The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

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From Strategy to Execution: A Full Team Approach with a Single Point of Responsibility

As a private equity investor, you’re an expert at seeing the potential in a business. But you may also be familiar with the fact that in many cases, the founder of that business doesn’t have the background or knowledge as to how to actually reach it. This is why more and more private equity firms that invest in small- to mid-size businesses or start-ups ready to scale up are leveraging the benefits of fractional CMOs.

What will a Fractional CMO do for my Private Equity Company?

Fractional CMO services offer the full executive power of seasoned Chief Marketing Officer through a fully customized commitment. These subject matter experts work with you for a fixed amount of time in a given month, utilizing their proven experience and success to assess the risk, value, and potential of your acquisition through a flexible investment.

A fCMO will lead, manage, and deliver a return on your investment by:

  • Managing the day-to-day function of the marketing team
  • Working closely with your leadership team and other stakeholders, such as CEOs, CSO, VPs, the Board, as well as Salesforce
  • Delivering ROI to determine whether to continue to invest in each area of the marketing programs
  • Working closely with the sales group to ensure that leads generate receive the appropriate attention and follow through (this is key!)

This model is perfect if your portfolio company needs a marketing reset, its current management team lacks senior-level marketing talent, it cannot afford/doesn’t need a full-time marketing department, or it wants to reduce the risks of developing and implementing a new business marketing plan.

Setting the Stage for Fractional CMOs in Private Equity Companies

The marketing landscape is rapidly changing, and recent trends are amplifying the benefits in using fractional CMOs and digital marketing team.

  1. Smaller to mid-size businesses are starting to invest much more in online marketing but cannot afford a full-time marketing department — or they just don’t need one.
  2. The startup scene is thriving. Over 800,000 new businesses are emerging every year (SBA, 2021) only an estimated 20% of which will be operating in five years. Fractional CMOs are a great fit as these companies start to scale up, but many are pursuing these partnerships early in the development stage to make their product or service more appealing to intial customers.
  3. Advancing technology and the rise of remote working has made it easier to collaborate with fractional CMOs and fractional digital marketing teams.

When a Fractional CMO can Help Your Portfolio Company

fCMO services could be a great fit for your portfolio company if one or more of the following applies:

  • The company needs to accelerate growth, but either lacks a complete marketing department or executive guidance and leadership.
  • You’re interested in getting an independent, outside perspective on the business, its marketing strategy, and its commercial tactics.
  • The company is a startup needs to hit the ground running but currently does not have the time or budget to hire a full in-house team.
  • The company needs marketing leadership and support to keep up with competitors but isn’t in the position to incur the high costs and risks in searching, training, and developing an in-house team.
  • The company’s CEO (or another senior leader) is spending more time on marketing at the expense of other priorities.
  • The company is starting to launch more products and services and needs to increase bandwidth quickly or needs specialized expertise.

Accelerating Growth & Value Creation Pre- and Post-Acquisition

&Marketing not only helps you uncover the true potential of your investment, but it can also complement your fractional CMO with a full team of digital marketing experts to handle the entire creative execution. Unlike other providers who leave that to the company or a third-party, &Marketing offers a full-team approach with a digital-first fCMO that becomes a key part of your leadership team supported by our digital marketing experts who will take full responsibility of your company’s strategy — from pre-acquisition due diligence to post-acquisition delivery.

We’ve built a network of 40+ digital-first, ROI-driven fCMOs with proven experience as external consultants and leading in-house marketing departments to ensure every facet of your strategy is connected in the most effective way. These battle-proven executives lead your marketing due diligence, while digital marketing specialists handle the creative execution to ensure your efforts drive the most meaningful results.

Helping Portfolio Companies Succeed

Your team of digital experts will help you gain a deeper understanding of the market’s dynamics, key segments, primary and secondary competition, and most importantly, current and potential customers.

