In the work-from-home environment of today, most office workers are working remotely. This sets the stage to have an outsourced resource help you with your marketing efforts.

A Fractional CMO possesses extensive marketing knowledge and a leader with expertise in everything from developing business strategy. They need a deep understanding of the strategic planning process to be experienced as a marketing department team leader.

Should you not have someone on staff in this role, hiring someone to do it for you on a fractional basis is a low-risk investment in your business growth.

With the post-coronavirus economy emerging and the digital transformation has accelerated, another reason to bring in a Fractional CMO. The need to bring in experienced leaders who understand the latest digital and social media marketing trends and can spark growth for your company in these competitive channels.

What are the key responsibilities of a Fractional CMO?

Fractional CMO boons small to medium-scaled businesses that lack the marketing expertise they need to grow in today’s digital environment.

A fractional CMO allows a business to:

• Gain the expertise and counsel of an experienced CMO without the expense of a full-time hire
• Help perform some of the tasks a traditional CMO would, but on a part-time basis
• Provide oversight to junior or mid-level marketing managers that other leadership members don’t feel prepared to offer

Fractional CMO General Responsibilities

Your Fractional CMO should have a wealth of marketing and managerial experience. Therefore, the Fractional CMO should be the natural leader of the marketing team.

• Developing the marketing strategy for both the short-term and long-term.
• Deciding and committing to which marketing strategies are best for your business, such as SEO, content marketing, paid advertising, podcast, etc.
• Solving marketing problems that will arise and need to be resolved quickly.
• Leading the marketing department and inspiring team members.
• Hiring new employees and building out your team for success.
• Working with outsourced agencies leaning on their experience.

In addition to leadership qualities, the Fractional CMO is seen as the c-suite level marketing strategist who helps organizations achieve their marketing goals.

Your Fractional CMO from CMO Exponential will work closely with both your organization’s leadership team and the marketing talent executing the marketing tactics on a day-to-day basis.

Thus, here are the key responsibilities of a fractional CMO to accelerate your business growth:

• Product Launch Strategies
• Lead the Marketing Team
• Manage Service Providers
• Provide Branding Advice
• Create Buyer Journeys
• Improve Online Visibility
• Build Automation Frameworks
• Implement Sales Automation
• Align Sales & Marketing

How to Select Your Fractional CMO?

When selecting a Fractional CMO, you obviously want to base your decision on several factors, such as:

• Experience as a marketing leader
• Expertise within marketing
• Aligned marketing process
• System of working with other companies as a Fractional CMO
• Recommendations as to how they propose to work with you in a marketing function
• Business model

You should place the same importance on hiring someone on a fractional basis as you would on hiring a marketing leader. However, the big difference in negotiations will be the specifics of their respective business models for providing outsourced expertise on an interim basis.

What Does a Fractional CMO Actually Do?

While being an external resource, a Fractional CMO is best thought of as being a part-time executive addition to your management team. This means that Fractional CMO’s role will vary from company to company and project to project.

Regardless of role, this part-time CMO, or full-time interim executive, should bring innovative digital marketing strategies and unparalleled experience to your team.

A Fractional CMO servicing small, medium, and large B2C and B2B companies include:

• Strategic Project Support for the Marketing of Multiple New Brand Launches for a B2B Company
• Strategic Marketing Advisory Services for CEOs of Multiple Online Brands
• Head of Digital Transformation of Marketing Project for an Ecommerce Company
• In Charge of Revamping the Social Media Marketing Strategy of a Global B2B Enterprise
• Key Strategic Leader in the Establishment of an Employee Influencer Program for a B2C Enterprise
• Completely Recreated Digital Content Strategy for an Ecommerce Business
• Create Strategy and Help with Implementation of Executive Online Branding
• Replace Dependency on PPC Ads with Inbound Content Marketing Strategy Creation and Implementation
• Launched New Overseas Sales Territories for a B2B Brand Completely Using Digital and Social Media Marketing
• Complete Management of a B2C Brand’s Influencer Marketing Program

As you can ascertain from the above, the role that a Fractional CMO will play comes down to a combination of the needs of the company hiring them and the skills with experience that the marketing professional brings to the table.

