Unlocking the Power of Fractional CMO

You've made it through your venture’s early stages, and your business is growing. As your company is going through this rapid development, you know the importance of accelerating your growth to meet your investor’s expectations. It's important to prioritize and identify the most important strategies by developing a strong brand, building relationships with customers, commercializing new services and investing in the right marketing channels — the list could go on indefinitely.

There's so much to do in so little time, and truly valuable resources can be hard to come by. Your other departments may be running like well-oiled machines, but now you find that you don't have the expertise or bandwidth to develop the right marketing strategy or launch new marketing campaigns and engagement tactics. Like many companies, you're faced with the decision of which route to go with your marketing executives and strategy.

Meet Justin

As a CEO of a recently established tech company, Justin realized his business wasn't ready for the addition of a full-time CMO and marketing team, but they did have the funding for a meaningful marketing effort. He realized the importance of making a breakthrough in his own marketing efforts sooner rather than later in the process.

He could go for a team of marketing executives, or even a single full-time CMO, but both of those options seemed like overkill. A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, or Fractional CMO, gave him the best of both worlds, allowing his company to benefit from the knowledge and expertise of a full-fledged CMO without prematurely investing in a full-time position. Fractional roles can fill a void in many businesses, regardless of the position.

What is a Fractional CMO?

A Fractional CMO is ideal for companies with experienced executives that need an additional marketing leader on a part-time or project basis. A Fractional CMO is likely working for multiple companies at any given time, which gives them a unique perspective into marketing best practices and innovation across industries. A Fractional CMO’s responsibilities cover all the necessary basics that a full-time CMO would. Fractional CMOs work as integrated members of the executive team and their scope of work spans across many marketing disciplines and areas of a client’s business:

• Comprehensive marketing strategy

• Brand positioning, messaging & management

• Customer acquisition & experience

• Digital and offline channels

• Content & digital marketing

• Organizational assessments

• Data analytics

• Streamlining processes

• Martech systems, automation & stacks

Marketing is a diverse and sometimes opaque collection of problems in need of solving. No marketing department is going to be identical to another, and Fractional CMO services will ensure you get an expertly created roadmap and marketing strategy that’s the right-size for your organization’s current stage.

Marketing: DIY, or hire a pro?

Like each new service required in your organization's growth from day one, you could invest in all the necessary tools to do it yourself from scratch, or you can find a highly-credentialed marketing consultant who brings the knowledge, tools and resources to help your company emerge as a market leader sooner rather than later. 

For Justin, hiring a Fractional CMO gave him access to high-level guidance without the expense of engaging an executive search firm. He saved the time he would’ve had to undertake with a multi-month interview process to find the right candidate, and the cost of finally hiring a full-time FTE with a C-level executive-level compensation plan, including benefits, bonuses and equity, and a multi-year employee agreement. By hiring a Fractional CMO, Justin was able to access the same quality of leadership, experience, and guidance without the ramp-up and onboarding time so that he could accelerate the attainment of his growth targets.

Why do I need a Fractional CMO?

Bringing a business of any sort through the rapid-fire changes in the world over the past few years has been trying for even the best executives. Many companies are adopting non-traditional methods to survive the sweeping changes in both B2C and B2B markets, which can present ambiguity and a lack of clarity as to what the right go-to-market strategy may be. Many businesses are trying to find the right path as market dynamics shift in unexpected ways, with new entrants, products, and competitors moving rapidly to grab market share.

In this case, are you willing to give your current marketing executive more time or undertake a search for the right full-time chief marketing officer — who typically only lasts an average of 23 months in their job — or will you move quickly and hire a Fractional CMO to come in immediately and elevate your marketing initiatives?

A little help goes a long way

Justin didn't have any mature and experienced marketing leadership before he decided to hire a Fractional CMO, but once their new marketing plans were in place he quickly realized the return on investment that fractional leadership on his executive team was making. Rather than hiring a CMO internally and taking months to onboard them, then waiting while they build their own team and begin to execute, they opted for Fractional CMO services to boost their marketing.