Through a single point of responsibility, you’ll receive:

  • A marketing leader on the management team, experienced enough to work with stakeholders, including shareholders, CEOs, and other functional leaders
  • A deep understanding of the market dynamics, competition, and customers
  • A robust marketing strategy
  • Positioning that is “true, distinct, and compelling”
  • Content that “informs, inspires, and excites”
  • Strong branding and positioning
  • Product pricing and new products/services luanches
  • Online and media optimization; SEO, Account Based Marketing, PR, etc.
  • Customer retention and loyalty programs
  • Salesforce marketing material and qualified lead conversion

How Much Does a Fractional CMO for Portfolio Companies Cost?

Full-time CMOs in the U.S. average a salary of $175K, plus benefits, earning between $200-300/hour (Glassdoor). With a time commitment starting at one week per month, our full team of marketing experts led by a fractional CMO start between $15,000 to $25,000 per month (plus any out-of-pocket expenses). This team includes the fCMO, a Marketing Manager, and the subject matter experts needed to creatively execute your digital marketing programs. That means you can get a full team without going through a lengthy and expensive search and hire process — AND the money saved can be used to develop more effective marketing programs and initiatives.

Let a Fractional CMO Lead Your Growth Marketing

Pre- and post- acquisition digital due diligence and a strong marketing strategy allows companies to build their branding, attract new customers, generate leads, maintain customer loyalty, accelerate growth, and more. That’s why executing the best marketing strategy possible is crucial to the growth of your portfolio company in the digital age. A fCMO supported by a digital marketing team offers a single point of responsibility to ensure your business strategy and execution is done in the most effective and successful way.

To see our full roster of seasoned fCMO or learn more about how we can help your acquisition drive long-term success, contact &Marketing today.

&Marketing Case Study: Healthcare Digital Marketing Strategy Simplified

A cutting-edge healthcare technology company (BUDDI.AI), whose target audience includes C-level healthcare executives, was poised for major growth in 2021. However, they were playing in a fragmented competitive landscape that would require them to creatively “break through the noise” in order to build and maintain brand awareness, drive lead generation, and achieve tangible results. To become a true thought leader and partner of choice in the industry, they needed to enhance their digital presence.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

Brand Storytelling: Winning Business by Making Your Customer the Hero

Brand Storytelling: Winning Business by Making Your Customer the Hero

Brand Storytelling: Winning Business by Making Your Customer the Hero

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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These days, you can find any information you could want online. Thanks to Google, instant gratification has become a daily feature in our lives. What has become more rare, however, is human connection.

That’s why connecting with consumers more deeply as human beings has become more effective. It’s not enough anymore to simply share the logical reasons why your brand has something special to offer. To cut through the noise of today’s oversaturated markets, you also need to weave emotion and empathy into a narrative that captures and holds their attention.

Why a narrative?

  • Storytelling has been shown to increase oxytocin production in the brain, which encourages people to feel more empathetic and willing to participate in a shared, cooperative experience.
  • Audiences naturally engage more with emotions, ideas, and values over products and services.
  • A memorable brand story gives consumers a stronger impression of who you are and what you stand for, ideals that are more likely to inspire loyalty.

Storytelling is always at the core of what we do for our clients, and we’re passionate about helping organizations realize the power of its impact. Below, you’ll learn more about the neurological impact of storytelling on the human brain, the basics of brand storytelling structure, and how positioning your customer as the hero positions you to win more business.

Why Our Brains Love Brand Storytelling

Recent scientific studies show that storytelling has a measurable impact on the brain, particularly the synthesis of oxytocin. Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland, sometimes referred to as the “love hormone,” as it can be released by things like touch, music, and exercise, which produce feelings of well-being.

“Oxytocin is produced when we are trusted or shown a kindness, and it motivates cooperation with others,” says Paul J. Zak, founding director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and a professor of economics, psychology, and management at Claremont Graduate University. “We found that character-driven stories do consistently cause oxytocin synthesis. Further, the amount released by the brain predicted how much people were willing to help others.”

Zak’s team has also gotten insight into what makes stories effective at spurring oxytocin production, finding that a story must first grab and hold the audience’s attention by creating tension. When the characters experience tension, the audience’s ability to empathize and get transported into the story increases. If you’ve ever felt like working out or taking a karate class after watching an action flick, this is why. This may be because our attention to the story at hand sharpens as more tension arises. Our senses heighten as we get swept more and more into the story, imagining ourselves in the hero’s place.

