At $1M to $5M in revenue, most founders are still the company’s best marketer. They know the customer, they wrote the first website and most new business comes through their network. The question is whether to hand marketing to a fractional CMO, get coached to run it better yourself, or do some of each.
The running example
A founder runs a $3M B2B software company with 18 customers. Growth came from the founder’s network and two conference talks a year. There is one junior marketer, a freelance designer and a paid search account that spends $4,000 a month with unclear results. The founder spends about a day a week on marketing and wants that time back, but is not sure the company can afford a $6,000 retainer on top of the existing spend.
When to hire a fractional CMO
Hire when marketing needs an owner and the founder is the wrong one. That is true when the founder’s time is worth more in sales, product or fundraising; when there are agencies or staff who need weekly direction; or when the company is moving into a market where the founder’s network does not reach. A fractional CMO at this size typically costs $4,000 to $8,000 a month. For our founder, the trigger would be a decision to hire a second marketer or to double paid spend, because both multiply the cost of not having a plan.
When to get coached
Get coached when the founder should stay in charge of marketing for now, and the gap is method. Marketing and go-to-market coaching teaches founders to define a target segment, write positioning, set up a channel test with a budget and a stop rule, and read the funnel numbers. Coaching on the programs listed here ranges from free group sessions to a few thousand dollars a month for weekly one-to-one work, with courses and cohort programs in between.
For our founder, coaching is a strong first step. The junior marketer and the founder could learn to run a clean test on the paid search account and rewrite the website positioning in a quarter, for a fraction of a retainer. Coaching also works well for the junior marketer directly, who will grow faster with a senior marketer to learn from once a week.
When to do both
Two combinations work. The first is a fractional CMO who coaches the in-house marketer as part of the retainer, so the company builds its own capability while the CMO sets direction. Ask for it in the scope. The second is a sequence: the founder gets coached for three to six months, learns what good marketing leadership looks like and then hires a fractional CMO with a clear brief. Founders who have done the coaching tend to write better briefs and judge the first 90 days more accurately.
A simple test
Ask who will be accountable for marketing results a year from now. If it should be the founder, get coached. If it should be someone else, and the company cannot yet pay $250,000 for that someone, hire a fractional CMO. If you want both your own skills and an owner, combine them and say so up front.
Fractional CMOs and marketing coaching programs are listed side by side on this site so you can compare the two at your size.