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You’d have seen a version of this many times. The stage of your startup is indeed important, and it’s between seed and Series B that I believe a Fractional CMO can add the most value – because of the unique challenges that demand experience and strategic expertise. I’d be the first to tell you that beyond Series B, if you’re hiring a Fractional CMO, one of his/her goals should be to hire someone in a permanent role at the earliest. However there are contexts outside of the stage that are important too.
- Plateaued Growth: Has there been a lull in growth after the initial success, without any obvious reasons? A fresh and comprehensive perspective on all facets of your brand and growth activities is what a Fractional CMO can provide. This would include identifying areas of improvement, building a roadmap to test hypotheses, and a process for iteration and measurement that would put you back on the growth path.
- Lack of Marketing Strategy: As startups evolve, a well-defined marketing strategy becomes crucial. Sometimes, as a founder, you might feel that there are a lot of marketing and growth activities, but no coherence. A Fractional CMO can bring structure and create a strategic brand and marketing plan aligned with your growth objectives.
- Limited In-House Marketing Resources: With the kind of funding cycles in India, startups often operate with lean teams, and marketing can go through summers and winters. This means you might not get someone when you have the budget, and be forced to let go of talent when you don’t. A Fractional CMO provides access to high-level marketing expertise without the need for a full-time executive, optimising costs while maximising impact.
- A new spot on the Ansoff Matrix: Expansion, whether it’s new audiences and/or new products requires a nuanced understanding of consumer behaviours and points of entry. While the team might be sharp on the existing products and consumer segments, it can be complemented by an objective look. A Fractional CMO with experience in diverse domains can help your startup through this.
- Evolving Landscape: With the rapid evolution of marketing technologies, staying abreast of the latest tools and trends is challenging. Everything from Martech to Gen AI is moving at a dizzying pace. A Fractional CMO can leverage their expertise to help the team navigate the landscape.
5 ways a Fractional CMO will add value
- Strategic Planning: With a wealth of strategic planning experience, the Fractional CMO can assess your current marketing initiatives very quickly, align them with business goals, and develop a roadmap for future growth.
- Operational Efficiency: By streamlining marketing operations, and helping with resource planning (internal, as well as vendors and agencies), Fractional CMOs can optimise spends, ensuring that every marketing rupee contributes to tangible business results.
- Reduced Learning Curves: A typical Fractional CMO will have expertise across multiple categories and audiences. Having faced multiple brand and marketing challenges, he/she can help the team avoid pitfalls and solve problems without having to go through steep and sometimes costly learning curves.
- Well-rounded perspectives: The Fractional CMO’s leadership experience in multiple types of organisations also means that he/she can help not just with brand and growth, but also with hiring, mentoring, and being a sounding board to different members of the leadership team.
- Founder Bandwidth: This is probably an underplayed aspect of being a founder. From funding pitches to office air-conditioning, a founder is expected to play all roles. A typical founder wears multiple hats, and the twin engines of growth and marketing are not the easiest things to handle. A Fractional CMO provides the founder some much-needed breathing space – to not just focus on other parts of the business, but also to hire a CMO for the long-term, who is a fit in terms of experience, expertise and culture, without the pressure of it affecting immediate business needs.
A Fractional CMO, depending on the context, can either serve as an excellent path (and help) to hiring a full-time CMO, or help your startup solve challenges in specific domains.