If you can present your consumers with a story that places them in the center of the narrative as the hero triumphing over daunting obstacles to achieve their goals, you can capture their attention and empathy. You’ll have the opportunity to show them (not tell them) how you can help them defeat their villains and change their lives for the better.

Brand Storytelling Structure

Another reason storytelling is so effective is that it helps our brains organize information in a way that’s easy to understand. Stories put everything in order to prevent the audience from getting confused and tuning us out.

Because effective storytelling has been studied and practiced for thousands of years, it can be distilled down into a definable and repeatable structure. This structure is highly effective at helping brands simplify their message and use their opportunity to communicate with the audience to its fullest potential.

In Building A StoryBrand, Donald Miller identifies seven essential parts to storytelling:

“A character who wants something encounters a problem before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a guide steps into their lives, gives them a plan, and calls them to action. That action helps them avoid failure and ends in a success.”

Miller says that customers are most interested in how your brand will help them to survive and thrive. Once you understand their needs, desires, problems, fears, and goals, you can place them in the center of this storytelling structure as the hero conquering their foes with you by their side as a trusted expert and guide. Just remember — they are the hero, not your brand!

Using Brand Storytelling To Win Business

People want to see themselves as the heroes of their own stories, and helping them do that is a vital way to cut through the noise and differentiate your brand. By focusing on their goals rather than your own, you position your brand as a wise guide that can help them overcome their challenges and thrive.

Once you’ve identified your ideal customer/main character, you need to define the problems they need your help solving. Focus on internal problems, the kind that keep your audience up at night — the primary villain, the dragon they need to slay. In what concrete ways do these problems present themselves in daily life? How does it nag at them mentally throughout the day?

As their empathetic and authoritative guide, you should be able to articulate how your brand can help them vanquish their villain. That means you’ll need to present yourself as wise, showing your expertise through case studies and testimonials to demonstrate how you’ve helped others. You’ll also need to show empathy and that you thoroughly understand their challenges.

Now that they’ve got a trusted guide on their side, they need a plan of attack. That’s where calls to action come into play. Don’t be coy — tell your audience exactly what they should do to fight their villain and come out on top. Articulate how this action will help them to achieve success and avoid failure, transforming them from the striving hero to the ultimate champion.

Unleash Your Inner Yoda

Do you want to unleash your brand’s inner Yoda, guiding customers toward their Luke Skywalker moment? Learn more about storytelling in our free guide to narrative marketing, where you’ll find a full breakdown of each step from StoryBrand.

About the Author

Content Specialist Kim Steinmetz helps brands and thought leaders discover and develop their unique voice and tone while establishing authority on a topic through compelling messaging and copywriting. An accomplished writer and marketer with over a decade of experience, Kim is well-versed in both B2C and B2B content. 

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

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How To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders for Your Content Marketing Strategy

How To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders for Your Content Marketing Strategy

How To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders for Your Content Marketing Strategy

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Your content marketing strategy is vital to your organization’s overall success, so getting buy-in from stakeholders outside the marketing department is crucial to keep everyone aligned toward business goals. When everyone puts their heads together to provide input into the new plan, fresh perspectives and ideas are uncovered to make the strategy work better for each department.

We’ve spent years discovering the most effective approaches to get buy-in from stakeholders, so we combined our knowledge to create this guide. Keep reading to discover our 3-step process to winning your entire organization over to your brilliant new content marketing strategy.

Why Does Getting Buy-In From Stakeholders Matter?

There are many reasons why getting buy-in from stakeholders for your content marketing strategy is a step that should always be remembered. It may take hard work and patience, but it’s worth it — when everyone is aligned on a strategy:

  • Non-marketing employees feel more invested and engaged in the marketing department’s activities and are often more willing to contribute to efforts as subject matter experts.
  • It becomes easier for your business to develop its brand identity and present a strong, clear impression of it to the market.
  • The long-term success of the strategy improves with greater internal support.
  • Project planning becomes easier because everyone is aligned on priorities.