Why Does Your Business Need a Fractional CMO?

A business needs a Fractional CMO when they require marketing leadership and the expert marketing strategy skills of a CMO but do not need it full-time.

Reasons a business needs a Fractional CMO:

Leadership

Your marketing department requires leadership from an experienced marketing professional. In addition to leading the marketing team, a leader in terms of decision-making is required.

Marketing Strategy

Your business needs a comprehensive marketing strategy for your niche and industry. Such as a Fractional CMO with years of experience in SaaS or private equity.

Part-time CMO

You require the skill set of a chief marketing officer, but not for 40 hours per week that a full-time CMO will be. If you need a Fractional CMO for only 5 hours per week, or 20, Your agreement is flexible.

Experience

You have staff to execute marketing campaigns, but they lack strategic experience. Therefore, you need someone who has done it before and can foresee challenges and obstacles.

Reporting & KPIs

You need to monitor the health and progress of your campaigns and have someone lead weekly KPIs meetings. Namely, so your team has accountability and is always results-focused.

Optimization

You need to improve marketing campaign optimization by having an expert identify opportunities and new possibilities.

Efficiency

Your existing marketing team’s efficiency is below optimal. You need leadership and management to maximize efficiency for your marketing department.

Go-to-market Strategy

You are a startup or are launching a new product or service for your business. Also, you will need a new marketing plan for the short-term and the next few years.

Your digital marketing efforts need to be precisely planned out, so your marketers know exactly what to do. Additionally, they need to know what marketing initiatives and key performance indicators are a sign of success.

Must-Have Core Values of a Fractional CMO

A strategic and battle-tested marketing direction for businesses justifies the expense of a fractional CMO and marketing team. The core values make the hired specialist remain relevant to their clients and prospects’ evolving priorities.

A Fractional CMO and his team members must possess these:

• ENTHUSIASTIC – The Fractional CMO must remain positive and enthusiastic about the work, the team, and the clients. The team must enjoy them and understand the value they bring to us and us to them.
• MINDFUL – The hired fractional CMO remains mindful of how each word and actions impact the work, team, clients, and even ourselves. By being conscientious and through active communication, the team can manage its own timeframe and the client’s budgets.
• POLISHED – The team should be polished beyond “professional” through physically presenting themselves in our written and verbal communications in all of the deliverables.
• INFLUENTIAL – The fractional CMO should be influential to the clients and himself as he portrays confidence and insight. Also, he needs to take the initiative to solve problems, present solutions, relay our expertise and drive projects through to completion.
• RESOURCEFUL – Your hired agency must be motivated in finding solutions for ourselves, our team, and our clients, regardless of the problem, based on our past experiences. By conducting research and collaboration, the team provides the freshest and best solutions for the business.
• EXPERT – The fractional CMO has the experience and presents himself as an expert by manifesting all of the above values.
• FLEXIBLE – Aligning your teams around your core values and executing meaningful interactions with your prospects and clients is critical in today’s rapidly evolving environment.

Growth-focused Marketing Leadership with Cam’s own internal CMO Team of Digital Marketing Specialists

Our Fractional CMOs are growth-focused strategic experts. Moreover, profitability in campaigns is crucial to what we understand success with a client to be. This can be done by maximizing the efficiency within your marketing team.

Your first 90 days as a client will improve your marketing department’s systems and processes. This is most effectively done via weekly reporting on marketing KPIs through a scorecard. We will create this, or improve your current one, as an immediate improvement for your marketing department.

As you consider a Fractional CMO for your high-growth business, consider the cost of not having a marketing leader. Additionally, think of the potential gains of having an experienced marketing leader.

Consider the risk you’re taking by having a marketing director or coordinator set your organization’s campaign objectives and success criteria. Odds are, they are under-qualified for the role.

By hiring Cam Roberts as a fractional CMO, you’re getting the confidence and capabilities your team needs to reach new heights, both in terms of sales and profitability.