Brand · Growth · Creative Strategist · Founder, RYI5™

PAUL
BURKHART

Fractional CMO and Strategic Marketing Advisor. I diagnose what's actually wrong with your marketing before I prescribe a fix. 27 years of brand, growth, and creative leadership, structured by RYI5™, a five-driver marketing diagnostic that turns "we need a new website" into "here's what's really broken and how to treat it."

Remote Fractional + Advisory 27 Years Brand + Creative + Strategy
78 RYI Composite Dx · 47
RYI5™
Diagnosis Before Treatment
Location
Greenwood, IN · Remote
Phone
(317) 250-7129
Email
paul@pburkhart.com
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/burkhartpaul

The Strategist

I spent 27 years building and running one of Indianapolis's top 10 marketing agencies, leading brand, growth, and creative work for Fortune 500 brands, regional builders, multi-location operators, healthcare systems, and mission-driven institutions. We installed brand platforms, ran integrated campaigns, designed retention systems, and delivered the creative that made all of it stick. More than 120 client engagements. Real revenue impact. Real exits.

In July 2024 I formally dissolved the agency to focus on a methodology I had been refining throughout those engagements: RYI5™ Revenue Yield Index. RYI5 is not a new consulting practice. It is the structured workup I had been doing intuitively for decades, made measurable. The same Marketing Strategist who built #ROADNATION for Speedco, "Why My Fave" for McAlister's, and the Final Four Flash Pass for the NCAA. Just with a diagnostic discipline in front of the creative work.

Today I am a fractional CMO and strategic marketing advisor for organizations that want their marketing to actually solve a problem, not paper over one. Brand, growth, creative, demand generation, retention systems, content, and the strategy that ties it all together. I deliver marketing. RYI5 makes sure I deliver the right marketing.

How I Actually Work

Operators come to me with the pain. I take the history. I listen to the symptoms. I investigate, research, and run the workup before I write a treatment plan. Most clients arrive with a self-diagnosis. "We need a new website. We need to rebrand. We need more leads. We need TikTok." It's the same instinct that sends a patient to the doctor saying "I need antibiotics." Sometimes the answer really is antibiotics. But a good doctor doesn't hand them out without knowing what is wrong. Most agencies do. They fill the order. I run the workup first.

I run the workup first. The conversation that starts with "Why do you think you need a new website?" usually ends in a different place than where it began. Sometimes the website is fine and the brand position is wrong. Sometimes the brand is fine and your retention system is bleeding lifetime value. Sometimes everything is fine and you're priced as a commodity when you should be a category authority. The symptom the client names is almost never the disease they have.

What Most Agencies Hear
"We need more leads."
They quote a lead-gen program. They run paid ads. They send leads. Three months later, the close rate is the same, the lifetime value is the same, the underlying problem is still there, and someone else gets fired.
What I Ask Instead
"Where are your current leads coming from, and what happens to them after they arrive?"
Then five more questions. RYI5 is the structured workup that turns symptoms into diagnosis, diagnosis into prescription, and prescription into the marketing work that actually moves the right driver.

Some clients walk in knowing exactly what they want: a website refresh, a new logo, a campaign. There is a place for that. It is immediate care, the over-the-counter work that does not need a full workup. It just is not what this practice is for. The clients I take on here want diagnosis, treatment, and a maintenance plan, the way you'd want a real doctor to handle a recurring condition. Not unnecessary lab work, not bills padded with tests you didn't need. A proper workup, an honest plan, and the ongoing care that keeps the symptom from coming back. In marketing terms, that looks like a retainer relationship: an embedded fractional CMO who installs the system, runs it, and adjusts the treatment as the business evolves.

What RYI5 Is and Is Not
RYI5 is a marketing diagnostic. It uses business-financial vocabulary (yield, margin, utilization, stability, position) because that is how operators measure their world. Every prescription it produces is brand, demand, lifecycle, content, creative, or marketing-systems work. RYI5 is not financial consulting, not CFO advisory, not capital restructuring. It tells you what is wrong in marketing and what marketing intervention will fix it.
View KPIs for:

Revenue Yield Index · 5 Drivers

I analyze the findings, determine the condition, and identify the underlying cause. RYI5™ measures five drivers of marketing-led revenue health. Each scores zero to one hundred. The weighted aggregate produces the RYI Composite Score. Before-and-after comparison shows whether the marketing treatment actually moved the needle in total, not just the individual KPIs. Two financial-core drivers govern earning power. Three stability-and-position drivers govern whether that earning power is durable.