How To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders in 3 Steps

Marketing is constantly evolving, so you must be strategic about getting buy-in when you propose changes to your strategy. Leadership especially wants to be reassured that any changes are highly likely to deliver results, so you’ll need to come prepared with plenty of data — but that’s not all:

1. Determine who your stakeholders are. Focus on their concerns and priorities.

Map out how various departments interact with or may be impacted by your strategy. Examples may include outside sales, customer service, IT, and others. Start thinking about their responsibilities, needs, and possible objections. What will you need from them, and how can you ease the burden on them to provide that?

Depending on your organization’s size, it might be worthwhile to have a different session with each department. This can help you avoid bogging anyone down with extra information irrelevant to them, tailor your presentation more closely to your audience, and provide them with individual attention.

When it comes to getting leadership buy-in, ensure you understand what metrics leaders are most interested in improving and can demonstrate how your plan will help move the needle toward the company’s goals.

2. Lead with transparency: be clear about what you want.

Make sure everyone knows the purpose of each meeting beforehand, so stakeholders know what to expect. Don’t wait until the end of the session to finally get to the ask — tell stakeholders what you want from them at the beginning, then provide a clear explanation of why they should agree.

Set a baseline by explaining how things are currently done and where there’s room for improvement. This is an excellent opportunity to incorporate data showing where your current strategy could improve.

Pro tip: don’t just rattle off facts. Storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool — don’t just use it in your content marketing strategy. Use it to create an engaging and impactful presentation that pulls your stakeholders in just as you would a customer.

3. Prove your claims and call on them to act.

Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention and imagination, appeal to their logical side by providing data to give your proposal more legitimacy. Make sure it’s easy to understand and leads to a clear conclusion. Share examples of other organizations that have seen success with similar strategies. Most stakeholders don’t want to be the first to try a new tactic, but if they can see that others have succeeded, they’ll feel more comfortable giving it a try.

Clearly describe the benefits of your plan. A strong content marketing strategy makes customers feel more comfortable interacting with you because they’ve come to you. It also often costs significantly less than outbound marketing strategies while netting higher quality leads and improving visibility online. Make sure your audience also clearly understands any benefits specific to their department or goals, and make a clear and concise ask for exactly what you want them to do next to support your plan.

Overcoming Obstacles To Get Buy-In From Stakeholders

Sometimes there are factors beyond your control influencing stakeholder decisions. For example, if you’ve just joined the company, your peers and leadership might not have had enough time to get to know and trust your expertise. While it can be frustrating, it is understandable, and there are ways to help stakeholders warm up to your ideas even if they haven’t yet warmed up to you. For example, consulting with an outside expert, someone likely to be trusted and respected, can be valuable in helping to reinforce your claims.

If your plan requires marketing skills you don’t currently have and you aren’t ready to make a significant investment in headcount, you can outsource key roles. It’s common to do this for tactical roles like website design or content creation, but you can also hire part-time executive-level content marketing help in the form of a Fractional Content Marketing Officer, or fCMO. An fCMO can lead your team in both strategy and execution of your content marketing strategy without the high overhead of adding another full-time member to your C-suite.

How To Measure the Short-Term Success of Your Content Marketing

Content marketing is ultimately a long-term strategy, but stakeholders are often interested in hearing about short-term results whenever possible. At the outset of your plan, establish your baseline to measure against. Short-term goals to track include social media interactions (likes, shares, mentions, followers), backlinks, and leads and conversions. Search engine traffic will take longer to rise, but with a baseline, you’ll be able to see any quick bumps if they do happen.

Get Help Telling Your Story

Whether you need help creating an impactful story for stakeholders or customers, we’ve got a roadmap for you. To help you successfully lead your hero down the path to their own happily ever after, &Marketing has broken down Donald Miller’s StoryBrand roadmap into easily digestible bites. Download our free guide to narrative marketing for a simple breakdown of each step.

