell the story, then buy media, in that order.
5 tips to start selling anything (or: how the best salesperson never sells)
Computers, telecom, cars, marketing. The five habits that separated selling from order-taking across every one of them.
Franchising in the digital age: sell and support your system with tools and content
A franchisor runs two businesses: selling franchises and supporting franchisees. A long-form guide to the marketing foundation, team and programs that serve both.
Business owner: don’t waste your time with social media (until this is in place)
Social media works when the foundation under it works. The website, content and analytics questions to answer before the first post.
What colleagues say about Nick.
Nick understands how marketing and revenue teams need to work together, and he builds systems that actually make that alignment happen.
Chris KowalskiDirector of Business Development, Amplify HRLinkedIn recommendationNick played an important role in strengthening our brand and digital presence. He worked closely with external partners to help re-brand and successfully re-launch our corporate website, and developed a variety of branded sales materials, including ebooks and professionally designed print.
DJ Echols, CPACFO, Amplify HR (managed Nick directly)LinkedIn recommendationNick is one of the most passionate and professional people you will ever have the pleasure of working with. His super power is that he empathizes with the demographic that you're marketing to. If you're having trouble finding your "voice," Nick will coach you and get you there.
Jason C. ScottDirector, VA Lending, CrossCountry MortgageLinkedIn recommendationWork withNick.
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