TL;DR
Unlock the full potential of your fintech startup with Fractional CMO services. Learn how part-time marketing leadership can provide strategic insights, cost savings, and targeted expertise to drive growth and innovation. Discover the benefits, understand the process, and make an informed decision for your business’s future.
You hear it everywhere: “Fractional this” and “Fractional that.” But you’re busy running your business, and figuring out what a Fractional CMO does might be low on your list. Let’s break down why: if you are involved in Financial Services or Fintech, you should seriously consider exploring fractional CMO services.
Hiring a full-time Chief Marketing Officer is expensive. Salary.com tells us that as of February 2023, the average full-time CMO makes $342,859. But, add in expenses like benefits, payroll taxes, healthcare and office space, you are well into the half-million dollar range before that CMO even sends their first email.
Table of Contents
Do You Need a Full-Time CMO?
You may need more time to be ready for the hefty investment of a full-time CMO, but you may have recognized the need for strategic expertise leading your marketing efforts. Your current in-house marketing team may excel in execution, but they might need more big-picture strategic planning from someone with extensive experience. Your team needs to be firing on all cylinders, and you recognize the need for a process-oriented person to steer the ship, help optimize things, and work like a well-oiled machine.
Perhaps you’ve been sales-driven for years and realized you need to build your brand and drive deeper engagement with the right kind of leads to continue hitting those revenue goals. Your marketing has been a hodge-podge of random activities with no clear direction, and you’re looking for someone with marketing expertise. Or your business is at a critical growth phase, and the marketing activities you relied on when you were smaller aren’t working anymore. Whatever your reason, avoiding wasting precious time and resources with haphazard or ineffective marketing is crucial.
What an fCMO Brings to the Table
A Fractional CMO can provide exactly what you need to propel your business forward without the considerable financial investment of a full-time CMO. You’re hiring an experienced marketing professional to join your team part-time or project-based. The best Fractional CMOs have seen it all; they’ve experienced firsthand how to navigate challenges effectively while driving business growth, sometimes in similar verticals, giving you confidence and comfort in their abilities.
How Does a Fractional CMO Work?
Initial Consultation & Assessment: Getting to Know You
In your initial meeting, your Fractional CMO will conduct an in-depth analysis of your current marketing initiatives and processes. They will want to understand the sales cycle and your primary marketing goals. Is the focus of your company primarily lead generation? Are you launching a new product and seeking expert guidance on implementing a comprehensive Go-to-Market strategy? They should inquire about your budget and team structure. They need a solid grasp of your current Key Performance Indicators to know what’s working and where you’d like to improve.
Developing a Comprehensive Marketing Strategy
A good Fractional CMO will then synthesize all that valuable data they just gathered into a comprehensive, well-thought-out plan for your business. This should be a living document in which the fractional CMO, the team members executing the day-to-day tasks, and the leadership are all in alignment.
The Fractional CMO must be a strong, strategic thinker with a clear plan to get from point A to point B, but they must also have the leadership qualities necessary to execute. They recommend increasing your efforts around Search Engine Optimization and elevating brand awareness to bring qualified prospects to the sales team. Your Fractional CMO might also advise you on creating a realistic budget and the right size for the internal marketing department. Working with fractional marketers could provide needed talent, such as an outsourced Email Marketing Manager or a social media marketing team member.
Onboarding, Implementation, & Reporting
Once everyone is aligned with the plan, it’s time to implement it. Your Fractional CMO provides a rudder to keep everyone moving in the right direction with all oars pulling simultaneously. They may even offer coaching to level up your existing team members and maximize effectiveness, often improving morale.
With expert guidance from an executive leader and a fresh direction, your existing marketing team knows exactly where to focus. The CMO also reviews progress toward marketing goals with a well-thought-out reporting framework. They meet regularly with the team to answer questions, provide a sounding board, and give their valuable insights. Your Fractional CMO analyzes the data and makes adjustments along the way. CMO services should also identify and utilize effective marketing software that provides more efficient management, especially if it can reduce the complexity and number of tools your team uses.
Understanding the Advantages
Cost Effectiveness
Remember that hefty price tag associated with a full-time CMO? According to Salary.com, the average salary in the US for a CMO as of May 2024 was up to $360,672. Adding benefits and overhead costs can jump to $658,790, which could stretch the budget of smaller fintech companies. By engaging a fractional CMO, companies gain the skills of a seasoned, battle-tested marketing expert at a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive, enabling them to dedicate funds to other critical aspects of their business.
