Skip another year of guessing.
Why are some fractional CMOs getting hired by name while others are still competing for attention?
In this 90 minute workshop, discover if your current or planned niche is worth building a practice in, compare it with 2 other industries, and find out exactly what size company to target in all three. We’ll get you focused on a niche that can be profitable for you long-term. This is foundational work that we see so many fractional CMOs get wrong, even years into building their practice.
You’ll also get access to an AI tool built from our 6 years of coaching over 750+ fractional CMOs, and deep research into 509 industries with 38,000 data points. We’ll save you years of trial and error.
We see it all the time: you can have years of marketing experience, a proven track record, and the ability to build and lead the entire marketing function.
Yet you can still struggle to build the kind of fractional CMO practice you actually want.
Why? Because not every industry is a good market to sell fractional CMO services.
Some industries have plenty of companies but very little profit to spend on strategic marketing leadership.
Some industries want someone to execute campaigns, not lead marketing strategy.
Some industries only hire fractional CMOs for a few months, then they want to bring the role in-house.
Others have the money, the need and the appetite for strategic marketing leadership. They hire fractional CMOs, value their leadership, and keep them around for years. Wouldn’t you rather target an industry like this?
Most fractional CMOs choose their niche based on where they’ve worked, who they know or where they think they can get their next client. Some get lucky, and end up in a profitable industry. Most don’t.
It’s a pretty expensive way to make a business decision when the difference between markets can be so enormous.
The industry you know isn’t necessarily the industry you should target.
Consider what happens when you choose the wrong market.
A company can have impressive revenue and still have very little profit. If the margins aren’t there, a $10K monthly retainer may never make financial sense.
Some companies want someone to manage their ads, write their emails and execute campaigns. They don’t need or want a strategic marketing leader.
Some industries have a short fractional hiring window. Companies hire you during a particular stage of growth, then outgrow the need, get acquired or hire a full-time CMO.
Even if an industry looks attractive, there may not be enough suitable companies you can identify, reach and sell to.
AI, economic pressure and shifting business models are changing the economics of entire industries. You don’t want to spend years building authority in a market that’s becoming a worse place to sell your services.
None of these problems necessarily means you’re a poor fractional CMO. But they can make building a profitable practice much harder than it needs to be.
Instead of asking, “Which industry do I know best?” start asking these questions instead:
Introducing the CMOx Niche Grader.
We’ve studied how fractional CMOs are hired across 509 industries, drawing on more than 38,000 data points and six years of niche coaching with over 750 fractional CMOs.
We’ve turned that research into a practical grading system that we’ll teach you in this workshop. The Niche Grader evaluates an industry from S to D across 25 research criteria. Here are 6 of the most critical:
Revenue doesn’t tell the whole story. We look at the economics behind the industry.
Is it growing, durable and positioned to withstand economic shifts and AI?
Does the industry actually buy this type of leadership, and how long does the opportunity last?
Can you demonstrate enough value within the fractional hiring window?
Is there an opportunity to establish yourself as the industry specialist?
Are there enough suitable companies, and can you get in front of the decision-makers?
This isn’t some generic go-to-market tool for fractional executives.
We’ll reveal the right size company for you to target, give you an estimate of how many companies are currently in the “fractional window”, and what typically causes a fractional CMO engagement to end in each industry.
Choosing the right industry is only half the decision. You also need to target the right companies within it. We’ll also tell you if your niche will ever allow you to negotiate an upside deal, where you get paid on performance on top of your retainer.
Within almost every industry, there are companies at very different stages.
Some are just surviving. They need immediate sales and can’t afford to invest in strategic marketing.
Some are spending month to month. A bad sales month can put your retainer on the chopping block.
Others are investing. They have working marketing channels, understand longer-term returns and need someone to build the systems that support growth.
And then there are companies scaling. They have the budget, the ambition and the need for strategic marketing leadership.
The Niche Grader helps you identify the company size to target, expressed in revenue and employee ranges, so you can focus on companies with a better chance of becoming profitable, sustainable clients.
You may not necessarily need a completely different niche. You might need to target a different level of company within it to ensure you're having conversations with clients who can afford to pay your retainer long term.
So why spend another year finding out the hard way?
Skip ahead with The Client Shortcut.
In 90 minutes, you’ll learn how to evaluate an industry from the hiring side, grade your current niche and compare it against two alternatives.
