What does a fractional CMO do?
Contract marketing leadership on demand.
Every marketing department, whether large or small, is regularly responding and reacting to requests, market fluctuations, coordinating one campaign after another, and faces a constant flow of marketing projects. If not, they are likely overstaffed, under-managed, or they lack motivation, inspiration, or leadership.
However, the very nature of these demands inhibits companies from attracting or fully leveraging someone that is entirely focused on strategic thinking.
That's where an outsourced or fractional CMO is a perfect fit. We can make it all happen for you, as an expert partner on demand, and help guide your marketing in direct proportion to your organization's needs.
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO works with you and your leadership team on a part-time contract basis to build out a comprehensive strategic marketing plan and then helps you and your marketing team bring it to life.
We can focus on a key objective or initiative, or build a marketing plan and make it happen on your behalf.
Part-time or fractional senior marketing leadership can be deployed for a company, a division, or a specific project or initiative.
Marketing Department Leadership- defined fractional senior management, including interim or permanent engagements. We will lead and drive your entire marketing organization, or focus precisely where you need strategic leadership or improvement.
Brand Strategy and Management- consultative leadership, direction, and management of all brand touch points and initiatives.
Board Level Strategy- consultation and advisory services to boards, senior management, and private equity leadership.
Project or Initiative Leadership- turn-key senior project management with our resources, yours, or a strategic combination of both.
Assessments- objective analysis of brand and marketing operations effectiveness, workflows, and efficiency.
What does a fractional CMO engagement look like?
Every engagement is unique and structured based on your individual organization, your team, as well as your needs, goals, and objectives. Here are just some of the ways we can assist.
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It is against our nature to settle for the status quo, and we will do everything in our power to keep your marketing campaigns and initiatives fresh, polished, and engaging.
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We can drive, steer, inspire and mentor your internal marketing team, your external partners, or specific individuals as needed to maximize their growth, contribution, and impact.
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We have a plethora of proven strategic, tactical, creative, and technology resources at our fingertips, whether individuals, small teams, or entire companies that we can direct, contract, and orchestrate on your behalf.
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We will meet with you and your team on a regular basis to discuss the efforts underway, as well as the next steps in the pipeline. We will report on progress, discuss critical paths, identify challenges, opportunities, and roadblocks, and always seek your feedback and approvals along the way.
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If needed, we can design and help you build out an optimized marketing operation or internal structure of systems, processes, and metrics, along with a plan for the right people in the right seats to drive long-term marketing effectiveness and efficiency.
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We will consistently focus on measurement, driving conversion metrics, as well as mission-critical KPIs and analytics, and regularly report on trends, important indicators, and progress. Further, we will redirect, and pivot as necessary to maximize marketing resources and ROI.
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Ultimately, our mission is to drive engagement, new and repeat customers, and sales, as well as maximize your marketing investment, brand awareness, and market share.
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We objectively investigate and assess your situation relative to your competition, your market segments, and your target personas to determine the best course of action.
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We analyze what you have done and what your marketing team is doing, and we work towards ratcheting up the strategies, messaging, and tactics to better achieve your business objectives, and step over the competition.
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We uncover opportunities to differentiate your brand, your products, or services, as well as reach more of the right prospects with the right message, at the right time and place.
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Based on extensive marketing strategy and deployment experience, we bring new ideas, capabilities, solutions, and technologies to the table and cross-pollinate methods and approaches that work in similar or parallel industries.
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We identify new and better ways to captivate and engage your prospects and customers by clearly articulating your positioning, your products, services, and value propositions, cementing them in the minds of your targets.
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We regularly uncover new and expanded business opportunities and ways to drive additional revenue and returns.
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We work with your sales, marketing, and customer service teams to drive understanding, engagement, and alignment with all marketing and sales enablement efforts to maximize plan effectiveness, and marketing investments.
Our Engagement Models
Fractional CMO
First, we will schedule two to three sessions with your leadership team and key stakeholders to get a download on your current marketing situation, along with an overview of your goals, needs, and objectives.
Then we will spend a mutually agreed upon period of time per month between group sessions, one-on-one meetings, and in-person or face-to-face conference calls, as well as time on our own for our work on strategy, planning, orchestrating teams, resources, schedules, reporting, and priorities, all with the goal of maximizing our time and yours.
We will meet with your marketing team, various internal stakeholders, and your external marketing resources as needed to drive defined needs, inputs, goals, and objectives, and where appropriate, we will interview key clients, channel partners, and customer-facing associates to seek input and feedback along the way.
We will develop a marketing or go-to-market plan for your organization, a division, and/or a specific project, a product line or launch, a website, a series of campaigns, or a critical marketing objective.
We will identify the team, skills, schedule, and resources needed to fully execute and deploy the plan.
We will regularly report to leadership on steps, progress, deliverables, launch plans, schedules, budgets, metrics, and results.
We will pivot according to needs, challenges, obstacles, and opportunities that arise, with the goal of maximizing our collective impact relative to time and resources.
Short-term Engagement- Project / Initiative
Minimum 6 Months
Full Service Engagement - Plan / Execution
Minimum 12 Months
First, we will spend a half-day with your leadership team to get a download on your current marketing situation, along with an overview of your goals, needs, and objectives.
Then we will spend a mutually agreed upon period of time per month between group sessions, and in-person or face-to-face conference calls, as well as time for our work on strategy and consultation on priorities, all with the goal of maximizing our time and yours.
We will schedule online conference calls individually with your marketing team and other key stakeholders to understand their roles, opportunities, challenges, and any thoughts or feedback.
We will provide clear direction and a marketing punch list of uncovered or identified efforts and priorities that we believe are critical to achieving the most important brand, sales, and growth objectives.
We will work with your team on an ongoing basis to help guide them through the execution of the agreed-upon priorities. We will remain available by email or via online conference calls to review creative efforts and messaging and to assist with roadblocks, strategy, and general direction.
CMO Consulting Engagement
Short-term Consulting Engagement
Minimum 4 to 6 Months
Ongoing Consulting Engagement
Minimum 12 Months
CMO Advisory Services
Once you have completed a fractional CMO engagement or a Consulting Engagement as described above, and you feel like your team has gotten their arms around the plan and/or recommendations, we also offer ongoing advisory services on call. This engagement is intended to help your leadership and marketing team keep the plan on track with regularly scheduled team meetings, as well as to be available to help guide specific efforts or initiatives by phone or email.
Included with this engagement, we will also meet with your leadership team as needed on a quarterly cadence to check on progress, challenge the status quo, assist in evaluating challenges and opportunities, provide feedback on ongoing marketing efforts and campaigns, as well as to provide high-level assessments of metrics and analytics. And of course, to assist in problem-solving as needed.
This arrangement can also be structured to provide third-party objective feedback on the efforts and impact of your marketing team, evaluation and input regarding work produced by outside agencies, as well as ongoing board or private equity advisory services.
Short-term Advisory Services
Minimum 6 Months
Ongoing Advisory Services
Minimum 12 Months
Feel free to reach out and discuss your goals and objectives.
It’s our desire to find the best fit, and do whatever we can to make the engagement as effective and efficient as possible. We don’t believe in pressure sales. Either it works for you, or it doesn’t.
And if you do elect to engage us, it is our objective to earn your trust, grow your brand, your sales, and your market share, and to become a strategic partner that you would be willing to refer to your friends and peers.