140 %

Increase in sales for Fortune 1,000 company within one year of working with DAP.

92 %

Of companies wish they hired a Fractional CMO sooner.

40 %

Lower cost per year to hire a Fractional CMO agency versus a full-time CMO.

180

Days. That’s all it takes for a Fractional CMO Agency to transform your business.

4.5 X

More leads for companies who hire a Fractional CMO agency.

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Our Clients Love Us, and They Tell the World About it

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What Our Clients Say About Us

Lizzie O'Rourke Vice President of Marketing at DecisionLink
Lizzie O'Rourke
Tyson Schroeder Vhanti
Tyson Schroeder
Zak Higson Executive Vice President of Signature Analytics
Zak Higson
Mark Meyer CEO & Founder of E&M Strategic Real Estate
Mark Meyer
Bijan Vafaei Head of Marketing at Wage
Bijan Vafaei
Sivan Galinsky Chief Marketing Officer at Brinks, Gilson, and Lione
Sivan Galinsky
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How a Fractional CMO Agency Can Help Your Business Grow BIG This Year

Fractional CMO, also known as “CMO-for-hire” is a part-time marketing executive hired by a company determined to quickly scale its growth marketing efforts. A fractional CMO is best for companies with $2+ million in annual revenue who need help with branding, PPC, marketing automation, and hiring new talent.

Here are the top 3 benefits of hiring a fractional CMO:

  • Get immediate insights – Create a robust marketing strategy within weeks – not months – that helps you effectively scale your business.
  • Rely on an experienced marketing executive – Access decades of tried-and-true marketing know-how for a fraction of the cost.
  • Train your team – Help your organization learn how to do marketing right. That’s what we are here for. Transfer knowledge. Marketing expertise. Training.

Hire a Digital Authority Partners fractional CMO to access the executive marketing leadership you need without the burden of a full-time resource. Our expert fractional CMOs will guide you every step of the way to ensure your marketing strategies align with your growth and profitability goals. Flexible and cost-effective fractional CMO solutions.

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How Our Fractional CMO Agency Will Help
Your Company Succeed

  • 1

    Audit your marketing initiatives:

    Our Fractional CMOs will conduct a thorough assessment of your current marketing strategies to identify strengths and areas for improvement.

  • 2

    Create a 12-month marketing roadmap:

    We'll develop a detailed and customized marketing plan for the next year, outlining clear objectives and actionable steps.

  • 3

    Optimize your online presence:

    Our experts will enhance your digital footprint, ensuring your SaaS company is visible and engaging across relevant online platforms.

  • 4

    Expand your marketing automation:

    We will execute advanced automation tools to streamline processes and improve customer interactions.

  • 5

    Implement effective search and media strategies:

    Our Fractional CMOs will use targeted search engine optimization and media tactics to boost your online reach and conversions.

  • 6

    Revamp branding, PR, and content marketing:

    Increase brand identity, public relations, and content efforts to resonate better with your target audience.

  • 7

    Hire the right talent and vendors for your marketing department:

    Our Fractional CMOs have years of experience in recruiting top marketing talent and reliable vendors to support your growth.

  • 8

    Monitor KPIs and optimize marketing spend:

    By constantly tracking key performance indicators, we will optimize your marketing budget for maximum ROI.

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Why You Should Choose
Our Fractional CMOs

Unbiased, Actionable Insights

Ever feel like marketing agencies are more focused on upselling than understanding your business needs? It’s not uncommon. While they aim to deliver results, their priority often lies in expanding their service offerings, sometimes at your expense. This is where our Fractional CMOs step in – offering a clear, unbiased perspective and actions that align with your business goals, not their bottom line. With an hourly payment model, our Fractional CMOs are committed to providing actionable advice, aligning purely with your business objectives.

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Experience That Counts

Whether you’re just starting out, experiencing a surge in growth, or at a standstill, working with our seasoned Fractional CMOs will make all the difference. Our Fractional CMOs have been in your shoes, successfully steering businesses through startup hurdles, rapid growth pains, and even periods of growth stagnation. From revitalizing brands to propelling startups to profitable heights, they bring a wealth of experience to help you tackle your current challenges head-on.