Driver 01 · Financial Core
Revenue Productivity
How effectively your business converts productive capacity (labor, assets, locations) into revenue. Are you getting enough revenue out of what you already have?
Rx: Pricing strategy · Service-line repositioning · Premium brand work
KPIs · AUV · Ticket · Revenue per location · Channel efficiency
KPIs · CPM · AOV · Contribution per labor hour · EBITDA-tied attributable revenue
KPIs · Cost per dollar raised · Donor AOV · Conversion lift · Downstream program revenue
KPIs · AUV · Ticket · ROAS · Per-location productivity · System same-store sales
Driver 02 · Financial Core
Margin Structure
How effectively revenue converts to contribution profit, and how stable that conversion is across services. Where is margin leaking?
Rx: Mix reweighting campaigns · Higher-margin demand generation
KPIs · Service-line mix · Gross margin · Attach rate
KPIs · Mix shift % · Contribution margin · Gross margin · Take rate · Anchor account capture
KPIs · Donor retention rate · Recurring giving conversion · Major-gift pipeline · Sponsorship mix
KPIs · Mix reweighting % · Attach rate · Contribution per service line · Royalty-fund efficiency
Driver 03 · Financial Core
Capacity Utilization
How fully your business is using its existing productive capacity. Where is idle capacity sitting that revenue could fill?
Rx: Daypart activation · Off-peak demand campaigns · Multi-location density
KPIs · Daypart capture · Asset utilization · Schedule fill
KPIs · Daypart capture · Asset utilization rate · Location density at AUV protection
KPIs · Program enrollment lift · Affiliate growth · Volunteer hours · Facility utilization
KPIs · Off-peak transaction lift · Weekday traffic lift · Schedule fill · ROAS
Driver 04 · Stability & Position
Demand Stability
Predictability and continuity of forward-booked revenue relative to required capacity. How much of next quarter is already on the books?
Rx: Lifecycle marketing · Loyalty systems · CRM and retention work
KPIs · Customer LTV · Repeat-visit frequency · Forward-booked pipeline
KPIs · LTV:CAC · NRR · Retention curve · Recurring revenue % · Forward-booked pipeline
KPIs · Recurring donor retention · Lifetime giving · Repeat-engagement lift · Lifecycle conversion
KPIs · Customer LTV · Repeat-visit frequency · Referral rate · Signup lift
Driver 05 · Stability & Position
Market Position
Your comparative authority in the competitive environment. Are you priced as a commodity or as a category leader?
Rx: Brand strategy · Creative platform · Category authority content
KPIs · Unaided awareness · Lead lift · Brand authority score
KPIs · Aided + unaided awareness · RYI Composite Score · Competitive Frame Index · Exit-readiness score
KPIs · Mission visibility · Brand trust · Supporter NPS · Downstream service-line revenue
KPIs · Unaided awareness · Lead lift · Sales spike · Brand authority score
RYI Composite Score
0 to 100
Weighted aggregate across all five drivers. Tracked at engagement start and engagement close. The movement is the work product.
Example: Speedco 47 (2013) → 78 (2017) = +31 = the asset Love's paid for.

Left Brain + Right Brain

Once the diagnosis is locked, I build the plan and the patient education. Course of action across the five drivers, sequenced for highest leverage. The plan is co-designed with the client so the operator understands what is being treated, why, and in what order. Most strategists analyze. Most creatives create. I do both, in the same head, on the same project, every time. The discipline of structured diagnosis feeds the brand and creative output, so the strategy becomes an actual brand platform, an actual campaign, an actual customer experience. Not a slide deck handed off to someone else to execute. The integration is the differentiator.

