What Does a Fractional CMO Do + How To Hire the Right Candidate
Explore how a fractional CMO can unlock growth in your business. Find out the benefits of hiring one and how to find the best talent through Go Fractional.
December 16th, 2024
A fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is a part-time executive who can fuel your business growth through transformative marketing leadership — without the full-time executive price tag.
Explore the services they offer and the benefits of hiring a fractional CMO as opposed to a full-time marketing executive.
Find out how much it costs to hire fractional CMOs and the best way to hire the right candidate (through Go Fractional).
Further Reading:
Explore what an Outsourced CMO does and the benefits of hiring one.
Discover what an Interim CMO can do for your company and how to find the right candidate that suits your needs.
What Is a Fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a part time CMO responsible for devising a comprehensive marketing strategy that drives revenue growth and improves brand recognition. They offer top-tier marketing leadership without the substantial overhead of a full-time CMO's salary.
They usually report to the CEO and work closely with the leadership team to facilitate an exchange of ideas and practices between marketing and other functions.
This gives you the flexibility to scale your marketing efforts as needed and maximize ROI --- especially if you're dealing with limited resources or fluctuating marketing needs.
What Does a Fractional CMO Do? (14 Key Services They Offer)
Take a detailed look at the high-impact services a fractional chief marketing executive offers to steer your company in the right direction.
1. Strategic Marketing Leadership
Using their diverse experience, a fractional CMO can provide strategic guidance and oversight to your entire marketing function.
They would first assess each ongoing marketing initiative and identify any gaps or problems. They anticipate market changes to seize new opportunities proactively and drive business growth. Based on this, they create a marketing plan using a structured approach to ensure resources are allocated properly, and you can respond quickly to market changes.
- Product Strategy
- Go-To-Market Strategies & Implementation
- Advisor
- #strategy
Founded a Fintech, grew it to 125,000 users and exited in 2021
2. Market Research and Analysis
A fractional CMO can conduct market research in-house or collaborate with a third-party agency to understand your target audience and build strategies aligned to market realities.
The resulting strategic insights on consumer needs and industry trends will sharpen your product positioning and audience outreach. It can even uncover market segments with unmet needs. In such cases, your fractional CMO can work with the R&D or product team to develop new solutions.
- Fractional CMO
- Fractional Marketing Director
- Marketing Consultant
- Advisor
Marketing leader focused on DTC & CPG brand, growth, GTM, and innovation strategy
3. User Acquisition and Demand Generation
User acquisition and demand generation involve leveraging strategies like targeted advertising, content marketing, and lead nurturing. Fractional CMOs ensure these efforts are data-driven and scalable, using analytics to refine tactics and maximize impact.
They may explore alternative methods, such as event marketing or strategic partnerships, to drive engagement. For instance, they may design and execute a series of industry-specific webinars to position your brand as a thought leader.
These strategies will drive customer growth, enhance brand awareness, and fill the sales pipeline with qualified leads, ultimately boosting your revenues.
4. Brand Development
Fractional CMOs will:
- Gauge the brand's reputation by assessing market opinions through surveys and digital listening tools.
- Define brand positioning in relation to the target market and competitors.
- Select high-impact branding platforms for maximum visibility.
- Maintain a consistent voice and brand experience across online and offline touchpoints.
- Encourage repeat purchases through brand loyalty programs, feedback loops, etc.
- Assess brand KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for iterative improvements and strategy optimization.
This will help your company improve brand recall, boost customer loyalty, and differentiate itself in crowded markets.
5. Manage Digital Marketing Channels
A fractional CMO can initiate, prioritize, and oversee all your digital marketing campaigns. These could include:
- Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
- Social media marketing (paid and organic)
- Email marketing
- SEO
- Content marketing
- Public relations (PR)
- Influencer marketing
They may also set up omnichannel marketing processes so that all channels work in a coordinated manner and avoid wasting money on siloed marketing efforts.