Begin Right Away

In a swiftly changing market, waiting months to onboard the right talent isn’t an option. Our Fractional CMOs are at your service, offering prompt, executive-level marketing help right when you need it. They hit the ground running, conducting a swift yet comprehensive analysis of your market, competitors, and business specifics. Leveraging these insights, our Fractional CMOs craft strategic plans that address your immediate challenges and set the stage for long-term success.

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Maximize Returns, Minimize Lost Time

Engaging our Fractional CMOs is essentially tapping into a reservoir of rich time-tested experience and proven success. They’ve been the driving force behind profitability boosts in dozens of industries, making them your reliable partners in achieving remarkable bottom-line business outcomes. Our CMOs are not just experienced; they are seasoned strategists who deliver high ROI swiftly. With us, value exceeds cost, promising you accelerated growth trajectories.

Frequently Asked Questions
Fractional CMO

What does a fractional CMO mean?

A fractional CMO, also known as a CMO-for-hire is a part-time executive consultant hired by mid-sized companies to set up a strong foundation for marketing success. This resource brings in the experience of a CMO without you having to pay the high cost of a full-time resource. Fractional CMOs have decades of experience, knowledge and skills leading marketing teams across the country. They help you lead and grow your marketing capabilities and initiatives on a part-time basis.

The first thing the fractional CMO will do is evaluate your current marketing strategies and initiatives as well as create your 12 month marketing roadmap. They will guide your team through execution of marketing tactics such as: marketing automation, email marketing, organic search, paid search, branding, PR, and content marketing. The fractional CMO will setup and monitor marketing KPIs in order to optimize campaigns.

Without a marketing leader, it’s likely you are conducting random acts of marketing. If you wonder if your team is executing on the best tactics that generate the highest ROIs, there is likely a need for a fractional CMO. Companies of all sizes leverage fractional CMO experts in order to optimize their marketing spend, focus on the right marketing channels and tactics and create a proper process for measuring marketing ROI.

The overall hourly rates vary wildly depending on the industry you’re in, the agency you work with and the specialized nature of your product. In general though, most fractional CMO groups charge $250-$500 an hour. If you work in healthcare or fintech rates will be on the higher end.

A Virtual CMO is the same as a Fractional CMO. Different industries adopted different terms for the same function over time. These terms then made it into the public domain. That’s why you’re now stuck with Googling “virtual CMO”, “CMO for Hire”, “Fractional CMO”, “Outsourced CMO” or even “Fractional Marketing Director.” All these terms refer to the same function: a marketing executive who comes in to assess your current company, marketing efforts and technology stack and then creates a plan of action on how to optimize your marketing spend.

Fractional services refers to the practice of hiring an expert consultant to fulfill a specific need you have within your organization without the overhead of a full time resource. This is an executive that works with multiple companies on a part-time basis, usually for a few hours up to 20 hours a week.

An interim CMO is slightly different than a fractional CMO – even if a fractional CMO can fullfil an interim CMO role as well. An interim CMO is an executive brought in, usually full-time, for a short period of time (less than six months) to manage a marketing department while a company is searching for a permanent replacement. Generally, companies will either temporarily promote an existing resource into this role or contract a fractional CMO company to fulfil this role so that a marketing department can continue delivering on specific tasks while the search for a permanent replacement is ongoing.

A marketing consultant can help a company in a variety of ways over time. That includes go-to-market strategy, social media, SEO, PPC or content strategy. Marketing consultants will typically focus on a subject area, or division within a marketing department, and optimize their process, spend, and tactics in order to deliver a positive ROI for an organization.

Brands Growing Big With
Our Fractional CMO Agency Services

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Free Consultation

Find out how a Fractional CMO Agency can grow for your business. Book a consultation Today!