About the Author

Content Specialist Kim Steinmetz helps brands and thought leaders discover and develop their unique voice and tone while establishing authority on a topic through compelling messaging and copywriting. An accomplished writer and marketer with over a decade of experience, Kim is well-versed in both B2C and B2B content. 

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Insights

How SaaS Businesses Can Benefit from a Fractional CMO

Adaptability and strategic marketing are the keys to success in the fast-paced arena of Software as a Service (SaaS). As SaaS companies strive to navigate the complexities of a competitive market, the role of a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) becomes increasingly...

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In the fast-paced world of business, executive leaders often find themselves caught in a whirlwind of responsibilities, decisions, and expectations. The relentless demands of modern leadership can take a toll, leading to burnout that not only affects individual...
The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

What Is A Fractional Marketing Department and Do You Need One?

What Is A Fractional Marketing Department and Do You Need One?

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Our fractional marketing team, led by a Fractional CMO, provides you with highly experienced, executive-level leadership to develop a robust marketing strategy – plus, it will ensure effective execution. It can be your marketing team or supplement existing marketing professionals on your staff. Let’s start with the basics.

What Is A Fractional Marketing Department ?

A fractional marketing department is exactly what it sounds like: a complete marketing team led by an executive-level marketing leader to replace or augment an existing internal team. The team and CMO offer proven skills and capabilities paired with repeatable marketing processes at a fraction of the cost.

Do You Need A Fractional Marketing Team?

A fractional marketing team and CMO can be the perfect solution to help small to mid-sized companies and start-ups:

  • Acquire new customers and retain current ones
  • Launch new products and services
  • Gain market, customer, and competitive insights
  • Improve profitability

A fractional marketing team and CMO may be ideal for you if:

  • You need an executive-level marketing leader paired with an expert execution team
  • You can’t afford a complete marketing department
  • You’re ready for growth, expansion, and scaling up

Why Fractional Marketing Teams Work

We believe that combining highly experienced executive leadership with solid execution capability is the recipe for success.

  • We work with clients investing in growth, scaling up with a proven offering, or introducing new products or services.
  • We offer highly experienced Fractional CMOs who will be valued members of your inner circle.
  • We ensure a robust, data-driven marketing strategy with clear direction and measurable goals based on understanding your market, your competition, and your target audience.
  • We help you develop positioning that is true, distinct, and compelling.
  • We use only the necessary subject matter experts to ensure sound and effective execution.
  • We help you develop content that informs, inspires, and excites.
  • We use a mix of media that is right for your brand.
  • We continuously measure the return on your investment.
  • We work closely with your sales team, especially B2B, to ensure that qualified leads are converted.
  • We develop a cycle of regular meetings to report progress focused on what is working and what is not with recommendations on improvements needed.
  • When you are ready, we can help you build your own marketing department.

Our Fractional Marketing Team and CMOs

We combine executive leadership with a Fractional Marketing Manager and have on-demand experts with a wide variety of marketing skills and capabilities for executing these strategies. This helps ensure that your marketing investment achieves a solid return.

  • The Fractional Chief Marketing Officer brings the knowledge and experience of leading several marketing teams over many years to drive the results your company needs. They have done it before, many times. This fCMO can be a part of your Management Team and effectively interact with your team and various stakeholders, such as your Board of Directors.
  • Our Marketing Manager supports the CMO, acts as the project manager for your various marketing initiatives, ensures that you have the right subject matter experts, and leads the execution team.
  • We select the subject matter experts that you need to meet your goals and objectives. These experts provide you with the expertise you may need in areas like:
    • Data analytics
    • Websites
    • Creative and graphics
    • Content and copy
    • Social media
    • Direct marketing
    • Public relations

Building A Solid Foundation

We start by building a data-driven foundation for a robust marketing strategy which leads to a road map with clear objectives and goals. It can be simple or more complicated depending on your situation, your competition, the uniqueness of your products or services, and the cohesiveness of your target group. We have done this in two weeks, or it can take three to six months.

