7 Reasons to Hire an Outsourced CMO

Bringing an outsourced CMO onboard to oversee your marketing efforts is an effective way to move past bottle necks and break through plateaus. Rather than have your limited time taken up by marketing, you can entrust someone else to deliver your vision and keep your business relevant to your audience.

You know exactly why!  Because you can’t do everything yourself and it’s hard to find competent people to whom you can delegate.  You know you’ll benefit from a solid Go-To-Market strategy, but you don’t have time to breathe. You want in-bound sales automation, but you haven’t had a day off in 3 weeks.  We hear you. We both know one of the key steps to implementing a coherent strategy is to hire a senior-level marketing leader focused on growth. Yet, who is this so-called outsourced CMO what exactly can they do for you and your marketing team?

 

Bringing an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) onboard to oversee your marketing efforts is an effective way to move past bottle necks and break through plateaus.  Rather than have your limited time taken up by marketing, you can entrust someone else to deliver your vision and keep your business relevant to your audience. Let’s start with some basics:

 

What Is a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)?

A Chief Marketing Officer is responsible for leading all aspects of marketing. So is an outsourced CMO. The CMO develops the company’s marketing strategy and is tasked with the subsequent management of its distribution and execution. So does an outsourced CMO. Typically, CMOs focus on the following areas:

  • Branding

  • Paid marketing channels

  • Social media management 

  • Public relations 

  • Website creation and maintenance 

  • Email marketing to drive traffic 

  • Keeping up with trends in the marketing industry

The Chief Marketing Officer may delegate responsibilities among other employees, such as media directors, creative directors, social media managers, etc. In addition to this marketing team, the CMO will work closely with other senior members of the company, such as the CEO and COO, to ensure that all viewpoints align with the overall marketing strategy.

 

You guessed it. So does an outsourced CMO.

 

What Is an Outsourced CMO?

As our world has grown increasingly virtual, it has become clear that the CMO does not have to be in house or even onsite.  A company can access talent anywhere in the world.  In fact, the CMO might be “fractional” or part-time.  This is an excellent option for companies that that do not have a true C-suite in house marketing leader, are not ready to hire full-time for the position, but still want to drive explosive growth.

 

An outsourced CMO, otherwise known as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), will typically charge an hourly or monthly flat fee for their services. For a full article on fractional CMO rates see our article “What is a Good Fractional CMO Hourly Rate” or see our Pricing Page.  For a more detailed article explaining exactly what a Fractional CMO is, see our article titled “What is a Fractional CMO?

 

Why Hire an Outsourced CMO?

With just over 30% of small businesses prioritizing driving sales, having a solid CMO can make the difference between you and your competition. There are several reasons to choose an outsourced CMO over a full-time in house CMO. Outsourcing the duties of a highly paid marketing executive may be a good idea for the following reasons:

 

1. Focus On Your Core Business

Being a business owner is a full-time job. That reality affords little time to focus on sales and marketing.  Perhaps the business is still struggling to get off the ground and requires attention every second of the day. Marketing can be very time-consuming, and business owners may not have the resources to devote themselves.  According to Statistica, almost half of SMBs spend less than two hours per week on marketing efforts.

 

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Almost half of SMBs spend less than two hours per week on marketing efforts

Sometimes, it’s challenging to keep up with daily duties, responsibilities, and marketing activities. They may not lack time to attend marketing conferences, follow industry trends, and study marketing books. That’s where an outsourced CMO comes in.  Hiring an outsourced Chief Marketing Officer releases entrepreneurs to focus on other essential tasks to build towards the long-term goals of growing their business.

 

2. Deploy a Comprehensive Go-To-Market Strategy

Successful marketing requires a cohesive plan to drive an increase in Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL), Sales Qualified Leads (SQL) and sales. However, in the early stages of your business, you might be unsure how to handle that process.  According to Statistica, nearly 50% of responding small business owners said that their marketing was effective, but almost 44% of the remaining respondents claimed they didn’t know if they were effective or not. 

 

An outsourced CMO can help you lay the necessary groundwork to develop a growth plan. They can play a key role in creating an actionable marketing strategy and provide solutions to your business goals. In fact, a Chief Marketing Officer will be able to evaluate whether or not your company is even ready to launch a marketing campaign.

 

A Fractional CMO can accelerate the marketing process and identify the best marketing strategies for a company. The Chief Marketing Officer can formulate a detailed marketing plan to be the foundation of a company’s success. Outsourced CMOs have a comprehensive understanding of marketing KPIs, guiding your business to improve its metrics.  A well-crafted plan will also include a marketing budget and provide a great starting point for more in-depth research. 