Why Companies Choose To Work
With Our Fractional CMOs

  • We have an expert team of CMO specialists with an extensive track record of success
  • Our CMOs-for-hire have worked with more than 100 companies over the last 5 years
  • We provide forward-thinking fractional CMO experts who are well-versed in digital channels for the 21st century
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Insights from our
Fractional CMO Agency

Benefits of Fractional CMO
Benefits of Bringing In a Fractional CMO

Recently, it’s become more popular to hire a fractional CMO. Many see outsourcing as a viable way to bring expert ski...

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chief marketing officer_Portrait of chief financial officer woman working on laptop at office.
Why Fractional CMOs Are Attractive to a Mid-Size Business

Hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) can be quite expensive. If you are a mid-size company, you might not...

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Fractional CMO
How to Choose the Right Fractional CMO

Choosing the perfect fractional CMO is crucial to the success of your business. If you hire a fractional CMO that doe...

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Still not sure if a Fractional CMO Agency is right for you?

We understand if you’re still on the fence about hiring a Fractional CMO agency. It’s an exciting investment that brings fresh, strategic leadership to your organization. You might wonder if your company is ready to benefit from a CMO, even a fractional one. Rest assured, we tailor our approach to meet your specific needs and help you grow at your own pace.

Organizations of all sizes have found recruiting a Fractional CMO to be one of the most impactful investments they’ve made for the future of the company. The importance of strong marketing cannot be overstated.

If your marketing fails to deliver the adequate results, no one will ever hear about your amazing solution. The goal of marketing is to be “top-of-mind” for your warm customer leads. Without strong marketing, your rightful customers will choose competitor with better marketing, even if that competitor offers an inferior solution.

In short, marketing is far too important for you to try to “wing it.” If you care about providing a high-quality solution to as many customers as possible, you owe it not only to your organizational stakeholders, but also to the customers themselves, to get your marketing house in order. For many organizations, especially small and medium-sized ones, the most effective and affordable way to do this is to enlist the services of a Fractional CMO.

Understanding the role of a fractional CMO

To understand what a Fractional CMO is, let’s first define “CMO.” A CMO is a chief marketing officer. It’s a C-level executive position that assumes final responsibility for all marketing activities undertaken by the organization that employs them. Large organizations may have a full-time CMO to complement the efforts of the CEO, CFO, COO, and/or CTO.

Smaller organizations, however, may discover that they don’t have the budget for a full-time CMO. But that doesn’t mean the job is any less necessary for them. In fact, for smaller brands with less name recognition, the motivation is even stronger to market effectively.

This is where the Fractional CMO comes in. A fractional CMO is essentially a “CMO for hire.” Rather than being a highly-paid full-time employee, a Fractional CMO is a outside c-level executive that a company hires on a temporary basis.

A Fractional CMO might work for a company for anywhere from three months to one year or longer.

In other words, a Fractional CMO provides strategic marketing services to an organization without the need for that organization to commit to a full-time employee salary for multiple years.
You can see why this is an attractive deal to a smaller organization with fewer resources to spare on luxuries like C-level executives.

What is the role of a fractional CMO within an organization?

Just like the CMO must wear many hats within the marketing department of a large organization, a Fractional CMO assumes ultimate responsibility for the marketing strategy for the company that hires him/her. They usually don’t get into the nitty-gritty of writing copy, running digital marketing campaigns, running marketing reports, etc. Instead, the buck stops with the Fractional CMO on the most important strategy marketing activities, including:

