• Peter Geisheker, a B2B SaaS Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, leading your marketing program and team for 40 hours per month
• Deploys the Functional Marketing® Framework to build out your marketing strategy, establish KPIs and reporting, define positioning, and more
• Functional Marketing® Systems Map delivered after the first 30 days
• Quarterly Planning calls quarterly, Sprint Planning and Review calls led weekly, and Daily Stand-Ups with the marketing team
• Hire, train, evaluate, and fire marketing vendors, employees, and contractors
• 3-month minimum commitment
• Investment: $12,000/month. As a comparison, the average salary for a full-time CMO at a tech company is $400,000/year plus benefits and stock options, making the cost of a full-time CMO closer to $500,000 per year ($41,667 per month). Now you see why hiring Peter Geisheker as your Fractional CMO at less than 1/3 of that cost (about 71% less) is a much wiser investment.

• Peter Geisheker, a B2B SaaS Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, leading your marketing program and team for 20 hours per month
• Deploys the Functional Marketing® Framework to build out your marketing strategy, establish KPIs and reporting, define positioning, and more
• Functional Marketing® Systems Map delivered after the first 30 days
• Quarterly Planning calls quarterly, Sprint Planning and Review calls led weekly, and Daily Stand-Ups with the marketing team
• Hire, train, evaluate, and fire marketing vendors, employees, and contractors
• 3-month minimum commitment
• Investment: $7,000/month. As a comparison, the average salary for a full-time CMO at a tech company is $400,000/year plus benefits and stock options, making the cost of a full-time CMO closer to $500,000 per year ($41,667 per month). Now you see why hiring Peter Geisheker as your Fractional CMO at 1/5 that cost (about 83% less) is a much wiser investment.

• Peter Geisheker, a B2B SaaS Fractional Chief Marketing Officer, leading your team as a strategic advisor for 8-hours per month
• Available after at least one 90-day sprint with Package 1 or 2, CMOx Engaged 40 or 20
• Quarterly Planning calls quarterly, Sprint Planning calls led twice-monthly
• Unlimited email correspondence during business hours
• Grow long-term with the least financial risk 
• Access to our marketing campaign standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• 6-month commitment
• Investment: $4,000/month

In today’s competitive business landscape, companies constantly seek ways to scale their marketing efforts without breaking the bank. One solution that is gaining traction is hiring a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). A fractional CMO is an experienced marketing leader who works for your company on a part-time or project basis. They provide high-level strategy and leadership without the cost of a full-time executive salary and benefits package.

There are many financial upsides to working with a fractional marketing executive. Below, we’ll explore the cost savings, flexibility, and revenue growth potential this model provides.

The most obvious financial benefit of hiring a fractional CMO is cost savings compared to a full-time CMO salary. The average base pay for a Chief Marketing Officer in the United States is $300,00 — and this doesn’t include bonuses, stock options, and other monetary incentives that can bring total compensation well over $400k. For a full-time CMO in the tech industry, salary, benefits, and stock options may exceed $500,000.

Alternatively, fractional CMOs typically charge monthly retainer fees ranging from $5,000 to $20,000. When you do the math, hiring a fractional executive can save you anywhere from 50-90% compared to paying a full-time CMO. And those are savings you can allocate to other parts of your marketing budget.

The savings grow even more when factoring in overhead costs like benefits, office space, tech, and tools. Fractional executives handle all of these costs themselves, while full-time leaders incur more expenses.

Furthermore, fractional CMOs are focused solely on driving results through marketing initiatives. They don’t get bogged down with time-intensive HR duties like recruiting, hiring, managing, and developing marketing teams. All of your fractional CMO’s time goes directly into moving the needle on marketing KPIs.

In summary, fractional marketing leadership significantly reduces salary, benefits, overhead, and non-marketing costs compared to full-time alternatives.

Another significant financial advantage of the fractional CMO model is flexible scaling. Marketing is not a fixed function. Strategy and effort must adapt and change depending on business conditions and goals.

With a fractional CMO, you only pay for the marketing leadership you need right now. When initiatives ramp up, you increase your fractional CMO’s hours or the size of the team. When priorities shift, you reduce hours accordingly.

This agility starkly contrasts with full-time CMO roles that carry fixed costs regardless of marketing needs. With full-time leaders, you may overpay during slower periods or scramble during busier seasons.

The flexibility of fractional leadership allows you to scale up and down cost-effectively. Plus, no long-term contracts or commitments stand in the way if you decide to take marketing entirely in-house later.

An additional financial benefit of fractional CMOs comes from their outsider perspective. Full-time marketing leaders rise up through an organization and their judgment can become clouded by corporate politics, procedures, and personalities. Fractional CMOs enter with an objective view of what marketing tactics work best for the business goals at hand.

