If your marketing strategy is beginning to hurt your business, then your company may be doing something wrong. Without a comprehensive marketing strategy that delivers positive results, it might start to feel like you’re wasting money. Let’s see how a fractional CMO can help.
To remedy this, you might need the assistance of a chief marketing officer (CMO). However, C-suite executives tend to ask for a high salary. If that’s not something you can provide right now, consider working with a fractional CMO instead.
With a fractional CMO, you’ll get the expertise of an executive minus the cost of hiring a full-time CMO. They still fulfill your company’s marketing needs, but they primarily act as consultants. Thus, you can achieve the same desired outcome in a more cost-efficient way.
If you’re starting to think that your company could use a fractional CMO, keep reading to discover the advantages of hiring one.
Table of Contents
1. Support Your Team
2. Assist With Long-Term Goals
3. Increase Performance
4. Work With A Team Of Seasoned Professionals
5. Less Costly
6. Address The Need For A Consultant
What Does A Fractional CMO Do?
Like your typical chief marketing officer, a fractional CMO oversees the marketing department and implements your business strategies. You can think of them as an interim marketing director. They help you assess your marketing objectives and aid in achieving your long-term goals.
A way to evaluate whether you need a fractional CMO is by looking at the current state of your business as well as your budget. If you see business growth but you’re not quite sure if you can afford another full-time executive, then a fractional CMO might be for you.
Perhaps your previous chief marketing officer recently quit, so you need someone to fill in the role immediately—this situation calls for a fractional CMO. The same goes for when you want to increase your marketing gains but are unsure about what kind of approach to take.
Benefits Of Hiring A Fractional CMO
Now you have a better idea of what the role of a CMO entails. With that, it’s time to learn how having a fractional CMO can benefit you and your business:
1. Support Your Team
If your sales team is currently struggling with issues regarding client response or lacking any creative marketing strategy, then a fractional CMO can be of great help. When the marketing department starts falling behind, the sales department ends up dealing with a lot of stress in turn.
The sales department now has to shoulder all the responsibility of generating leads. Without vigorous marketing support, you run the risk of burning out the members of your sales department. A fractional CMO can help you determine what’s causing your marketing problems and solve them so your sales team can focus on their tasks.
2. Assist With Long-Term Goals
Even if you outsource your CMO, you can rest assured that you have an expert who can develop your future projects. They’ll take on the daily activities needed to achieve your marketing goals. Fractional CMOs will also help you analyze your company’s strengths and points of improvement while guiding you toward long-term development.
3. Increase Performance
Plans without actions mean nothing—this is especially true in business and marketing. When you have completely mapped out the plans and strategies you’re going to use, it’s time to implement them. Fractional CMOs excel in managing marketing teams. Your department will need a leader who will act as a guide throughout the execution of the plan. More importantly, your teams will need someone to turn to if things don’t turn out as expected.
Fractional CMOs are skilled and experienced executives who know exactly what they’re doing. Thus, they can come up with ideas that’ll most likely deliver quality results.
4. Work With A Team Of Seasoned Professionals
More often than not, reputable marketing agencies like River Avenue Digital have a team of experts you can work with. Those people can strengthen your current marketing staff. They’ll offer their extensive skills and capabilities, which they have gained through many years of industry experience.
Fractional CMOs tend to work with multiple companies, big or small, so it’s highly likely they’ve already handled marketing teams like yours. Thus, you’ll be guaranteed to be working with someone who knows the ins and outs of the industry.
5. Less Costly
If your business is still growing, you probably cannot afford to pay executive salaries at the moment. That’s not something to worry about since cutting back on expenses is a common way of keeping a company afloat.
Fractional CMOs cost way less than the average in-house CMO. The difference is huge when you look at their hourly rates. Add to that all the benefits and employment taxes you have to pay when you hire a full-time CMO. Aside from those, you can expect to shell out more money when you start executing your marketing plan. Fractional CMOs charge less than a full-time employee, so hiring one may be worth giving a shot if you’re on a tight budget.
6. Address The Need For A Consultant
When your marketing executive is currently on leave and you need someone to take on their duties in the meantime, hiring a fractional CMO is definitely for you. In doing so, you can get quick help with your marketing strategies while your executive is temporarily unavailable.
Maybe the position is already vacant and you’re looking for a candidate, but the hiring process is taking too long so you need someone to step in for a while. You don’t have to worry about leaving your marketing team unmanned because you now have the option to get advice from a fractional CMO.
Conclusion
Regardless of your company’s size or whether you already have an in-house CMO, you can’t go wrong with hiring a fractional CMO. They can help you devise a marketing plan, carefully analyze your strongest suits, and spot any points of improvement.
Outsourcing your marketing executive will still allow you to get a sound analysis of marketing trends and data. Fractional CMOs are also capable of taking you to places where an in-house executive can. They’ll be there to help you make a big difference in marketing, improve sales, and push your business toward growth, but they’ll do so for a fraction of the price.