6. Marketing Automation
A fractional CMO knows what marketing processes will benefit the most from automation. They can select the right tools like Content Management Systems (CMS), email marketing platforms, or AI chatbots for round-the-clock customer service.
Careful deployment of these tools will undoubtedly improve the speed and accuracy of your marketing processes, drastically improving your marketing ROI.
- Marketing
- Branding
- Marketing Technology
- Social Media
Marketing strategist with experience in B2B & B2C startups across industries
7. Integrating AI and ML in Marketing Strategies
A fractional CMO can integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies into marketing processes to enhance personalization, optimize campaign performance, and improve customer insights.
For instance, they may use AI tools to track social media discussions, refine marketing content, personalize email messaging, automate customer segmentation, and so on.
The result? Smarter decisions, better-performing campaigns, and a superior customer experience due to tailored marketing strategies.
- Fractional CMO
- Brand Strategy
- Strategic Vision & Leadership
- Startups
🥇Brand Strategy | 🎯Marketing | 📱UI/UX
8. Analytics and Reporting
Your company may be sitting on a mountain of data from several software tools and systems. A fractional CMO will help you convert insights from this data into specific action items for your marketing department.
They'll keep an eye on campaign performance, customer retention, ROI, and customer satisfaction KPIs. This may include metrics like survey response rate, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and more.
They can set up a live dashboard with critical KPIs to give the team a bird's eye view of all strategic marketing campaigns and how they align with broader business goals.
9. Budgeting and Forecasting
A fractional CMO can easily identify inefficiencies in current budget allocation and redirect funds to marketing campaigns with a higher ROI.
Suppose your social media marketing engagement continues to be poor despite allocating a huge marketing budget to a marketing agency. A fractional CMO could renegotiate terms, shift to a performance-based payment structure, or reallocate the budget to another agency.
Using market insights and past performance data, they can predict future budgetary requirements and advise on strategic changes to control costs.
- Fractional CMO
- Advisor
- Marketing Consultant
- Demand Generation
Building strategies for early-stage B2B SaaS startups to achieve revenue growth
10. Team Leadership and Development
Given their fresh perspective, a fractional CMO could give you an unbiased evaluation of team performance. They can groom your marketing team and instill a data-centric, productive work approach.
They may educate the team on the latest marketing trends, train them to use marketing automation tools, or cross-train the sales and marketing teams.
Ultimately, this marketing executive ensures that your marketing department is fully equipped to take charge of the company's marketing operations. They could even help you recruit a marketing team or find a full-time traditional CMO when the time is right.
- Advisor
- Fractional CMO
- Go-To-Market Strategies & Implementation
- Branding
Fractional Marketing for small companies with BIG IDEAS
11. Event Strategy
Fractional CMOs can leverage their network and industry experience to promote your product via offline avenues like trade shows, fundraising fairs, and/or online events like webinars. They may:
- Pick events and venues with the highest engagement potential for your target audience.
- Negotiate terms with vendors for better pricing and value-add.
- Determine an event theme that resonates with your audience.
- Promote events (online and offline) for maximum reach.
- Leverage data to ensure cost-effective planning and execution.
Creative Director
12. Vendor and Agency Management
A fractional CMO can help you at every stage of your vendor relations and ensure they deliver the expected results. This includes
Collecting and reviewing proposals and selecting the right agencies
- Negotiating and signing contracts
- Managing and evaluating their performance
- Setting budgets
- Resolving conflicts
- Terminating contracts and transferring data
- Stakeholder Management
- Content strategy
- Technology Strategy
- Creative strategy
Creative Strategist, Storyteller and Change Management Leader
13. Sales Enablement
A fractional CMO will align your marketing and sales efforts by:
- Setting up systems to integrate marketing and sales data into a single pipeline. (For instance, they can set up a CRM system like Salesforce to have the marketing and sales teams operate from the same data set. Once a lead is captured through a marketing campaign, it's funneled to the sales team for immediate follow-up.)