Left Brain · The Diagnosis
Structured Thinking
  • RYI5™ five-driver marketing diagnostic
  • Composite Score modeling and before/after measurement
  • Conservative attribution and benchmark discipline
  • Executive KPI design and board-cadence reporting
  • Operating-partner literacy: AUV, CAC, LTV, EBITDA
  • Multi-location and franchise system architecture
Right Brain · The Prescription
Brand Storytelling
  • Brand platform development and identity systems
  • Creative direction across campaigns, content, video, design
  • Integrated multi-channel campaign development
  • Customer experience and journey design
  • Cause marketing and mission-driven storytelling
  • The art-school sensibility that makes the strategy stick (BFA, IU Herron)
The integration is the work product · The deck is the byproduct

The Prescriptions · Tactical Executions

RYI5 names the problem. These are the marketing treatments I plan, deliver, and execute. Same craft I have practiced for 27 years, sequenced by which driver the diagnosis identifies as the highest-leverage move. Treatment does not end at launch. Every engagement includes monitor, follow-up, and adjust: website maintenance plans, ongoing Google Business Profile and reputation management, lifecycle and retention cadence, dashboards, and quarterly re-scoring against the original Composite Score to confirm the prescription is still working.

For operators: These treatments deliver against AUV, ticket size, ROAS, per-location productivity, customer LTV, and unaided brand awareness.
For PE-backed platforms: These treatments deliver against CPM efficiency, contribution margin lift, LTV:CAC improvement, NRR, RYI Composite Score movement, and EBITDA-tied accountability against 100-day value creation plans.
For nonprofits and mission organizations: These treatments deliver against cost per dollar raised, donor LTV, recurring giving conversion, supporter NPS, mission visibility, and downstream service-line revenue (RVU-attributed where applicable).
For franchisors and multi-brand operators: These treatments deliver against AUV, system same-store sales, ROAS, royalty-fund efficiency, co-op-deployment effectiveness, attach rate, and franchise advisory council alignment.
Rx · 01
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Brand platform, value proposition, messaging architecture, identity standards, and the creative system that brings them to life across every touchpoint.
When Market Position is weak
Rx · 02
Demand & Lifecycle Marketing
Lead generation systems, CRM-integrated email, lifecycle and retention programs, loyalty mechanics, and the funnel infrastructure that converts attention into recurring revenue.
When Demand Stability is weak
Rx · 03
Creative Direction
Campaigns, content systems, experiential activations, video, design, copy, and the integrated creative work that turns strategy into something the market actually feels.
When the brand needs voice
Rx · 04
Marketing Systems & Automation
CMS, paid media infrastructure, marketing automation, attribution and dashboards, governance for multi-location and franchise networks.
When the engine cannot scale
Rx · 05
Pricing & Mix Strategy
Service-line repositioning, premium brand work that supports pricing power, mix reweighting campaigns that move higher-margin service lines to the front.
When Margin Structure is weak
Rx · 06
Capacity Activation Campaigns
Daypart, season, and capacity-targeted demand generation that fills idle production hours, off-peak windows, and underutilized locations.
When Capacity Utilization is weak
Rx · 07
Fractional CMO Leadership
Embedded strategic and creative leadership. KPI design and board-cadence reporting. Team mentorship and creative direction. The architect inside the org chart.
When the in-house team needs the captain
Rx · 08
Customer Experience & Journey Design
Mapping every touchpoint a customer encounters, fixing breakdowns, designing the experience so it converts attention into loyalty. The work that makes Demand Stability stick at the customer level.
When the brand promise breaks at delivery
Rx · 09
Brand Identity & Visual Systems
Logo systems, brand guidelines, visual language, creative tokens, and the design discipline that gives the strategy a face. The BFA showing up. Distinct from Brand Strategy, which is the positioning thinking.
When the strategy needs a face
Rx · 10
RYI5™ Diagnostic Assessment
Standalone executive-level diagnostic. The five-driver workup, the Composite Score, the prioritized opportunity model. For boards, operating partners, and CEOs who want clarity before they commit to the next marketing investment.
When you need the diagnosis alone

Selected brands · 27 years of work

The Instruments

Marketing is built on tools. These are the platforms I use to install, run, and measure the treatment plan. The list grows with the engagement, but this is the standing kit a fractional CMO walks in with.

