About: Tanner Rankin CEO, Fractional CMO, Consultant, Author, Speaker
Tanner Rankin is a top-rated eCommerce Fractional CMO, eCommerce Consultant, and Amazon Consultant.
Tanner is the AI Brand Architect, who installs Brand Source OS, the Marketing Operating System, that drives rapid, predictable, and profitable growth by aligning AI, agencies, freelancers, and internal teams with a single source of truth.
Tanner builds a coherent, predictable growth engine you actually own for brands drowning in Agency & Freelancer Chaos OR frustrated by Inexperienced In-House Teams and AI hallucinations.
Tanner brings 10+ years of operator experience as the CEO of The Source Approach (eCommerce Consultancy) and Referazon (Amazon Influencer Search & CRM).
Seen on: Forbes, Entrepreneur, The Business Journals, Tanner is an Author, Amazon Keynote Speaker, and eCommerce Speaker, and has authored SEO For Everyone and Social Media Marketing For Everyone.
What’s the
Source Approach?
The Source Approach installs your Marketing Operating System (MOS) that teaches your internal & external teams and trains your AI from a single source of truth (SSOT). Then, I am the operator of your OS with your teams & AI to accelerate profitable growth at scale.
Over a decade ago, as a new CMO for a growing brand, I saw a frustrating pattern: we were churning through talented agencies and freelancers. The results weren’t there, and the churn was expensive.
The real problem became clear after hearing our CEO say something I’ll never forget: “Everyone we work with positions our brand differently. Every channel we’re on looks and feels different; none of it is how I would say it or show it.”
He was right. The problem wasn’t the talent we worked with; it was the channel chaos. We had different agencies and freelancers for Amazon, WooCommerce, PPC, Social Media, SEO, Email, and more, and they all went about their channel, their way.
So, I developed the first ‘Source Codes’—a single source of truth (SSOT) to bottle the essential founder-level knowledge about our brand, products, customers, and competitors. For years, this method, The Source Approach, aligned human teams for incredible results.
Then came the rise of AI, and I had a second lightbulb moment. That same ‘Source Code’ was the perfect way to give a brand’s AI its single source of truth. No more hallucinations.
This led to the creation of the ‘Brand Source OS’—the brand intelligence operating system I use today to teach your teams, train your AI, and achieve category-dominating results.
Who Should Take The Source Approach?
You Rent Growth With Agency & Freelancer Chaos.
You feel trapped by high retainers and vague reports. Worse, you are terrified to fire them because the strategy lives in their heads, not your business. If they leave, your momentum vanishes. You need to stop renting results and start owning the Source Code.
Your In-House Team Is Guessing With Your Budget
Your team is well-intentioned but lacks the 10,000-hour expertise to navigate platform volatility. You are stuck micromanaging to get results and are tired of paying for their education through wasted budget. You need a Strategic Partner to upgrade their output immediately.
Your Internal or External Team Must Succeed.
You’re all-in on your current team—whether they are internal employees or external, like agencies and freelancers, or likely a mix of both. But their efforts are still falling short, costing you growth, and you can’t afford to keep guessing. You need to unlock their potential.
You’re Expanding To a New Channel “Blind.”
You’re expanding into Amazon or DTC, which is unfamiliar to you and your team. You can’t afford to “learn” by paying for it with your budget and lost growth; you need to install a coherent operating system to stop the guesswork and to win, fast.
Your Growth Has Hit a Hard Plateau.
The strategies that got you here won’t get your brand to the next level where you want to go. You’re missing the high-level expertise to navigate the complexity of scaling profitably, and need experienced leadership to guide your team to break through to predictable, profitable growth.
You’re Wearing Too Many Hats.
You’re the owner & operator stuck in the marketing weeds instead of leading the company. You want to empower your team, but can’t delegate without a leader to install a system & coach them to success. You’re not just looking for a strategic partner; you’re looking to buy back your time.
