How to hire a fractional CMO
An owner hires a fractional CMO in four steps, and this guide takes them in order.
A fractional CMO is a senior marketer who leads a company’s marketing for part of the week. The owner first decides whether the business is ready, then finds candidates, questions them and checks the terms before signing.
Firefly is a fractional CMO practice, so it has an interest in how owners choose. Each piece of advice in this guide comes with its reason, and you can judge the reasoning for yourself.
The four steps, in order
- Decide whether the business is ready
A fractional CMO needs a marketing budget to direct and people to carry out the work.
- Find two or three candidates
Owners in your own trade are the first people to ask.
- Put the same questions to each candidate
The guide gives seven questions and the reason for each one.
- Check the terms before you sign
The agreement should state the measure of results, the systems, the term and the notice.
1. Decide whether the business is ready
A fractional CMO sets the marketing plan and directs the people who carry it out.
The arrangement works when the business has a budget for the plan to direct and people to do the daily work.
- The business has a marketing budget
- Firefly’s own level is two or more locations and roughly $5,000 a month in marketing spend. At Firefly’s fee of $2,000 a month, a business that spends $1,000 a month on marketing would pay more for direction than for the marketing itself.
- Marketing is what limits growth
- A marketing leader cannot remove a limit that lies outside marketing, such as too few staff or too little capacity.
- There are people to carry out the work
- A fractional CMO works for a few hours a week, and those hours go on decisions and direction. Your staff, an agency or both carry out the daily work.
- No senior person decides where the budget goes
- A fractional CMO fills that role for part of the week. A business that already has a marketing director does not need a second person in it.
A single location with a small marketing budget is usually too early for a fractional CMO. Our page Too early for a fractional CMO? describes five free things to do before hiring anyone.
Our page on a fractional CMO for small business sets the ready and not-yet cases side by side.
An agency or a marketing coordinator is the better choice when the business only needs tasks carried out. If the business needs a marketing head for forty hours a week, the owner should make a full-time hire.
2. Find two or three candidates
Owners find a fractional CMO in four places.
Each place tells you something different about the person.
- Owners in your own trade
- Ask the owners you know who leads their marketing. An owner who has paid for the work can tell you what it returned.
- A search for the role with your city or trade
- Search for fractional CMO together with the name of your city or your trade. A candidate’s own website shows whether the person publishes a price, the terms and results.
- Directories and marketplaces
- These websites list many fractional CMOs in one place. A listing confirms that a person offers the service, so the results still have to be checked with past clients.
- A profile shows where the person has worked and for how long. It may also show people you both know, and you can ask them about the candidate.
Two or three candidates are enough for a comparison. Put the same questions to each of them, so that you can set the answers side by side.
3. Put the same questions to each candidate
An owner can ask each of these seven questions on a first call.
The lines under each question give the reason it matters.
- Who will do the work?
- Some firms sell the engagement through a senior person and pass the work to a junior one. The answer tells you whose hours the fee buys.
- How many hours a week will you spend on my business?
- The fee buys a number of hours, so you can judge it only when you know how many hours there are and what they are spent on.
- What will you do in the first month?
- A candidate who has a method can describe the first month week by week. The description also tells you what you will receive before the second invoice arrives.
- How will the results be measured, and in which system?
- Ask for results to be measured in your own sales system, booking system or website statistics. You can open those systems and check each figure yourself.
- Which past results can I check with the client?
- You can check a past result when it names the client, the period and the system it was measured in. Ask to speak to one of those clients.
- Who will carry out the daily work?
- A fractional CMO directs the work and does not carry all of it out. If the business has no staff or agency for the daily work, ask who will do it and what that will cost.
- Have you worked with a business like mine?
- The marketing channels that matter differ from one trade to the next. A candidate who knows your trade will not spend your first month learning it.
Write each answer down during the call. Written answers from two or three candidates are easier to compare than remembered ones.
