What is a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) & What Do They Do?

Ever wonder exactly what a fractional CMO does? If you're a business owner, should you consider hiring one? And if you're a copywriter or a marketing strategist, should you consider becoming one? What do they actually do? How much do they cost? How much do they make? I'm breaking it all down for you in this video, so keep watching. Hey posse, what's up? It's Alex. Every single week I release a new video where I share the marketing and copywriting trends and techniques that you need to grow your online business. And if you're new here, hey, go ahead and hit that subscribe button below and make sure to ring that bell to be notified when my next video goes live. This week we're going to talk about something that has been a huge buzzword on the Internet lately. Fractional Chief Marketing Officer or cmo. So let's get right into it. What is a fractional cmo? A fractional CMO or fractional Chief Marketing Officer is an experience marketer who works with a business on a part time basis to help them plan, manage and run their marketing departments. Exactly what they do will vary greatly depending on the needs of the business or the client. They might craft strategic marketing campaigns, set up branding initiatives, plan and execute launches and promotions, lead and manage teams, create growth plans and revenue projections, analyze market trends, and keep a pulse on market performance. And any combo of that, but not necessarily all of that. I know that was a lot. Because fractional CMOs usually only work for a few hours a week for their clients, they are often working with multiple clients at a time, just like most freelancers. In other words, they are dedicating a fraction of their time to any given business's marketing needs. Or, yes, you guessed it, a fraction of the pay that a full time chief marketing officer would charge. Hence the name fractional cmo. Now, if you're watching this video, then maybe you're a copywriter or a marketing strategist and you might be wondering, hey, well, well, that kind of sounds like what I do. So what is the difference between an experienced copywriter and a cmo? Couldn't a business just hire a freelance copywriter to be the head of their marketing department? Well, not so fast. What is the difference between a copywriter and a fractional cmo? Well, in most cases, a freelance copywriter is usually hired to exclusively write the marketing materials that a business needs to bring in sales. Things like sales pages, emails, landing pages, and ads. But as freelance copywriters gain more experience in their field, of course, they absolutely can start helping helping their clients with marketing strategy. And they can help develop brand initiatives and messaging and launch plans, and even assist in hiring and training junior copywriters. Now, freelance copywriters are usually given tasks and deadlines to meet either by their client or by their client's cmo. A chief marketing officer, on the other hand, is sort of like the head of the marketing department, right? They aren't typically doing the writing per se. Instead, they are overseeing the work of everybody on the marketing team, looking for growth opportunities and giving direction and feedback along the way. So back to the question. Can freelance copywriter writers offer fractional CMO services to their clients? Well, the short answer is absolutely. But there is a catch. New freelance copywriters don't typically have the extensive experience that a chief marketing officer would need to run an entire marketing department. But learning copywriting is a great first step to get there. So if the idea of becoming a fractional CMO really excites you, then great. I'd say that most freelance copywriters will follow one of these three paths. Path one, they love what they do so much. They work as a freelance copywriter for their entire career, they gain experience, they level up their clientele, and they make more and more money by just getting really good at what they do. Path number two, they transition from copywriter to marketing consultant, marketing director, or another CMO related role. Or path number three, they take their extensive knowledge of copywriting, marketing and sales and they use it to build or start their own business. Or all of the above. Which is exactly what I did over my 15 year career in marketing so far. But here's the catch that you'll want to keep in mind. This requires a lot of hands on experience, which means it can take a while. If you are brand new to copywriting, chances are pretty slim that you'd have the type of extensive experience that businesses are looking for when they're hiring a fractional cmo. Unless of course, you have relevant job experience prior to learning copywriting. Most copywriters will only transition into a CMO role after working with several clients for several years as the copywriter gradually takes on more and more responsibility, including more strategic marketing, planning and advice, and maybe even overseeing teams of other copywriters and campaigns. Then eventually they'll find that what they're doing is a lot more of that strategy and planning and messaging, and a lot less of the actual copywriting. A copywriter who has been in the field for several years can absolutely transition into a fractional cmo and you will only Know when you are ready for that. It does take some experience, but that is exactly how I was able to really grow my business over the 14 years. So now that we know what a CMO does versus what a copywriter does, let's talk about you, a business owner who might be considering hiring a fractional CMO in your business. When should you hire a fractional cmo? Is a question I hear a lot. Most small businesses will find that they'll only need a fractional CMO once they transition from that scrappy startup environment right into more of a a team environment or a business environment. So in the very beginning, the business owner might be the entire team. Hello. Yes, Hi. I have been there multiple times, right where you write your own copy, you manage the budget, you post on social media, you reply to every single. But as your business grows, you will start to outsource some of those roles. So you might hire a va, then a copywriter, then a social media manager, then maybe a customer support person to, you know, take some of the load off of your shoulders. And on and on it goes. And during this process, you are likely overseeing and managing everybody's roles and responsibilities. And eventually you will become the bottleneck to your business's growth. If you're not already. You will get to that point where if you want your business to continue to grow, you really need to hire someone to help you manage that growth growth and take some of that responsibility of researching and planning and strategizing off your plate. But because your business is still small, you likely don't really have the budget to hire a full time cmo. Enter the fractional cmo. Which finally brings me to how much does a fractional CMO charge? Or how much do they cost if you're looking to hire one? Well, just like any other freelancing role, the pay for a fractional CMO really ranges. According to Glassdoor, a full time CMO makes anywhere from $245,000 to 453,000 dol thousand dollars a year, depending on experience. From my research, I would say that the most experienced and qualified fractional CMOs charge an hourly rate somewhere between 100 to $250 an hour. This means that their average salary varies, depending both on their rate and the number of hours that they're hired for. So let's just say that you hire a fractional CMO for $200 per hour and you only need them for 15 hours a month. That works out to about $3,000 per month or 36,000 per year, which is more easily doable for a small to midsize client. Only requires 15 hours a month. The fractional CMO will likely be working with one or two or maybe three other clients at this rate. Right? So let's say they only want to work for about 30 hours a week. That gives them 120 hours a month. And if they're charging $200 an hour, they would be bringing in $24,000 a month or $288,000 a year. Not bad for only working 30 hours a week. Right now, of course, this is just a hypothetical situation based on the averages that I read about when I was researching for this video. It, of course, just like anything else, you guys depends on your experience, your skills, and your client relationships. But I hope now you can see how a fractional CMO can be a huge benefit to both the business owner and a freelancer. And if you're a copywriter who really is looking to move more into that marketing strategy, you are in the right place. I teach you everything I've Learned in my 15 plus years in marketing right here on this channel. So if you want to see more videos like this one, give me a thumbs up below and I will see you next week with a brand new video. Until then, I'm Alex. See you. I'll ciao for now. All right, guys, if you enjoyed that video, make sure to check out the next one from me right here. And you can click right here to get a free gift conversion. Copywriter Sales copywriter. SEO Copywriter. Direct response Copywriter Email Copywriter Technical copywriter Website copywriter. Oh, what is the difference? And I mean, is there even really a difference when we're talking about different types of copywriters? Should you be learning one type of copywriting over another? Does one type of copywriter make more money than another? Do they cost you more money as a business owner? You've got questions, I've got answers. Keep watching.