Growth Strategy & Positioning
A clear growth thesis: the market to win, the customer to focus on, the offer, and the channel plan. The strategy every downstream dollar runs on.
Fractional CMO
Senior growth leadership,
without the full-time hire
A fractional CMO gives you an experienced marketing leader who owns strategy, channels, measurement, and team accountability — embedded in your business part-time, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time chief marketing officer. For companies in motion and for private equity portfolios that need one growth standard, it is the model that fits.
40–60%Less than a full-time CMO's loaded cost
$46M+Annual ad budgets managed
2 exitsGrowth that carried companies to acquisition
WeeksTo embedded leadership, not months of recruiting
A senior operator in the seat from day one, not a junior hire learning on your budget.
What a fractional CMO owns
The marketing leader your business is missing
This is not an agency executing campaigns under someone else's strategy, and it is not a consultant who leaves a deck behind. A fractional CMO is a member of your leadership team who happens to work part-time — setting direction and staying accountable for the result.
Tracking & Unit Economics
Conversion tracking that counts, honest attribution, and a real CAC, payback, and LTV picture — so decisions rest on data instead of guesswork.
Demand Generation
The paid, organic, and lifecycle engine that produces qualified pipeline predictably, built to scale past a single channel or a single rep.
Team & Vendor Leadership
Direction and accountability for your in-house marketers and outside agencies — someone qualified to know when spend is performance and when it is theater.
Board-Ready Reporting
Growth reported in the language leadership and investors care about: spend, CAC, payback, pipeline, and what is being tested next.
Durable Marketing Infrastructure
Documented systems that survive a founder stepping back or a team changing — making growth a repeatable engine, not a person.
Is it the right fit?
A fractional CMO makes sense when
×
The business is in motion
New ownership, a new CEO, an aggressive growth target, or a turnaround. The old approach no longer fits and marketing needs to perform like the lever it is.
×
Growth outgrew the founder
The company grew on the founder's network and instincts, and now needs a documented, repeatable demand generation system underneath the numbers.
×
A full-time CMO is premature
You need senior leadership now, but a $300K–$700K full-time hire is a heavy fixed cost to carry before the growth system has proven itself.
×
Spend isn't tied to results
Money is going out the door and nobody can say clearly what it produces. You need accountability and measurement before you scale further.
For private equity
The portfolio fractional CMO model
Private equity firms get particular leverage from this model: one experienced growth leader working across multiple portfolio companies, setting a single standard and reporting to the board. It is the most capital-efficient way to fill the growth seat that most portfolios leave empty. We cover this in depth on the private equity advisory page, and in the article on why most PE firms staff every function except growth.
Common questions
Fractional CMO questions
What does a fractional CMO cost compared to a full-time hire?
A full-time chief marketing officer typically runs $300K to $700K in total compensation. A fractional CMO delivers the same executive-level leadership for roughly 40 to 60 percent less, because you are paying for senior judgment part-time rather than carrying a full salary, equity, and benefits before the growth system has proven out.
How is this different from hiring a marketing agency?
An agency executes channels under a strategy someone else sets. A fractional CMO sets that strategy, owns the measurement, and holds the agencies accountable from your side of the table. The two work well together: the fractional CMO decides what should happen and why, and execution partners carry it out.
How quickly can a fractional CMO get started?
Usually within a few weeks, versus the months a full-time executive search takes. Because the person is senior and has run this playbook before, the ramp is fast and measurable impact typically shows up inside the first 60 to 90 days.
How much time do you actually spend in the business?
It varies with the engagement, commonly in the range of 20 to 60 hours a month across a multi-month commitment aligned to your growth goals. Enough to be genuinely accountable for the result, structured so it stays economical.
Get started
Talk about the seat
Tell us where growth stands today and what you would want a fractional CMO to own. We'll come back with how we'd approach it. Typical response within one business day.
No obligation, no sales sequence. Your information is never shared.