A business between £3m and £25m needs a fractional CMO when its marketing problem is direction rather than activity. If the team is busy but nobody can say which work brings in revenue, more hands will not fix it. Someone senior has to decide what the work should be.
That is the job. A fractional CMO sets the growth plan, gets sales and marketing working to one number, and holds the business to it, for two to four days a month or one to three days a week rather than five.
Five signs you have reached that point
Revenue has been flat for a year or more, and the leadership team disagrees on why. Each person has a theory. Nobody has the data to settle it.
New business depends on who the managing director knows. The pipeline rises and falls with one person's diary.
Marketing is busy but cannot show a return. There is a newsletter, a LinkedIn page and an agency retainer, and no line from any of them to a signed contract.
You launched something and it has not landed. A new service, a new market or a new product, with the plan written after the launch rather than before it.
You cannot forecast next quarter within ten per cent. Growth is happening to you rather than because of you.
One of these is normal. Three or more means the business has outgrown the way it decides what to do.
Fractional CMO, agency or full-time hire?
An agency is best when you know what needs doing and need it done well. It delivers against a brief; it will not tell you the brief is wrong.
A fractional CMO is best when you need the brief written, and someone to own it. It only works with a clear scope and a leader who will act on it.
A full-time hire is best when the plan is proven and there is a full week of work. Before that, you pay a full senior salary before you know what the job is.
The order matters. Many businesses hire the agency first, find it does not move revenue, then hire a full-time head of marketing to manage the agency. A fractional CMO in between costs less than either mistake.
What it looks like in practice
When Madly, a creative agency based in Lyon and Madrid, entered the UK, it had none of the things that win work here: no local network, no recognised brand, no target list and no pipeline. The first job was deciding which buyers to approach first and what to lead with. Then came the list and a weekly outreach rhythm. The result was a £600K UK order book from a standing start, in under a year. The tactics were ordinary. The direction was the difference. Read the Madly case study.
Where to start
Before anyone writes a plan, find out whether the business can deliver one. The free Growth Check takes two minutes and shows where your growth is least predictable. Take the Growth Check.