3 Low-Risk Ways to Involve a Fractional CMO in Your Emerging Business Right Now

Like filling any other leadership role at a growth-focused company, finding a highly qualified executive-level marketing leader is difficult. And moreover, finding one at a price point your emerging enterprise can support is nearly impossible. But every company that eventually became a household name had strong marketing support early in their growth curve, so there must be a way . . . right?

If you're running a startup, pre-revenue, pre-investment or post Series A (or B) technology firm and considering bringing on a Marketing leader, you need to think hard about involving a Fractional CMO in your business. And if you're already considering a Fractional CMO, here are three simple and low-risk engagement models to get you started immediately.

The First Way: On a Daily Rate

A daily rate is by far the most common way to involve a Fractional CMO in your business, and entails agreeing on a specific number of days per week over a certain period of time. For example, you may decide you would like access to a Fractional CMO two days per week for the next 12 weeks—meaning you will receive 16 hours of strategic Marketing help per week over the length of the agreement. And the good news is, a handful of (but not all) Fractional CMOs offer half-day rates, and will allow you to initially engage with them for as little as 4 hours per week.

One of the primary advantages of a Daily Rate approach is predictibility, because you know exactly how much marketing help you're getting each week, and exactly how much needs to be budgeted for on the expense side. Another advantage of a Daily Rate agreement is flexibility—if you are uncertain where to start or what pieces of the Marketing function need the most help, your Fractional CMO can use the first few hours to 'dig in' a little, and provide specific recommendations.

The Second Way: On a Project Basis

If you already know exactly which pieces of your Marketing and GTM functions need attention, engaging with a Fractional CMO on a project basis may be the best approach. The idea is simple: you define a list of deliverables, and the Fractional CMO provides a project-based quote to complete them. Some common deliverables might include:

• Evaluating your existing marketing agency

• Defining or re-defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

• Developing a new use case for your product or service

• Streamlining marketing messaging, pricing and packaging

• Accelerating your lead and demand generation processes

• Optimizing your website content for organic search

Obviously this is only a partial list, and ultimately any strategic task with clearly defined deliverables is a great candidate for project-based work by a Fractional CMO. But one thing to note: if you have more than one or two projects in mind, you should consider a daily rate model instead, to ensure regular and predictible progress.

The Third Way: On an Ad Hoc Basis

Are you ready to engage witha Fractional CMO, but can't guarantee a specific number of work hours over a certain period of time? Does your Marketing workload come in bursts, maybe 15 hours in one week and then nothing for the next two weeks? If this sounds a lot like the situation your emerging technology firm is currently in, an Ad Hoc agreement with a Fractional CMO might be the perfect solution.

On the simplicity side, Ad Hoc agreements involve minimal committments—basically an hourly rate with no retainer, no defined start or end dates and no implied consistency. When you have work for the Fractional CMO to do, you send it over. And when you don't, both parties are free to focus on other things . . . in a completely guilt-free environment. That said, the one tradeoff you'll have to make with an Ad Hoc agreement is flexibility: you can't expect ultra-fast turnarounds on work a Fractional CMO is not allowed to plan for in advance.

Wrapping it Up

If you're considering bringing a Fractional CMO into your emerging tech business, the good news is you have options that can be molded around nearly any situation—options that offer predictibility, flexibility, clearly defined deliverables, minimal committments and most importantly low or no risk. And if any of the abovelisted options sound compelling to you, and you'd like to speak more about the possibility of engaging a Fractional CMO, please feel free to fill out this form on my website. And be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn any time—my profile is always open.

About Eric

Eric is a Fractional CMO and Go-to-Market Officer (CGTMO) in the emerging technology space, specializing in startup, pre-revenue, pre-funding and post-Series A and B firms. He helps companies create enterprise value through Product and Service Alignment, Corporate and Product Messaging, Demand Generation, Pipeline Acceleration, Use Case and ICP Development, Corporate Strategy, Sales Enablement and Team Development.