When you need marketing help, there have been traditionally only been a few options:
- Hire a full-time Chief Marketing Officer
- Outsource your marketing to an agency
- Hire a part-time Fractional Marketing Executive
- A combination of the above
With the exception of hiring someone full-time for your team, a Fractional CMO becomes an integral member of your marketing team. They provide you with the same caliber of expert marketing leadership that a full-time member would, but for a fraction of the cost.
If you are a large enterprise who has the budget and needs to have a full-time CMO on board, the need might be less.
However if you do not have CMO-level experience in-house, or if your marketing department lacks the type of experienced professionals for the marketing initiatives at hand, a Fractional CMO is a wise choice.
What is a Fractional CMO?
By definition, a Fractional CMO is an outsourced, contract Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), retained on a part-time basis to provide executive marketing leadership for a growing business.
This allows the company to have an experienced executive that can:
- Improve your marketing strategies and results
- Guide you towards long-term growth
All without the cost of a full-time headcount, benefits, hiring/recruiting, training, and more!
Contracting a Fractional CMO provides a cost-effective, high value-add service to your business where we literally operate as one of your team members aligned with your company objectives.
How to Select a Fractional CMO
When selecting a Fractional CMO, you want to base your decision on a number of factors including, but not limited to:
- Marketing leader experience
- Expertise in marketing strategies and techniques
- Their experience of working with other companies as a marketing leader
- The Fractional CMO business model they use
5 Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO
The Cost to Hire a Fractional CMO
The biggest advantage of hiring a Fractional CMO is that it is extremely cost-effective because, when compared to hiring a full-time CMO, it’s generally considered to be 1.25 – 1.4 times greater than their base salary.
With an average full-time CMO base salary being $250,000-$350,000, or more, plus the variable costs (such as health benefits, 401K, recruiting firm, bonus, equity, etc.) of hiring an employee, the average annual cost of hiring a full-time CMO is closer to $312,500 – $490,000.
How Fractional CMOs are Paid
In contrast, a Fractional CMO is typically paid a retainer per month or hourly rate of $250-$325/hr., based on experience.
As the name implies, the cost is a fraction of a full-time CMO. What will differ, based on the company and needs, is how much you’ll save, or the exact cost it will be.
Many Fractional CMOs price their fees on length of:
- Contract term
- The number of hours dedicated to your business each month
Fractional CMOs bring an incredible amount of flexibility to your organization and bottom-line.
So while you can’t hire someone full-time and plan to let them go in 3, 6, or 12 months, you can hire Fractional CMOs for fixed and shorter terms!
If you are interested in working with us, and to learn more, contact us today!