- Leveraging sales data to gear marketing collaterals for maximum lead generation.
- Training the sales team in the latest market insights.
This is important because the average B2B buyer reads up to 13 pieces of marketing content before buying a product, proving how intertwined marketing and sales departments should be.
14. Risk Management and Public Relations (PR)
Fractional CMOs can oversee your company's PR outreach, aligning it with the broader marketing approach.
They can shape the brand voice in all external communications. Moreover, they can train company spokespeople to represent this brand best during public appearances.
Fractional CMOs are also your first line of defense during a PR crisis. For example, following negative press about a service glitch, a fractional CMO can initiate a hotline for affected customers to address their grievances.
- Fractional CCO
- Public Relations
- Strategic Communications Leader
Helping Series A, Series B, and pre-IPO companies build trust and get noticed.
Clearly, the services a fractional CMO offers can be a huge boon to your business.
There are even more benefits to hiring one.
5 Benefits of Hiring Fractional CMOs
Even if you're tempted to go the full-time route with your CMO position, you should know the numerous advantages of hiring this fractional executive.
We'll explore a few of these below.
1. Cost-effectiveness
Hiring a full time CMO can be expensive, considering their salary, benefits, bonuses, and other overhead costs. A fractional CMO is generally more cost-effective because you only pay for the time or projects you need.
How Much Does a Fractional CMO Cost Compared to a Full-Time CMO?
The cost of a full time CMO includes salary, benefits, bonuses, and other overheads. The average annual salary of a CMO in the US is around $371,210. When one adds overheads like bonuses, 401K, healthcare, etc., this figure reaches over $677,790.
This makes hiring a full-time CMO hard for bootstrapped startups, small businesses, or budget-conscious mid-size companies.
Plus, a 2019 analysis by Korn Ferry reveals that the average tenure of a CMO is the lowest of all C-suite executives, at 3.5 years — across 1000 surveyed organizations. This means the decision to hire a traditional CMO who works full-time may not have the expected long-term payoff.
A fractional CMO, on the other hand, makes a much more affordable hire because you only pay for their limited time commitment or specific projects. They are usually paid $10,000-$20,000 as a monthly retainer (amounting to $120,000 to $240,000 annually) by one organization. They may work for a few such organizations simultaneously.
2. Diverse Experience
Thanks to multiple short tenures across various companies and industries, fractional CMOs usually have varied experience and high level marketing expertise.
Some fractional CMOs own and run a successful startup or small business on the side. This gives them vital industry knowledge and entrepreneurial experience in setting business priorities, budgeting, fundraising, etc.
As a result, they'll foresee challenges better and adapt to the market faster than in-house staff.
They may also have specialized skills in digital transformation, branding relaunch, international expansion, and more.
A full-time chief marketing officer need not have the same breadth of experience.
- Fractional CMO
- Marketing Consultant
3. Immediate Impact
These marketing professionals can hit the ground running quickly and are often quicker to onboard and orient than full-time CMOs. They are used to working for new companies, require less of a learning curve, and can deliver results faster than someone new to the role or the industry.
Plus, because you can hire these fractional marketing executives for limited durations, they're motivated to meet these objectives quickly and efficiently.
4. Access to a Network
A fractional chief marketing officer will have a deep network of vendors, consultants, and investors from previous engagements.
You can leverage this network to expand your marketing department, hire third-party marketing services, or find new prospects.
5. Flexible, Scalable Staffing
As we mentioned, fractional CMOs are quicker to onboard than full-time CMOs. Moreover, they can work on specific goals and disengage with your company once they have been achieved.
And if the relationship doesn't work out, it's generally easier and less costly to part ways than with a full time executive. This means you can flexibly scale up or down as you want.
So that settles it.
Let's find out how you can go about hiring one.