  • We develop deep insights into your market, competitors, and current and potential customers. We also use your company information, conduct internet searches, and use online data analytics. A critical part of the process is interviewing your team. This work is usually qualitative, though quantitative research may be required in some more complex situations.
  • The deliverables from this would include
    • Clear goals and objectives of the marketing programs
    • A one-page strategy map that would be your 2-3 year road map
    • A clear, concise definition of your target group
    • A true, distinct and compelling positioning
    • The execution strategy

We are firm believers that this should be an iterative process with you and your team so that we produce the best approach possible. We aim for at least a bi-weekly check-in with the CEO to align with company goals. The Fractional CMO leads the development of the strategy, then provides overall executive-level guidance for the execution. Finally, we will make a formal presentation to your Management Team at the end of this stage.

Effective Execution

Our execution focuses on brand building, creating awareness, and generating leads/trials. We focus on a variety of content that informs, inspires, and excites, choosing the best medium for you. We qualify leads with a call-to-action and use landing pages and websites. For B2B, we qualify leads and work closely with your sales force/inside sales to convert potential customers.

Our execution process:

  • The Marketing Manager acts as project manager under fCMO guidance.
  • The execution strategy is converted to a detailed execution plan.
  • A budget is proposed and gets your approval.
  • We pull in the required resources and subject matter expertise to implement the plan.
  • We do weekly or bi-weekly check-ins, usually 30 minutes.
  • We prefer to do a Quarterly review with a focus on what is working and what needs to be changed.

Are You Ready For Fractional Marketing Services?

Good marketing builds your brand, creates awareness, generates leads, attracts new customers, and accelerates your growth. Finding a way to do the absolute best marketing you can is critical, especially when times are tight. Hiring a Fractional CMO with a solid execution team may be a smart way to go. Plus, you can add people and capabilities as you grow. At the right time, we will help you transition by developing the right organizational structure while helping you hire the right people. For &Marketing, this transition is a sign that we have been successful. Contact us today to start driving growth with a Fractional CMO.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

What Is A Fractional CMO? How Much Is A Fractional CMO?

What Is A Fractional CMO? How Much Is A Fractional CMO?

&Marketing, and marketing, outsourced marketing strategy

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Are you ready to accelerate your company’s growth to the next level? Do you need to increase awareness and inspire prospects to try your products or services? Do you need a highly experienced marketing leader to bring a fresh perspective? That is why we created &Marketing+ with its Fractional CMO service. This may be the right answer for you – at a fraction of the cost of a full-time in-house team.

What Is A Fractional CMO?

You may have seen the term before and wondered, “what is a Fractional CMO?” A Fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive retained part-time to provide executive-level leadership. An fCMO offers proven skills and capabilities paired with repeatable marketing processes at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

How Much Is A Fractional CMO?

Hiring a top chief marketing executive in the United States costs upwards of $300K per year, plus bonuses and benefits. &Marketing’s Fractional CMOs offer a high level of expertise at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, we provide access to our team of digital marketing experts. Your fractional marketing team will include the CMO, a Marketing Manager, and the subject matter experts needed to create and execute your digital marketing plan. With us, you can get a full team without going through a lengthy and expensive search and hire process. Instead, you can use the money you save to develop marketing programs and initiatives.

This may be an ideal way to get started. When you are ready to hire full-time people, you will have processes in place, and we will be able to help you transition by developing the organizational structure that is right for you and helping you hire the right people. This transition, for &Marketing, is a sign that we have been successful.

Who Can Benefit From a Fractional CMO?

Many companies across industries, from start-ups to the middle market, can benefit from quickly onboarding a marketing leader and an execution team. With &Marketing+, they can do it without incurring the tremendous costs and risks associated with searching, training, and ramp-up time that a full-time in-house Marketing Department would take.

