A Fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive — not a vendor. Agencies execute tactics you assign to them. A Fractional CMO sets the strategy, owns the marketing function, manages vendors on your behalf, and reports to you as a member of your leadership team. The difference isn’t what they do — it’s the level at which they operate. An agency does marketing. A Fractional CMO leads it.

Our minimum engagement is 3 months. Here’s why: effective marketing strategy takes time to build, implement, and measure. A one-month engagement doesn’t give you enough runway to see real results — and frankly, we won’t do our best work if we’re rushing to show you something impressive before Month 1 is over. Three months is the minimum to build the strategy, start execution, and see meaningful early indicators. Most clients stay 12+ months.

It depends on your tier. Foundation clients get approximately 4 hours per week of active work and attention. Growth clients get approximately 8 hours. Enterprise clients get 12+ hours. But here’s what matters more than the hours: you get the benefit of 25+ years of experience in every decision we make, every email we write on your behalf, and every vendor conversation we lead. The leverage is in the senior-level thinking, not just the time.

Both. We’re based in New Albany, Indiana — minutes from downtown Louisville — and are available for on-site leadership meetings across the Louisville metro and Ohio area. Day-to-day work, content review, vendor coordination, and reporting all happen virtually. Enterprise clients include on-site visit availability as part of the engagement. We can work mostly in the midwest states.

Yes — and this is actually an ideal setup. Your internal marketing person handles execution. We provide the strategic direction, senior oversight, and leadership that most marketing coordinators or managers simply aren’t in a position to deliver on their own. We work with them, not around them. Your team gets better with a senior leader guiding the work.

Our Midwest, Louisville, and Indiana experience spans nonprofits, professional service firms (law, finance, consulting, retail), healthcare-adjacent organizations, founder-led businesses, and community institutions. We have deep experience in mission-driven marketing and brand storytelling — and our video production capability means we can support content execution in a way most Fractional CMOs can’t.

We define success with you on Day 1. Most clients come to us wanting three things: more qualified leads, clearer messaging, and better ROI on existing marketing spend. We set specific, measurable goals at the start of the engagement and track them in every monthly report. You’ll always know what’s working, what’s not, and what we’re doing about it. No hiding behind vanity metrics.

A Fractional CMO plans and oversees content, email, advertising, brand communications, and the customer journey.