A fractional CMO for service businesses, with the team included
You’ve outgrown running the marketing yourself, and a full-time CMO doesn’t make sense for a $2 million to $10 million service company. A fractional CMO gives you a senior marketer part time, usually without anyone to carry out the plan. The The Partner Plan gives you both, for $8,500 a month, month to month.
What a fractional CMO does
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works for your company part time, usually on a monthly retainer. They set the marketing strategy, the budget, and the targets, and they manage whoever does the work: your staff, freelancers, or agencies.
- 01
Set the strategy
Which customers, which services, and which markets to go after, and what to stop spending on.
- 02
Own the budget and the targets
How much to spend, where it goes, and what each channel has to bring back to keep its share.
- 03
Manage the people doing the work
Hiring, briefing, and holding staff, freelancers, and agencies to the plan.
- 04
Build reporting you can trust
Numbers that show what each dollar brings in, from the first click to the booked job.
- 05
Weigh in on the big decisions
Pricing, positioning, new services, and new locations, wherever marketing is part of the answer.
Someone still has to do the work.
A fractional CMO decides what should happen. Somebody still has to run the ads, write the pages, answer the leads, and connect the software, so on top of the retainer you’re paying an agency or hiring staff. For many service companies that means two bills, and the job of keeping them in step falls back to you.
Fractional CMO, agency, or both in one
A fractional CMO
Strategy
Yes, at an executive level
The work itself
Managed, usually done by someone else
Software and automation
Rarely built
What you pay
A retainer, plus whoever does the work
A typical agency
Strategy
Often limited to its own channel
The work itself
Yes, in its channel
Software and automation
Rarely built
What you pay
A retainer per channel, often on a fixed-term contract
The Partner Plan
Strategy
Monthly strategy sessions with our founder, starting with a one-day Sprint
The work itself
Ads, local SEO, web pages, and lead response, done by our team
Software and automation
Competitor tracking, ServiceTitan and HubSpot wired together, custom automations
What you pay
$8,500 a month, month to month
The strategy, the people, and the software, for $8,500 a month.
Everything in the The Local Lead Plan:
Google & Local Services Ads aimed at the customers worth winning
Local SEO that gets you found ahead of the franchise directories
Web pages built to turn visitors into booked calls
Automatic text-back that answers every new lead in under 60 seconds
New commercial leads routed straight to the right person
Monthly strategy sessions to keep the plan on track
Plus:
Software that watches your local competitors and finds the jobs they're missing
ServiceTitan & HubSpot wired together and tuned, no more double-entry
Automatic win-back campaigns for past customers, and more 5-star reviews
Custom calculators and automations built for how your shop actually runs
A dedicated tech team on call for your tools
Executive marketing experience, at your size.
Our founder, Mark Hope, ran market and competitive research at The Coca-Cola Company. As Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Safety-Kleen, a services company of roughly $1 billion, he led the retention work that cut customer churn by about half. He runs every Pathfinder Sprint and leads the monthly strategy sessions himself.
When to hire a fractional CMO instead
Hire a fractional CMO if
You already have a marketing team, or plan to build one, and need an experienced leader to set its direction and manage it inside your company.
Choose the The Partner Plan if
You don’t have that team and don’t want to build it. You get the strategy and the people doing the work from one firm, with no long contract. If lead flow is the only problem, the The Local Lead Plan at $4,500 a month may be enough.
Fractional CMO questions, answered
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works for your company part time, usually on a monthly retainer. They set the marketing strategy, the budget, and the targets, and they manage whoever does the work.
What does a fractional CMO cost?
It varies widely with the hours and the person's experience. The retainer usually covers strategy and management only, so the people who carry out the plan are a separate cost. Our The Partner Plan is $8,500 a month, month to month, and includes the work itself.
What's the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?
A fractional CMO decides what should happen and manages the people doing it. An agency does the work, usually in one or two channels. Plenty of companies end up paying for both and coordinating them.
Is the The Partner Plan a fractional CMO?
It covers the same strategic ground through monthly strategy sessions led by our founder, and it adds the team and the software. If you want one executive embedded in your leadership team part time, managing your own staff, a dedicated fractional CMO is the better fit.
How do we start?
With the Pathfinder Sprint, a one-day working session for $950. If you continue to a monthly plan, the full $950 comes off your first month.
Who do you work with?
Owner-run home and commercial service companies, usually doing $2 million to $10 million a year, that compete with franchises and private-equity-backed rollups for local work.
Start with one day on your market.
The Pathfinder Sprint is $950, and it comes off your first month if you continue.
One company per trade, per metro. Three Sprints a month.