How a Fractional CMO Can Be Your Greatest Growth Asset

Written by michelle on Aug 18, 2020

At a business leader or CEO, you might have already experienced an impressive amount of success. But while you initially built a strong sales foundation, you may eventually reach the dreaded growth plateau. What once worked amazingly well for your organization now fails to give the results you’re after. And understandably, that’s probably cause for alarm. After all, if your business isn’t growing, you won’t be able to compete.

At a certain point, it’s not enough to merely hold onto the customers you have and grow their business; you’ll also need to reach those buyers who don’t know you yet. And while 91% of consumers would rather buy from an authentic brand, you’ll need more than authenticity to generate consistent leads for your sales team.

If this scenario sounds familiar, it’s likely that your marketing strategy needs work. Maybe your previous efforts, rather than following a specific plan of action, involved throwing things at a wall to see what might stick. Perhaps your approach followed outdated tactics or you achieved results that were impossible to measure and replicate. Unsurprisingly, that usually stunts your growth. You need to ensure your marketing is strategic, sustainable, and easy to track.

But is there a way to accomplish that goal without hiring a full-time chief marketing officer? If you aren’t in a position to make that commitment but you need an experienced leader who can achieve real results, it’s time to think about an outsourced CMO. As your fractional CMO, I can work with you on a part-time and flexible basis in order to build up your marketing strategy, team, and programs to foster more consistent growth. Here are just some of the ways an outsourced CMO can help your business thrive.

• Build Your Cost-Effective Marketing Muscle: Your outsourced marketing manager can bolster your marketing programs in order to develop revenue impact that’s easy to measure. By working with your executives and leadership team, outsource CMOs use their expertise to facilitate action, accountability, and company-wide alignment for more effective and consistent marketing. And best of all, outsourced CMOs can provide superior cost-effectiveness, allowing you to stay within your budget in a way that provides an impressive return on investment.
• Act as a Team Leader: Outsourced marketing managers like me do more than use our marketing knowledge to develop your campaigns. We also act as a leader for your marketing team, helping to grow your team’s skills through ongoing management and coaching. That way, even when your outsourced CMO moves onto other projects, your team will be able to build on what they’ve learned for future company growth.
• Improve Your Partnerships: Remember that your marketing goes beyond your direct customers. It also impacts your ability to retain partnerships with vendors and other businesses. Investing in outsourced marketing services can ensure these relationships not only remain intact but actually grow stronger as a result of strategic integration. Your fractional CMO can ensure that these partners are proud to be linked with your business.
• Create Accountability For Results: In most cases, an inconsistent marketing strategy yields inferior results — and a lack of accountability can be both the cause and effect. Outsourced CMOs can develop a system for your marketing budget, metrics, and results so that your team is held accountable. This can lead to emotional investment, higher productivity, and improved innovation company-wide.
• Help With Hiring: Your marketing strategy execution is only as strong as your team. Fractional CMOs can actually help you to build plans for future hiring and ensure that your onboarding programs are successful. Not only can this make your marketing more effective, but it can allow you to grow your culture at the same time.
• They’ll Ensure Your Marketing Won’t Stagnate: Outsourced CMOs consider both present and future needs when developing your strategy. I’ll evaluate your current marketing data, channels, and content while ensuring your strategy can evolve in order to stay current and to build on your momentum.

As your fractional CMO, I’ll work with your team for anywhere from 12 to 24 months to gain traction in your marketing while paving the way for any full-time marketing directors you might bring on in the future. To learn how I can achieve marketing results for your business, please get in touch with me today.