Why You Need a Fractional CMO

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Fractional CMOs are experts in marketing, usually with more than a decade of experience having worked with multiple corporations, yet now work with a small number of businesses at any one time, meaning they have the time and expertise to give you the best advice possible.

Having a C-suite level executive marketing presence within your team is proven to expand your company’s growth. If you’ve never experienced this level of experience before, you’ll be astonished at what difference this type of focused strategy has on your company.

Fractional CMOs offer many benefits including: saving costs by not having to hire full-time staff, getting results more quickly – based on experience – with less resources, and being able to meet your needs without scaling up as often. With Fractional CMOs there is no need for guesswork because they will always find the right fit for your company’s specific needs.

A Fractional CMO may be able to breathe new life into a company and reignite your growth if you feel like you’ve hit a plateau or when you’re needing a fresh perspective. A CMO is needed if your existing staff says they need more leadership or training — when they may require more guidance and industry knowledge in order to move the company forward. A Fractional CMO is also a great option if you’re needing flexibility; the work can fluctuate as your needs fluctuate, and they can help you outsource a full marketing team as needed.

Plus, based on their vast experience, they know how you can best direct limited marketing dollars to achieve the best result possible. Whenever you’re facing budget constraints or other financial uncertainty – such as through growth periods – they can help you make better use of your marketing budget.

I always recommend that you focus your work efforts on your zone of genius — and bringing a Fractional CMO onto your team will allow you to free up time to divert to those important tasks while also providing a higher level of marketing expertise than you likely have yourself.

What is a Fractional CMO

A Fractional CMO is a marketing professional who can help you to reach your goals. They are experts in marketing, yet work with a small number of businesses at any one time, meaning they have the time and expertise to give you the best advice possible. Fractional CMOS offer many benefits including: saving costs by not having to hire full-time staff, getting results more quickly – based on experience – with less resources, and being able to meet your needs without scaling up as often. Fractional CMOs can help you with all of your marketing needs, from creating a strategy to executing it.

Why do you need a Fractional CMO?

There are many reasons why you might need a Fractional CMO. Perhaps you’re not able to invest in marketing, don’t have the time or budget for marketing, find yourselves too busy in other departments or simply don’t know how to market your product or service. Fractional CMOs can help with all of these issues and more – and the investment more than pays itself in the efficiency and ROI you experience.

Fractional CMOS can help you to achieve your goals, whether that’s increasing leads, sales or brand awareness. They free your time to focus on the areas of the business that need your personal attention. They can also help coordinate either in-house marketing staff or outsourced team to streamline marketing efforts and make them more efficient.

What are the benefits of Fractional CMOs

Fractional CMOs offer many benefits, including: saving costs by not having to hire full-time staff, getting results more quickly – based on experience – with less resources, and being able to meet your needs without scaling up as often. Fractional CMOs can help you with all of your marketing needs, from creating a strategy to executing it. Fractional CMOs are experts in marketing, meaning you can be confident that you’re getting the best advice possible.

How do Fractional CMOs help businesses grow

Fractional CMOs help businesses grow by providing expert marketing advice and support. They can help with all areas of marketing, from creating a strategy to executing it. Fractional CMOs are experts in the field, meaning you can be confident that you’re getting the best advice possible. Fractional CMOs also offer a fast, efficient and cost-effective way to get marketing results.

What are the costs of Fractional CMOs

The costs of Fractional CMOs vary depending on the Fractional CMO you choose and the services you require. It can also vary depending upon whether services are offered on an hourly basis or as a package, and by the amount of experience the CMO is bringing to the table.

You can usually expect to pay $200-$300 per hour of service (although we recommend packages versus paying hourly rates – it will work out more cost effective for you in the long run). However, they offer a cost-effective way to get marketing results, and almost always work out less expensive than hiring full-time marketing staff. According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a CMO is $210,000, with the most experienced and effective ones commanding over $700K per year. Quick calculations let you see that you can experience real cost savings by using services from a fractional counterpart.

Our Fractional CMO services offer the ability to have implementation performed by our team of virtual marketing assistants (at a lower hourly rate) when needed – meaning that you receive the best of both worlds: high-level expertise combined with highly affordable implementation. This is another reason that we recommend package services since you can receive both guidance, advice and oversight from a CMO and more affordable implementation by the marketing team in one package.