 

3. Manage Marketing Efforts and Prioritize Tasks

Marketing is sometimes a delicate process because it comprises so many moving parts, like paid marketing channels and email marketing. Small business owners may find it difficult for to keep up with all the changes and best practices in the industry. After all, they might not have the luxury of time or experience to manage all aspects of a marketing strategy. 

 

An outsourced CMO can assume responsibility for those tasks, prioritize them, and communicate the company’s decisions to other marketing team members. Their contributions can focus your marketing efforts, ensuring they are executed correctly and efficiently.  The CMO could even provide specialized training to the marketing team members and offer marketing budget recommendations. 

 

4. Diversify Your Portfolio of Marketing Channels

Marketing is a profession where you need to be able to adapt to all types of businesses and industries. If you are focusing your time exclusively on one type of industry, your efforts might not reach their ultimate potential.  Hiring an outsourced CMO can help you evaluate whether or not your company is reaching its full potential. In particular, they will have access to expert contacts to help you expand your business and hone your marketing strategies.  

 

A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer knows how to connect with stakeholders and resources across industries. They can connect with other startups, executives, marketers, and agency managers to get the full story on new marketing strategies.  They can uncover opportunities for your business that may be hiding in plain sight. For instance, a CMO could use their resources to network with key industry influencers and leverage that expertise to better engage with your target audience.

 

5. Get an Outside Perspective and Expertise 

Many companies struggle with the idea of changing the status quo or reinventing the wheel. However, a well-rounded marketing strategy should include fresh ideas and new concepts.  Outsourcing a CMO can help you determine the best way to market your company’s products or services and uncover new opportunities for your business. They provide professional expertise and will be able to make recommendations every step of their journey with your company.

 

A good CMO can help you keep up with trends and identify fresh ideas to help you reach your target audience. Fractional CMOs offer valuable insight into several industries and can fill in the gaps that you may not be able to research on your own. They will know what marketing strategies have worked in the past and will be able to suggest creative ways to present your company’s story.

 

6. Improve Business Communication and Efficiency 

Marketing requires a lot of coordination between teams, such as production, sales, and the marketing department. These tasks must be completed efficiently for the business to succeed.  An outsourced CMO can help improve your business’s internal communications by providing management training, coaching, and feedback. They can train your marketing department on how to communicate correctly with each other and provide them with the necessary tools they need to succeed.

 

7. Enhance Marketing Hiring Practices

Recruitment is a significant part of any marketing team. However, for many small businesses, hiring the right marketing talent can be daunting. After all, access to the best marketing talent and the time to develop their skills is not always readily available. 

 

Opting for an outsourced CMO brings you a readymade wealth of knowledge to lay the foundation for your company’s hiring practices. They can also provide insights on job descriptions, interview processes, and give you guidance on how to retain the strongest talent for your business. In doing so, you can be better placed to leverage marketing talent.

 

When should you hire an outsourced CMO?

 Really this is a decision that’s up to you. You could hire an outsourced CMO at any time. There was once a misconception that only smaller businesses turned to outsourcing, but it’s pretty clear larger businesses are highly engaged in outsourcing as well. Outsourcing a CMO can provide a lot of skill that cost a lot less than a full-time employee, but cost shouldn’t be the only factor you consider.

 

Successful businesses consider all their options.  In the long run, your business needs new creative, automation through technology and continued market research. You may looking for a new take on marketing campaigns.  If that’s the case, an outsourced CMO may be a great direction for you.

 

Read the signs: outsourced CMO

Sometimes it’s really clear that an outsourced CMO is the only way to go. If your budget is being drained, not used wisely and you’re not getting a good Return On Ad Spend (ROAS), the message is clear. Nearly 68% of responding business owners said that their primary challenge with marketing was budget. Maybe you have a workload bottleneck or you feel you’ve plateaued?  If so, then an outsourced CMO seems to be calling your name.

 

Final Thoughts

As you can see, there are many reasons to hire an outsourced CMO, from getting new perspectives to being able to focus on your core business.  With that in mind, one of the best steps you can take to transform your marketing department is to find a qualified Fractional CMO. Want to learn more about how an outsourced or Fractional CMO can take your marketing strategy to new heights? Here at GROKKETSHIP, we are ready to identify how to deliver higher engagement with your audience and develop a marketing strategy that works for you. Book a call with one of our Fractional CMOs today!

Author Bio

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GROKKETSHIP Staff

Outsourced CMOs can help startups like this

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