Flexibility
Working with a Fractional CMO lets you fine-tune the scope and length of the agreement. This allows companies of any size, especially smaller businesses and those focused on areas like Financial Services, to adjust their fractional engagement based on the demands of their marketing plan or marketing challenges, offering greater financial agility during times when flexibility is often paramount.
Targeted Expertise & Specialized Skill
A full-time Chief Marketing Officer doesn’t necessarily mean one person will solve your marketing needs excellently. You may already be heavily invested in paid ads for your B2B business, but your email marketing could be overhauled. Or, do the messaging and voice of your brand need help to sound more authentic, rather than like every other fintech company out there? That lack of clarity could hinder efforts for long-term brand-building.
When searching for Fractional CMO services, selecting a Fractional CMO experienced in your industries is best. Or, look for a CMO who masters the particular disciplines your marketing plan demands. You can leverage their deep insights and experience to jump-start your growth faster than trying to figure it all out independently. With access to diverse experts, organizations gain insights into all facets of marketing – giving teams access to highly sought-after advice without sacrificing long-term plans, especially as the demands and skills required of a marketing department constantly shift in today’s marketplace.
An Outside, Objective Perspective
Sometimes, after years of working with the same team, marketing strategies and approaches get stuck in a rut. Companies can benefit by introducing an external viewpoint and a seasoned marketing officer who can suggest improvements to an existing marketing plan or department structure. The average tenure of a CMO at 3.5 years tells us it’s more common than not to have multiple CMOs working with a team over time. This can be helpful. Think of it this way: a constant inflow of new perspectives from diverse, experienced leaders will often challenge ingrained ideas and lead to out-of-the-box thinking that helps a team and an organization grow.
Exploring Disadvantages
Less Day-to-Day Involvement
Fractional CMOs often act as trusted advisors, providing guidance and expertise on marketing plan implementation to marketing teams. However, a full-time marketing officer will be more engaged daily. Companies must consider their priorities. Is strategic thinking, effective budgeting, and processes you seek, or is more hands-on leadership from the marketing department chief the best option? That lack of day-to-day oversight will sometimes impact force, but it depends on your organization, needs, and goals, such as financial or other key business objectives.
Potential Culture Mismatch
Working with someone new, whether full-time or not, can disrupt internal processes, especially those involving teams such as the existing marketing team. A fractional marketing expert is still someone new. Although your existing team will benefit from the marketing efforts introduced, personality and style sometimes jive. Having clear communication in place, along with agreed-upon parameters from the start, often reduces cultural disconnects before they negatively impact efforts.
Making the Right Choice for You
In today’s remote-first world, the most cost-effective option is a hybrid approach to marketing efforts, whether you run a multi-billion dollar hedge fund or a two-person marketing department. A fractional CMO experienced with creating strategic insights that help navigate complex Financial Services business objectives is priceless. Supplementing them with highly targeted talent with companies like GoodFirm that excel with marketing efforts in a specific marketing channel gives you high-level leadership and tactical excellence with room to adjust. In today’s unpredictable climate, that flexibility goes a long way.
Don't Let High Turnover Rates Blindside You
An analysis by Korn Ferry found that the average tenure of a CMO is the lowest across all C-suite leaders. At a mere 3.5 years on average, it tells us something surprising. What was once a highly sought-after executive role people dedicated their careers to working their way up to is now viewed differently. The rise of freelance platforms and high compensation rates that companies are now willing to pay for in-demand specializations that provide immediate tangible results means today’s most in-demand CMO has much more power than CMOs did 20 years ago. This can lead to a “musical chairs” dynamic where internal teams can benefit, although those constantly shifting gears create challenges for marketing agencies. They are now required to have a strong understanding of a large volume of clients’ specific demands rather than having one expert leader overseeing clients in the long term. That can impact marketing strategies in a way most companies don’t consider and creates problems for brands.
Digging Deeper into the Role
Here are some of the most common roles and responsibilities a fractional CMO fulfills:
Developing Marketing Strategy and Marketing Initiatives
Fractional CMOs analyze internal processes, such as team skills and inefficiencies, company goals, financial targets, product market fit, and competitive landscapes, to formulate custom strategies that are right-sized and actionable. You may target startups or build relationships with venture capital or private equity firms. They will consider how all this will ultimately provide tangible results.