Creative & UX Design
Adobe Creative Suite · Figma · Sketch · Adobe XD · Canva Pro
Web, SEO & CMS
WordPress · Google Search Console · Google Tag Manager · SEMrush · Ahrefs · Moz
Analytics & Data Visualization
Google Analytics 4 · Tableau
CRM, Automation & Email
Mailchimp · Constant Contact · Drip · HubSpot · ActiveCampaign
Advertising & Paid Media
Google Ads · Meta Ads Manager · LinkedIn Campaign Manager · Propellant · Display & Video 360 · Simpli.fi · Nielsen · Arbitron
Social & Content Management
Hootsuite · Sprout Social · Buffer · Later · SOCi · Brandwatch
PR & Reputation Management
Cision · Muck Rack · Meltwater
CX, Engagement & Surveys
Qualtrics · SurveyMonkey · Woobox
Fundraising & Events
Eventbrite · Cvent · GiveSmart · DonorPerfect · RallyUp
Collaboration & Workflow
Microsoft Teams · Slack · Basecamp

Portfolio & Case Studies

Live and in-development case studies. Each shows the same arc: diagnosis → marketing prescription → outcome. The format reference is the Speedco / Bridgestone Americas case study, live below. The others are in build using the same template.

★ Live Case Study
Speedco #ROADNATION & The Productivity Rebuild
DxCommodity brand, broken retention
RxProductivity platform, loyalty rebuild, B2B fleet stack
OutAcquired by Love's Travel Stops · Nov 2017 · RYI 47 → 78
Market Position Demand Stability
In Development
Bridgestone Fleet Advantage B2B SaaS Launch
DxMid-mix segment underdeveloped, sales tools dated
RxB2B SaaS sales-enablement tool plus go-to-market
Out$18M year one · 55% adoption · 40% close-rate lift
Margin Structure Demand Stability
In Development
McAlister's Why My Fave UGC Campaign
DxEngagement flat, talent fees ballooning
RxCustomer testimonial program with social voting mechanic
Out$7.9M chainwide · regional pilot to national rollout
Demand Stability Market Position
In Development
NCAA Final Four Flash Pass
DxPremium ticket inventory undermonetized
RxMobile-only drop with dynamic-yield mechanics
Out$16.5M · 52% sales spike · sub-30-second checkout
Market Position Revenue Productivity
In Development
University of Indianapolis 14-Year Enrollment System
DxRecruitment funnel leaking, brand authority thin
RxIntegrated recruitment marketing plus alumni reactivation
Out$268M tuition · 14 years · doubled enrollment
Demand Stability Market Position
In Development
Alzheimer's Association Purple Power Hour
DxDonor conversion friction in digital match windows
RxText-to-give plus rapid-response email plus paid social
Out$11.4M raised · 39% conversion lift
Demand Stability Market Position

Giving Back

Twenty-seven years of operating practice, eighteen years of board service and volunteer roles across central Indiana. The mission sector and the operator sector are the same audience, just measured differently. The board work shapes how I think about brand authority, donor lifecycle, and the long arc of supporter value.

Board Membership
  • ALS Association · Indiana Chapter
  • Alzheimer’s Association · Indiana Chapter
  • American Cancer Society · Indiana
  • American Diabetes Association · Indiana
  • American Heart Association · Indiana
  • Boys & Girls Club · Indianapolis
  • Susan G. Komen · Indiana Chapter
  • Family Services of Central Indiana
  • Brackett’s Impact Foundation
  • Fountain Square Restoration
Volunteerism
  • American Red Cross
  • Catholic Charities USA
  • Gleaners Food Bank
  • Indiana Suicide Prevention
  • Keep Indianapolis Beautiful
  • Parkinson’s Foundation
  • Rock Steady Boxing for PD

Hire Me · Refer Me · Talk Shop

Available for fractional CMO engagements and project-based strategic advisory with PE-backed, founder-led, and multi-location operators across home services, senior housing, franchise food, and transportation logistics. Also available for standalone RYI5™ diagnostic assessments. Remote only. References from operating and board-level contacts at Rolls-Royce, IBM Services, Eco Parking Technologies, PACE Air Freight, NCAA, and Indianapolis International Airport available on request.

Direct
Direct email goes straight to me. Phone is best for senior conversations.
Professional
ryi5.com · methodology home
LinkedIn is current. ryi5.com is the methodology marketing asset, in development.