4. Check the terms before you sign
The agreement should state four things in writing.
Each one is easier to settle before the work starts than during a disagreement.
- How results will be measured
- The agreement should name the figure that counts, such as revenue, bookings or enquiries, and the period it is compared with. Both sides then judge the work by the same number.
- In whose systems
- The figures should come from the systems of the business, such as the till or the booking system. The advertising accounts and the customer list should stay in the name of the business, so that they remain with you when the engagement ends.
- The term
- Ask for the minimum term and what you owe if you stop before it ends. The monthly fee multiplied by the minimum term is the amount you are committing.
- The notice
- Ask how much notice either side must give once the minimum term has passed. Have the answer written into the agreement, because a spoken answer is hard to rely on later.
Firefly’s published terms, as one worked example
This section puts the checks above to Firefly, using only what this website publishes.
It is one worked example, and an owner should put the same checks to every candidate.
Our page on what a fractional CMO costs compares these terms with published market rates.
- Rate
- $100 an hour
- Standard engagement
- $2,000 a month
- Time
- About five hours a week
- Minimum term
- Three months
- Fee for the minimum term
- $6,000
The checks, answered from this website
- Who does the work
- Saad Afsar does the work. He has 15 years of marketing experience and has led marketing for 40+ brands.
- The hours
- A standard engagement is about five hours a week, or about 20 hours a month.
- The first month
- Saad uses the first two weeks for an audit of how customers reach the business, the channels and the data. He then writes a plan for the next 90 days, with a target and an owner for each item.
- How results are measured
- You receive a report each week, and it measures the marketing against revenue.
- In whose systems
- The weekly report uses the figures in your own systems. Each result published on this website names the client, the period and the system it was measured in.
- Who carries out the daily work
- Your staff and your agencies carry out the daily work, and Saad directs it.
- The term
- The minimum term is three months, which comes to $6,000 for a standard engagement.
- The notice
- This website does not state a notice period. Ask for it on the first call and have it written into the agreement.
Results from fractional CMO engagements
Each result is measured in the client’s own system, over the period shown.
- Two Boots New York pizza, since 1987 +12% same-store net salesyear over year · Toast POS
- YYZ Law Aviation and travel law, Toronto 4.3× organic search clicksover three years · Google Search Console
- Boqueria Spanish tapas, multi-city US +73% private-events revenueyear over year · Tripleseat
- Paperchase Accounting and CFO advisory, NYC and London +69% website visitsyear over year · Google Analytics
Questions and answers
When should a business hire a fractional CMO?
A business is ready when it has a marketing budget for a plan to direct, people to carry out the daily work, and no senior person who decides where the budget goes. Firefly considers a business ready at two or more locations and roughly $5,000 a month in marketing spend.
Where can I find a fractional CMO?
Start with owners in your own trade and ask who leads their marketing. You can also search for the role together with your city or trade, look at directories and marketplaces, and read LinkedIn profiles.
What should I ask before I hire a fractional CMO?
Ask who will do the work, how many hours a week the fee buys and what happens in the first month. Then ask how results will be measured, in which system, and which past results you can check with the client.
What should the agreement with a fractional CMO state?
The agreement should state how results will be measured, which systems the figures come from, the minimum term and the notice period.
How long is the minimum term?
The minimum term differs from one fractional CMO to the next, so ask each candidate. Firefly’s minimum term is three months.
What does it cost to hire a fractional CMO?
Firefly charges $100 an hour. A standard engagement is about five hours a week for $2,000 a month, with a minimum term of three months. Published market rates are listed on Firefly’s page about what a fractional CMO costs.
When is it too early to hire a fractional CMO?
It is usually too early for a business with a single location and a small marketing budget. It is also too early when something other than marketing limits the growth of the business.
Book a call, or write first
You can book a discovery call on Saad Afsar’s calendar.
If you prefer to write first, send a few details in the form and Saad will reply within 24 hours.