Hiring a Fractional CMO

Most Common Situations Or Problems That Warrant a Fractional CMO

1. Positioning problems: Your messaging is unclear, differentiation is weak, and the team is not aligned on what to lead with.
2. Pipeline problems: Lead flow is inconsistent, inbound is not compounding, and growth depends on one-off efforts.
3. Channel problems: You are spending on marketing but performance is unpredictable (CAC drifts, conversion rates swing, attribution is unclear).
4. Team  problems: You have execution capacity, but no senior owner to set priorities, run the plan, and hold the function accountable.

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How a Fractional CMO Helps With Solving Those Problems

1. Strategy & execution: They set a clear marketing strategy aligned to company goals and translate it into an execution plan the team can run.
2. Brand management: They clarify positioning, tighten messaging, and ensure consistency across channels so the market understands what you do quickly.
3. Digital growth: They oversee core digital levers (content, email, paid, social) with a focus on what drives pipeline and revenue, not activity.
4. Marketing analytics: They define the few metrics that matter, set up reporting, and use performance data to decide what to scale vs cut.
5. Team leadership: They lead and mentor the marketing team, set expectations, and create a cadence that keeps work focused on outcomes.

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Fractional Marketing Lead or a More Senior Fractional CMO?

One way to decide is to look at what’s missing: direction or throughput. If you already have a clear plan and just need someone to run campaigns, ship content, improve landing pages, or manage tooling, a strong Fractional Marketing Lead can cover it. If the plan itself is the problem (unclear positioning, too many channel options, inconsistent pipeline, no clear measurement) then you want a more senior Fractional CMO who can set the strategy, prioritize what to focus on, and be accountable for results with leadership.

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Under-Rated Use Case: Storytelling

Erika joined Human Touch (eCommerce) as a Fractional CMO to lead a brand refresh, build a more modern DTC marketing strategy, and set up sustainable consumer-led growth. In a ~10 hours/week scope, the focus was on the highest-leverage work: repositioning the brand, mentoring the internal team, and implementing current DTC best practices. Read more about it here.

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Fractional CMO Case Study

Henry Homes (proptech) needed to come up with a geo-specific launch strategy. To do this, they came to Fractional Jobs to find the right Fractional Marketing Director, one with deep location-specific marketing experience. And someone who could not only set the strategy, but do the necessary execution work too.

Henry Homes’ CEO said: "I think what we're actually finding is that the candidates are all exceptional. I appreciate all your support. Such an excellent process and very fast."

Fractional Jobs also helped:

1. Kiri (consumer SaaS) hire a Fractional Marketing Director for 10 hours per week.
2. Besolo (B2B SaaS) hire a Fractional Marketing Director for 10 hours per week.
3. The Greats of Craft (F&B) hire a Fractional Head of Marketing for 5 hours per week.

All with similar results.

Get help hiring a Fractional CMO for your startup or SMB, learn more here.

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