You will benefit from this arrangement if some of the following characteristics apply to you:

  • You want to accelerate your growth to get to the next level, which includes executive-level guidance and nimble execution capabilities.
  • You need an independent, outside perspective on your business, marketing strategy, and commercial tactics.
  • Your growth has stagnated, and you have a strong desire to grow your business.
  • You’ve never invested in marketing (and don’t know where to start) but are curious how an investment could change the trajectory of your business.
  • You need to hit the ground running but do not have the time or budget to hire a full in-house team.
  • You are spending time and money on marketing that is not cohesive or effective.
  • You are planning to launch more products and services or grow with new types of customers.

This is ideal for start-ups or scale-ups with funding in place to provide customer or market perspective, usually at the time of a Series A. A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer is also ideal for middle-market companies which have never seriously invested in marketing.

For more established companies, a Fractional CMO and team can bring incredible value when launching a new product or service, especially when having a full-time CMO wouldn’t make fiscal or practical sense.

Do you think that you can benefit from a Fractional marketing team? Contact us with any questions and see if there is a good fit.

Our Fractional CMOs Are Here To Help You Succeed

Our approach allows you to tap into the services of subject matter experts and digital marketing teams who bring unique and diverse strategies to the table. They have the knowledge and experience of leading several marketing teams to drive the results your company needs. They have done it before, many times.

&Marketing’s Team and Fractional CMOs can provide you, and the rest of your team, with a deeper understanding of your market and its dynamics, key segments, your primary and secondary competition, and, most importantly, an in-depth understanding of your current and potential customers.

The team will take ownership of your company’s marketing programs and help ensure that your company properly implements everything from digital marketing to analytics.

We combine the development of a robust marketing strategy with complete execution so that you have just one point of responsibility. Services include:

  • Being the marketing leader on your management team
  • Developing a deep understanding of your market dynamics, competition, and customers
  • Developing a robust marketing strategy
  • Driving positioning that is “true, distinct, and compelling”
  • Building content that “informs, inspires, and excites”
  • Strengthening branding and building your brand image
  • Driving product pricing and the launch of new products/services
  • Optimizing and improving your online and media presence, deploying SEO, Account Based Marketing, PR, etc.
  • Preparing marketing material for your sales force and working closely with them to convert qualified leads
  • Creating customer retention and loyalty programs

Our Fractional CMOs Are Process & ROI-Driven

Our Fractional CMOs and teams are process-driven to enable you to scale up – ensuring you have the proper guardrails and strategic oversight to meet your long-term growth needs. Our brand building, lead generation, and conversion processes are outlined below.

The Fractional CMOs will lead, manage, and deliver a return on your investment:

  • The Fractional CMO will manage the day-to-day function of the marketing team.
  • They will work closely with your leadership team and other stakeholders such as the CEOs, CSO, VPs, the Board, and sales force.
  • They will deliver ROI to make sure that it makes sense to continue to invest (or not invest) in each area of the marketing program.

This works because the Fractional CMO and team are highly experienced; they have done it before. They have seen the ups and downs and are equipped to effectively manage marketing departments and work closely with the entire team. They are trained to focus on results and help the company to scale.

 

Is A Fractional CMO Right For You?

Good marketing builds your brand, creates awareness, generates leads, attracts new customers, and accelerates your growth. Finding a way to do the absolute best marketing you can is critical, especially when times are tight. Hiring a Fractional CMO with a solid execution team may be a smart way to go. Contact us today to start driving growth with a Fractional CMO.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.

The Benefits of a Fractional CMO for Private Equity Firms

How Do You Know If You Should Hire A Fractional CMO?

How Do You Know If You Should Hire A Fractional CMO?

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An expert marketing team led by a highly experienced Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (fCMO) can be the right answer if you are not ready or don’t want to spend the money on a full team. This is ideal for start-ups ready to scale up and small to mid-sized businesses that want to accelerate growth.

5 Signs That You Should Hire A Fractional CMO

Here are five indicators that you may want to hire a Fractional CMO working with a group of subject matter experts. This strategy ensures a data-based marketing plan grounded in a deep understanding of your market, competitors, and customers. It also effectively executes marketing programs and initiatives to give you a better return on your investment.