Leading Your Marketing Team
A good Fractional CMO must also possess outstanding leadership qualities that provide support and expertise to team members executing everyday marketing functions and the C-suite to whom they report. They need strong interpersonal skills to mentor in-house team members responsible for digital marketing strategy effectively. Additionally, CMOs must understand and be comfortable with financial objectives, providing a vital bridge for teams.
Optimizing Existing Marketing
Your fractional CMO analyzes metrics to identify strengths and make course corrections when something’s not working. They look to implement cost savings across departments. They may emphasize less on your B2B content marketing initiatives while amping up SEO content creation. Or, they recommend onboarding a fractional email marketing expert if current efforts to generate sales need to be resonating. They make informed, thoughtful decisions that align with organizational priorities. A good fractional CMO can dramatically change outcomes even in the first 90 days of an engagement by improving and maximizing the marketing efforts across the entire department.
Overseeing Agencies & Partnerships
A fractional CMO will often manage outside teams working on your behalf, even suggesting what skills would make the biggest impact on your overall marketing strategies, helping select and oversee relationships with fractional teams to reduce costs, which may help offset the higher costs of having experienced executive leadership from your CMO services.
Improving Your Marketing Budget
You may need advice on properly allocating your marketing budget for your B2B content marketing strategies or PPC campaigns. Or is there wasted spend? You need an efficient, process-oriented fractional CMO focusing on budget optimization as a core value. There is almost always room for considerable improvements, leading to one of the biggest wins from fractional CMO services. In June 2024, Brady Ambler wrote in Marketing Interactive that this ‘trend is here to stay.’
Digging Deeper: Fractional CMO Rates
Many companies are surprised to discover fractional CMO rates and cost comparisons to a full-time marketing department chief, especially in niche verticals such as financial services. For comparison, a senior fractional marketing leader might cost $200-$300 per hour for an average of 1.5 days a week, according to Rajat Kapur’s April 2024 article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, which could equate to 12 hours per week. If they require $250/hour, the cost would be $3000 per week. Or approximately $12,000 monthly and $144,000 annually for 48 weeks, significantly less than a full-time Chief Marketing Officer. Those significant cost savings enable startups and smaller organizations to funnel their financial resources into building out existing marketing team roles or utilizing highly specialized marketing professionals on a fractional basis as their business needs dictate. In my experience, this approach is not only a wise investment of funds but also provides a significant edge, giving growing organizations in highly competitive verticals such as Fintech greater opportunities.
Remember that pricing models depend on experience, track record, demand, and the particular project needs your marketing plan demands, so make sure your budget matches reality.
Comparing Models
Here’s a side-by-side comparison to help illustrate the differences between an in-house Director-level person, an advertising agency, a marketing consultant, and a fractional CMO. We will focus on these criteria: annual cost, oversight of campaigns, execution of projects and campaigns, experience levels, whether peer review takes place, how insights are generated, and whether the person becomes an official team member. Keep in mind these are all averages; your particular situation might differ:
| Director (in-house) | Advertising Agency | Marketing Consultant | Fractional CMO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Cost | $177,827 + benefits/overhead | Varies, often high | Varies, can be expensive | Most cost-effective |
| Campaign Oversight | Yes | Yes | Varies, typically no | Yes |
| Campaign Execution | Often, varies | Yes | Rarely | Guidance and some execution |
| Experience Level | Mid level | Typically high, varies greatly by firm | Wide range of experience levels, often specific to one discipline | High-level, experienced executive |
| Peer Review | No | Often, internal process for client projects | Typically No | Typically Yes |
| Process for Insights | Often through experience and education | Internal, from experience working with many client projects and market awareness | Through their expertise | Typically well defined proven processes exist |
| Becomes Team Member | Yes | No, third-party | No, typically temporary project-based relationship | Part-Time Yes, long-term no |
Examining Key Attributes
We’ve covered the overall value, advantages, and disadvantages of using fractional CMO services instead of full-time CMO services and given some price considerations. But let’s explore exactly what traits to look for in the perfect candidate for your needs:
Experience Level
Of course, everyone has to start somewhere. However, when choosing your fractional CMO, consider more than anyone with marketing experience. The key takeaway is to look for those who are adept at managing marketing campaigns, building internal team processes and systems, and working with leadership and CEOs. If your business objectives demand it, it may be beneficial to have specific marketing team size, budget allocation, demand generation, social media strategy, or public relations management experience in financial services or in high-growth and very niche fintech industries.
