Fractional CMO Services
Every engagement starts the same way: by understanding where things actually stand before recommending where they should go.
1. Assessment
A clear-eyed evaluation of the current marketing function — what's working, what isn't, and what's missing entirely. This includes:
- Business goals alignment — is marketing focused on the right priorities and driving measurable impact on company objectives?
- Market and competitive landscape — what are the market dynamics, trends, and competitors doing, and how should we respond?
- Audience and personas — do we have a clear understanding of our target audiences, their needs, pain points, motivations, and decision drivers?
- Messaging and value proposition — is our core messaging compelling, differentiated, and resonating with the audiences that matter most?
- Brand strategy and positioning — is our brand distinct, relevant, and consistently expressed across all touchpoints?
- Go-to-market strategy — is the path to market clear, differentiated, and aligned with how buyers want to buy?
- Marketing strategy and annual plan — is there a clear, prioritized roadmap with the right mix of initiatives to drive growth?
- Demand generation and pipeline — are we consistently generating the right leads and advancing quality pipeline?
- Content strategy and assets — do we have the right content, for the right audiences, in the right formats, at the right stages?
- Channel strategy and mix — are we investing in the most effective channels to reach and convert our audiences?
- Customer journey and experience — is the end-to-end experience seamless, relevant, and built to convert and retain?
- Martech stack review — are the right tools in place, underused, or redundant?
- Data and analytics — are we tracking the right metrics, leveraging data for insights, and making decisions based on facts?
- Marketing performance and reporting — are we measuring what matters and clearly showing impact on business outcomes?
- Personnel and job roles — is the team structured to succeed, or set up to struggle?
- Vendor usage — is work being outsourced that doesn’t need to be, or is an in-house team stretched too thin without enough vendor support?
- Budget and resource allocation — is the budget aligned to priorities and being invested for maximum impact?
- Sales and marketing alignment — are we working together toward shared goals with clear handoffs and feedback loops?
- Customer and market feedback — are we listening to customers and the market to inform strategy and continuous improvement?
2. Recommendations
Findings translate into a specific set of strategies and tactics built for the business's actual situation — not a generic playbook.
3. Implementation
Execution starts with quick wins to build early momentum, followed by longer-term initiatives designed for sustained yield.
4. Measurement
KPIs are agreed upon upfront and tracked on an ongoing basis, so there's a clear, shared view of whether the right things are happening — and whether they're producing the expected results.
Crisis Communications & Public Relations
Reputation is built long before a crisis happens. And when a crisis does happen, the quality and speed of the response can have a lasting impact. Our PR and communications work spans both — building visibility and credibility when things are going well, while preparing leadership to respond when they aren't.
- Executive thought leadership — programs engineered from the ground up to establish executives as credible voices in their industries and generate meaningful media coverage
- Media relations and earned media — identifying the right stories, reporters and opportunities to generate coverage that supports business and reputation objectives
- Executive media training — preparing executives at every level to communicate clearly and effectively, including high-risk, hostile and adversarial interview scenarios
- Crisis communication planning — playbooks built in advance so leadership has a defined, rehearsed plan the moment a challenge arises — not a scramble to build one
- Crisis response and counsel — helping leadership assess the situation, determine what to say, when to say it and who needs to hear it as events unfold
- Issues and risk assessment — identifying reputational vulnerabilities, emerging issues and scenarios that could create communications risk before they become crises
- Crisis messaging — developing holding statements, talking points, FAQs, executive remarks and stakeholder communications that are clear, credible and defensible
- Executive spokesperson preparation — preparing leaders to handle media scrutiny, difficult questions and rapidly changing situations while staying on message without sounding scripted
- Internal crisis communications — helping employees understand what is happening, what the organization is doing about it and what they should — and should not — communicate externally
- Stakeholder communications — developing tailored communications for customers, employees, partners, investors, regulators, media and other audiences affected by an issue
- Reputation management — assessing how the organization is perceived and developing communications strategies to strengthen credibility, trust and authority
- Post-crisis recovery — helping organizations move beyond the immediate response, address lingering reputation issues, and rebuild confidence with key audiences
