Video Transcription
How much does a fractional CMO cost? It’s a question being asked by more growing businesses than ever as organizations explore ways to bring senior level leadership to the helm sooner and more cost effectively.
Hi, I’m Jennifer Zick, founder and CEO of Authentic®. We are a community of fractional CMOs that work with growing businesses to help them Overcome Random Acts of Marketing® and confidently take the next right step toward healthy growth.
There’s an obvious value proposition in working with a fractional leader. You get the wisdom of an experienced executive at a fraction of the cost. A part time leader can bring big gains to small businesses and help them to confidently move their strategies forward and avoid trial and error. But at the same time, the value of a fractional CMO goes deeper than the cost savings alone.
The real value of a fractional CMO
Let me start by answering the question in a dollars and cents fashion and then speaking to it strategically. On average, a fractional CMO who is a true executive marketing leader would bill around $200 to $375 an hour depending on the engagement structure and timeline. But when you think about the real value of a fractional CMO, it’s not only the cost savings of bringing in an executive on a part time basis, it’s also saving risk and moving to impact faster.
Another important question to ask in terms of understanding the cost of a fractional CMO is to understand how much it’s costing your organization today to implement marketing the way that you’re running marketing. If marketing in your organization, whether that be staff and or outside partners, is reporting to your owner and CEO and founder, or to your head of sales, that’s a very expensive resource to be leading a core competency of your business that is not their core focus.
How much more value could your founder, visionary, or your sales leader provide to your organization if marketing wasn’t simmering on the back burner of their responsibilities? Probably a lot.
The value of experienced marketing leadership
How much is it costing to implement marketing with the resources who are not senior level and haven’t been there, done that, or might lack the strategic guidance to put their gifts and talents to best use? You may have very capable marketing staff and partners who just don’t have strategic experience.
How much are you wasting their time and capabilities by putting them in a position where they are not most aligned to bring the greatest impact and to integrate all of the efforts around the marketing program?
When you add it all up, there’s a big expense to not having an experienced marketing leader inside of your organization. A fractional CMO is a low risk pathway to bring that level of leadership to your organization and to help through that leader to construct exactly the role that your business will need longer term as your team continues to grow.
If you have questions about the cost of a fractional CMO or the value that they could bring to your organization, we’re here to help. Please reach out to learn more!