  • Train the in-house marketing team. Your Fractional CMO will come to the table with new tips and strategies, your marketing team will have to learn from the fractional CMO how to execute them. One of the roles of the Fractional CMO in your organization is making sure that the systems (s)he implements persist in your organization by training in-house marketing personnel in the execution of that strategy.
  • Manage the marketing budget. While companies set the marketing budget based on what is realistic, the Fractional CMO retains ultimate authority over how the marketing budget gets spent. This includes allocating funds to personnel, paid campaigns, and third-party vendors who help assemble the pieces of the campaigns.
  • Develop short-term and long-term marketing goals. Every marketing strategy will have near-term objectives, as well as long-term overarching objectives. The role of a Fractional CMO is to set realistic short-term goals, as well as optimistic and challenging long-term goals for the marketing department. This goal-setting often outlasts the tenure of the Fractional CMO, becoming the north star for the marketing department long after the fractional CMO’s services are no longer required.
  • Guide the marketing team to adopt analytics and make data drive decisions. Effective marketing campaigns keep their eyes on the data. Analytics are your window into the performance of your marketing campaign. Many marketing campaigns produce so much data that it becomes noise. One of the roles of the Fractional CMO is to cut through the noise and identify which data matters—which indicators represent progress or regression in the campaign. We will discuss this more when we talk about KPIs, but at the end of the day, the Fractional CMO is charged with making sense of the data collected by the marketing analytics platforms.

The Impact of a Fractional CMO On a Company

A CMO for hire can have a substantial impact on the direction of the company. By leveling up the company’s marketing efforts, and arming the marketing team with the tools they need to continue a pattern of success, a Fractional CMO can completely transform an organization’s ability to create awareness around its brand. Examples of the lasting impact a fractional CMO include:

  • Clear marketing objectives.To get anywhere, it helps to know where you are going. Organizations always fail in their marketing efforts if they have no idea what success looks like.Amazingly, this was always the case of traditional marketing avenues, like billboards or newspaper ads, because it was difficult to quantify the success of any given marketing effort.A Fractional CMO can bring order to the chaos, drawing upon his/her experience to identify clear objectives for the company’s brand-building activities. A CMO for hire can paint a picture of what success looks like from a marketing standpoint, giving the organization a clear target to shoot for.
  • A unified marketing strategy.Another challenge organizations face in devising an effective marketing roadmap is that there are many avenues to choose from—traditional, digital, or hybrid.For example, digital marketing includes social media, SEO, email marketing, and much more. A CMO for hire takes responsibility for each marketing channel so that marketing efforts do not contradict each other.One of the biggest advantages a Fractional CMO can bring to an organization is unification—a consistent brand message, in both words and imagery, across all channels, so every member of the marketing team pulls their oar in the same direction.
  • An experienced hand on the wheel. Perhaps the greatest impact a CMO for hire can impart to an organization is to eliminate a “blind-leading-the-blind” situation with respect to marketing. A Fractional CMO is an affordable, manageable, sustainable solution for smaller, mid-sized, and even larger organizations to inject experienced leadership into their marketing apparatus.Leadership makes all the difference between success and failure across most business processes. Marketing is no different. A CMO for hire isn’t just a bean-counter or technician. There’s a reason for the “C” in the title. People hire Fractional CMOs when their marketing department is in need of leadership—and not just a confident chancer, but an experienced leader who knows the direction in which to lead.When it comes to a process as well-documented and optimized as modern marketing, there’s no need to start from square one. Why subject yourself to a learning curve that other people have beaten for you?Fractional CMOs have already beaten that learning curve. They have put in their 10,000 hours, learned from all the mistakes, and compiled a toolbelt full of tools that have produced results in the past. They show up to work with that tool belt already intact and ready for your organization to leverage.One of the best advantages of using a CMO for hire is the ability to stop guessing, and instead rely on a tested process. This is especially true of digital marketing practices, which are easy to quantify through digital analytics.

Why You Need a Fractional CMO Your Team

Lean organizations might be opposed to expanding the team. Adding another C-level executive to the team may not be appealing. Nevertheless, a CMO for hire could be just what a small or medium sized organization needs to put their brand on track for success. Here are some signs that your organization might need a Fractional CMO.

