Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership. Without the overhead.
A fractional CMO who owns your strategy, roadmap, and numbers, and works inside your leadership team at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing strategy, roadmap, and results on a part-time, monthly retainer. You get CMO-level judgment and accountability for a share of a full-time executive's cost. It fits growing companies that need marketing leadership now but aren't ready for a full-time hire.
- 20+ years
- Fortune 500 marketing leadership
- No minimum term
- Monthly, and you can stop whenever
- 90 days
- To a running GTM plan
- Monthly
- Reporting against agreed KPIs
Who it's for
This is for you if…
- Founder time
You're still the person deciding every campaign, and it's costing you time you should spend running the company.
- Leadership gap
You need CMO-level judgment now, but a full-time hire isn't the right move yet.
- No one steering
You have marketers, agencies, or freelancers, but no one setting priorities and holding the work to a plan.
What we own
The full CMO job, on a fractional schedule.
Strategy and leadership
We set the direction and stay accountable for it, so the plan survives contact with the quarter.
- 12-month roadmap and 90-day plan tied to revenue targets
- ICP, positioning, and messaging that sales and the site share
- Team, agency, and freelancer leadership under one plan
Demand and budget
We put spend where it produces pipeline, and move it when the evidence changes.
- Channel mix and budget allocation, reallocated quarterly
- Campaign priorities across paid, search, and lifecycle
- Sales enablement and collateral that closes the loop
Alignment and reporting
We make the numbers legible to the people who have to act on them.
- Stage definitions, handoffs, and sales-marketing alignment
- Monthly reporting against the KPIs we agreed on
- Board- and investor-ready summaries
How it runs
The first 90 days.
Check the conditions
Detect
We audit your market, funnel, team, data, and martech in the first 30 days.
Pick the board
Rank
We prioritize the plays, assign owners, and cut what doesn't fit.
Paddle out
Inform
We align leadership and sales on ICP, messaging, and the 90-day plan.
Catch the first wave
Validate
We pilot the top plays and set KPI baselines.
Ride and repeat
Engage
We scale what works, report monthly, and re-plan every quarter.
Engagement models
Pick the level of leadership you need.
Tier 01
Essentials
from $7,500 per month
For early-stage companies, founder-led teams, or in-house marketers who need structure.
- Clear marketing direction and positioning
- Leadership aligned on one focused plan
- Light-touch executive support to set priorities
Weekly check-ins · no minimum term
Talk to a CMOTier 02
Most commonGrowth Track
from $10,000 per month
For scaling companies ready to systematize and accelerate.
- One plan across every channel
- Coordination across marketing, sales, and product
- Quarterly planning with progress tracking
Bi-weekly strategy sessions · no minimum term
Talk to a CMOTier 03
Embedded Executive
from $15,000 per month
For complex or changing organizations that need senior leadership.
- Marketing leadership at the org level
- Continuity through expansion, transformation, or leadership gaps
- Alignment with board-level priorities
Weekly executive syncs and team mentorship · no minimum term
Talk to a CMO
Start here · 30 days · Fixed scope
Not sure where to start? Take the 30-Day Marketing Diagnostic.
A fixed-scope review of your strategy, channels, and marketing ops, plus a prioritized roadmap you can run with or without us.
Results
Work that shows up in the pipeline report.
IT staffing & AI talent
2% to 6.5%
overall site conversion rate
Website and brand refinement, SEO and AEO, and nurture campaigns and sales sequences for ten audiences. Ranking terms went from 67 to 631.
Equipment financing
$600K+
quoted across 13 organic deals
ABM, paid media, and vendor acquisition on HubSpot and Salesforce. New vendor accounts went from two to ten a quarter.
Bringing in Deep Quiver changed how marketing works here. They took ownership of our strategy and our marketing operations, from HubSpot to our website to our campaigns, and gave our sales team the tools and content they'd been asking for. Our brand shows up more consistently, more of the right prospects know who we are, and our reps walk into conversations better prepared. The marketing assets they've built look and feel like the company we are. We have never had such a well-oiled marketing machine, and it has driven increased revenue year after year.
Comparison
Fractional CMO, full-time CMO, or agency?
The honest version, so you can rule us out quickly if we're the wrong shape for the problem.
| Criterion | Fractional CMO | Full-time CMO | Traditional agency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior strategic leadership | Yes | Yes | Rarely |
| Cost structure | Part of a seat, scaled to need | Full executive salary, benefits, and search | Retainer tied to deliverables |
| Time to start | Weeks | A multi-month executive search | Weeks |
| Owns the outcome | Yes, against named KPIs | Yes | Owns deliverables, not outcomes |
| Hands-on execution | Your team, your vendors, or Full-Service Execution | The team they hire | Yes |
| Flexibility | Scale up or down as priorities change | Fixed headcount | Bound by scope and contract |
Related services
Where people go next.
Go-to-market
Digital Strategy
A go-to-market plan built on your ICP, positioning, and channel mix, so every launch has a clear path to revenue.
Explore Digital Strategy
Demand
Growth Marketing
Paid, search, and lifecycle programs tied to pipeline, with monthly reporting on what each channel returned.
Explore Growth Marketing
Execution
Full-Service Execution
Strategy and hands-on execution in one engagement, led by a fractional CMO.
Explore Full-Service Execution
FAQs
Straight answers.
Don't see your question? Talk to a CMO and ask it directly.
How is a fractional CMO different from a full-time CMO?
A fractional CMO does the same job, setting strategy, owning the plan and budget, and leading the team, on a part-time basis. You get executive judgment without the salary, benefits, equity, and months-long search of a full-time hire, and you can scale the engagement up or down as the business changes.
What types of companies benefit most?
Growing B2B and ecommerce companies with real revenue and a marketing function that hasn't kept up. It fits especially well when a founder is still running marketing, when there's a team but no senior leader, or when the company is going through a launch, expansion, or leadership change.
How do you make sure the work lines up with our business goals?
Every engagement starts with Detect: we audit the business, talk to your leadership, sales team, and customers, and agree on revenue-linked KPIs before any campaign launches. The plan is built from those targets, and we report against them monthly.
What does a fractional CMO handle day to day?
Strategy and planning, positioning and messaging, budget allocation, team and agency leadership, sales alignment, and reporting. With Deep Quiver, execution is available too: Full-Service Execution adds hands-on campaign, content, and HubSpot work under the same leadership.
How do you measure success?
Against the KPIs we set together in the first 30 days, typically qualified leads, pipeline, conversion rates, and customer acquisition cost. You'll see them in a monthly report, and we reallocate budget quarterly based on what's working.
Everything you need.
Nothing you don't.
Spend 30 minutes with a CMO. You'll leave with a clear read on what's working, what isn't, and what we'd do first, whether or not we work together.