Once a business leader has decided that they need senior marketing help, the next obvious question is what services they should actually buy.
This question is deceptively simple at first. However, as business leaders go deeper into what chief marketing officer services entail, things get more confusing. The reason: the breadth of services provided is large. One of them is about running a monthly strategy call, while another service can provide fractional marketing leadership.
The purpose of this article is to clarify what’s included in the CMO service brochure, how engagements work, and how to choose well.
What Fractional Chief Marketing Officer Services Typically Include
Fractional chief marketing officer services entail all that businesses need to keep their eyes on the market and act strategically.
- Strategy and positioning: The first service is defining the business strategy. It establishes the market playground the business should play in to engage with the most customers. And it also involves positioning the business in a way that customers respond to it.
- Channel planning and budget direction: Fractional marketing leadership decides which channels should get the most marketing budget. A fashion product may get more traction on social media platforms, but not through simple ads. And a B2B business may get more value from LinkedIn. The leadership decides where the money should go and also provides justification for it.
- Data interpretation: Business tracking and marketing campaigns create an influx of data. But which ones matter most? That’s the question answered by fractional chief marketing officer services. The experts understand the key marketing metrics, turn them into reports, and help businesses decipher the reports to make better decisions.
- Team and supplier leadership: A marketing field is like a ship, where each team member has to serve a task according to the instructions provided. That requires rigorous oversight and briefing so that there is no lack of direction, which is a service included in fractional marketing leadership.
- Coaching junior marketers: New team members must get the idea of what marketing entails for the particular business they have joined. A fractional marketing officer also trains them.
- Commercial reporting: Business owners and boards should also get a commercial view of what they are buying and what they will get. A fractional marketing officer service includes that as well.
How Fractional CMO Engagements Are Usually Structured
There are two kinds of CMO engagements: one consists of an ongoing retainer and the other one is project-based.
According to research, 46% of fractional executives bill mainly on a monthly retainer. And when it comes to term-based engagement, initial terms often run 6 to 12 months. However, if there is project work, the term is much shorter, running from 4 to 24 weeks.
Which one to choose? If business owners want to deal with a single marketing problem or task, such as a launch or a reset, project work suits them better. However, if a business requires strong leadership in the days to come, a retainer will keep the marketing afloat.
That being said, 64% of fractional practitioners serve two or more clients. It means that before engaging with any of them, businesses should agree on priorities and cadences.
How to Choose the Right Fractional CMO Provider
There is no dataset online that reveals the ROI increase that a fractional CMO can cause; therefore, businesses should define the kind of CMO they want before the engagement even begins.
Here are the key questions to ask:
- Has the CMO been accountable for commercial outcomes, not just campaigns?
- Has the CMO firm worked with businesses of similar size?
- Is the marketing leadership capable of working across digital and traditional channels?
- How will the fractional marketer report the progress, and what will be the frequency of those reports?
If a CMO provider talks more about the tactics they apply before understanding the nature of the business they aim to serve, it should be considered a warning sign.
Overall, getting the right CMO partner will go beyond just adding hours to marketing. They will give the marketing a profitable direction.
