3 reasons why you should hire a fractional CMO
Having a CMO (chief marketing officer) on your team is a valuable resource for helping your business scale through strategic marketing. They manage your team, put together your monthly, quarterly, and yearly marketing plan, and they are your right hand in all things growth. But if you’re not ready or able to hire a full-time CMO, who do you hire?
Although it might seem easier and more affordable to hire a marketing manager to run the day-to-day marketing while you (the CEO and/or founder) lead all growth initiatives, it can be draining. Plus, your marketing manager might not have the right experience to run marketing, and that might not be your zone of genius, either. So…what’s the solution? A fractional CMO.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is an executive marketing leader and marketing consultant who joins your team at a part-time, contract capacity. They are an extension of your team, and they consult you and your business on all things marketing while also working with your team and oftentimes implementing a lot of the work.
Here are 3 reasons why you should hire a fractional CMO:
Expertise without the full-time salary or benefits
A CMO’s salary can vary depending on their level of experience. On the very low end, a CMO can cost $100k, and on the high end, their salary could reach $200k or even $300k. Hiring a fractional CMO is much less expensive, although their rate will still be higher than your average independent contractor.
At The Happy Marketing Co., our Fractional CMO program starts at $5,000 per month, which includes auditing all of your marketing, a custom and ongoing marketing strategy, team leadership and training, and so much more. To implement all of the recommendations and optimizations, our monthly rate is $6,500.
When analyzing your return on this investment, just remember that you are getting a marketing executive, a complete revamp on your marketing, team leadership, and tasks taken off your plate — plus, you don’t have to pay a full-time salary for the level of expertise you’re getting OR the expensive benefits that a full-time employee will cost.
More strategy and execution than a marketing consultant
Oftentimes when a company needs external support with their marketing, they hire a marketing consultant to come in and provide high-level recommendations. The Happy Marketing Co. does offer this framework through our comprehensive marketing audits, along with our email marketing audit, social media audit, and website audit. However, these audits are a one-time service and don’t include the ongoing support of a fractional CMO.
A marketing consultant will come in and audit what you’re doing, then provide a one-time strategy for your team to implement. Sometimes there are follow-up calls to check in on performance and the updates your team made.
The major difference between a marketing consultant and fractional CMO is this… If you want someone to provide confirmation of your efforts, an audit of what’s working and not working, and to provide a marketing strategy, then allow your team to take it from there, you need a marketing consultant. If you need ongoing support to scale, implement the recommendations, and train you and/or your team, you need a marketing consultant.
A fractional CMO will build your foundation for growth
Whether you’re a new business, you’re relaunching, or your sales aren’t increasing month over month, a fractional CMO will be your partner in helping you build the foundation for growth AND fix what isn’t working.
Many clients who hire The Happy Marketing Co. for our Fractional CMO program want to take their business to the next level. Some of our clients have small teams of 3-10 employees, and others we work directly with the CEO and founder. Unless you have years of marketing experience in your field, you’re likely feeling lost in what you need to do to scale. That’s where we come in!
We’re not only auditing your current marketing and providing a custom marketing strategy (like in our marketing audits), we’re laying the framework for all your marketing channels, campaigns, and products, plus we’re guiding you as they’re all implemented — whether we’re the ones executing the work or your team is. We’re not going to give you a guide to marketing success without supporting you every step of that journey.
If you’re ready to connect about hiring The Happy Marketing Co. and Lindsay to be your business’ fractional CMO, fill out this Discovery Form to get started! We’ll do some light research on your company and products/services before we chat.
