Fractional CMOs for Startups: Move Fast, Scale Smart

Fractional CMOs for Startups

Strategic marketing expertise on demand, designed to elevate your brand and boost your bottom line. Your search for a Fractional CMO Services ends HERE!

Our Fractional CMOs help startups avoid common mistakes when launching a new company or product to market. We handle market research, brand building, content marketing, SEO & PPC go-to-market strategy, community building, feedback collection, email marketing, and more.

If you’re looking for strategic direction, consistent branding, understanding customer behavior, setting an integrated marketing approach, and defining your plan to scale your marketing operations for your startup, you've come to the right place.

“We highly recommend … Digital Authority Partners for your Fractional CMO and marketing needs. The professionalism and experience exhibited by Christal and the Digital Authority Partners team was excellent. Christal hit the ground running and kept running with all the marketing tasks. She acted as a great CMO – advised us and then executed when decisions were made, took the initiative to get the marketing projects completed, and laid out the entire marketing strategy for the company with minimal oversight. She really felt like part of the team, and she was. The DAP members also felt like part of the team as they contributed to the company through not just marketing services, but also introduced us to professional connections, contacts, and experience that benefited the company. … We further like that DAP’s CMOs were agnostic to service providers. She could and would recommend other service providers that she felt would provide the best solution to the company (vs pushing the company back to only use DAP). This gave us the warm and fuzzy feeling that she had the best interest in the company.”

Tyson Schroeder Vhanti

“Digital Authority has helped my company in a number of ways that will result in record profits. Being more "old school" in my thoughts, I did not understand the value of a digital partner until I met with Michael of Digital Authority. He explained the value, process, and expectations in a way that I could understand. Now I value the relationship and cannot imagine making marketing decisions without consulting with them. We lead with our digital footprint and outreach with all other mediums coming in a distant second. I give them the highest marks and hope they can help you as much as they have helped me.”

Mark Meyer CEO & Founder of E&M Strategic Real Estate

“Digital Authority Partners provided us with fractional CMO and analytics services. Great team and great work that added value to our marketing and analytics capabilities.”

Bijan Vafaei Head of Marketing at Wage

“What was most impressive about the team was their hands-on approach and accessibility — their president was always involved and ready to help throughout.”

Sivan Galinsky Chief Marketing Officer at Brinks, Gilson, and Lione

“Their knowledge in the space was very helpful in developing our marketing plan. Digital Authority Partners was very helpful in developing the our marketing plan. They were responsive, available, and seamless with both their communication and workflow. In the end, the team delivered their project on time with high-quality results.”

Zak Higson Executive Vice President of Signature Analytics

“We hired DAP to help us simplify our go-to-market messaging, launch a new website and provide a marketing operations framework we desperately needed. DAP was holistic in their treatment of our marketing operations, from the technology that supported our marketing engine to the messaging that was displayed on the website, to the ads we were serving, to SEO and our positioning in the market, DAP brought a wealth of expertise to the team that allowed us to put our best foot forward to our prospects and customers.”

Lizzie O'Rourke Vice President of Marketing at DecisionLink

Fractional CMO for Startups: Why Do You Need One?

Fractional CMO, also known as “CMO-for-hire” is a part-time marketing executive hired by a company determined to scale its growth marketing efforts quickly. In the startup space, Fractional CMOs provide marketing strategy and critical growth levers to help startups successfully launch to the market.

Strategic Planning: As startups get closer to the launch date, creating a scalable marketing approach that aligns with the business goals, product positioning, and the needs of the ideal buyer persona becomes a critical pillar of a company’s success. We help create that scalable marketing plan and make it a reality.

Market Research: One of the key mistakes startups make is figuring out a balanced minimum viable product that is clearly different from its competitors, in line with consumer preferences and the market trends that may impact the success of a product. Some companies attempt to do much, some too little before going to market. Our Fractional CMO for startups define the right balance between competing interests and help founders launch the perfect product at the perfect time.

Branding: We’ve helped over one hundred companies define and manage their brand identity, and key market differentiators, and define a consistent messaging blueprint. Our CMOs for startups work tirelessly with founders and CEOs to hone in on your company history, mission and values that truly resonate with customers emotionally. Our branding philosophy emphasizes elevating a startup’s perceived value in the consumer’s eyes.

Product Marketing: Whether your startup offers a B2B, B2C, or D2C solution, our skilled Fractional CMOs will collaborate with you to determine the right messaging, positioning, and custom-tailored marketing approach to attract consumers and investors to your company. We provide clear direction and focus, ensuring your business aligns with the product marketing approach, brand identity, and long-term goals.

Digital Marketing: Our Fractional CMOs have managed more than 1 billion dollars in marketing spend across our startup clients. Overseeing and prioritizing online marketing efforts, including website optimization, social and media organic and paid strategies, and online advertising, is a daunting task. We help you determine how to allocate your marketing dollars to the right channels at the right time.

Does my startup need a CMO?

The answer to this question depends on the stage your startup is in. If you’re still trying to find product-market fit, hiring a full-time CMO might be premature. This is the perfect stage to hire a Fractional CMO instead of a full-time CMO because you only need executive marketing leadership on a fractional basis. In other words, defining your go-to-market strategy, key differentiators, product-market fit, marketing channels, and the marketing budget for the first year can be done part-time. Having a CMO can be crucial if you’ve achieved product-market fit and are ready to scale. They can provide strategic direction, optimize the marketing funnel, and drive growth.

When should I hire a marketer for my startup?

