Fractional marketing is a total no-brainer for growing businesses
Fractional careers are an increasingly popular form of work. They’re an evolution of part-time or consulting roles that allow companies to essentially hire someone experienced and specialized without having to bring them on as a permanent full-time employee.
For instance, let’s say your business is growing and you need someone to build and manage functions like finance, IT or human resources. But, you might not need that person for 40-plus hours of work every week. So, you could hire someone to act like a CFO, CIO or CHRO, but only for a fraction of a full-time workload, like 10 or 20 hours a week.
This can be a no-brainer, win-win for both the company and the employee, nicely filling a gap in the job market that allows a business to grow faster and smarter. For that reason, I also offer fractional marketing as part of my agency’s services.
Here I’ll explain more why this is a convenient solution for lots of small to medium-sized businesses, and how it’s subtly but critically different from the ways companies have implemented marketing expertise in the past.
Problems with how businesses have traditionally added marketing capabilities
Growing small businesses often face a dilemma when they reach the point of needing dedicated marketing support.
Ideally, they could hire a seasoned professional, who could look at everything they’re doing and not doing, fix what’s broken, build a better strategy, and execute a number of day-to-day technical tasks with precision, like copywriting, web design, digital ad management, etc.
But, experienced people who can do all that well demand six-figure salaries, and most small businesses either can’t afford that, or don’t know yet whether it’s a worthwhile investment. They’re usually not professional marketers, after all, so they don’t fully know what problems they have or what opportunities they’re missing.
So, many business owners look to hire someone far less experienced, usually handing them some straightforward responsibilities, like posting to social media, or building and sending an email newsletter.
But, without a marketer determining what those responsibilities should be, it’s unclear if they’re even working on the right things. They’re also almost always doing things slower, at a lower level of quality, than someone who’s done it for 20 years.
Some companies then try to then fill these strategic and specialist gaps through agencies, contractors and freelancers, but these options all come with their own downsides as well. (Odd for an agency owner to say, I know.)
Simply on-boarding a new vendor costs time and money every time you do it, and it’s rare for them to deeply understand your business from the outside. They’re also always more expensive on a per-hour basis than if you hired internally. I’ve personally seen companies cut costs in half while getting more work done by simply hiring permanent employees instead of relying on external agencies.
What’s missing is a way to get a seasoned professional, fully immersed in your business, without getting locked in to a large initial investment.
This is where fractional marketing makes the most sense.
How fractional leadership is different from typical part-time, consulting or retainer relationships
Companies have always hired people for less-than-full-time work in a variety of forms. There are a few ways a fractional relationship is different from the typical mix of options.
The key details that make a fractional professional distinct are:
They are an independent contractor.
They are treated like a permanent employee.
They work less than full-time.
They are a decision-maker within your organization.
That last point is key, because the first three points could describe a freelancer, consultant to contractor. For instance, in my previous role as Director of Content leading an in-house creative agency at a large auto parts brand, we had freelance graphic designers and contract copywriters who we fully embedded with our team and interacted with constantly.
What’s newer is the idea of hiring someone to serve as a Director of Content or VP of Creative Strategy, but for only 10 to 20 hours a week. They have the same independent decision-making power and management responsibilities as a full-time person in that position, but are only needed for a fraction of a typical work week.
Taylor Crane, the founder of Fractional Jobs, a job board for fractional roles, similarly defines this key element of fractional work this way:
“The term ‘fractional’ implies someone who is an expert in their field. It’s often someone who has leadership and management experience.
Most fractionals are 10+ years into their career. They’ve honed their craft as full-time employees, and are now able to drop into a company to add expert value quickly. This value comes in the form of providing strategic guidance, doing hands-on work, managing a department (including full-time employees), hiring and firing, and more.
If this sounds like the description of a senior-level full-time employee, that’s the point. The only difference is the work is done fractionally, i.e. less hours per week for less pay.”
This type of relationship also solves a problem that has always bugged me about the agency model - being kept at arm’s length from the client’s business.
When I was at a leading full-service marketing agency in Philadelphia, Braithwaite Communications, I always wanted greater access and insight into my clients’ organizations. But, we could rarely get full visibility to more deeply understand their people, products or services, as well as track in detail how our efforts were affecting their business. Most often, this was simply because our clients contacts didn’t think we wanted or needed that level of detail, or they didn’t have the time to gather and share it.
That’s not a problem in a true fractional relationship. Instead of simply executing on assigned tasks, the fractional leader is the one driving the strategy, executing the work, analyzing the results, and reporting on it to the business. They can function independently, allowing them to be much more effective, and saving the business owner time from managing their work.
How do you know if a fractional marketer is right for your business?
So, now that you know what a fractional role is, when does it make sense to hire a fractional marketer instead of the other options? Here are a few questions to ask:
How many hours of marketing tasks are already being done every week, either by existing staff or the business owners themselves?
How many hours of additional tasks should be getting done every week, but no one has time to do them?
How much more revenue could you potentially realize, or how much money could you save, if all those things were done well every week?
What are you already spending on sales and marketing every year?
Are you planning to eventually grow a full-time marketing team, but don’t know how to do it or don’t have time to focus on it?
If the answers to the first two questions result in at least 10 hours of work a week, but less than 40 hours of work a week, fractional is probably the right fit. You’ll get all the work done, reliably, at a high level of quality, and likely uncover lots of opportunities you weren’t previously realizing.
If the answers to questions three and four are more than $60,000 a year, fractional is also a clear answer. Many entry-level marketing specialist roles earn salaries more than that today. For the same price, you can get someone with 20 times the experience, and they’ll almost certainly pay for themselves by focusing on the most beneficial activities and reducing wasteful spending.
For instance, in this interview below, former fractional marketer David Fallarme describes how he would routinely find wasteful spending at this clients’ business almost immediately, and quickly identify more cost effective ways to attract customers. Pretty much right off the bat, he was able to realize a positive return on the company’s investment for hiring him, as well as chart a smarter growth path.
If you also answered yes to the last question about planning to grow your marketing team, hiring a veteran fractional marketer is practically a no-brainer.
Like I described above, there are a lot of problems with hiring someone inexperienced first and working your way up to hiring more experienced people. If you flip that approach and start with someone more seasoned, they can not only build an intelligent team structure and staffing plan, but also find and interview the right people. As you grow, they could take on the role full-time, or hire their own replacement.
Think your business is ready for a fractional professional? Send me an email at lee@mountwell.marketing, or click here to schedule a call.