You’ll see which of the three offers you the strongest opportunity, and exactly what company size to target in all three.
You’ll make a decision based on years of research, not guesswork. And you’ll leave confident about where to focus your business development efforts next.
The 90-minute shortcut.
This isn’t a workshop where you sit back, take notes, and leave with another idea to think about. You’ll learn the framework, then use the Niche Grader to evaluate real markets for your own fractional CMO practice.
Casey will show you what separates industries that hire and retain fractional CMOs from industries that make building a practice harder.
You’ll learn why company size, financial capacity, hiring patterns and industry durability matter, and why choosing a niche based only on what you already know can be an expensive mistake.
You’ll get access to the Niche Grader and evaluate the industry you’re currently serving, or the one you’re planning to pursue.
See your grade, understand what is driving it, and identify the risks and opportunities you may have overlooked.
Run two more industries through the Grader. You’ll have three grades to compare: your current niche and two alternatives.
You’ll also see what company size to target in each industry, so you can make a more informed decision about where to focus.
Bring your results into the live session. Ask questions, explore what the grades mean, and work through the decisions that matter to your practice.
By the end of The Client Shortcut, you’ll know what to do. Here's the Agenda:
Why some industries pay for strategic marketing leadership while others mainly look for execution.
How to recognize industries that hire fractional CMOs and the ones more likely to retain them.
How your chosen industry measures up across 25 research criteria, and what we’ve seen from coaching 750+ fractional CMOs.
Compare two other industries before committing another year to the wrong market.
Understand whether companies in a niche have the financial capacity to support your fees.
Identify the revenue and employee ranges most worth targeting in each of your three industries.
See why fractional CMO engagements commonly end in an industry, and what that could mean for your practice.
Assess whether there are enough suitable companies and whether you can realistically reach them.
Understand why you don’t necessarily need years of experience inside an industry to become a credible specialist.
See why “I help companies grow” can make it harder for the right companies to recognize your value.
Understand what another year of trial and error could cost you.
Use the evidence to decide whether to stay, refine your target, or explore a better market.
Your workshop bonuses.
After registering, you’ll receive a short pre-workshop quiz about your fractional CMO practice. Complete it to unlock early access to the Niche Grader before the live session.
That means you can arrive ready to evaluate your market, rather than spending the workshop getting set up.
The Niche Grader will help you decide if you're focusing on the right niche. The full Niche Navigator AI tool will help you implement.
Normally reserved for CMOx Accelerator members, the Niche Navigator is being made available to workshop attendees through an exclusive $900 upgrade.
When you upgrade, you’ll get:
Full access to the Niche Navigator, a CMOx Accelerator member tool, through November 30
Email coaching through November 30
A one-on-one 30-minute Niche Implementation coaching call with Casey the week of November 30
Use it to explore promising niche pivots, build a seed list of target companies, identify the marketing problems those companies face, and sharpen your positioning so the right businesses understand why you’re the fractional CMO they need.
The upgrade is entirely optional. You can attend the workshop, use the Niche Grader, and make your three-niche comparison without purchasing any upgrade at all.
A membership credit, too: if you join the CMOx Accelerator within six months of purchasing the Niche Navigator, the full $1,000 you’ve invested (the $100 workshop ticket plus the $900 upgrade) can be applied toward your membership. This $900 upgrade price is available exclusively to workshop attendees.
Revisit the framework and your results whenever you need to.
You’ll have lifetime access to the workshop recording, so you can return to the material as you make your niche decision and plan your next move.
Meet your host, Casey Stanton.
Casey Stanton is a working fractional CMO who has grossed over $2 million working only part time as a fractional CMO since 2018. He has also coached 750+ other fractional CMOs in the CMOx Accelerator on establishing, stabilizing, and scaling their own fractional CMO practices since 2020.
Outside of work, Casey is a proud husband and dad of two, a ham radio nerd, a Diet 7UP loyalist and a former party magician.
You could spend another year testing industries, refining your positioning, and wondering why the right clients aren’t appearing.
Or you can spend 90 minutes finding out what our 6 years of coaching 750+ fractional CMOs, and our research into 509 niches, with 38,000 data points, says about your current niche and two alternatives.
You’ll know what you’re working with, which markets deserve a closer look, and what size of company to target for your fractional CMO practice.