How to Hire a Fractional CMO: 8 Essential Steps
If you were to hire a fractional chief marketing officer yourself, you would have to follow this recruitment process:
- Identify your marketing needs, business goals, and what you aim to achieve with a fractional CMO.
- Clearly define the fractional CMO role and responsibilities, including the KPIs they need to contribute to.
- Create and promote a job description that outlines the expected fractional CMO responsibilities, skills, qualifications, and experience levels.
- Use a mix of recruitment channels, such as LinkedIn or a fractional CMO agency, or tap into your own professional network.
- Conduct screening calls, one-on-one interviews, and team interactions to assess a candidate's fit for the fractional CMO role.
- Conduct reference and background checks to verify their credentials, work history, and references. This may include legal and financial checks, credit history checks, and more.
Sounds like a lot of work?
Yes, hiring a fractional CMO yourself can be a tedious process, which takes time and resources.
Fortunately, by leveraging a fractional CMO service like Go Fractional, you can benefit from a more streamlined recruitment process and work with pre-vetted fractional CMOs.
The Best Fractional CMO Company to Hire Your Perfect Candidate: Go Fractional
Go Fractional offers pre-vetted chief marketing officer candidates with decades of experience tackling marketing challenges like yours and working across diverse companies and sectors.
How to Hire a Fractional CMO with Go Fractional
- Visit our site to browse through a wide selection of seasoned fractional CMOs.
- Book a free discovery call with a dedicated account manager to discuss your requirements.
- We'll study your needs and share a short list of candidates to interview--within days.
- You can interview the candidates to discuss the details, such as key deliverables, expected timelines, and cost structures.
- Once you finalize the candidate, we'll share a detailed engagement proposal for your team to consider and provide feedback.
- We will send you the relevant contracts for our fractional CMO services.
- Your fractional CMO will get working within less than a week after your discovery call.
Compare that to the often months-long process of sourcing a qualified fractional CMO on your own!
What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO Through Go Fractional?
- Hire top-quality fractional marketing leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full-time chief marketing officer, with no equity hit. Save on payroll taxes, healthcare premiums, paid leave, and hardware expenses.
- Access a high-caliber talent pool that has experience solving the very challenges you face.
- Rely on our rigorous screening process, targeting leaders with a solid track record. Our success rate in finding the right candidate is 98%. If we don't find you the perfect fit, we keep looking at no expense to you.
- Benefit from our transparent, professional service rates. Get customized pricing packages to do justice to each fractional executive's role, skills, and experience. Our fractional chief marketing officer services are based on monthly retainers, typically between $10,000 and $20,000. Our transparent billing operates on a monthly cycle. Regardless of the number of fractional experts you work with, you will receive a single invoice.
- Avoid the hassle of convincing an executive to commit full-time --- our fractional CMOs can begin work within the week.
If you still have questions about hiring a fractional CMO, here are some answers to help you take the next step.
FAQs on Hiring a Fractional CMO
1. When Should You Hire a Fractional CMO?
You should seriously consider hiring a fractional chief marketing officer when:
- You need someone with relevant marketing expertise to hone the current marketing effort.
- Your existing marketing team needs skilled leadership to manage several functions efficiently.
- You require an external perspective to improve marketing ROI.
- You're introducing a new product or service and need effective strategic marketing tactics to launch it.
- You need to delegate and free up time but lack the marketing budget or don't need a full-time CMO.
- Your marketing team consists of ten or more people, and you need a senior marketing executive to provide strategic guidance.
2. What Factors Influence the Cost of Hiring a Fractional CMO?
The cost of hiring this fractional marketing head hinges on one or more of these factors:
- Experience and marketing expertise: Seniority, industry specialization, and track record impact rates.
- Scope of responsibilities: Broader roles, like strategy and execution, typically cost more.
- Time commitment: Rates vary based on hours or days required per week or month.
- Business size and complexity: Larger or more complex organizations may need higher marketing expertise.