This objectivity allows fractional executives to align marketing with proven ROI more efficiently. Full-time leaders often get stuck doing things as they’ve always done. In contrast, fractional CMOs carry best practices from various industries and quickly shift strategies to those that produce results.

Essentially, the outside expertise of a fractional CMO converts marketing spend into revenue more rapidly. And even small gains in marketing ROI positively impact the bottom line.

Now that we’ve covered cost savings, flexible scaling, and objective guidance, we have come to the overarching financial benefit of working with any CMO: revenue growth.

As a fractional executive, increased profits are doubly beneficial because they allow you to fund enhanced marketing without further investment. But don’t underestimate the ability of enhanced marketing strategy and execution to accelerate revenue.

From a high level, simply having consistent leadership and strategy across all marketing initiatives results in synergy. Campaigns and programs reinforce instead of dilute each other. Fractional CMOs are unifying teams, tech stacks, data, and messaging experts.

More tactically, fractional marketing leaders drive growth by positioning brands for sales success. From messaging and content to digital experiences and sales enablement, fractional CMOs close the loop between marketing and revenue.

This sales focus pays dividends across conversion points, from attracting followers to qualifying leads all the way to closing deals. And with each conversion comes expanding profit margins both short and long-term.

Another growth lever fractional CMOs optimize is go-to-market and product launches. Planning and executing successful launches results in quick bursts of revenue. And the momentum gained from well-orchestrated releases typically continues to build over time.

In summary, while cost savings allow you to efficiently fund marketing, enhanced strategy, execution and alignment unlocks exponential revenue growth. The financial benefits compound each other for a multiplied and sustainable impact.

Now that you understand the many financial upsides fractional marketing leadership provides, you may wonder what types of companies benefit most from this model. Below we explore the organizations and situations where fractional CMOs make the most significant financial difference.

Young startups need executive-level marketing leadership to gain traction effectively but often lack enough funding for full-time roles. In these cases, fractional CMOs allow founders to punch above their weight class from a strategy perspective. Fractional contracts’ flexible, performance-based nature aligns incentives by only requiring payment when value is provided.

The other benefit for startups is fractional CMOs have broad experience across industries and business models. They can quickly transfer proven tactics that gain adoption, build brand affinity, and accelerate revenue growth. Fractional executives get startups off the ground faster while conserving cash flow for further scaling.

Established mid-market companies may have solid marketing teams and programs but lack the vision and sophistication possible with executive-level oversight. Fractional CMO consultants fill this gap with high-level planning and best practices so current marketing staff can focus on operational execution.

Mid-market companies also benefit financially from the fractional model when they grow to the point of needing a CMO but aren’t yet ready for a total commitment. Incremental leadership allows them to strategically invest in future growth while maintaining flexibility for an uncertain road ahead.

Fractional CMOs play a strategic role in preparing brands for acquisition and integrating organizations post-merger. On the front end, fractional executives ready marketing operations for due diligence. They identify synergies, growth levers, and optimization opportunities that boost valuation.

Post-acquisition, fractional leaders align merged companies by developing consistent messaging, positioning, and go-to-market strategies. They enable economies of scale from consolidated marketing technology and data. And they free up operational marketers from bureaucratic red tape to focus on producing results.

Companies struggling to overcome recent challenges can benefit significantly from a fractional CMO’s outside perspective and expertise. An objective set of eyes quickly identifies ineffective tactics and programs that may drain resources. They cull waste and shift budgets to initiatives that boost performance in the near term.

The fractional model allows financially strained organizations to access growth strategies affordably. And the built-in measurement ties spending directly to the tangible upside. Executed properly, the structure converts marketing from a cost center to a profit driver helping fuel the overall turnaround.

To summarize, there are compelling financial arguments supporting the decision to hire a fractional CMO, including:

1. Significant cost savings compared to full-time alternatives
2. Flexibility to scale marketing leadership up and down
3. Unbiased guidance that accelerates proven growth strategies
4. Revenue growth potential from enhanced marketing strategy and execution
5. Ideal for startups, mid-market companies, M&A transitions and turnarounds

The fractional Chief Marketing Officer model aligns high-level leadership with agility, efficiency, and tangible marketing ROI. And the financial benefits expand beyond the marketing function to positively impact broader business performance.

Hopefully, this overview has clarified maximizing marketing investment while minimizing risk. The fractional CMO route paves a data-backed path to grow brands and customer bases—all with executive strategy secured at a fraction of traditional costs.

If your company needs a B2B SaaS fractional Chief Marketing Officer, consider working with Peter Geisheker. Peter has been providing Fractional CMO services for over 20 years and has expertise in growth tactics and conversion optimization. View Peter’s Fractional CMO case studies.