Fractional CMO FAQs

A fractional CMO from CICOR Marketing works on a monthly hour allocation, typically 20 to 50 hours. The allocation covers leadership time, meetings, and the execution the plan requires. When a month calls for more, you can add hours in blocks of five, 10, or 20, subject to availability.

Every fractional CMO engagement from CICOR Marketing states the level of authority up front. At the advisory level, your fractional CMO recommends, and you approve. At the management level, your fractional CMO directs your marketing staff, contractors, and vendors within the agreed scope while you keep the final decisions and spending authority. At the delegated level, your fractional CMO makes defined marketing decisions and approves spending up to a limit you set. You can change the level as the business changes.

A fractional CMO engagement from CICOR Marketing begins with a 30-day assessment and plan. Your fractional CMO reviews the business, the team, the vendors, the budget, and the numbers, then delivers the plan. After that, the work runs on a set rhythm: a weekly check-in with your team, a monthly leadership meeting with a written report, and a quarterly review of the plan against the results.

A fractional CMO fits companies with roughly $2 million to $50 million in revenue that have outgrown founder-led marketing. Signs it is time: a team or vendors with no one directing them, a budget set by habit, and no single owner of the marketing number. Below that size, a marketing audit and plan usually does more good than a part-time executive.

A fractional CMO from CICOR Marketing is quoted as a monthly fee, sized by the hour allocation (typically 20 to 50 hours a month), the scope of the marketing function, and the authority level. Published tiers run $2,500, $5,000 or $10,000 a month, on its own agreement or bundled into Full Service. You get the hours, the level, and the fee in writing after a short scoping call.

A fractional CMO leads a company’s marketing function part time, doing the job a full-time chief marketing officer would do for a fraction of the cost. That means setting the strategy and budget, leading the internal team and outside vendors, reporting results to leadership, and planning launches. At CICOR Marketing, a senior leader holds the role under a monthly hour allocation with an authority level the client sets.