Most founders I have met or worked with believe that marketing and brand are essential to their startup’s success. But between changing market dynamics, fickle funding cycles, and reducing CMO tenures, how can the startup use this as a growth lever, especially in the early stages when the founders have 99 other problems to handle. That’s where the fractional CMO can help. In 20 points, let’s work it out as we would a marketing challenge.
The audience and the need
1. As a startup founder, even when you have a co-founder, you wear many hats – from functional roles like product development or financial management to handling broader aspects like employee morale, and representing the organisation in public forums. In short, it’s probably a dozen roles in one, and quite overwhelming.
2. In all this, one critical area that often gets overlooked in the early stages (seed to Series B) is brand and marketing.
3. Why does this matter? The best framing I have heard in this context is by Jeremy Liew – When a consumer market is new, distribution wins. As consumers become educated, the product wins. When products reach parity, the brand wins. The earlier you take a strategic approach to brand and marketing, the more it compounds, and the more its potential to create a moat.
The current approach, and its challenges
4. Typically, startups in their early stages do not have the budget to hire a full fledged CMO. They tend to hire a Head of Brand or a Head of Marketing.
5. Generally, what I have seen is that these folks, with 8-12 years of experience, are specialists. Either in say, performance marketing, or in brand. Even within that, many a time, the brand person does not have in-depth experience in say, digital content, or PR.
6. Their experience is also limited to a few businesses. What gets lost in this is the multi-dimensional perspective that comes with experience and expertise, and is required to build a brand while making sure growth is on track.
A better solution: The Fractional CMO
7. First, what is this organism? A Fractional CMO is a senior leader who has prior experience in CMO roles, across the full stack of brand and marketing. He/she can work with your startup on a part-time or project basis.
8. What does he/she provide? A wealth of marketing expertise and experience, without the commitment of a full-time hire.
9. Essentially, they become an extension of your team, providing strategic guidance and managing the team that executes on it.
5 ways this is better than the current approach
10. Expertise on Demand: Startups often lack in-house marketing expertise in many subdomains. A Fractional CMO, thanks to the experience with various businesses, brings a deep understanding of marketing strategies, channels, and best practices, saving you the time and effort of trial and error. As we used to say in 2020, flatten the curve, in this case, the learning curve!
11. Objective Perspective: A fractional CMO can speak truth to power. He/she can provide an unbiased, objective viewpoint on your marketing strategies and tactics, helping you avoid tunnel vision and identify new opportunities.
12. Accountability: A Fractional CMO is focused on achieving your business goals. He/she will develop marketing strategies that align with your overall vision, and help the team execute it, ensuring every marketing rupee is spent wisely.
13. Flexibility: Startups are agile, and their needs can change rapidly. A Fractional CMO provide the flexibility to scale up or down as required, ensuring you get the right level of support when you need it.
14. Cost-Effective Solution: Hiring a full-time CMO can be expensive, especially for early-stage startups. Fractional CMOs offer cost-effective solutions, allowing you to access top-tier talent without the financial burden.
How does all this work in real life?
15. Assessment: A Fractional CMO will start by understanding your business, target audience, competition, and goals. This assessment informs the development of a customised marketing strategy.
16. Strategy Development: He/she then creates a comprehensive marketing strategy that outlines the priorities, timelines including positioning, channels, messaging etc to achieve your objectives.
17. Managing Execution: They roll up their sleeves and get to work, implementing the strategy, managing campaigns, optimising performance, and delivering outcomes.
18. Measurement and Reporting: Metrics matter. A Fractional CMO works with relevant teams to create dashboards and constantly analyse data to track progress and adjust strategies for maximum impact.
19. Team Collaboration: They collaborate with your existing team, ensuring a seamless integration of marketing efforts with other aspects of your business. They also assess the team’s strengths, mentor them, and augment it with external partners or additional hiring when required.
20. Smooth transition: A good Fractional CMO will also ensure he/she helps hire a full time CMO when it’s time, and make sure that they have enough perspective to hit the ground running.
In conclusion, a Fractional CMO can be the difference maker in your startup’s growth, with their experience, expertise, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. And that’s exactly what my value proposition is.