CreativeMktGroup Featured in Voyage Virginia: 10 Years of Growth, Resilience + Reinvention

This year marks 10 years of CreativeMktGroup — a milestone that has given us plenty of reasons to reflect on where we started, how much has changed, and where we’re headed next.

We were recently honored to have our founder, Natalie McNamara, featured by Voyage Virginia, sharing the story behind CreativeMktGroup and some of the lessons learned along the way.

CreativeMktGroup began in January 2016 with a simple idea: small businesses deserved access to high-quality marketing support without necessarily needing the budget or resources of a large company. What started as a small marketing business grew organically into a team serving businesses, nonprofits, professional associations, and organizations throughout Virginia. And, like most entrepreneurial stories, ours hasn't followed a perfectly straight line.

Growing, Adapting + Starting Again

During our first four years, CreativeMktGroup experienced steady growth, eventually building a team of 15 full-time employees. Then COVID changed nearly everything. Many of the small businesses and organizations we served suddenly faced difficult financial decisions of their own. Marketing budgets disappeared, clients were lost, and we eventually made the incredibly difficult decision to downsize. But that chapter also forced us to ask important questions about who we were, where we created the most value, and what CreativeMktGroup should become next. The result has been a more focused, experienced, and intentionally built company.

More Than Marketing

Today, CreativeMktGroup has evolved beyond a traditional marketing agency. We provide marketing, communications, association management, strategic consulting, event support, and fractional expertise to organizations that need experienced leadership and execution without necessarily building a large internal team. Our philosophy remains remarkably similar to the one we started with 10 years ago:

Become an extension of the client's team. We believe the best work happens when we understand not only what an organization wants to market, but what it is trying to accomplish. That means understanding its people. Its customers or members. Its operations. Its challenges. Its opportunities. And ultimately, its goals.

What's Next?

Technology — and particularly artificial intelligence — is changing our industry at an extraordinary pace. We welcome it. But we also believe something else is becoming increasingly valuable: human connection. Technology can help organizations move faster and operate more efficiently. It cannot replace good judgment, meaningful relationships, creative thinking, leadership, or an authentic understanding of the people you're trying to reach. We believe the organizations that thrive over the next decade will be the ones that learn how to combine the two. That's also where we see CreativeMktGroup continuing to evolve — helping small businesses, associations, nonprofits, and growing organizations navigate change while staying connected to the people they serve. Ten years later, we're still learning. Still evolving. Still finding better ways to support our clients. And we're incredibly excited about what's next.

Read Natalie's full interview with Voyage Virginia to learn more about the CreativeMktGroup story, the challenges that shaped our company, and where we believe marketing + business are headed next.