The purpose of marketing can be boiled down to one thing: growth. Growth can be numerous things, such as growth in revenue, customers, lifetime customer value, or brand recognition. Regardless of what aspect of growth a business is looking for, a comprehensive marketing strategy is necessary.
Whatever the industry, the marketing strategy will be built upon certain marketing fundamentals and principles that an experienced marketing leader will know like the back of their hand. This marketing leader will be somebody in the role of a marketing director, marketing consultant, or chief marketing officer. The chief marketing officer can either be a full-time position or a part-time one. Many companies are now going for the part-time option in the form of a fractional chief marketing officer or outsourced CMO. This will typically encompass 5-40 hours per month of the CMO’s time. Enough time to develop a strategy for the business in question and to provide incredible value, but also is restricted enough so that it is affordable for the business. Most SMBs do not require a full-time CMO but do need someone in that seat. Hence why a fractional CMO is an increasingly attractive option. This allows the business to use the rest of that money to go into investing in marketing campaigns or hiring more staff to implement the strategy.
What will the fractional CMO do in regard to creating the marketing strategy?
Avatar
It is critical that your business knows your customer avatars. Some businesses have many, some are so specific that only one or two are needed. You need to know who your efforts are focussed on and what their intentions are. Without this, you simply will not be able to convey a strong enough message to them to convince them to buy.
The chief marketing officer will have plenty of experience in making these fictional customer personas and knows how to efficiently and accurately get the message across. Certain attributes to include are age, gender, interests, education, marital status, income etc.
Funnel Building
The art (or science) of funnel building is where the money is made and lost. It can be either 20X ROI or $10,000 down the drain, so be careful and considerate of all details when building a funnel. Paid media is great when it works. When it does not…it can be a ‘pull your hair out’ moment. So, best to make sure it works. The best way to make sure it works? Get a verified professional with plenty of experience and knowhow to make it. The old saying “Buy cheap; buy twice” rings true in many aspects of life, and this is one area we do not want it to.
Objectives, milestones, and traction
Setting goals is important to give your marketing team something to work towards. A clear direction as laid out by your marketing leader will inspire the marketing team to do their best work. Milestone will help make sure that the team is on the right path, not falling behind at all. And traction is when the milestones start to accumulate. The objectives have been hit and confidence is high. This is when you start to see the real return on investment and growth. A fractional CMO will be the leader throughout this. The leader has to inspire the team in terms of confidence, enthusiasm, and harmony. If one of these pillars falls the whole structure can come down with it.
These three points I have laid out in this article just scratches the surface of the role of the marketing director, fractional CMO, or full-time CMO. If you would like to learn more about fractional CMO services, go to cmox.co where there is an ample amount of information.