Their outside Fractional CMO was able to bring in all their experience from a variety of other industries and add tremendous value. In a business environment it's all about leveraging your connections, and Justin was fortunate to have access to a team of fractional marketing specialists and partners who could implement and begin the execution of the new marketing strategies across channels more quickly and expertly than could ever be done by hiring a multi-disciplinary team of FTEs. 

Is a Fractional CMO worth the investment?

One of Justin's biggest concerns was whether the financial investment of hiring Fractional CMO services was worth the cost. When he began to see the impact on the trajectory and growth being generated so quickly, he recognized that his decision was the right one. 

A Fractional CMO has access to a wide range of specialists in multiple marketing channels, and Justin was able to reap the benefits of having access to an entire team of fractional marketing experts on demand – from web developers, designers, and copywriters to digital advertising gurus, CRM implementation specialists, and others – who could address his company’s marketing needs more quickly without the cost and impossibility of adding more full time employees. All of which was orchestrated and managed by his new Fractional CMO.

A Fractional CMO pays its budget back

Ultimately, Justin ended up paying a fraction (pun intended) of the cost of a full-time CMO, whose salary, benefits, and bonuses would've easily reached into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. His Fractional CMO services provided his company with all the leadership and expertise they needed without the burden of hiring internally.

His Fractional CMO came ready to go with knowledge already at hand so his company was able to implement initiatives almost immediately instead of having to ramp up their marketing velocity over a matter of months, which absolutely contributed to their sales and success.

A solution for the short term, a solution for the long term

Not only was hiring a Fractional CMO a financial win during a vital growth stage of their tech company, it continued to be the best option for their needs and services long-term. As companies are faced with continually reaching ever-increasing growth targets, they may ultimately decide to bring their resources in-house; however, because of the sheer economics of hiring a large, multi-disciplinary team, this model isn’t always effective. For Justin's needs he was able to continue to outsource his marketing using the fractional model, which gave his company the ability to adapt more quickly to market dynamics, take advantage of having the right talent at the right time, and reap the ROI their new strategies and services provided.

A Fractional CMO service has the flexibility and potential to grow with your company instead of your company outgrowing them.

But I already have a CMO

American film director and writer Paul Feig described the need for having fresh mindsets in the writing room, recounting a time one of his jokes, confidently written and delivered, went over like a dad joke lead balloon among his writing team. However, the fresh perspectives of other writers at the table reworked and revitalized the bit until it was ready for a broad market (and would actually make the audience laugh).

A willingness to adapt and allow outside expertise to be a part of your operating model is the type of forward-thinking approach that separates great CEOs from those who are now former CEOs.

Meet Armon

Armon, the COO of a growing healthcare company, found that his in-house marketing team was unprepared to deal with the fallout of the life-changing COVID pandemic. Their leadership team was at a loss for how to gain new business in such a tumultuous environment with their current services and marketing strategies.

Though his team included an experienced marketing professional, the leadership team decided to consult with a good Fractional CMO service. They were able to revamp their digital marketing with the advice of their fractional marketing talent and keep their business afloat, and even grow, during a time when many businesses faltered or closed their doors for good.

Having that injection of fresh insight and ideas enabled Armon's team to create a comprehensive marketing strategy to carry them through an unexpectedly competitive marketplace.

My team can handle this

Yes, they probably can, but it may come with opportunity cost and lost revenue for your business. Just because your team can, doesn't mean your team should. Even the most incredible team of business leaders can only juggle so many balls at once.

You don't want to saddle your existing talent with complex problems when you can bring in an outside source with complex solutions already in play. A CEO should not have to worry about every detail of a complex marketing strategy when their time could be better spent focusing on other areas of the business operations that need attention.

