What is a Fractional CMO, and what do they actually do?

Contract CMO, Outsourced CMO, CMO for rent, CMO on demand, CMO as a Service - there are many words that are associated with the term Fractional CMO.

In this episode of the CMO Chat, we tackle the basic questions:

What is a Fractional CMO?

And what do they actually do?

Thanks for watching, and let us know in the comments below what insight you got from this episode.

---

Can’t watch it right now? No problem, there is a full transcript of the video below.

Tan

All right. Welcome to the CMO chat. I'm Tan.

Tanja

And I'm Tanja.

Tan

Okay, Tanja.

Let's start off with the biggest question. What on earth is a Fractional CMO? Because it's quite a new term in the industry. How would you describe it? I mean, you must get that question all the time.

Tanja

Yes, I do. And I mean, some people call a Fractional CMOs contract CMO or outsourced CMOs or even interim CMO, which is not exactly the same as a Fractional CMO, in my opinion. But there are many terms that describe the work that we are doing. And obviously like CMO as a service, which is more like a new term.

If I have to explain a Fractional CMO in a nutshell, it's like a hybrid between a marketing consultant and an employed CMO. So a Fractional CMO is somebody that is not part of your employee base, but they work with you on a continuous basis. Like there's an ongoing collaboration. They take care of the overall marketing strategy, the implementation, the responsibility, all of that. And then make sure that you achieve your goals in the business through marketing activities.

Tan

Where does the term Fractional come into it?

Tanja

Yeah, so Fractional means that you get a fraction of their time and brainpower. So a Fraction will see them all very often, though in most cases they don't work full time for you. They might work 30% for you, 50%, 60%, 80%. But you don't get 100% of their time and especially of their brainpower, because they usually work with other companies as well.

Up to two or three companies at the same time.

Tan

But there can be benefits to that, right?

Tanja

Absolutely. Like there are synergies. Like, for instance, you work with one tech company which is in this industry, and then you work with a similar company, not a competitor, obviously, but we operate in the same industry. The things you do in one company, you can also use in the other company. And then usually those Fractional CMOs do work within networks, and then you can benefit also from the combined brainpower of those fractional CMO networks.

So, if you hire one of the Fractional CMOs, you usually have a bunch more. Mm.

Tan

Awesome. Sounds like a can't lose situation.

Tanja

Yes, it's really feasible. And a really valuable alternative to hiring full time because hiring somebody full time comes with all kinds of restrictions, responsibilities, costs and so on. With a Fractional CMO, you know exactly what you get with one monthly flat fee.

Tan

And we'll get more into the details about the benefits and the prices in coming episodes.

Tanja

Yes, we will.

Tan

Okay. So for now, thank you so much, Tanja.

All right. This is CMO Chat. Thanks for joining and see you again next time.