Fractional CMO
Marketing that gets to work—now.
“Not all smart people work for you.”
Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems
What does a Fractional CMO do?
Prudent Pedal acts as your chief marketing officer and sets your growth strategy in motion. We outline key growth strategies, build your platform, manage key activities, and monitor KPIs.
- Marketing & brand strategy
- Establishing KPIs and reporting on performance
- Partnering with CEO & executive team on strategic initiatives
- Determining which marketing tactics are best to meet your goals
- Leading the marketing department and mentoring the team
- Hiring and onboarding new team members
- Managing agency & vendor relationships
Have ambitious growth targets, but no marketing capability to drive it?
The Catch-22 of Growth
Many firms want a more strategic and impactful marketing function, but don’t have the budget, headcount, or resources to deliver it. They want to grow faster, but they can’t.
We can get you there.
Small & Mid-sized Firm Priorities
(Business Insider, 2017)
- Increasing revenue 72%
- Establishing new customer relationships 60%
- Marketing and advertising 46%
My Point of View
It doesn’t make sense to outsource Marketing in all circumstances. Marketing’s role is not to make things pretty. Peter Drucker famously wrote, “A business has two functions, marketing and innovation.”
As a CMO and now as CEO, I would never outsource either of these client-centric, do-or-die functions unless I could gain a competitive advantage. But, it does makes sense to outsource, if your organization is falling behind the market or you don’t have the strategic resources to get to the next level.
Prudent Pedal’s Value
By hiring a fractional CMO, firms can access the best thinking and practices of leading firms, gain operational flexibility, and better manage budgets and priorities. Most importantly, they set their growth strategies in motion—today.
Prudent Pedal is strategic growth support. We become the marketing leader and manage all the elements of the marketing function from strategy to operations to delivery. Your firm gets strategic marketing capability for the cost of a single full-time equivalent (FTE).
%
U.S. workforce that will be contingent by 2020--Accenture
%
Companies looking to hire contractors to fill senior executive roles--Mavenlink
Frequently Asked Questions About Fractional CMO Services
What are the benefits of a Fractional CMO?
There are many. Here are my top three:
1. Cost savings: The fractional framework adds C-suite level experience and perspective to your team, without the comp package that accompanies a full-time senior leadership role. The average salary of CMOs in New York and Silicon Valley is $270,000+. In Chicago, the average is $245,000. And, this is before benefits, options, and perks. Hiring a fractional CMO gives you the benefit of having an executive-level marketing expert at a fraction of the cost.
2. Strategic Spend: Many companies spend a large portion of their spend hiring someone senior on a full-time basis to do their marketing strategy, only to have that person spend 80% of their time executing. If your marketing leader is posting to social media, writing copy, or designing graphics – you’ve got an overpaid marketing coordinator on your team. By strategically breaking up your spend you can have both a marketing leader and a marketing executor (or many)
3. Fresh Perspective: A CMO who serves multiple industries can bring ideas and proven tactics from one industry to another.
What situations are Fractional CMO services best for?
There are three scenarios that a Fractional CMO makes sense:
- High-growth businesses with a small marketing team (1-5 people), or the budget to hire executional support. You’re not ready for a full-time CMO (you either don’t have the budget or the work to justify it), but you know that you require that level of expertise to guide your strategy and team.
- Your company needs a temporary marketing leader while you hire a permanent VP of Marketing or CMO.
- You want a full-time in-house marketing team but either don’t have the time to build one out yourself, or you’d prefer to have an experienced marketing leader define and hire key roles.
What level of marketing budget do I need to hire a Fractional CMO?
Generally, Fractional CMO services require a departmental marketing budget, including costs of staff, as well as marketing initiatives, of $200,000.
What are your fees?
Fees are value-based and vary depending on client size and complexity. Fractional CMO packages start at $5K per month.
What does Fractional mean?
Fractional means that multiple non-competing companies share me as their Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
What if I don't have a marketing team?
This is a common problem for many of my clients. Good marketing talent is difficult to find and retain. I’ll help you craft job descriptions and hire for in-house positions, or identify agency and freelance partners to fill immediate voids. I have an extensive network of marketing experts, agencies, and vendors that I can recommend.
What industries/firms do you work with?
I specialize in professional/business services and SaaS. Our clients sell sophisticated solutions to sophisticated buyers through complex buying cycles. Their markets are competitive, demanding, and dynamic. Their employees are intelligent, driven, and client-centric. Their organizational structures are matrixed and geographically dispersed.
We do NOT work with law firms.
A firm underperforms its growth potential until it gets focused on its growth priorities.
Having limited marketing resources means having to make difficult choices about where to invest.
Not choosing leads to dabbling in marketing; squandering your growth investments, and putting your firm at a competitive disadvantage.