Save your talent for where it's needed most

Your team may have the talent to act as marketing leadership, but stretching past capacity is a good way to cause your team to flame and burn out. Marketing strategies are vital to an organization and need careful attention that many executives don't have the bandwidth to take away from other vital functions.

Justin's existing team wasn't lacking in marketing goals. He was a strong leader with a great track record for go-to market strategy, but he was busy dealing with the rapid growth of the company. They found that their Fractional CMO brought fresh ideas with his outsider knowledge, but more importantly he brought energy and focus to the marketing program they developed.

He revitalized their brand, helping with more relevant messaging and positioning that resonated with target customers and drove sales up higher than predicted. His fractional CMO was able to spend dedicated time on their marketing strategies that Justin just couldn't justify allocating himself. His time was needed elsewhere in the business.

Having this additional experienced CMO doing due diligence to their marketing efforts boosted their key performance indicators significantly. Justin could focus along with the rest of his executive team on other business objectives.

Seriously though, I'm an expert in this field

You may wonder what a Fractional CMO who works in many different potentially short term engagements could possibly have to offer that you, an expert in your trade, could not. "A jack of all trades is a master of none..."

The full phrase is "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." Not to downplay the importance of expertise — there's a lot to be said for being a master in the art of your particular business. There's also a lot to be gained, however, from someone with a broader range of experience that comes from working with multiple businesses.

You bring the insider knowledge, they bring the outsider perspective

Even full-time CMOs can find themselves being siloed into a specific market. When your focus is on sales growth and marketing KPIs, it can be easy to miss key ideas and opportunities.

Even Armon and his established marketing team were missing the forest for the trees, spinning their wheels on well-dug industry tracks. As an experienced executive he was shocked when, after choosing to hire a fractional CMO, his marketing initiatives could have such quick results for sustainable growth.

The CMO was able to see a bigger picture with a deeper understanding of current market trends from his experience with other companies and executive peers. The Fractional CMO cost a bit more up-front than Armon had budgeted for, but in the long-term it was a strategy game changer.

Isn't it too late in the game to bring in a new player?

Focusing on product management can take an early start-up far, but what do you do when the marketing automation and digital marketing you've been relying on no longer makes the cut?

Meet Marlene

Marlene, a marketing executive from a financial services startup, found the 2020 pandemic to be a help rather than a hindrance as far as initial business growth was concerned. Demand for new consumer banking models delivered via digital apps was a huge market opportunity.

As things wound down, however, she realized this was not sustainable growth. As people returned to their lives and adapted to new norms, the demand for their service naturally slowed down.

It's never too late; it's never too early

Marlene's startup was fairly established at this point due to their rapid growth, but her marketing department was lacking in ideas for how to cope with the growth plateau and regression they saw looming on the horizon. Despite being well into their established marketing strategy, they sought out Fractional CMO services that helped re-energize their marketing department and make a vital pivot. Often just a handful of new ideas is enough to begin to solve problems in your organization.

A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer will have the expertise and know-how to bring small or mid-sized businesses up to their full potential. In fact, there is no point in the process of business growth where a good Fractional CMO wouldn't make a dramatic impact on sales and strategy.

There is no fixed amount of creativity your company can benefit from, and most businesses have exponential room to grow given the right marketing leader and marketing tactics.

A powerful tool for powerful leaders

Bringing a Fractional CMO into your business pays dividends. To sum up, bringing fractional leadership to your business will equip you with these advantages:

1. Expertise – They have specialized experience in marketing with a wide variety of different industries. They know what will work best and have the resources to support their strategies.

2. Perspective – Along with fresh insights and ideas, they have a more objective perspective of marketing strategies. They can offer ideas that take into account the bigger picture.

3. Cost-savings – They are much more affordable than a full-time executive Chief Marketing Officer but still bring a wealth of knowledge and experience.

4. Scalability – Due to their experience and resources, they have the skills necessary to help a business of any size and then scale with you as you grow to make sure your business goals stay on target.