Solutions / Fractional CMO
CMO-level strategy.Fractional cost.
Your business deserves executive marketing leadership. You just don't need to pay executive money to get it.
“We need marketing leadership, but we can't justify a full-time executive salary for where we are right now.”
Every growth-stage founder, ever. That's exactly why we exist.
A full CMO.A fraction of the cost.
Executive Leadership
A seasoned marketing executive guiding your strategy, team, and budget — without the full-time executive salary, equity, and benefits package.
Strategic Roadmapping
Quarterly and annual marketing plans built around your revenue goals, market position, and growth stage. No fluff, just direction.
Team Building & Management
We hire, train, and manage your marketing team or agencies. Performance reviews, KPIs, and accountability — all handled.
Budget Optimization
Audit your current spend, eliminate waste, reallocate to high-ROI channels, and build a forecasting model tied to pipeline.
Tech Stack & Operations
CRM setup, marketing automation, analytics infrastructure, and the operational backbone that makes marketing scalable.
Board & Investor Readiness
Marketing metrics, growth narratives, and deck-ready data for board meetings, fundraising, and investor updates.
Three tiers.One way in.
Published pricing. Pick the level of involvement your team needs.
Advisory
Calls plus a quarterly plan. Senior judgment on what to do and in what order, with your team doing the work.
Lead
Strategy plus leadership of your team's execution: priorities, vendors, reporting and the weekly cadence.
Embedded
Embedded in your leadership team on a weekly cadence. Marketing run as a function, not a project list.
Numbers Call: $1,500
A paid working session on your real revenue, margin and acquisition numbers. It is the only entry to Fractional CMO, and the fee is credited 100% against your first month. We cap Lead and Embedded at four active clients at a time; if we are full we will say so and offer Advisory or a waitlist.
Full-time vs. fractional.
The math.
Ideal for these situations.
Scaling Startups
You've found product-market fit and need a marketing leader to build the engine — but you're not ready for a full-time executive hire.
Companies in Transition
New market entry, rebrand, acquisition, leadership change — you need strategic marketing guidance through the pivot.
Founder-Led Marketing
The CEO is still running marketing. We step in so you can step back and focus on what only you can do.
Agencies Need Direction
You have agencies but no one managing them. We become the internal CMO that holds agencies accountable.
The engagement.
- 01
Discovery & Audit
We dig into your business model, current marketing, tech stack, team structure, competitive landscape, and revenue data. No stone unturned.
- 02
Strategic Plan
Within 2-4 weeks, you get a comprehensive marketing strategy with priorities, timelines, budgets, KPIs, and quick wins to build momentum.
- 03
Execution & Leadership
We lead the work — managing your team, vendors, and campaigns. Weekly standups, monthly reporting, quarterly strategy reviews.
- 04
Scale & Transition
As you grow, we help you hire a full-time CMO (or promote from within) and ensure a seamless handoff. We build to hand off, not to hold on.
I've worked for a couple of Fortune 500 companies and Nick is hands down one of the most talented marketing professionals around. Nick and I worked together on several projects over the course of a year that included company branding, recruiting, onboarding, etc. and it never failed that his quality of work far exceeded my expectations. He's a team player that truly listens, collaborates, and turns ideas into something tangible.
Megan Russ Talent Acquisition, Alpha MortgageYour next CMO isone call away.
No recruiters. No 6-month search. No executive-hire risk. Just senior marketing leadership, ready to go.
Explore more solutions.
Branding
Identity systems that stick
Strategy
Roadmaps that drive results
Consulting
Expert guidance on demand
Web Design
Sites that convert visitors
Graphic Design
Visuals that tell stories
Print Materials
Tactile pieces that impress
Development
Code that performs
Traditional Marketing
Proven offline channels
Search Engine Marketing
Dominate search results
AI Consulting
Practical AI for marketing teams
Social Media Management
Build engaged communities
CRM Consulting
HubSpot and Salesforce, done right
A great fit if
- $2M–$50M companies with no senior marketing owner
- Teams about to spend real money on a site, CRM or ads
- A 12–24 month transition: launch, funding, sale or a future full-time hire
Probably not if
- You need hands, not a head, to post and run ads
- Revenue under about $1.5M
- No one with authority can meet weekly
What you get.
The deliverables in a typical fractional cmo engagement.
Goals, budget, channels and owners, on one page
Tracking, CRM and a weekly dashboard tied to revenue
Agencies and freelancers held to the plan
Hiring plans, coaching and clear roles
Monthly results in plain English
Everything documented for your future full-time hire
How it works.
Typical timing. We confirm yours in the scope.
- Week 1Numbers Call
A $1,500 paid session on your real revenue and acquisition numbers, credited to month one.
- Weeks 2–4Diagnose
Audit of positioning, tracking, CRM, channels and team.
- Weeks 4–6Plan
A prioritized 12-month plan with budget and owners.
- OngoingLead
Weekly cadence, monthly reporting, quarterly resets.
Related work.
Try it yourself.
Free tools and playbooks from our team.
Do you need a fractional CMO?
Six questions to tell whether you need senior strategy, more hands, or neither yet.
CalculatorFractional CMO vs full-time cost
Compare a full-time marketing leader with a fractional retainer, all in.
QuizMarketing maturity scorecard
Ten questions that show where your marketing is solid and where it leaks.
More questions.
How many clients does a fractional CMO take?
We cap Lead and Embedded engagements at four active clients, so each gets real attention.
Can you help hire our full-time CMO later?
Yes. Building the plan, the team and the documentation a future hire needs is part of the job.
Guides from our team.
How we think about fractional cmo, written by the people who do it.
Fractional CMO Cost in 2026: What You Pay, What You Get, When It Beats a Hire
Fractional CMO cost in 2026: typical retainers and hourly rates, what is included, how it compares to a full-time hire, and when it is the wrong call.
The B2B Marketing Funnel for a Company Under 50 People
Small B2B teams do not need an enterprise funnel. A lean version: the few assets, channels and handoffs that turn strangers into pipeline.
How Much Should a Business Spend on Marketing? A Budget by Stage
Percent-of-revenue rules are a starting point, not an answer. How to set a marketing budget from your growth goal, margins and what a customer is worth.
Industries we do this for.
Key terms.
Plain-English definitions from our glossary.
What clients say.
Clicking Awesome is EXACTLY that. They cover so many ends of the marketing spectrum it's almost impossible to list them all out. They're kind, attentive, and professional – and have fabulous marketing ideas and strategies. I would (and DO) GLADLY refer this company to anyone looking for marketing-related services.
My company reached out to Clicking Awesome on a referral basis. With so many web designers out there we did not know as a company who to look for. After a Zoom meeting with Nick and Nicole outlining design choices and how they could bring our company to the next level, we knew we had the right team. They kept us involved in the development of our site and were flexible on what we were looking for. Due to the quality finished product they delivered, our company has seen much more traffic to our site.
Just teamed up with Clicking Awesome, and they truly are AWESOME! Seriously loving the cool ideas they brought to the table for our marketing. Super easy to work with, and they know their stuff. Big thumbs up!