Why Should Startups Hire a Fractional CMO?
Long story short: because startups need someone who can not only deal with ambiguity, but can actually thrive in such an environment.
Summary:
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing professional who can expertly define your marketing strategy while also building, from the ground up, strong foundations for your future scalable campaigns. This articles explores the reasons that make the fractional CMO model a popular one among startups, the conditions necessary for his/her success and the benefits over hiring an agency (or an external consultant) to do marketing job for a startup looking to grow.
Why Should Startups Hire a Fractional CMO?
Why hire a fractional CMO as a startup?
The benefits of hiring a fractional chief marketing officer are clear: your startup can start building its marketing department instantly, with a senior leader driving the process - all of it, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
Most startup founders, especially the tech ones, are not comfortable with the whole “marketing thing”. And this is when hiring a fractional CMO is a great and agile solution for the marketing leadership “problem” that start-ups will face at some point, unless they have an experienced marketer in the founding team.
Let’s go a bit deeper into why the ambiguity, which is a day-by-day presence in the startup world, makes the kind of experience and skills that a fractional CMO brings, the right choice for a start-up looking to grow. Some will argue that hiring an agency or a generalist marketing freelancer is enough at the beginning so we will be looking at the benefits brought by having an in-house fractional CMO instead.
The Know-How to Get Something Started
In a start-up, processes and systems tend to be chaotic at best, or non-existing at worst. Bringing in someone who has experience with getting something started is essential in such an environment. Someone who has done it before: built from the ground up strong marketing foundations and put in place marketing tools, systems, processes and teams for a scalable growth. Profiles with such broad-scope are less common in agencies who function as a collection of highly specialized niched experts. On top of being equipped with such an experience, it is imperative for this kind of work to be done from the inside of the organization. Yet another reason why a fractional hire is preferred to an external consultant. The marketing strategy must be aligned with the overarching business goals and context.
The Ability to Think Strategically and Tactically
A start-up looking to grow needs a strong marketing leader who can define a long term strategy but also has clear hands-on experience with the tactical implementation. It takes someone “who knows how it’s done” in order to orchestrate at best the tactical execution. A well-versed senior marketer, deeply seated in your team (as a difference to a freelance or outside consultant) brings instantly a full-spectrum of leadership and a clear strategic direction to support the company through its growth phase.
The Leverage of Seniority and of a Strong Network
When joining a start-up, to set up and lead its marketing strategy and operations, the first job to be done is clear: one must start by identifying the marketing initiatives that can move the needle quickly. Having a few rodeos under the belt, and ideally also relevant industry experience, will enable a senior professional marketer to get right on with it! Next steps are hiring, leading and mentoring a team and all of this is achievable faster when one has a strong network of professionals, who can be easily connected and pulled in for a swift marketing project roll-out.
The Exercise of Leadership and the Edge of Operational Know-How
Your start-up needs someone to take responsibility not only for overseeing marketing operations, but also for managing stakeholders, building and leading an internal team or a satellite team of agencies and marketing partners. A track record of marketing and managerial experience is essential to fill in the shoes of a fractional Chief Marketing Officer in a startup. What will make a tremendous difference is to have a T-shaped professional marketer in such a role. Why? Because such figures have a strong broad-scope understanding of marketing as a whole, as well as deep expertise in a few specific areas and this combo makes them a perfect fit to run the marketing show in the context of a startup.
The Familiarity of Sitting At The Stakeholders Table
Last but not least, startups need self-managing executives who will build and manage their departments while working cross functionally with the other executives on board. Having already sat at the stakeholders table and navigated the challenges of communication and alignment during the ups and downs of the growth stage is a valuable sense to look for when hiring a fractional CMO. You need a strong marketing leader who will collaborate efficiently with the other stakeholders while keeping a firm hand on the wheel.
Fractional CMOs, agencies, freelancers and marketing consultants can all bring valuable insights and offer worthwhile services, but they each operate differently. Agencies and external consultants are a better fit for executing tactical initiatives, under the guidance of a strategic figure that works from inside the company and can have a leveled conversation with these external partners.
While fractional CMOs are also outsourced executives, the success of their mission is tightly connected to a high degree of commitment and involvement. In order to achieve full-time results while working on a part-time basis they will be deeply-seated in your team and highly dedicated to the company’s mission and goals. Nevertheless, there is one another aspect that conditions highly the success of a fractional CMO, and this one has nothing to do with them: the startup owner/CEO must be willing to give the fractional CMO full reins to run the marketing boat.
Looking to understand more about what a fractional CMO is and whether you need one for your startup? Or are you ready to start scaling your marketing efforts via a fractional hire? At Journee, we would be happy to explore together how we can support your unique growth objectives.
Our Fractional CMO offering is not a service, but a team member ready to join your mission and hit the ground running. Let’s go!
About Journee - Digital at Ease
Founded by two digital marketing professionals with extensive international experience, Journee GmbH is a female owned digital marketing and technology boutique consultancy.
Diana and Ana Maria, two fractional CMOs with a strong digital core, are helping companies set up, improve and further scale their marketing operations.
Their combined expertise covers marketing leadership, digital marketing, digital analytics, advertising, marketing technology and overall digital strategy support and mentorship.