What Does a Fractional Marketing Leader Do, Anyway?

In last week’s blog, we covered the basics of the fractional marketing model. Now let’s dive into what a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) does and the top benefits their role provides in helping organizations to achieve long-term growth.

Having a full-time CMO can be critical to your business planning process and giving your marketing team the strategic oversight they need to execute customer acquisition strategies, direct brand messaging or take products to market. But if your budget doesn’t accommodate hiring a 40+ hour a week CMO, a fractional CMO can provide all the same benefits, without the high costs. Fractional = same top-tier experience at a fraction of the cost.

Fractional CMOs have already served as head of marketing, have achieved success and then decided to share their time and talent across a few non-competing companies.

A fractional CMO will work with your organization for a set amount of time to develop a strategic marketing plan, get your growth plans on the right track, put together implementation teams, and macro-manage execution, ensuring on-time and on-budget delivery. Because fractional CMOs have built up skilled talent pools and connections across all aspects of marketing, they can deliver instant access to top talent, when and where needed.

Full fractional teams are tailored to your needs and collaborate with your team for seamless execution.

Top Five Benefits of Choosing a Fractional Marketing Team

If you’re truly looking for growth and want to achieve your strategic goals, then opting for fractional marketing may be the solution your organization needs.

Save Money Without Sacrificing Skill

In today’s environment, maximizing the organizational budget is everything. But, this doesn’t mean you should sacrifice the skills, knowledge and experience needed to to help your organization grow. Outsourcing the various components of marketing that you need assistance with is a budget-friendly solution to meeting your strategic goals.

Rather than spend your marketing budget on a C-level salary, bonus, incentives and benefits, opting for fractional marketing means you are assured that all efforts are directed towards initiatives that will help your organization reach its goals for growth and expansion.

Strategic Thinking

Fractional CMOs add decades of experience to your team. They know how to leverage their experience to help your organization create and execute a strategy to scale your organization and fill the gaps in your team. You don’t know what you don’t know, and having an experienced partner on your side can give you the guidance you need to be successful.

Fractional CMOs aren’t bogged down in the daily grind. They are able to be laser-focused on your organization, can see the big picture and focus on making things happen.

Less Disruption

No matter how great your organization is, there will be turnover. This can be especially problematic when turnover occurs in the marketing department, mid-campaign or initiative. By outsourcing marketing efforts to a fractional CMO, you’ll have strategic oversight throughout the entire project. The fractional CMO can easily fill in the gaps in the interim and get any new employees up-to-speed on the current efforts and what needs to be done.

Specialized Expertise

Choosing fractional marketing means you get exactly the expertise you need to succeed. While you can opt for a fractional CMO, many fractional marketing agencies offer flexibility to meet your marketing needs, from complete marketing strategy and action plans to simply offering project support where needed. Additionally, these teams will also have experts in numerous areas of marketing, including digital marketing, lead generation, content marketing, web development, events, etc. Typical marketing agencies usually specialize in one area and execute what they are told to do, without having your big picture goals in mind.

Focus on Growth

The success of a fractional CMO is getting results for their clients. They are dedicated to seeing your team meet their organizational objectives and growth goals. They use their expertise to help you develop a strong strategy and fill in any gaps, ensuring a solid return on your investment.

How Much Does A Fractional CMO Cost?

Financial constraints are often a driving factor in choosing senior-level marketing talent. The fractional model is significantly less expensive than hiring a full-time C-level for your organization. Pricing is often dependent on the exact services you need and is determined on a case-by-case basis. Contracts are often available using a monthly retainer, but contracts could also be per project, consultation only, or even to temporarily fill a leadership gap.

While cost is important, don’t forget to consider the value a fractional marketing leader brings to your organization–years of expertise across numerous niches and extensive experience with many different marketing strategies.

Next week we will wrap up this three part series to dig into if fractional marketing is right for your organization.