If your business is operationally sound but struggling with marketing, congrats! That’s one of those good problems to have. It means you’re growing or prepping for growth. But traditional marketing solutions present risky, expensive choices:
- Hire an agency and watch overhead eat your budget.
- Hire in-house and take on full-time salary risk.
- Hire a consultant and wait for something to actually happen.
- Do it yourself and watch your nights and weekends disappear.
There’s another option: Go fractional.
What Is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)?
Fractional marketing leadership means bringing in highly specialized, highly capable talent for a portion of their time. This is typically for specific projects or focused outcomes. Going fractional gives you an expert who, regardless of your business, can jump in and build what you need with very little direction needed.
Think of it like getting a CMO-level brain aimed at your business without the six-figure salary.
Confession: I was allergic to the term “Fractional CxO.” It sounded like a buzzword for a consultant who’d parachute in once a week and contribute very little.
But I’ve come around. Every time I mentioned starting an agency, someone would say, “Oh, like a fractional CMO?” So, I listened. Turns out, the term makes a lot of sense, especially when you look at it from a business owner’s perspective.
So let’s break down the traditional models.
Model 1: Marketing Agencies
If you’ve worked with traditional agencies, you know the process:
- Excellent introductions, market analyses, and initial project scoping.
- A honeymoon phase where everyone’s excited and attentive.
- The slow fade as your account gets handed to changing team members.
- The bloated process where you pay for six people to develop a single post on social media (Account Manager > Writer > Proofreader > Designer > Creative Director > Account Manager > Digital Media Specialist).
- Endless bills with vague line items.
- The search for the next agency.
Traditional agencies have a business model that requires constant overhead. Every meeting, every revision, every “just checking in” email costs someone money. That someone is you.
And some agencies will lock you into systems only they understand. Creating “proprietary processes” that you can’t take with you, that somehow require their specific expertise forever.
If you’re a small or mid-sized business, there may also be sticker shock, especially once the full range of projects and maintenance is clear as things trickle in after the initial project is delivered.
When agencies work best:
- You have complex, ongoing marketing needs across multiple channels and a budget that can sustain the overhead.
- Your business requires specialized expertise in areas that change rapidly, like paid advertising or PR campaigns.
- You need a team that can scale quickly for major launches and truly stand in as if they were part of your in-house team.
Model 2: In-House Marketing Teams
Bringing marketing entirely in-house can create tremendous efficiency if you can afford it. The challenges?
- Full-time salaries, benefits, and the risk that comes with them.
- Finding a unicorn who can handle everything from strategy to execution.
- The expertise ceiling inherent in relying on one or two people.
- Inevitable capacity limitations if all goes well.
- The time it takes to train and guide an entry-level marketer.
- Equipment, software, etc.
To be brutally honest, most small and midsized businesses don’t need a full-time anything in marketing. They need different expertise at different times.
When in-house teams work best:
- Your business has reached a size where new marketing needs are constant and substantial enough to justify full-time roles.
- You have steady, predictable work that requires deep knowledge of your specific business and industry.
- Your company culture and processes benefit greatly from having marketing talent embedded in daily operations.
Model 3: Marketing Consultants
Presentations. Reports. Forecasts. Recommendations. Plans for plans.
Many consultants excel at diagnosing problems and making recommendations. But they can’t always roll up their sleeves and build the solution.
As with agencies, the quality of the consultants is highly variable. The color of my description here probably shows you my bias against consultants. But even I will admit that consultants can work well when:
- You already have execution resources (a capable internal team) but need strategic direction
- You’re facing a specific, complex challenge that requires specialized expertise to diagnose
- Your team needs someone to validate decisions and provide an objective outside perspective without the baggage of day-to-day operations
Model 4: Fractional CMO
Fractional marketing gives you C-level expertise without the C-level commitment, never-ending overhead, or agency bloat.
Here’s why companies are increasingly going fractional with marketing:
- You pay for outcomes, not hours. A fractional CMO can work as a dedicated expert for a few intensely focused weeks or months. Task them with building exactly what you need. Maybe that’s a brand refresh, a website overhaul, and a better customer experience. You define success. They execute, then check in periodically. That’s it.
- No lock-in or dependency. Agencies often create systems that only they can maintain, essentially holding your marketing or processes hostage. A fractional CMO should build with your independence in mind, creating processes that your team can actually run without constant hand-holding.
- Flexibility to scale up or down. Not every month requires the same marketing intensity. Fractional relationships flex naturally with your business cycles. Ramp up for busy seasons and product launches, scale back during slow and steady periods.
- Access to specialized talent. Fractional CMOs are typically networked with specialists who excel in specific areas, whether that’s automation, copywriting, design, or digital advertising. (By working with me, for example, you may also work with the strong network via Kolyder.) Your fractional CMO can deliver what they’re best at, and recommend the highest available performers when they sense something can be done more cost-effectively.
- Complement, not replace. Fractional CMOs don’t need to replace existing teams or systems. Quite the opposite. We’re about amplifying what you already have. Your marketing coordinator might be great at social media but struggle with backend automation. We can fill those gaps while also making your CFO happy. (Imagine that, a marketing partner your CFO likes!)
When to Go With a Fractional CMO
Fractional marketing is particularly powerful when:
- You’re in that sweet spot where you need real expertise but can’t justify full-time salaries.
- You sense unrealized potential but can’t quite define it.
- You need to modernize your approach without overhauling everything.
- You’re facing a specific challenge(website redesign, lead generation system, equipping your sales team).
- You want to test new approaches without a massive commitment or babysitting required.
- Your business is growing but not yet at enterprise scale.
- Your marketing needs are important but episodic, with intense periods followed by maintenance.
Going fractional means trusting a smaller group of people with a higher ability to execute. If the rest of your business is running at full speed, your marketing should align with how you actually operate. That’s what a fractional CMO can deliver.
So yes, that was a rather opinionated overview of marketing models. But this isn’t about selling you something you don’t need. It’s about helping you find a marketing model that generates value for your business.
If going fractional seems like a good direction for you, reach out to hello@kolyder.com.