Proven Track Record of Success
Don’t just take their word for it. Check for documented successes, especially those most similar to what you are attempting to accomplish. Most seasoned fractional CMOs working for reputable agencies or groups will come with detailed case studies you can review and analyze before bringing them on.
Excellent Communication Skills
If someone isn’t great at communicating in written and oral forms, there will most likely be confusion that negatively impacts marketing efforts. Clear communication should be highly valued, and you want your Fractional CMO to be skilled and able to present complicated ideas or processes simply. For example, can your marketing lead give your CEO updates and insights briefly and to the point without relying on jargon or technical marketing terms?
Adaptability
The fractional CMO who thrives is someone who is comfortable stepping into an unknown situation. Working across a large portfolio of client projects will always lead to new challenges, opportunities, and personalities to get a feel for quickly, just as with full-time marketing executive leaders.
Strategic Thinker
As marketing becomes more data-driven and less ‘creative,’ well-developed and implemented thought processes and systems are now mandatory to provide a winning recipe for your CMO services. A Fractional CMO will rely on their insights and those of peers to evaluate strengths, see weaknesses, and uncover unseen opportunities with clear plans. For example, do they rely on building effective customer relationships through inbound marketing rather than prioritizing generating leads through cold outreach strategies? Or do they advocate for a longer-term play focusing on elevating brand awareness by using a data-driven search engine strategy?
Evaluating Common Issues
With any kind of outsourcing or contracting relationship, challenges can occur. How can you select the best marketing leader without wasting precious resources on trial and error with your team? These tips below have served me well:
Have Clear Objectives
At times, the initial plan fails. After everyone has settled into an engagement, the focus shifts to marketing efforts. But if goals and desired outcomes aren’t clearly understood by everyone, frustration builds quickly. Avoid frustration and stress from a mismatch by spending as much time defining those objectives at the start of the engagement.
Trust (but Verify)
While it might be tempting to hire someone with years of CMO experience for complex Financial Services projects and step back completely – always do your homework and understand exactly who you are letting work for you. Agencies with stellar track records and fractional leaders backed by documented successes make this a much smoother process with less room for headaches and regrets.
Build Relationships for the Long Term
Sometimes, after a successful project wraps up, you discover down the road that your former Fractional CMO is now the absolute perfect solution for a new problem. But the fractional marketing leader has so much demand that you might be left waiting weeks or even months to tap into that brilliance again. Be direct and express your future goals at the start, and it will create a better path for both your company and the Fractional CMO to navigate.
Why 'The Rise of Fractional' Matters to You
For years, Fractional CFOs pioneered the idea of executive leadership on demand for business. Virtual companies like vcfo.com have proven it a sustainable and highly demanded service for every business size across many different sectors, the Financial Services world included, offering highly strategic executive-level talent on a short-term, as-needed basis without needing to pay those hefty full-time costs. Those pioneers in fractional finance roles were actually on the right track. The changing work climate over the past five years and remote worker acceptance have seen many skilled and high-paid people exiting companies. These top-tier players saw the opportunities waiting, with much more financial and personal upside. That changing of the guard means the most talented marketers at every level have redefined how businesses view hiring for every position.
This doesn’t necessarily mean traditional internal teams or well-established advertising agency models disappear overnight. In many ways, though, those traditional roles have less bargaining power than even ten years ago, and that evolution means new considerations for you as a business leader.
Embrace Flexibility & Agile Approaches
Today’s workforce is far less traditional. Fractional CMO services might provide expert marketing leadership. Your sales team could benefit by utilizing talented content marketing creators, social media managers, or brand builders. No matter the skill your project requires, those demands can be satisfied by exploring options outside traditional roles that give your Financial Services company the agility to adapt and implement changes quickly. A 2019 Harvard Business Review study of CMOs uncovered something pretty surprising. It’s often “mission impossible” to fulfill a demanding and increasingly challenging position. Maybe these high turnover numbers are more a testament to skilled individuals now realizing their market power. Or is it a cultural shift around longevity within corporations? You’ve most likely experienced some aspects of these workforce changes at an agency or internal level. Consider how this “rise of the fractional” impacts hiring practices and overall strategy and how to position your organization for long-term wins and cost-effectiveness within marketing. This becomes more critical when focused on serving complex or niche needs within a dynamic and constantly evolving vertical such as Fintech.
