You’ve dreamed of this moment. 

The moment when you’d finally become profitable enough to start hiring more staff.

When you first started your business or signed up to work with this team, you knew that you were part of something that was on its way up. It was growing and you were going to be a big part of that growth.

But, with growth comes growing pains. For every successful campaign, another challenge finds its way into the business. At one point, you’ll have to ask yourself,

Do we need to hire somebody to help us with our marketing?

You’ve figured out how to make a few sales by now and you even have happy customers who have turned into raving fans (our favorite stage of the Customer Value Journey). 

Yet the next step requires expertise. Expertise that you don’t have time to learn or to spend time on. … Read more

Being a fractional CMO comes with its perks, but that doesn’t mean everybody should choose this path.

There are parts of being a fractional CMO that are incredible to some people but extremely boring to others. You don’t want to quit your job, start working as a fractional CMO and then realize this. You want to be prepared and know what to expect from your new role as a fractional CMO.

Working as marketers and with marketers for years, we’ve learned there’s a huge difference between fractional CMOs and full-time CMOs. They both have the same marketing expertise, but they like different parts of the marketing process better.

For example, a fractional CMO loves to deep dive into a company’s past and current marketing strategies and spend time researching what went right and wrong in each campaign. A full-time CMO prefers doing this once and spending their time hitting publish … Read more

It’s time to bring in the big dogs.

Your business has grown to the point that it’s time to consider bringing in some marketing expertise. When you first started your business, you probably thought this was an easy hire.

You find someone that’s a marketing smarty and you give them green paper in return for more green paper coming your way.

Unfortunately, hiring isn’t that simple. When it comes to hiring your Chief Marketing Officer, you have the choice between two types of hires. You can bring on a fractional Chief Marketing Officer or an internal Chief Marketing Officer. Because word count doesn’t matter, we’re going to use CMO in place of writing Chief Marketing Officer moving forward.  

A fractional CMO works part-time. They might work with just your company or have a few other marketing clients. Fractional CMOs work as contractors and freelancers who don’t go on your … Read more

Have you ever fallen prey to this line of thinking?…

Your marketing efforts are the only way your business will find new customers.

True.

But you don’t have 40 hours a week to dedicate to it… So you need another executive at your company who focuses entirely on your marketing.

Also true.

That executive must be a full-time staff member in order for your business to succeed.

False.

Your marketing executive does NOT need to be a full-time staff member to get the benefits of having marketing be a leadership focus.

Sometimes, the right fit for your company isn’t a traditional CMO, but a fractional CMO.

Never heard of a fractional CMO? Don’t worry. We’re going to break down what a fractional CMO is and what you might want one for your business (or even why you might want to become one yourself).

What is a Fractional CMO

While … Read more

There’s good news, and there’s bad news. 

The bad news is that in order to be a master of modern marketing, specifically paid advertising, you need a specific set of marketing skills. These skills will be like a toolkit to help you survive in today’s business environment. 

The good news is that they’re not hard to master, and all of us marketers are trying to figure it out as well, so you’re not alone! And we’ve got some great tips for just how to get these skills nailed down.

Modern marketing is the wild west and you can become the advertising gunslinger you need to be to succeed if you embrace these 5 skills.

The 5 Skills You Need to Master

1. Copywriting

Good writing skills aren’t just for the communication majors locked up in the writers room anymore. Every single marketer needs to be able to write a … Read more