A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is an experienced marketing leader who works with a business on a part-time or flexible basis, rather than as a full-time employee.
For SMEs, this can be particularly useful. A business may already have someone managing social media, an agency running advertisements and another vendor handling the website. There may be plenty of marketing activity happening.
The bigger question is: Who is directing it all? That is where a Fractional CMO comes in.
Strategy Before Execution
A Fractional CMO looks at marketing from a business perspective.
Instead of starting with questions such as “What should we post this week?”, the conversation starts with bigger questions. Who are the customers? What does the business want to achieve? Which markets offer the best opportunities? What should the brand be known for? And where should the marketing budget be spent?
Once there is clarity, campaigns and execution can follow.
This helps prevent a common SME problem: doing plenty of marketing without having a clear marketing strategy behind it.
What Does a Fractional CMO Do?
Depending on the business, a Fractional CMO may help develop the marketing strategy, identify priorities, establish KPIs, oversee campaigns and coordinate internal teams or external marketing vendors.
The role is not necessarily to execute every marketing activity. Instead, the Fractional CMO provides direction, structure and senior marketing oversight so that everyone involved understands what the business is trying to achieve.
When Does a Business Need One?
A Fractional CMO may make sense when a business has grown beyond basic marketing but isn’t ready to employ a full-time senior marketing leader.
It can also help when marketing feels fragmented, several vendors are involved, results are difficult to measure or the business owner is still personally directing every marketing decision.
For an SME, the answer isn’t always another marketing executive or another agency. Sometimes, what the business needs first is someone looking at the whole marketing picture and deciding where everything should go.
Need senior marketing direction without hiring a full-time CMO?
Tin Communications’ Marketing Advisory helps SMEs bring clarity, structure and direction to their marketing from strategy and priorities to KPIs and execution oversight. Talk to us about Marketing Advisory.
