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.
Helped a fintech personal finance startup successfully go to the market and raise 11 million dollars over two rounds.
Assisted a healthcare physician startup with the go-to-market plan by defining the product market fit & testing the prototype with their relevant audience.
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.
Let’s discuss your marketing needs and discover how our Fractional CMOs for startups can help you launch and grow your company.
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.
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.
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.
Have questions about your next project? Schedule a consultation with a DAP expert today and find out what we can do for your business.
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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.