The Future of Work (Is Here Now)
Whether you see the advantages of using a remote workforce, on-demand contractors, and even exploring AI automation solutions like Chief Outsiders is currently offering or prefer more traditional hiring – it’s clear the way work has been done for the past hundred years has permanently changed. The possible financial rewards, improved mental health benefits, less stress, and work flexibility offered by more fluid approaches will attract top talent that traditional employers can no longer ignore.
A Stanford study, conducted by Professor Nicholas Bloom of Economics at Stanford, examined the productivity of over 16,000 workers for two years. The study revealed that remote workers are more productive than those reporting to an office daily, providing data points to help influence decision-making.
What Can Be Expected When Engaging with a Fractional Team?
It’s almost 2025, and most people have had significant experiences using online collaboration software, attending Zoom meetings, and doing deep work independently. Companies at every level, from those focusing on financial services to marketing agencies, all rely on some aspect of technology. Here are several critical expectations that will make an engagement less stressful:
Regular, Well-Structured Meetings
Everyone is busy, but when deadlines are approaching, there is less room for errors and issues to slip under the radar. Well-defined team structures with open communication and regular meeting frameworks let your CMO clearly explain the roadmap for marketing efforts, while marketing departments can ask important questions and troubleshoot any issues.
Project Management with Reporting
I love a good reporting dashboard; that’s no secret. They can quickly make your marketing function incredibly efficient by making all the pertinent marketing efforts and activities readily visible to leadership and to your fractional team members executing campaigns and projects.
Clear, Timely Feedback Systems
When using a fractional CMO, you have most likely decided that overseeing your team will be the responsibility of an external expert. So, feedback loops need to be clearly explained and implemented at the start to maximize value. That should include everything from client updates from leadership, budget decisions that impact strategy, and even regular team members’ weekly status reporting so everyone stays informed.
A Mutual Understanding of Expected Outcomes
As the great yogi, Sadhguru, once said, “Expectation is the mother of all frustration.” No truer words have been spoken.
Expectation is the mother of all frustration.
Clear and honest expectation settings will always smooth the waters between parties. Take the time to do it upfront; I guarantee everyone involved will benefit. For example, will CMOs directly lead and advise on in-house marketing teams for B2B lead generation strategies and execution?
Embracing the Power of Specialization
As marketing becomes ever more intertwined with analytics, reporting, and technical acumen and less focused on traditional campaigns and broad marketing plans, my prediction is that companies with efficient strategies that incorporate highly specific fractional talent will see exponential growth by attracting the very best talent.
If you’re curious to understand whether engaging a CMO as a Fractional expert for your Financial Services company is the right approach for your growth trajectory, spend time reflecting on this; If the content, social media or advertising platforms you relied on ten, five, even three years ago to effectively elevate brand awareness and market products are mostly obsolete now – in the future – isn’t flexibility, targeted expertise and data driven adaptability a winning formula?
The ‘Rise of The Fractional’ can create enormous opportunity if you view the trends for what they truly represent.
FAQs About fractional CMO services:
Here are some FAQs we’ve been asked about fractional CMO services for fintech companies. We have more FAQs here.
Fractional CMO services provide organizations with access to experienced marketing executives and leaders who act as consultants. They help develop marketing plans, strategies, and goals and oversee the implementation of campaigns for businesses.
A fractional CMO charges an average hourly rate of $200 – $300 based on their expertise and the specific demands of a project or agreement. Remember that the costs and scope are influenced by the CMO’s role in a company.
It can cost between $10,000 and $15,000 monthly, depending on project requirements, experience, the length of time the CMO is engaged, and agency fees or rates.
Companies that aren’t ready to hire a full-time Chief Marketing Officer due to budget restraints often use Fractional CMOs for shorter-term projects or engagements. This gives smaller organizations, high-growth startups, and businesses in a state of rapid change access to top-level expertise when needed.
Key Takeaways:
As marketing departments are asked to manage increasingly complex technology while remaining budget-minded and producing ever better results and ROI, Fractional CMO services could very well be a winning formula for companies across every level and in every vertical, not just those working with Financial Services or Fintech, for years to come.
Ready to Get Started?
Ready to accelerate your fintech startup’s growth? Schedule a free consultation with our expert Fractional CMO today and discover how strategic marketing leadership can transform your business. Schedule free consultation