- Industry demand: High demand for fractional CMOs in specific sectors may drive up rates.
- Location: Regional cost-of-living differences or remote work agreements can influence pricing.
3. What's the Difference Between a Fractional CMO vs. Marketing Consultant?
A fractional CMO provides two irreplaceable advantages over a marketing consultant.
- Overarching Leadership vs. Specific Tasks: A fractional chief marketing officer examines how different marketing approaches work together to create a comprehensive marketing strategy. These fractional marketing leaders provide various marketing services, from leadership to strategy to execution.
A consultant will offer you a marketing plan to solve a specific problem, but it's up to you to implement it. They will not provide any strategic marketing leadership.
- Committed Engagement vs. Low Ownership: A fractional chief marketing officer will have decision-making authority and a holistic view of the company's success. They may work for you in the short term, but they could stay on for longer-term engagements, staying accountable for their results and ensuring everything runs efficiently.
Meanwhile, a marketing consultant is usually answerable only for the specific projects they're entrusted with.
4. What's the Difference Between a Fractional CMO vs. Fractional Marketing Director?
A fractional CMO operates at the C-suite level, focusing on long-term strategy, brand leadership, and aligning marketing with the company's vision. They are most effective when a company needs high-level strategic direction or is undergoing significant changes, such as scaling or entering new markets.
Meanwhile, a fractional marketing director, who may report to the CMO or CEO, executes strategies, manages campaigns, optimizes channels, and oversees day-to-day operations. They are best suited for hands-on leadership to implement plans.
5. Are There Risks or Downsides to Hiring a Fractional CMO?
Hiring this marketing executive offers numerous benefits, but if you don't use the fractional CMO services of a reliable agency like Go Fractional, you may encounter some risks. We'll also tell you how Go Fractional proactively addresses these concerns to maximize the advantages of hiring a fractional CMO while minimizing potential downsides.
- Fractional CMOs may juggle multiple clients, potentially leading to limited availability. Go Fractional addresses this by matching businesses with professionals whose schedules align with your company's needs, ensuring dedicated attention.
- Short-term engagements might result in a lack of continuity. Go Fractional mitigates this by facilitating clear contract terms and the option to extend engagements, promoting sustained collaboration.
- External CMOs may not fully integrate into the company's culture. Go Fractional emphasizes cultural fit during the selection process, connecting businesses with fractional CMOs who align with the company values and work environment.
6. How Can You Set Up Your Fractional CMO For Success?
To set up your fractional CMO for success:
- Start with a clear onboarding process.
- Define your business goals, marketing priorities, and key performance metrics upfront.
- Provide access to essential resources, including marketing data, digital marketing channels, and team contacts.
- Establish open communication channels for regular updates and feedback.
- Align expectations on time commitments and deliverables, ensuring their role complements your existing team.
- Encourage collaboration by integrating them into strategic discussions and fostering team trust.
By creating an organized, transparent environment, you empower your fractional marketing leader to focus on delivering impactful strategies and driving measurable growth.
7. What Qualities Should You Look For When Hiring a Fractional CMO?
These are the essential qualities that a successful CMO should have to succeed:
- Marketing expertise in your industry or a similar field.
- Strategic foresight in marketing planning
- Proficiency in market research and consumer behavior analysis
- Deep knowledge of digital marketing, branding, and demand generation
- Analytical skills and ability to interpret metrics for marketing decisions
- Proficiency in digital marketing tools and platforms
- Expertise in AI and ML tools
- Ability to use data to drive decision-making
- Customer focus
- Financial acumen to manage marketing budgets effectively and increase ROI
- Team leadership and motivational skills
- Ability to collaborate with all departments for the success of each marketing initiative
- Experience building systems and processes to sustain results after their engagement
At Go Fractional, we look for all these skills and experiences, guaranteeing you find the perfect fit for your needs. Reach out to us now to leverage our transformative fractional CMO services.
