You know marketing matters. You've hired agencies, tried freelancers, or passed tasks to junior team members. Maybe you're still leading it yourself - on top of sales, operations, and delivery.
It’s exhausting. And it’s probably not working as well as it should.
So, how do you know when it’s time to stop running marketing yourself and bring in someone to lead it properly?
Let’s break it down.
If Any Of The Following Resonate With You, You’re Ready for a Fractional CMO
- “We rely heavily on referrals”
- “I need to make the business less reliant on me, but I don’t know how.”
- “Our online presence is weak - customers don’t see us as an industry leader”
- “Our messaging is unclear or inconsistent. , and customers don’t immediately understand our value”
- “Our website looks outdated and doesn’t reflect our value”
- “We don’t have a scalable, repeatable system for driving new business”
- “We’re only focused on acquiring new clients and not doing enough to keep existing ones”
- “We don’t have a clear onboarding process to make a great first impression. to ensure clients get immediate value from us”
- “Marketing does not generate us any leads.”
- “We don’t even have a marketing strategy"
Sound familiar?
A Fractional CMO steps in to own the strategy, lead execution, and create consistent outcomes—without the cost or risk of a full-time hire.
What Actually Changes When You Hand Over the Reins
When a Fractional CMO joins your team, three things shift immediately:
- You stop being the bottleneck. Someone else owns the marketing direction, priorities, and outcomes.
- Your team and partners get clear leadership. Freelancers, agencies, or internal marketers now have a lead to follow.
- You get a structured, scalable marketing function. Built around your business goals. No fluff. No noise.
You’re Not Buying a Service. You’re Hiring a Leader.
This is a Human Resource decision—not a marketing line item.
A Fractional CMO isn’t an external consultant or contractor. They’re a member of your leadership team. They work across departments, lead people, and make decisions that impact growth.
If you don’t have a marketing team, they’ll build one. If you do, they’ll bring structure, focus, and results.
You’re not outsourcing marketing, you’re investing in someone who will lead it from the inside.
What a Fractional CMO Engagement Looks Like
At Ask Marketing, our engagements typically include:
- Weekly strategic leadership -0.5, 1, 2 or 3 days per week
- A clear roadmap tied to your growth goals
- Oversight of any internal team, freelancer or agency
- Weekly WIPS and monthly reporting and review with your leadership team
- Flexibility to scale up or down as the business evolves
This isn’t a one-off campaign or a retainer you forget about.
This is a human resource, a person, who is embedded and part of your strategic leadership, delivered part-time.
Still Not Sure? Here’s a Quick Checklist
Ask yourself:
- Are you still making all the marketing decisions?
- Do you have a documented strategy that links to growth?
- Can your team operate without your constant input?
- Do you have one person accountable for marketing outcomes?
- If you stepped away for 30 days, would marketing continue to perform?
If you answered "no" more than once, it’s time.
Let’s Build the Marketing Function You’ve Been Missing
With Ask Marketing you can hire a senior marketer, for a fraction of the cost of a full time resource.
Ask was founded by sisters Alexandra & Stephanie King in 2017.
Now with clients in Sydney, Melbourne & Brisbane, B2B and Services Companies come to us for Australia’s Leading Fractional CMOs.
We place an Ask Marketer in your business to lead your marketing in a part-time capacity, ensuring you get the expertise of a marketing leader while keeping costs efficient and flexible.
You’re Not Buying a Service. You’re Hiring a Leader.
Click here to ask us how it could work for you.
Or, follow us on LinkedIn.
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