Think about the following reasons when you’re considering a Fractional CMO: 

• If you have budget limitations: Some startups (and even long-established businesses) have budget limitations that mean they need advice but can’t afford a CMO. A Fractional CMO can do the job but on an ad-hoc basis. 
• Running shorter projects: A Fractional CMO can be brought in for a defined time frame to oversee a one-off project on a short-term footing. 
• To complement an existing team: There may be times when a marketing team lacks one particular skill set – and in this case, so a Fractional CMO can fill in any knowledge gaps. 
• If you need flexibility: They can be hired part-time. This allows companies to adjust their marketing needs to suit the projects they’re working on. 
• Help with financial relations: When a company has to deal with any financial concerns – be it a merger or reverse IPO, it can really help to have a Fractional CMO on board to assist with communications, investor relations, internal communications, PR, and marketing strategies. 

A Fractional CMO will simply work part-time – on a temporary, or ad-hoc basis. They might also work with multiple clients at the same time on short-term, one-off projects. Whereas a CMO is employed and will work on a fixed contract as a full-time employee of one company, typically for a couple of years or so. 

A CMO has control over budgets and hires marketing talent to undertake a range of campaigns. They also occasionally act as a channel between product and marketing teams. They’ll look for helpful ways to drive more engagement and traffic to company websites, and with that, generate increased leads for the sales team to follow up. 

A Fractional CMO differs slightly from this. They’ll be there to try and optimise a strategic business plan and identify all the right people to do the job as a project develops and progresses.  

With a Fractional CMO, a company can get high-level marketing expertise on an as-needed basis, and there’s little to no long-term commitment (or associated costs). It’s a flexible option that allows a business to scale up and down accordingly but still gets the same level of expertise from a qualified professional. 

They’re typically well-organised self-starters, who can offer a wealth of talent and experience to develop strategic business plans that result in successful outcomes. 

You might want to hire a Fractional CMO if you’re a business that needs help and assistance with marketing and communication strategy but are in the position of not being able to afford someone to work with you full-time. They’re a win-win talent to work with as they’ve got all the necessary expertise and can devote time and knowledge to one specific project to help you get the results you need. 

Fractional CMOs can understand how to create marketing strategies that are tailored directly to overall corporate strategy. They’ll also consider this alongside any cost-benefit analysis.

The simple answer: yes! 

A Fractional CMO can work wonderfully alongside an already well-established in-house team. Someone taking on this role will be well-versed in adapting to a whole host of different roles and working styles. 

They’re a forward-thinking person to have on your team, who can help define a strategic direction for a project, and also engage in coaching and mentoring team members of varying skill levels. They can also coordinate between internal teams and other outside agencies to make sure everyone’s ideas are aligned and that all are working in tandem.

Basically, a Fractional CMO will perform the same kinds of tasks that a full-time chief marketing officer will do – just in a part-time role. 

Let’s play out a few scenarios:

Scenario #1: you’re launching a startup and need help getting it started

A flavour of what he’d be looking at: 

• target audience
• positioning and value proposition
• competitor and industry analysis
• build an optimal website lead capture and generation strategy using PATS framework
• implement growth-focused thought leadership strategy
• create organic marketing strategy
• ideate and implement low-acquisition offer ad campaigns
• analyse client experience and improve product

Scenario #2: your business is slowly growing but hasn’t found product-market fit

A flavour of what he’d be looking at: 

• define and understand your target audience
• analyse and prioritise specific segments
• competitor and industry analysis
• identify key problem, solution and customer-results combination
• analyse and improve website lead capture and generation
• hypothesise and run audience messaging experiments
• identify opportunities and tests within the sales process
• review online presence and improve positioning, messaging and apply a growth-focused content strategy
• review marketing strategy and tighten paid and organic marketing approach
• leverage results and social-proof across online and offline

Scenario #3: you have a proven product or service and now want to take it to the next level

A flavour of what he’d be looking at: 

• zero in on 2-3 target audiences and messaging
• competitor and industry analysis
• review key marketing metrics across inbound and outbound
• analyse key marketing and sales metrics and craft GTM strategy
• implement SEO strategy based on keyword and competitor analysis
• review and improve sales process and collateral
• optimise usage of social proof and customer stories
• community growth ideation and implementation
• optimise customer onboarding and delivery experience
• ideate and implement low-acquisition offer ad campaigns
• run full partnership programme implementation
• set goals, metrics and 90-day delivery plans

Most definitely! 

They’re a valuable person to have on your side – especially if you want someone with a  great level of senior experience and marketing expertise. 

It’s a flexible, adaptable, cost-effective solution to having on hand, when you need it – without the long-term commitment. You’ll get the best service for a competitive rate.

If you’re based in the UK then the salary for a Fractional CMO stands on average at around £67,763 per annum (that’s as of August 2023). 

However, many working in a role like this are hired on an hourly rate or work for a rate per project, so it can vary depending on the company you’re working for and/or the hours you put in. 

To put this into more context, if you hired a Fractional CMO who charged a rate of say £250 per hour and they went on to work 12 hours a month for you, that would be a monthly rate of £3000 which would be £36,000 a year on a part-time basis.