Startups are in a unique position in the business world. They can move fast because they have fewer employees and channels to move initiatives through, but they have no historical context to build marketing and sales efforts on. Therefore, startups need to remain flexible out of the starting gate before settling on a proper lane to focus their efforts.
CMOs (chief marketing officers) are uniquely skilled marketing specialists normally reserved for bigger companies who can afford their full-time efforts. But, there are few companies in need of a CMO more than a startup–recent studies suggest 90% of new businesses fail to make it to their second year in business.
A Fractional CMO steps in to organize your startup’s efforts into a cohesive strategy.
What a Fractional CMO brings to your startup
Every company, no matter their offering, needs marketing, and every company that needs marketing, needs someone to champion those efforts. It’s vital startups, as compared to tenured companies, take an agile approach to their marketing efforts. And so it takes an individual with a unique marketing skillset to get a startup off the ground, someone like a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO).
These days, companies big and small select tactic-based marketing managers to oversee their promotional efforts–the Facebook ads, the social media, and the blogging specialists.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these specialists or their preferred tactics. The problem is this: using gut-instincts to choose a marketing tactic ahead of time is placing the cart before the horse, and a terrible idea for any startup.
If the Facebook ads specialist is steering the ship, for example, and you find out in week two Facebook ads aren’t working well, then it’s back to the drawing board with two weeks behind schedule. This scenario, on the other hand, isn’t possible if you’re employing a fractional CMO.
A Fractional CMO orchestrates all the moving parts of a startup into one cohesive strategy. They then keep that strategy on track by measuring team performance and management.
Why a startup needs a CMO
Startups need to maintain an agile marketing approach if they want to succeed. Because they don’t have historical data to analyze and help shape their strategy, startups need to experiment with content and messaging across several channels before settling on an optimized approach.
The best person to champion a marketing effort off the ground is a flexible CMO experienced with this early phase of business. CMOs are special in that they have the holistic experience and knowledge necessary to analyze a variety of approaches for a budding company, choosing only the most logical and potentially most effective strategy for getting a product or service to market.
When to hire a CMO for your startup
When a startup at the planning and preparation phase believes their offering is polished enough for market viability, when it’s time to accept pre-orders and the inventory is full of product, that’s when you want to make the call to CMOx.
We’ll analyze your market positioning, unique offering and potential messaging, and match you with a fractional CMO especially qualified and trained for your situation.
Why a Fractional CMO may work better for a startup
With a fractional CMO on your startup’s team, you’re not in danger of a hyper-focused specialist forcing a square peg into a round hole. A great CMO, like the ones at CMOx, experiments, tests, and analyzes a variety of marketing tactics, choosing one that works best for your specific offering.
A full-time C-level employee will be more than difficult to retain on a startup’s payroll unless it has VC funding or a bankroll big enough to support the position. A fractional CMO, though, demands much less from the budget while delivering just as much value, if not even more.
Additionally, a business’ marketing department’s size and the number of campaigns being run at once will not justify a full-time CMO. This typically means that the CMO will start doing work beneath their role. In the end, the business starts overpaying for those tasks on a per hour basis.
The CMOx Functional Marketing® Framework our CMOs are trained in is an agile marketing approach designed to deliver maximum ROI (return on investment) and value with the least amount of resources necessary–this flexible, effective strategy is paramount to the success of a startup’s marketing campaign.
What a Fractional CMO is
A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is a high-level specialist primarily invested in bringing a product or service to market. Fractional CMOs work part-time rather than hold full-salaried positions, and retain a unique ability to manage dynamic and successful marketing campaigns for companies of various sizes and phases.
How CMOx helps startups
CMOx is the market leader in training and hiring out Fractional CMOs. Our cutting-edge Functional Marketing® Framework, coupled with a team of world-class CMOs from a variety of sectors and industries, has resulted in a fractional CMO workforce second to none.
When your startup is paired with a fractional CMO from CMOx, you’re not simply hiring another employee. You’re making a commitment to your startup’s success. Get marketing clarity today by booking your free, no obligation consultation with CMOx.
