Fractional CMO and Marketing Department Synergy
This article was published on February 13, 2020
Categorized in: Digital Marketing
One thing we have learned is that when you hire a Fractional CMO, the situation has to seamlessly fit into your pre-existing marketing department, otherwise the relationship won’t work. Yes, the Fractional CMO has the same duties and roles as a regular CMO. However, it isn’t just a simple matter of hiring them and plugging them into your existing systems. The two components need to be in synergy. Here’s more information about this:
Create a Winning Partnership
The combination of a Fractional CMO and your marketing department can be pure gold. It has a lot of potential to help further your business goals and improve the success of the company. It can be a winning partnership! But this is only if it is done right. There are some things that need to happen:
- You need to hire the best Fractional CMO for your needs.
- Your marketing department needs to sign off on the hire.
- The Fractional CMO needs to understand your workplace culture.
If none of these happen, or even if only one of them happens, this could prove disastrous. What you don’t want to is to create an environment where both parties are struggling with the relationship. Both parties need to be on board, excited, and happy.
The Fractional CMO Needs to Listen to Your Needs
In the sales cycle, you should get a feel for whether or not the Fractional CMO will be a good fit for you. This means that you should make sure they are really listening to what you want. This does two things:
- First, it helps them see if you are a good fit for working together.
- Second, it helps you know if the Fractional CMO will vibe with the rest of the staff.
You should know early if the relationship will work, but both parties need be up front and honest during the sales cycle. In other words, you need to see evidence that the Fractional is willing to listen to your needs.
Trust the Process
This next point is an important one. Both sides, the Fractional CMO and your marketing department, need to be able to trust the process. They need to have absolute clarity when it comes to the process and what it entails, and both sides need to know that the efforts will be worth it. The Fractional CMO needs to sense that the marketing department is on board with it, and the marketing department needs to sense that the Fractional CMO knows what’s going on and can help.
Trust is built both ways, and building a relationship of trust takes time. It all starts with whether you both trust the process or not. If that trust isn’t there, it will make the relationship very difficult.
It is worth it to build synergy between the Fractional CMO and the Marketing Department. This will help the relationship so much and may even help maximize results. If the road ahead feels easy, this will benefit the process as a whole.
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About the Author: Brick Marketing President, Nick Stamoulis
Nick Stamoulis is a digital marketing expert and President of Brick Marketing. With 25+ years experience, he specializes in solving complex digital marketing challenges through SEO, content marketing, social media, PPC, email marketing, SEO for AI (GEO) and conversion optimization.
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