Defining ‘Fractional CMO‘
Have you heard the term ‘Fractional CMO’ ?
It is a relatively new one on me! To put you out of your misery, a ‘Fractional CMO’ (or Chief Marketing Officer) is similar to an interim or part-time Marketing Director.
The responsibilities of a CMO depend on the size and shape of the organisation. You are more likely to come across the term ‘CMO’ in larger, more corporate, organisations and ‘Marketing Director’ in growing SMEs, but essentially their role is to take the lead on strategic marketing activities, reach and engagement.
Fractional CMO is the outsourcing solution that allows your company to “rent” a CMO on an ‘as needed’ basis. This may be ideal for companies that have core competencies in their business and need to tap into the marketing expertise of a full time CMO/ Marketing Director.
It’s also a great way of hiring expertise at the fraction of the cost (‘fractional’!)
When to engage a fractional CMO / interim Marketing Director?
Typically fractional CMOs are engaged by CEOs or MDs who want to:
- outsource flexible senior level expertise without employing someone full-time
- deliver a specific project
- lay the ground before hiring a full time CMO/Marketing Director
- provide cover for the employed CMO/Marketing Director such as during maternity leave, sabbaticals or extended leave of absence.
Working alongside the CEO / MD and senior team, this is a leadership role which requires expertise in multiple marketing disciplines and the ability to set and make data-driven decisions.
Within this, some of the most common tasks of CMOs are working with business units to develop strategies for communication and sales and marketing campaigns such as branding, market research, product launches and stages of heightened growth.
What should you consider before hiring a fractional CMO or interim Marketing Director?
When you hire a fractional CMO or interim Marketing Director, one advantage is the ability to have someone in place who can drive the marketing strategy from start to finish.
Make sure this person is suited to your company culture at senior level and customer-facing levels.
Your fractional CMO or part time Marketing Director should be working alongside the senior team, to support delivery of the overall business strategy and to achieve the agreed ROI (return on investment). Therefore including them in senior team and board meetings is a critical factor in ensuring all activities are aligned.
They will also need time to get up to speed on the nuances, nuts and bolts of your organisation and teams. Do you have the time to support them initially in this?
No business is perfect behind the scenes, and you need to be confident you can trust your fractional CMO / Marketing Director to keep confidences.
Added value in hiring a fractional CMO or interim Marketing Director
This independent set of eyes on your strategy and activities can lead to clearer observations on what is working and what is not working. Are you ready to receive this information and react? Are you happy with the way that this person communicates bad news as well as good? Again this often comes down to cultural fit.
As the relationship grows, you will also need to trust that they can make decisions and be proactive in their role without always needing to refer to you as the CEO / MD – they are, after all, supposed to be supporting you so that you can concentrate on other areas within the business.
It is often helpful if they have experience of working with companies similar to yours, so that they can relay real-world feedback on what has worked and not worked previously for other clients.
It is also helpful if they have useful connections you can exploit; such as marketing implementers outside of your current resource, influencers or key opinion leaders or potential clients who are on your prospect list.
If you are looking for help with your marketing strategy or need someone to deliver the strategy, a ‘fractional CMO’ or ‘interim Marketing Director’ will be cheaper than employing someone in a full time role and may be all you need at this point in time.
If you’d like to discuss this type of resource, consider us! Contact me directly on su@priddeymarketing.co.uk to arrange a no-obligation chat about whether we would be the right fit for you.
In the meantime you might also want to check out the Wikipedia CMO definition.