A fractional CMO who owns the strategy, not just the to-do list.
If you're spending money on marketing and sales aren't growing, the problem is rarely effort. It's leadership. I step in as your part-time Chief Marketing Officer: setting the strategy, owning the budget, managing agencies and freelancers, and reporting in revenue, with forty years of judgment and the AI tools of today.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is an experienced Chief Marketing Officer who leads a company's marketing part-time, usually for a monthly fee. The fractional CMO sets the marketing strategy and budget, chooses and manages agencies and freelancers, builds the reporting and is accountable for results, giving a small or mid-size business senior marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time executive.
A senior marketing boss you share, so you get the judgment without paying a full executive salary.
Most small businesses don't need more marketing. They need someone in charge of it.
These are the situations owners describe to me most often, usually in exactly these words.
“We spend, but sales don't grow”
Money goes to ads, an agency and a few tools, and nobody can show which of it produced a customer.
“I need someone to manage my marketing strategy”
The owner is the marketing department by default, deciding in between everything else.
“Our agency sends reports, not results”
Activity metrics every month (impressions, posts, rankings) and no line to revenue.
“Competitors show up in AI answers. We don't.”
Buyers now ask ChatGPT and Google's AI who to hire. Nobody on the team owns that.
One accountable leader across everything marketing touches
A fractional CMO sits above the channels and the vendors, so every decision answers to the same strategy and the same numbers.
Strategy & positioning
Who you serve, why you win and what you stop doing.
Budget
Where every dollar goes and what it must return.
Brand & authority
How people and AI systems describe you.
Your growth target
Revenue, margin and the customers you want more of
Team & vendors
Agencies and freelancers hired, briefed and held to account.
Channels
Search, AI visibility, social, email, paid and referral, in the right order.
Reporting
A monthly scorecard that starts with revenue.
The work, deliverable by deliverable
Marketing leadership should leave a paper trail you can hold me to. This is what the engagement produces.
Growth strategy
A clear plan for where growth will come from in the next 12 months, and what to stop doing.
Positioning & messaging
Why a customer should pick you, said in words they'd use.
Budget & channel plan
Spend moved toward what returns money, away from what only looks busy.
Agency & vendor management
The people you already pay, briefed properly and measured against outcomes.
AI visibility
Your business found and recommended in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews.
Reporting to leadership
One meeting a month where marketing is discussed in revenue, not vanity metrics.
Fractional CMO, full-time CMO, agency or doing it yourself?
Each is right for someone. Here's the honest comparison.
| Fractional CMO | Full-time CMO | Marketing agency | Owner does it | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You get | Senior strategy and accountability, part-time | Senior strategy, full-time | Execution capacity | Your own judgment, when you have time |
| Cost | A monthly fee, scoped to the work | An executive salary plus benefits | A retainer, often with long contracts | Your time, which is the scarcest thing you have |
| Best when | You need leadership more than labour | Marketing is large enough to fill a full-time executive role | The strategy is set and you need hands | The business is very small and simple |
| Main risk | Senior time is limited, so focus matters | High fixed cost before results | Activity without strategy | Marketing done in the gaps, inconsistently |
Diagnose first, then lead
Free 30-minute call
Your numbers, your goals and what you've tried. You leave with an honest read on whether you need a fractional CMO at all.
Diagnostic
The S.C.A.L.E. scan and the Neural DNA Architect™ diagnostic find where the chain from attention to sale actually breaks, before any budget moves.
Strategy & 90-day plan
Positioning, the channel plan, the budget and the scorecard, agreed with you.
Lead the work
A standing weekly or fortnightly session, vendor management and decisions made between meetings.
Monthly review
Revenue-first reporting, what to stop, what to scale and next month's priorities.
A good fit, and not a fit
I'd rather tell you now than six months into an engagement.
✓Good fit
- Owner-led and mid-size businesses spending on marketing without clear returns
- Companies with an agency or freelancers but nobody senior directing them
- Legacy businesses that need to modernise for AI search without losing what works
- Founders who want a strategic partner with 40 years of market judgment
✕Not a fit
- Businesses that only need someone to post on social media
- Anyone looking for a guaranteed ranking or overnight results
- Companies that want a full-time, in-office employee
- Owners who won't share the numbers; strategy without them is guesswork
Leadership that compounded
Blue Moon Fabrics
A single LA Fashion District store engineered into a national textile leader: the 100× build.
View →235+ storesAisleBird
A voice-first shopping app scaled to 235+ stores across 10 metros, with AI categorization.
View →SaaSS.C.A.L.E.
My growth method turned into software: it reads a website the way AI systems do and ranks what to fix.
View →40 yearsMarket experience
Legal, medical, e-commerce, hospitality and finance, from before the internet to the age of AI answers.
View →Fractional CMO: frequently asked questions
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO leads your marketing part-time: setting the strategy and budget, choosing and managing agencies and freelancers, building the reporting and taking responsibility for results. You get the judgment of a senior marketing executive for a monthly fee instead of a full-time salary.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
My fractional CMO engagements are scoped to the work and quoted as a monthly fee after a diagnostic, because pricing a plan before knowing the constraint is guesswork. If you only need advice, hourly consulting is $350–$450 with no minimum, and you can book a paid hour online. See all published prices.
Is a fractional CMO right for a small business?
Often, yes. Small businesses rarely need a full-time CMO, but they do need someone senior deciding where the marketing money goes. A fractional CMO fills that gap. If your business is very small and simple, I'll tell you that a one-time strategy session is the better buy.
What is outsourced marketing leadership?
Outsourced marketing leadership means hiring an outside expert to direct your marketing rather than do all of it. The fractional CMO sets the plan and manages the people doing the work, whether that's your staff, an agency or freelancers.
What's the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?
An agency is paid to execute: ads, content, design. A fractional CMO is paid for direction and accountability: deciding what's worth executing and holding the agency to results. Many of my clients keep their agency and add me above it.
Do you also cover AI and AI search?
Yes. That's what makes this different from a traditional fractional CMO. I make sure your business is found and recommended in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews, and that AI is used where it actually saves time or money.
Put someone senior in charge of your marketing
Book a free 30-minute call. Bring your numbers and your frustrations; you'll leave with a clear next step either way.