Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership on your terms — without the $300K salary.
Here is the situation most companies under $50M find themselves in: marketing is either being run by a junior person figuring it out as they go, or it is being spread across the founder's plate alongside everything else. Neither works. A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader — someone who has done this at scale before — who plugs into your company 2-4 days a week. They build the strategy, hire or manage the team, choose the right channels, and report on performance. They attend your leadership meetings. They own marketing the way a full-time CMO would. The difference is you are not paying a $300K base salary plus equity plus benefits to get it.
What a Fractional CMO Actually Does
This is not consulting. We do not hand you a strategy deck and wish you luck. We embed in your company and run marketing as if we were on your payroll.
Marketing Strategy & 90-Day Roadmap
We audit everything you are currently doing, identify what is working and what is wasting money, and build a 90-day plan tied to specific revenue targets. For example: we built a marketing function from scratch for a PE-backed HVAC rollup — hired two marketing coordinators, launched Google Ads and a local SEO program, and hit pipeline targets of $2.4M in qualified opportunities within the first quarter.
Team Building & Leadership
Whether you have an in-house team that lacks direction or no marketing staff at all, we build the right marketing function for your stage. We write the job descriptions, run the interviews, and manage the people. We took a manufacturing company from zero marketing headcount to a three-person team producing 40+ qualified leads per month within five months.
Budget Allocation & Reporting
Every dollar gets tracked. We set up attribution, build reporting dashboards, and run monthly reviews so you always know what your marketing spend is producing. No mystery line items, no vague "brand awareness" excuses.
Vendor & Agency Management
Already have agencies? We manage them and hold them accountable. Need new ones? We know who actually delivers and who just has a good sales pitch. We saved one client $8,500 per month by replacing two underperforming agencies with one that actually knew what they were doing.
Brand Positioning & Messaging
We figure out what makes you different and then make sure every touchpoint — your website, sales decks, ads, email — says it clearly and consistently. Not a fluffy brand exercise. A practical one that helps your sales team close.
Channel Execution
SEO, paid ads, social, content, email, website — we deploy whatever channels make sense for your business and your budget. No predetermined playbook. A B2B services company does not need the same marketing mix as a franchise group, and we do not pretend otherwise.
How It Works
Discovery & Audit
We spend the first 1-2 weeks inside your business — reviewing revenue targets, customer data, competitive landscape, existing campaigns, and talking to your sales team. We want to understand what has been tried, what worked, and what did not.
Strategy Build
Within 2-3 weeks, you get a clear marketing strategy with priorities, channel recommendations, budget allocation, and measurable targets. Not a 60-page deck. A working document we will actually execute against.
Execution & Management
We start executing. Weekly standups with your team, monthly reporting to leadership, quarterly strategy reviews. We manage the day-to-day so you do not have to.
Optimize & Expand
As results come in, we put more into what is working and cut what is not. Marketing is not a set-it-and-forget-it exercise. We adjust the plan as we learn.
Why Companies Choose a Fractional CMO
Save 60-70% vs. Full-Time
A good full-time CMO costs $250K-$350K in salary alone, plus equity, benefits, and bonus. A fractional engagement gets you the same caliber of person at a fraction of that cost, with no long-term commitment.
Producing Results in 30 Days
Most full-time CMO hires take 3-6 months just to get oriented. We have done this enough times that we start making meaningful changes — and generating pipeline — within the first month.
Experience Across 50+ Companies
We have built marketing programs for HVAC companies, SaaS startups, franchise groups, manufacturers, and professional services firms. That pattern recognition means we have already made the expensive mistakes — on someone else's dime.
Flexible Engagement
Start with strategy. Add execution. Scale up when things are working, scale down when you need to. The engagement fits your business, not the other way around.
Let's Talk About What Marketing Should Look Like at Your Company
Book a call. We will tell you exactly what we would do in your first 90 days — no pitch deck, no pressure, just a straight conversation about what is and is not working.