How to find the right Fractional CMO for your business

If you’re looking for a Fractional CMO, it’s important to find one that’s the right fit for your business. Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. Check their experience

Make sure the Fractional CMO you choose has experience in the areas of marketing you need help with.

2. Ask for references

Ask the Fractional CMO for references from businesses they’ve worked with in the past. This will give you a good idea of their track record and what kind of results they’ve been able to achieve.

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3. Meet with them

It’s important to meet with the Fractional CMO before you hire them to make sure you’re a good fit for each other. Whether in person (when geography allows) or virtually via Zoom or another method, this initial meeting is required. This will help ensure that both you and the Fractional CMO are confident that they can help you achieve your goals.

4. Make sure they’re flexible

When looking for a Fractional CMO, make sure to find one who is flexible and can work with your schedule. Fractional CMOs often have busy schedules, so it’s important to find one who can work with yours.

5. Check their rates

Make sure you know what the Fractional CMO’s rates are before you hire them. This will help ensure you’re not surprised by any hidden costs.

6. Ask them to outline their services

The Fractional CMO you choose should be able to outline their services for you so you know what’s included. This will help avoid any surprises later on. However, it’s important that they aren’t simply listing a menu of cookie cutter services that are the same limited services they would provide to anyone; the types of services they can offer may be similar, but your unique company will have a unique mix of services based upon your audience, your goals, your current marketing mix, and a variety of other factors that any marketing expert will only recommend after discussions with you.

Questions to ask your prospective Fractional CMO before hiring them

  • What areas of marketing do you specialize in?
  • Have you worked with businesses in my industry before?
  • Can you provide me with references?
  • What is your experience with strategy development?
  • How flexible are you when it comes to working with my schedule?
  • What are your rates?
  • Will I be able to contact you directly, or will I need to go through your company (if they are part of a CMO organization)?
  • What services are included in your package?
  • Can you provide me with a detailed outline of your services?

How to measure the success of a Fractional CMO relationship

In order to measure the success of a Fractional CMO relationship, you need to set goals at the beginning and track the progress against them. This goal setting should be a standard part of their work process (it is ours). Be sure to also keep in mind that they are the expert, and should be guiding you in determining some of the goals.

Here are some tips on how to do that:

1. Set SMART goals

Make sure your goals are SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. Your CMO should help you define what goals to track.

2. Track results

Track the results of the Fractional CMO’s work so you can see how it’s impacting your business. This will help you determine whether or not the Fractional CMO is meeting your goals. Your CMO should provide you reports and recommend which statistics you should pay attention to.

3. Give feedback

Make sure to give feedback to the Fractional CMO regularly, both positive and constructure. This will help them continue to produce the results you’re looking for. Remember this is a partnership – they are providing you with marketing strategy and advice, yet at the end of the day it’s still your business and you need to at a minimum keep up-to-date with how things are working.

4. Renegotiate goals

If the Fractional CMO isn’t meeting your original goals, renegotiate them so they are more in line with what you’re expecting.

Our Fractional CMO process

The Fractional CMO process can be summarized into three steps: goal setting, work execution, and goal tracking.

Research

Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Before marketing is started, we don't make assumptions. We perform research to establish a baseline that everything will build upon. As part of this process, you will need to provide access to marketing systems as well as data. We perform competitor research and scrutinize audience demographics. This is the most critical part of the process and must be given proper time and attention.

Strategy

We work hand in hand with you to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals that are designed to achieve your desired results within the timeframe and budget that you need. We help you determine which areas of marketing need the most attention, and will help create processes and systems to streamline your efforts.

Create & Execute

As your Fractional CMO, we will develop a plan to implement selected marketing strategies and coordinate your implementation team (or recommend services from our VAs) that are necessary to achieve your goals. This includes developing strategy, creating campaigns, and implementation.

Goal Tracking

We present you with reports that help track marketing results so you can see how it's impacting business. This helps us know that the marketing efforts are achieving your goals, and allow us to know when and how to make planned pivots of strategy, and revisit or renegotiate goals and services as needed.
Fractional CMOs are a great way to start growing your business. Hiring a part-time CMO or marketing director can help you with everything from strategy development and marketing execution to goal setting and measuring ROI. Fractional CMOs also provide a lot of value in terms of time savings, especially if you don’t have the budget or time for these tasks yourself!

 

If this sounds like what your company needs, contact us today so we can work together on developing an amazing Fractional CMO plan that will get results fast.

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