Summary:
What does it take to succeed as a chief marketing officer? CMOs are more impactful when they balance strategic leadership (corporate branding and customer outreach) with technical acumen (understanding digital advertising, social platforms, and how to interpret analytics). There is a long list of required skills that a CMO must possess. For example, to successfully lead their company’s marketing and advertising endeavors, CMOs are required to:
- Position the company in the marketplace.
- Conduct market research.
- Develop a growth strategy.
- Create and oversee the execution of marketing campaigns.
- Determine social media strategy.
- Understand search engine optimization and pay to advertise.
- Understanding digital marketing platforms and the analytics that accompany them.
On top of all these skills, today’s CMO needs to be able to manage an internal team and external marketing agencies while attending meetings and responding to requests from the C-suite. The challenge companies face is that many have difficulty finding qualified CMOs with the right combination of skills, leadership abilities, and industry experience or cannot afford them. Increasingly, companies seeking highly skilled CMOs hire part-time or fractional CMOs.
Check out this blog post and learn more about the merits of hiring a fractional CMO.
How Companies Can Benefit from a Fractional CMO
The chief marketing officer, or CMO, sets marketing strategy and oversees all elements of an organization’s marketing and advertising initiatives. This encompasses the planning, development, and execution of robust strategic endeavors, campaign development, and execution, tracking and analyzing the results, and ultimately reporting those results to the other members of the C-suite.
In today’s ever-evolving technology landscape, it’s almost impossible for a company to keep up with all the data related to their industry, from market research to customer UX, from keeping up with the latest social media to the most effective marketing automation platforms, not to mention finding the best ways to track and analyze campaign analytics. The sheer scope of this position is vast, and finding a CMO with the relevant industry experience, the right strategic and leadership capabilities, and up to speed on the latest digital technologies is becoming more challenging. For a company to succeed, it must be able to identify a CMO candidate that checks all the boxes. If not, they will have to settle for someone who doesn’t quite possess all the skills they need or go without one at risk of losing their competitive edge.
With the growing shortage of qualified CMOs, finding one is more challenging (and sometimes more expensive). It is precisely for this reason that more and more companies are hiring fractional CMOs, who can provide the companies they serve with truly comprehensive capabilities.
The Value of Fractional CMOs
Finding a CMO who ticks all these boxes can be challenging, and even a well-qualified CMO may need a little help balancing these duties and responsibilities. For this reason, more and more enterprises are engaging fractional CMOs.
Fractional CMOs possess the breadth of skills needed to lead marketing teams while remaining attentive to the technical aspects of their initiatives. They perform many of the same duties as full-time CMO but do so on a part-time basis, sometimes even working to augment or complement the efforts of an existing CMO.
The Benefits of Hiring a Fractional CMO
Besides overcoming the challenge of finding the “purple squirrel” candidate with all the right skills or saving the cost of hiring a full-time CMO, there are many benefits of hiring a fractional CMO. Some of these include the following:
Fresh new thinking about marketing strategies
Often a company’s leadership finds itself wrapped up in thinking within the “corporate box” where groupthink may have taken over. Bringing in a fractional CMO with a fresh set of eyes can open doors toward new possibilities and thinking that may yield strategies the leadership team has not considered.
Efficiency
with. That causes the fractional CMO to find ways to optimize best the time they spend with your brand – meaning that every hour spent is going to be highly productive without the time-wasting that often accompanies a full-time employee.
Less Risk
Onboarding a new employee, especially at the C-level, is a cumbersome, drawn-out process that may take months to complete. And even after a candidate is hired, the risk exists that the person will now work out, and having to let that person go is another cumbersome process that may end up costing the company money.
This risk does not exist when you hire a fractional CMO. The “hiring” process is faster and less cumbersome. And if the relationship doesn’t work out, it’s relatively easy to end the relationship and replace the CMO with another fractional professional.
Knowledge/Skills
When you hire a fractional CMO, you often get a candidate with experience. These individuals often have experience across multiple industries, have worked with CEOs of different types, and have learned through the experience of both success and mistakes. Therefore, they are exceptionally valuable to the company and, as mentioned above, are more affordable than hiring a full-time executive marketer.
Can Assist with Hiring Process
A fractional CMO has expertise about what a company needs regarding a marketing support staff and can recommend what types of positions to fill and whom to hire. The fractional CMO can help write the job descriptions and assist in the interviewing process to ensure the company hires the right and best talent for the company.
Hiring a CMO may be the most cost-effective way for a company to acquire the rich array of skills required for a successful marketing and advertising endeavor.
Clarity Digital Offers Fractional CMO Services
So, where can you find an effective fractional CMO? Look no further than Clarity Digital. We have a network of CMOs and senior marketing leaders with unique industry experiences and backgrounds who are widely skilled in leadership, management, team building, and more.
We’d love to discuss with you further about finding a CMO that meets your company’s needs. Reach out to Clarity Digital whenever you’re ready to chat.