There are a million and one ways to market your company.
Choosing what to focus on, and more importantly, who to work with to execute the correct strategy, can be difficult. But like anything, it starts with identifying your business problems.
What problems do you need to solve?
As someone who’s held a CMO role in multiple spaces, you need to identify if your organization’s problems are function specific, leadership specific, or both.
If your problem is function specific, you might need to update marketing tools, such as lead generation or SEO services. If you have various strategic and specific area problems, like a lackluster social media strategy, a mediocre email marketing strategy, or a digital ad strategy that doesn’t leave room for testing, you might have a leadership problem.
One of the biggest mistakes company leaders make when it comes to its marketing department is hiring the right role player. When expectations are miscommunicated, companies remain stuck in the cycle of making the wrong hiring decisions.
Before determining if you need to hire a consultant, agency, interim CMO, or fractional CMO, write down all the problem areas. Once you have that, make sure you have a clear understanding of the role different marketing specialists play to make the correct hiring decision.
What does a marketing consultant do?
It might seem obvious, but people often overestimate the capabilities (and expertise) of a marketing consultant.
A marketing consultant often solves one clear specific problem. Company leaders should expect to bring the most outstanding issues to the consultant, who will provide experience-based insight on the best path forward.
Common areas where you'll see a consultant play a key role:
For instance, a marketing consultant is a great hire if your company is breaking into a new channel. If you’re brand new to influencer marketing, your best bet is to hire a consultant who specializes in running influencer marketing campaigns. Another situation where a consultant might be a good help, is in advising on hiring decisions. A consultant will have the experience and insight on marketing team growth trajectory trends, understanding what members of the team are needed based on each unique team’s dynamics, and overall organizational goals.
One other scenario where a consultant makes sense is a marketing tech stack situation. This is when a company is ready to invest in new marketing platforms but needs guidance on which platform, why, how to engage, cost, integrations, and approach. With an endless supply of options, it’s best to let someone who understands the marketing landscape be responsible for these decisions.
Consultants usually work solo, taking on more of an advisor role than someone who executes a strategy. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking a consultant is there to “do.” A consultant isn’t a one-man band solution to all of your problems. A consultant is there to provide expert level advice and guidance from experience to solve problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.
What does a marketing agency do?
Unlike consultants, marketing agencies are typically very tactical.
Marketing agencies are there to deliver on the components of a marketing strategy. They are typically not there to advise on direction, or overall strategy. However, if an agency focuses on strategy, it’s likely strategy specific to their speciality — SEO, digital ads, social media marketing. That’s why it’s best to bring a strategy to an agency, with clear goals and KPIs, so the agency can execute effectively.
Common areas where you'll see an agency play a key role:
Agencies are a great hire for major projects or initiatives. For example, building out a new website, running Facebook ads, diving into influencer marketing — these are all scenarios in which hiring an agency makes sense. However, if your company is still deciding on whether or not to run an ad strategy, or build out a blog for your company site, hold off on hiring an agency.
If you can’t give an agency a clear picture of what you’re trying to accomplish, they won’t be able to execute effectively.
What does a CMO do?
The role of CMO is pure strategy. The CMO is responsible for taking business objectives, and finding the best path forward in regard to implementing a marketing plan.
Common areas where you'll see a CMO play a key role:
When discussing the role and responsibilities of a CMO, there are a couple of boxes your organization needs to check:
- Your company is well established. In order to make hiring a CMO worthwhile, you need to have a fully functional product or service, space to enter the market or a competitive advantage, and, at the very least, have baseline demographic of customers. Without a well-established company, you put yourself at a disadvantage bringing in a c-level marketer. Remember, their job isn’t to find a product or service that works — their job is to implement a strategy to grow your business long-term.
- Your company has a large staff, with a high-functioning marketing department. In order for a CMO to strategize, and advise on strategy implementation, the CMO needs a team to delegate to. Depending on industry, your marketing team might be comprised of a senior level marketer, a marketing manager, a copywriter, and social media manager. These role players are ready for action from a tactical standpoint, and need a c-level marketer to delegate based on a cohesive strategy. There are cases where a c-level marketer might benefit a company with a one-to-two person marketing team, but that c-level marketer would likely be working on a fractional basis, as opposed to a full-time CMO.
Only when you’ve clearly defined your company, product or service, position in the marketplace, and have a marketing team of tactical roleplayers should you hire a CMO full-time. If there are gaps in staff's ability to fulfill tactical execution, your CMO becomes responsible for filling the void. For instance, if running digital ads is a primary goal for your organization, your CMO should be responsible for deciding on which ad agency to work with, and for clearly identifying and communicating the problems and goals to the agency for effective execution.
What is a fractional CMO (FCMO)?
A fractional CMO is a contract chief marketing officer, retained on a part-time basis to provide executive marketing leadership for a growing business. As an executive, fractional CMOs are members of an organization's executive team, and serve as the executive leadership for the marketing function of a business.
However, fractional CMOs are not merely ad experts or social media gurus advising from a high-level. Fractional CMOs have the responsibility of translating the vision of an organization’s CEO and Board into marketing campaigns, objectives, and outcomes — particularly in the short-term. Fractional CMOs work with existing teams, and groom businesses for hiring a full-time CMO when the time comes.
FCMOs are perfect for companies with a small-to-midsize staff at an established business, or a seasoned startup looking to level up. These organizations likely don’t have a fully functioning marketing department — only bits and pieces with ‘utility’ players with varying responsibilities.
An FCMO will evaluate the current marketing department, and make recommendations for staff based on strategy. An FCMO is in a much better position to hire agencies, freelancers, contractors, or other tactical-based staff than a CEO, CFO, or another non-marketing c-level person considering an FCMO typically has years of experience as a c-level marketer.
What is an Interim CMO?
An interim CMO fills a specific timeline gap for an organization, typically while a search is going on for a permanent person.
An interim CMO will step in when a full-time CMO is let go, or leaves, and the organization is already interviewing or head-hunting for a replacement. Interim CMOs are generally meant to maintain the status quo. There isn’t much of an incentive, or responsibility to innovate considering the position is finite — usually only a couple of months. It can make sense to hire an interim CMO at both large corporations and well-established mid-sized companies with teams of tactical marketers already clear on roles and responsibilities.
Since an interim CMO is only carrying a full-time workload short-term, this person should not be making major hiring decisions, or decisions that will drastically change how other roleplayers in the marketing department go about their day-to-day. Eventually, companies working with an interim CMO will hire either a full-time CMO or an FCMO, to take over and return to having a marketing leader responsible for innovative strategy implementation and strategic decision-making.
Making the right hiring decision for your marketing department can be daunting.
Remember: it’s crucial to define if your problems are function-specific, leadership-specific, or both, before revamping your marketing department.
Don’t rush into hiring a marketing executive, consultant, or agency without understanding your needs first. Once you know the best path forward, remember that different marketers have different responsibilities. Ensure you’re clear on what you’re getting before finalizing any marketing department hires. The biggest mistake you can make is assuming the responsibilities of a role player versus knowing their actual responsibilities. Educate yourself on the functions of each marketer, and be sure to ask what they perceive as their responsibilities for the role in question to set clear expectations.