  • Your marketing lacks direction. Organizations without strong leadership in their marketing departments often treat marketing like dart players with no sense of direction. Think random acts of marketing.They throw a handful of darts in the general direction of a dartboard and hope something sticks.A Fractional CMO knows how to build and to edit a marketing strategy, focusing on marketing efforts most likely to produce short-term and long-term results outlined in their marketing plan. If you don’t know exactly why you are doing the marketing you are doing, a Fractional CMO could provide clarity and even suggest a course correction.
  • You suffer from “analysis paralysis.” Another pitfall of a lack of marketing leadership is the propensity to not take any action at all. This is especially true if the C-level of an organization is dominated by visionaries and technicians who prioritize product quality over brand awareness. Remember, however, you can make the best product in the world, but if no one knows about it, no one will buy it.People without marketing expertise may look at the huge menu of strategies and freeze like a deer in headlights. They prefer to retreat to tinkering on the product and hope that “someone else” will take care of the marketing. A Fractional CMO can add “C-level” leadership to marketing, which is all about taking action. A CMO for hire won’t freeze in the face of options—(s)he will direct the marketing team to take directed, calculated
  • You don’t know your KPIs.Digital marketing, especially, created a business environment where the impact of marketing could be measured. Organizations who don’t keep track of their marketing data are essentially stumbling around in the dark. Even if you have implemented analytics, you may not know which numbers to track, or what figures represent “success.”Fractional CMOs can help the organizations they serve identify “key performance indicators” (KPI)—the data points that actually indicate progress toward marketing goals. They can devise a strategy based on KPIs and direct implementation of the analytical architecture to track those KPIs, as well as implement a tracking system that will outlive their contract.
  • You haven’t yet figured out how to “buy scale.” If you invested a dollar into marketing, are you certain that you could get at least a dollar’s worth of revenue back? Or two dollar’s worth?The power of digital marketing is the ability to dial in a strategy whereby you can “buy” scale. Once you have a digital strategy that produces more revenue than the costs it incurs, you can theoretically spend as much cash as you have on hand.If you have not leveraged this superpower of digital marketing, a Fractional CMO could help put that game-changing tool in your arsenal.

Benefits Of a Fractional CMO

The reason Fractional CMOs exist to provide a service that most companies find too difficult to do on their own or fine the right people with the right skills. Some of the advantages of working with a Fractional CMO include:

  • An affordable solution.The minimum compensation for a full-time CMO is in the neighborhood of $175,000 per year, not including benefits. This kind of compensation is out of the realm of possibility for most small organizations, and even mid-sized or larger organizations.By contrast, a Fractional CMO might command a contract fee of $200-$350 per hour. A Fractional CMO helps organizations on a contract basis.A CMO for hire puts C-level marketing leadership within the budget for the vast majority of organizations that desperately need it.
  • Just as much help as you need. As mentioned above, Fractional CMOs aren’t necessarily with you forever. Their contracts range from three months to one year, and they may work as few as ten hours a week for your organization.This means you only pay for the services you actually need. Once the CMO has put your marketing strategy in place, you may not need them anymore—your in-house team can execute the strategy.
  • Training for your in-house marketing team. Of course, for your in-house team to take the reins from the Fractional CMO, they need to be trained. While your CMO for hire may not explicitly lead every training, (s)he takes the responsibility to make sure the training happens.This could mean selecting training modules, commissioning manuals and standard operating procedures documents, or coordinating outside trainers to make sure that the impact of the Fractional CMO long outlasts the end of their contract.
  • Better ROI.As mentioned before, the right digital marketing strategy enables an organization to “buy scale,” tracking KPIs to ensure that every dollar of marketing produces more than a dollar of profit.Even if your marketing strategy includes traditional marketing avenues that are less easy to track, relying on the leadership of a Fractional CMO takes a substantial amount of risk out of the process. The CMO for hire has experience in your industry and has produced favorable results for organizations like yours in the past.
  • Speed and efficiency. The final benefit of a Fractional CMO is time. Time is money. Any time spent on an unnecessary learning curve is a waste of time. It may be an active waste of money if that time is spent throwing money at campaigns with a low chance of success.A CMO for hire can implement an effective marketing strategy quickly and with maximum efficiency. By tracking KPIs, the Fractional CMO can detect early if a particular strategy is not working or underperforming. They can then direct the marketing department to correct course, improve efficiency, whereas a less-experienced marketing leader might simply cut their losses.
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