Fractional Marketing Leader: Get Expert Support To Grow Your Business

Jan 31

Have you heard of a fractional marketing leader, and do you know what they do? If not, it's time to learn because it can be a game-changer for you and your business.

Almost any business owner or marketing professional agrees that attracting new customers and leads is a top priority. Without those, there is no business.

A long-term marketing strategy is required to achieve sustainable growth for any company. Larger companies often have an in-house marketing department with teams of marketing experts such as brand managers, email marketers, SEO specialists, copywriters, graphic designers, and marketing executives leading their initiatives.

This requires a huge budget and a significant amount of time to execute. It’s a massive undertaking.

Now, contrast that with growing businesses and startups, who don't have the budget, manpower, or time to maintain such marketing expertise in-house. A team member wearing multiple hats may run marketing activities without understanding what's needed to succeed and how each component of the marketing plan should work together. It often becomes a fruitless game of whack-a-mole trying to make marketing work.

So the question is:

Are your marketing efforts getting your business results? If not, do you know how to make meaningful improvements when campaign results are subpar?

The Unavoidable Truth: All Businesses Need Effective Marketing to Succeed

Effective marketing is how businesses of all sizes stay above the competition. New businesses start every day, and with easy access to free marketing channels like social media, it becomes harder to get your ideal client's attention.

A lack of clarity around how to build strategic marketing plans leads to a scattergun approach to marketing campaigns. These mismatched tactics with messy implementation don't yield sustainable results.

The trickiest part of this kind of marketing is that once goals fall short, there is no clear path forward, meaning it's nearly impossible to improve over time. So how can growing businesses access high caliber-marketing expertise?

That is where fractional marketing comes in handy if you own or manage a small or growing business. You get to leverage the experience of a marketing professional for only a fraction of the cost.

What is a Fractional Marketing Leader?

A fractional marketing leader (or fractional CMO) is a seasoned marketer who supports companies on a contractual basis rather than being employed as a full-time employee.

When an organization decides to follow this route, the business gets access to an experienced marketing professional. Rather than having the marketer permanently on the payroll (and paying their high salary requirements), the person is only available for part of the workweek.

At a price they can afford, more businesses can now define marketing strategies and deploy tactical marketing activities under the supervision of a marketing leader. Suddenly, small businesses can close the gap in an area where much larger companies enjoy an enormous advantage – marketing.

Why You Should Consider a Fractional Marketing Leader

Marketing is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges any small business will encounter. As a growing business or startup, when no one has heard of you, they can't hire you even if you provide a great solution. It's up to you to get the word out.

Irrespective of the size of their budget, most companies without established marketing departments have difficulty deploying their limited resources effectively. They tend to be reactionary with their marketing campaigns rather than proactive, aimless rather than strategic.

Also to note: marketing has one of the highest turnovers, at 12.9, of all job functions, according to LinkedIn. Turnover is costly because it makes planning and executing long-term marketing strategies difficult.

Marketing roles have become very specialized. There are experts in PPC, SEO, content marketing, and social media (to name very few). How are small businesses and startups going to maintain all of these roles in-house on a full-time basis? And even with specialists, is there someone dedicated to the overall cohesive marketing strategy?

Just because it's tough for small businesses to maintain the right marketing talent doesn't mean they should forget marketing altogether. When marketing support is needed, part-time can be a practical solution.

Fractional marketing services can thus make all the difference by providing direction, a roadmap to execute, and a repeatable process for all marketing activities.

Benefits of Working with a Fractional Marketing Leader

Here are the top reasons to consider hiring a fractional marketer to support your team:

Budget Friendly

In the U.S, about 51 percent of small and midsize business owners say budget constraints are the main reason why they don't have a dedicated marketing department. Hence, no surprise, cost benefits are a top reason a fractional marketing expert makes a lot of sense.

Contracted marketers won't incur the same overhead costs as staffing a full-time marketing team or hiring the same person with a full-time salary and benefits.

Obtain Supporting Marketing Resources

Professional marketers will typically have other partners and experts within their network whom they've worked with and trust. Marketing projects require graphic designers, website developers, project managers, etc. When you find a trusted marketing leader to work with, they can direct you to the other required resources for your marketing campaign.

Evaluate Your Marketing Approach

You may have tried running your marketing yourself. Or you may be a marketing expert with a small team juggling competing priorities. When you bring in an outside, objective perspective to evaluate your marketing, you can uncover opportunities and gaps that aren't obvious.

Access Up-to-Date Marketing Knowledge

Marketing today relies on technology and the internet. That will not change; keeping up will only get more challenging. A fractional marketing leader will know the marketing landscape and consult you on which channels to prioritize. At the same time, they can weigh in on the trends that may not be worth pursuing.

Quickly Scale When You're Ready

Key moments like campaigns, go-to-market launches, and events drive marketing. These periods usually require a lot of preparation to get right. That's when new marketing ideas and processes are a huge benefit. Contracted marketing support can provide interim leadership and extra hands to ensure smooth implementation.

When there's less marketing to manage, and as you scale your marketing, your team (or you) can take advantage of the repeatable processes and tools created by the fractional marketer.

At Last, Marketing Leadership for Growing Businesses

Small businesses and startups need affordable marketing leadership now more than ever. The requirement to market a business will never go away. So, it's probably time to explore other options if your company's marketing isn't working.

Schedule a complimentary consultation here if you're curious about fractional marketing leadership services. I'm happy to help discuss what's possible for your business.

References

Natalie Swan

Natalie has 10+ years of experience in brand strategy and marketing. Her background ranges from supporting small businesses, to large-scale national & international events, to enterprise-level companies. She helps businesses attract clients with focused marketing strategy and professional, scrappy implementation.