As a small business owner, growth can be a challenge. Your current set up might only allow you to get so far before you find your resources are depleted. You need to find solutions to help you move forward so you can meet your business goals. When you feel you don’t have the knowledge, the time nor the patience to find a marketing expert to help you on your growth journey, it might make sense to consider a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO.)
A fractional CMO provides you access to the intelligence, experience and input of a marketing expert when you need them. This way you don’t have to incur the cost of hiring a full-time CMO, but still reap the benefits their expertise contributes to your success.
Expertise on a Budget
When you work with a Fractional CMO, they become your go-to, on-demand expert. As a small business, you might not have the same workload and marketing plan as a larger business. This means your needs are on a smaller scale. If you choose to hire a CMO full time, they might often be twiddling their thumbs, while you still fork out a salary. The average salary for a CMO is $138,966, while fractional packages start as low as $3,500 per month.
Just some of the ways their expertise saves you money include:
- Industry contacts: Finding appropriate marketing vendors to provide extended marketing services takes time. These guys have their own proven contacts and often can even get better prices for their referrals.
- Budget smarts: They are used to working with smaller budgets and can stretch your dollar further.
- Accountability: Many small businesses fly by the seat of their pants for their marketing efforts. This means when things go south, no one is left holding the bag. You’ll finally have someone who knows they are responsible. This includes being accountable to track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Metrics for ROI
One of the biggest challenges small businesses face (and big ones for that matter) is trying to validate their marketing spend. You spend on PPC, create some pretty cool video, have people tapping out some awesome social posts, but all of this takes time and money. So how do you truly know what works and what doesn’t? More importantly, how do you know where to spend your marketing budget? Your fractional CMO understands all that analytic mumbo jumbo and can present it to you and your team in terms that are easy to understand. Voila. You can actually start making some informed decisions!
Ramp Up Your Strategy
A fractional CMO can provide you with a much-needed upgrade to your marketing strategy. At best, you might have a handle on social media and have someone in your circle that can manage it for you. However, marketing today is pretty demanding and needs a strategy and goals to help you succeed. With a fractional CMO at your disposal, you can have them ramp up your strategy with ideas that will align with your business goals.
Experimental
You might have a budget that could withstand some experimentation with your marketing efforts. The key to good marketing is to test and measure until you hit the right formula that works for you. If you don’t have expertise in this area, you could be going down the wrong path more often than not. This eats into your budget with little to show for your spend. A fractional CMO will know how to experiment to find the right formula for your team and offer advice to your people so they can take the ball and run with it.
Guidance and Mentoring
If you have an in-house team that makes up for lack of experience with commitment and gumption, a fractional CMO can offer guidance and mentoring. Although this can sometimes lead to resentment, when handled properly, your team can go from intermediate to expert for very little money. The fractional CMO also provides a fresh set of eyes that are less emotional and more business-like. This allows them to make worthwhile suggestions based on knowledge, not personal biases.
Do You Need Someone Full Time?
Although you’re working with a fractional CMO to serve as your marketing guru, they might also provide a solid clue as to whether you actually could use a full-time CMO. As you work with them, and you rely on them more and more, you might see you do need someone inhouse. On the flip side, if your interactions are minimal, you’ll know the fractional route makes more sense.
If you’ve been struggling with your marketing initiatives, the fractional CMO option is worth investigating.
For more information about our fractional CMO services, click here.