What Can You Expect After Hiring a Fractional CMO?

As a B2B or SaaS entrepreneur, you know that great marketing can be a game-changer but where do you start if you're not seeing results or not doing any marketing, period?

Here’s what my first 90 days as a fractional CMO typically look like and how I help companies jump-start their marketing for real impact.

Days 1 to 30: Deep Dive & Quick Wins

The first month is all about understanding the business inside and out.

• Talk to customers early and often: Conversations with different types of customers (newly-minted, long-time, advocates, etc.) begin in the first few weeks and continue throughout the engagement. Their insights and feedback can play an invaluable role in shaping marketing strategy and messaging.
• Listen to sales calls: Join or listen to sales calls and demo to understand what prospects think about your product, how they currently do their jobs, competition, and the questions they ask.
• Listen to stakeholders: Meet with key players—senior executives, marketing, sales, and customer success—to identify challenges and opportunities from every angle.
• Scrutinize the competition: Analyze competitors' marketing and sales strategies and tactics to uncover opportunities to differentiate and outshine them. What strengths do the highlight? What marketing channels do they leverage?
• Audit and diagnose: Take stock of your current marketing efforts to identify what’s working and what’s wasting time and money. Take a hard look at the company's Website, particularly the homepage, to identify opportunities for improvements.
• Deliver quick wins: Small, visible improvements (like homepage updates or refreshed one-pagers) demonstrate momentum and build trust and confidence.

Days 31 to 60: Building the Marketing Engine

Once the foundation is laid, it’s time to create a strategy that drives action.

• Clarify the brand: Define or refine brand positioning to reflect not just what you do but why it matters and how it’s unique or different. IMHO, positioning underpins everything that a company does (marketing, sales, product development, HR, etc.)
• Launch the plan: Develop and roll out a marketing strategy that aligns with your business goals, using SMART metrics to track progress.
• Assemble the team: Identify and onboard contractors or freelancers to execute on the tactical front, and how they can support full-time marketers.
• Prioritize content: Build a strategy for engaging, high-impact content—think eBooks, blog posts, LinkedIn updates, infographics and videos.
• Enable sales: Collaborate with the sales team to create tools and assets that nurture leads and close deals. Spend the time to learn what how they currently nurture and educates leads, and how you can fill gaps to shorten sales cycles.

Days 61 to 90: Refinement and Acceleration

With the wheels in motion, the focus shifts to delivering and optimizing results.

• Create and distribute: Establish a content creation and publishing cadence that aligns with your resources and target audience. Content is about consistency and delivering value. It's a marathon, not a race.
• Stay curious: Continue conversations with customers and prospects and regularly tune into sales calls to uncover new insights and refine strategies.
• Measure, optimize, repeat: Track data and KPIs, adjusting tactics and experimenting with new channels to maximize ROI.

This 90-day playbook is based on my experience and expertise with early-stage ($1M to $10M) B2B and SaaS companies who are doing little or no marketing.

Every fractional CMO has their own approach, but this framework gives you an idea of what to expect and how the right strategic leadership can help you transform your marketing from reactive to results-driven.

Looking for more ideas to level up your marketing? Let’s talk.