Services · 07 · Fractional CMO
Leadership without the overhead.
A senior marketing leader embedded part-time in your business. All of the strategy, none of the full-time overhead.
At a certain size, marketing needs someone senior making the calls. A full-time marketing director is a big salary, and often more than the business needs yet. So decisions get made by whoever has time, which usually means nobody.
A fractional CMO is that senior person, part-time. We set the strategy, manage the budget, direct your team and suppliers, and answer for the numbers. You get seven years of running paid media and growth programmes without adding a full-time salary.
Book a discovery callHow we measure it
- 01Revenue against target
- 02Customer acquisition cost
- 03Marketing-sourced revenue
- 04Return on marketing spend
If it doesn’t move one of these, we don’t count it as a win.
What's included
The work.
- 01
Strategy & planning
Annual and quarterly plans tied to revenue targets, with clear priorities for what gets done and what doesn't.
- 02
Budget ownership
Deciding where the marketing money goes, tracking what it returns and moving it when the numbers say so.
- 03
Team & supplier direction
Briefing, managing and holding to account your in-house people, freelancers and agencies. One person steering.
- 04
Reporting to leadership
A monthly report tied to revenue, written in plain English for you or your board.
- 05
Hiring & capability
Working out which roles to hire, which to outsource and when, so the team grows in the right order.
- Always
No sales team. No handoff. You deal with Joel.
A good fit.
- You've outgrown ad-hoc marketing but aren't ready for a full-time senior hire.
- You have junior marketers or several suppliers and nobody senior directing them.
- You want one person accountable for what marketing contributes to revenue.
Probably not.
- You need someone hands-on five days a week, which is a hire rather than a fractional arrangement.
- You want an extra pair of hands to carry out a plan that's already fixed.
Questions
Fair questions.
What does fractional mean in practice?
An agreed slice of time each month rather than a full-time role. In practice that's a weekly rhythm of working sessions and check-ins, time with your team and suppliers, and a monthly report. How much time depends on the size of your team and how much is in motion, so we scope it after discovery.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
An agency does the work in its lane. A fractional CMO sits on your side of the table and decides what work should be done, by whom and for how much. That can include managing other agencies, and occasionally telling you that you don't need one.
What happens when we're ready for a full-time marketing lead?
Then the arrangement has done its job. A good fractional engagement leaves behind a plan, a working team and clear reporting, which makes the full-time role easier to define and quicker to settle into.
Often paired with
- 02Marketing strategyPositioning, funnels, go-to-market planning. The work that should happen before the tactics do.
- 08Strategy consultingOne-off strategic engagements. Audits, second opinions, and a plan you can actually execute on.
- 05HubSpot / CRMImplementation, optimisation, reporting. Stop paying for features you aren't using.
Get in touch
Bring your numbers.
A 30-minute discovery call. We listen more than we pitch. If we’re not a fit, we’ll tell you.