1. Marketing has merely been a part-time effort.

In many smaller companies and start-ups, the CEO or the sales leaders do marketing “on the side.” They may have some administrative help, but marketing is not a primary focus. They may be sending emails to customers, preparing marketing materials, or even writing blogs, but this is not likely very effective. The messages shared by these marketing efforts tend to be scattered and confusing.

In addition to marketing strategy, our team can help you develop a focused brand image and message that you can effectively communicate through marketing materials with a unified and recognizable brand identity.

2. You are getting ready to invest in marketing.

You may want to hire a Fractional CMO if you believe that an investment in marketing can accelerate your company’s growth trajectory or if you are ready to scale up. Investing in marketing without executive-level leadership and subject matter expertise will reduce your likelihood of success and diminish your return on investment. These teams offer the experience and practices used by larger companies and have experience with a variety of clients and industries.

3. You need a fresh outlook and executive-level insights.

Often companies are stuck within their own walls and ways of doing business. Apply outside perspective in developing and executing marketing strategies and programs to accelerate your growth. Executives with decades of experience in other similar situations can provide insights on what is more likely to work in your business or industry.

4. You need proven processes.

Many companies often deploy a hodgepodge of marketing tactics without a methodical, systematic approach. However, marketing is as much an art as a science. Proven processes that have been repeatedly successful in other situations can dramatically increase your chances of success, usually at a lower cost.

Our teams are highly data-driven and use data on key performance indicators to measure and drive marketing results. Empowering you with a deeper understanding of your market, competition, and current/potential customers is our starting point in developing the right marketing strategies for you. This is followed by execution processes all the way to working with your sales force to ensure that leads generated are quickly followed up.

5. Your business doesn’t need or cannot afford a full-time CMO with subject matter experts for execution.

Many businesses do not need, and cannot afford, a full-time CMO with a large marketing department. An investment like that is a significant commitment and can be expensive, especially for smaller businesses and start-ups. You should commit to this only if it is absolutely necessary. If you hire a Fractional CMO with a solid team, they can deliver the same value for a fraction of the cost.

What Should You Look For In A Fractional CMO?

If you’re wondering what to look for in a Fractional CMO candidate, here are a few characteristics of successful fCMOs:

Focused on developing a holistic strategy.

A successful fCMO has experience across a variety of industries and situations, so they know which winning strategies are likely to work for your business. They also know how to use their leadership skills to guide the execution and deployment of those strategies, ensuring that projects focused on short-term results still tie into the overall strategy. They will also guide you in choosing metrics and KPIs that clearly demonstrate progress toward that strategy.

Can deploy a proven set of execution tactics.

A good fCMO should come prepared with a proven set of winning processes and procedures. They should have the flexibility to tailor those processes to your organization’s unique needs, empowering you with the tools to reach the vision outlined in the overall brand marketing strategy and sustain long-term growth. A modern Fractional CMO also has a working knowledge of the ins and outs of digital marketing.

Serves as a mentor, not just a vendor.

Great fCMOs act as an extension of your team, working “in” the business, fully integrating with a high level of attentiveness and investment in your company’s goals and culture. They focus on results, driving teams to fully close the loop from strategy to execution, ensuring projects are fully realized to the highest level possible.

 

How To Hire A Fractional CMO

Good marketing builds your brand, creates awareness, generates leads, attracts new customers, and accelerates your growth. Finding a way to do the absolute best marketing you can is critical, especially when times are tight. Hiring a Fractional CMO with a solid execution team may be a smart way to go. Plus, you can add people and capabilities as you grow. At the right time, we will help you transition by developing the right organizational structure while helping you hire the right people. For &Marketing, this transition is a sign that we have been successful. Contact us today to start driving growth with a Fractional CMO.

About &Marketing

&Marketing provides the robust outsourced marketing department growing companies need without the high overhead costs of big agencies or full-time employees. Our variable model empowers businesses to reach their growth goals through access to the guidance and expertise of senior level strategists and a flexible execution team.

Are you facing challenges of your own in generating leads and meeting your business’ growth goals?

We’d love to learn more about your challenges and how a coordinated marketing approach might help take your organization to the next level.