Before investing heavily in marketing, ensure that your product or solution fits a real need in the market. Once you’ve validated genuine demand and iterated based on initial feedback, it’s a great time to ramp up marketing efforts. But even more critical than simply hiring a marketer is ensuring you have a clear understanding of all the marketing work needed to support your startup when it’s time to launch. We recommend hiring a Fractional CMO for startups first, getting a good handle on a clear, scalable, and robust marketing plan, then deciding on the marketing resources you need to hire next. For example, when working with startups, it’s very typical for our Fractional CMOs to define the go-to-market plan and then help startups hire freelancers that execute the marketing plan for the first 12-18 months. We usually recommend hiring the first full-time in-house marketer one year after launching your startup. In the early days, a better use of your funds would be towards sales efforts or technology roles.

What does a CMO do for a startup?

A lot of marketing work typically happens within the 6 to 12 months before a startup goes live. First, a CMO will work on developing and overseeing the execution of your go-to-market strategic marketing plan. Secondly, our Fractional CMOs for startups spend 60 to 120 hours defining, establishing, and maintaining a startup’s brand identity. Third, we focus on defining and creating the startup’s unique selling proposition and value proposition while determining the most effective channels for marketing and advertising at launch. Fourth, we work with the founding team on allocating and managing the marketing budget, the efficient use of resources for maximum impact, and, when the time makes sense, building and managing the marketing team while hiring specialists part-time or full-time, as needed.

Should You Hire a Fractional CMO for your Startup?

Hiring a fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) can be a strategic decision for startups, especially those who cannot yet afford a full-time executive or need high-level marketing expertise part-time.

Here are the main reasons why startups ultimately choose Digital Authority Partners’ Fractional CMOs.

Cost-Effective: Employing a full-time CMO can be expensive, especially considering salary, bonuses, and benefits. A fractional CMO provides expertise at a fraction of the cost. Our fractional CMOs typically spend around 120-200 defining the overall strategic roadmap for a startup. From there, typically, engagements are for 16-24 hours per month but can be scaled up if a startup requires more help.

Flexible Engagement: You can engage a fractional CMO for specific projects or a set number of hours per week or month, allowing for scalability based on needs. For example, Digital Authority Partners only requires a startup to commit to 16 hours of Fractional CMO time per month with no long-term contracts required.

Broad Experience: Fractional CMOs often have experience across various industries and companies, bringing diverse strategies and best practices to your startup. Any marketing mistake you could make – we’ve seen it and corrected it at other startups or large companies.

Quick Onboarding: Since our Fractional CMOs are used to jumping into different companies, they can often onboard quickly and start making an impact. It takes less than one month for our Fractional CMOs to provide real value to your startup.

Strategic Perspective: Our Fractional CMOs for startups can provide a high-level strategic viewpoint without getting bogged down in day-to-day tasks, ensuring your marketing aligns with your business goals. That’s another way of saying we help with your overall business plan and marketing strategy simultaneously.

Test Before Committing: Hiring one of Digital Authority Partners’ Fractional CMOs for startups is a chance to “test out” a CMO role in your company before committing to a full-time position. It can help you understand the kind of expertise and cultural fit you’d want if you hire full-time later.

Fractional CMOs for Startups

Strategic marketing expertise on demand, designed to elevate your brand and boost your bottom line. Your search for a Fractional CMO Services ends HERE!

Schedule Your Free Consultation

Looking To Meet Now? Schedule A Meeting Today

Watch this video to learn about the Digital Authority Partners approach.

Interested to Learn More About What We Can Do For You? Check Out This Video!

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Audit your marketing initiatives:

Create a 12-month marketing roadmap:

Optimize your online presence:

Expand your marketing automation:

Implement effective search and media strategies:

Revamp branding, PR, and content marketing:

Hire the right talent and vendors for your marketing department:

Monitor KPIs and optimize marketing spend:

Does my startup need a CMO?

When should I hire a marketer for my startup?

What does a CMO do for a startup?

Should You Hire a Fractional CMO for your Startup?

Hiring a fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) can be a strategic decision for startups, especially those who cannot yet afford a full-time executive or need high-level marketing expertise part-time.

Fractional CMOs for Startups

Strategic marketing expertise on demand, designed to elevate your brand and boost your bottom line. Your search for a Fractional CMO Services ends HERE!

Schedule Your Free Consultation

Looking To Meet Now? Schedule A Meeting Today

Watch this video to learn about the Digital Authority Partners approach.

Interested to Learn More About What We Can Do For You? Check Out This Video!

Helping Startups Achieve Better Product-Market Fit ROI through Fractional CMO Services

Startup Marketing Command: Scale Fast, Raise Faster

Funding Success

Performance Metrics

Investment Machine

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What Our Clients Say About Us

Schedule Your Free Consultation

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Fractional CMO for Startups: Why Do You Need One?

Meet our Featured Fractional CMO for Startups

Rose Lee is an international marketing, product marketing management, and customer success executive who has delivered growth and profitability to over two dozen startups.

Schedule a Meeting with Our Fractional CMOs Today

How Our Fractional CMOs Will Help Your SaaS Company Succeed

Audit your marketing initiatives:

Create a 12-month marketing roadmap:

Optimize your online presence:

Expand your marketing automation:

Implement effective search and media strategies:

Revamp branding, PR, and content marketing:

Hire the right talent and vendors for your marketing department:

Monitor KPIs and optimize marketing spend:

CMO for Startups Marketing Services We Offer

Fractional CMO for Startups: Frequently Asked Questions

Does my startup need a CMO?

When should I hire a marketer for my startup?

What does a CMO do for a startup?

Interested in a Fractional CMO for your Startup? You’d be in great company!

Schedule your free consultation

Startup Fractional CMO Insights

Should You Hire a Fractional CMO for your Startup?

Hiring a fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) can be a strategic decision for startups, especially those who cannot yet afford a full-time executive or need high-level marketing expertise part-time.

Interested in a Fractional CMO for your Startup?
You’d be in great company!