How to Become a Fractional CMO: A Guide for Businesses

Learn how to become a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) with Chief Outsiders. We provide experienced professionals who can help you grow your business.

How to Become a Fractional CMO: A Guide for Businesses

Are you looking for a way to reduce the costs of hiring a full-time marketing executive? Consider hiring a fractional CMO. A fractional CMO is a high-level marketing consultant who joins the company to bring their experience and knowledge without the expense of a full-time marketing leader. But how do you become a fractional CMO?To become a fractional CMO, you must have years of experience as a marketing leader working at a managerial level. You can move from an in-house company to a consultancy or agency, join a company that offers fractional CMO services, or move from consultant to fractional CMO.

Becoming a fractional CMO can be as simple as “saving money and seeking part-time marketing contracts at the executive level”. However, most companies seek assurance that the fractional CMO they hire has the experience, knowledge, background, and cultural aptitude needed to make an impact in their most important marketing position. That's where an agency like Chief Outsiders comes into play. They screen CMOs to ensure that they have the right background, temperament, and relevant skills, ensuring companies a quality hire that fits their short-term needs. Unlike an independent vendor, a fractional CMO has years of experience under their belt.

A consultant will be happy to schedule a call with your team, but a fractional CMO is ready to dive deeper into the daily operations of your marketing department. For example, as a fractional CMO, I bring decades of experience in paid advertising and creating profitable sales funnels to your marketing team. Get in touch with us and we'll discuss how I can help you grow your business. A fractional CMO is no less passionate about their business than a full-time employee; in many cases, they are more complete than most because of their track record and their deep experience in driving growth. Companies that hire a fractional CMO will continue to get a better marketing strategy and great talent to execute marketing campaigns and improve their brand image. A fractional CMO will evaluate your current marketing efforts with a fresh perspective and extensive experience.

As your marketing department and marketing strategy evolve, working with a fractional CMO is the new model for the modern era of marketing. This ensures that the fractional CMO can genuinely know the company, including its culture, its assets and the direction that its CEO and business executives are looking for. A good fractional CMO will need to manage the daily responsibilities of the marketing team and focus on the company's long-term objectives. The biggest difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency is that an agency's consultants don't dedicate the same type of work to their clients. You can also select a fractional CMO who has direct experience in your sector or sector, so that they can contribute immediately and implement strategies and tactics that can make a measurable difference in a more efficient time frame. A fractional CMO is a key part of your executive team, prepared with first-class experiences and knowledge that they use to adopt a holistic view of your business. The responsibilities of a fractional CMO should be commensurate with those of a highly-trusted professional. Instead of dividing your efforts between initiatives with no guarantee of results, your fractional CMO will make decisions based on data.

Improving the customer experience and the buyer journey is also essential to succeeding as a fractional CMO. The term “fractional CMO” describes an emerging marketing model in which high-level marketers join companies without taking on full-time roles. If you want to reduce costs spent on an executive-level marketer, consider hiring a fractional CMO to get the services of an experienced professional without committing long-term.

Mike Volkin
Mike Volkin

Fractional CMO, author, speaker, and serial entrepreneur