Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)
Fractional CMO Australia | Strategic Marketing Leadership Without the Executive Salary
There’s a stage most growing businesses hit. Revenue is climbing, teams are expanding and the talk of getting serious about marketing is mentioned – which is both exciting and terrifying.
So, you do what growing business do…you figure it out.
The CEO reviews creative. Someone in ops “owns” campaigns. You brief agencies directly, or worse, videographers. You write Meta ads and debate headlines in group chats at 10pm. Oh and the social media manger somehow got promoted to marketing manager. Sound familiar?
It works and until it doesn’t.
And say you do have a small team dedicated to comms! Do your campaigns go live and then disappear into the vortex of ad spend because you’ve moved onto the next? Or maybe strategy happens mid-flight, sort of like putting on a parachute as you’re falling because budget was already committed so’s not to miss an opportunity.
Your brand isn’t lacking effort – it’s lacking someone to steer the ship.
I’ve seen this pattern across founder-led businesses, PE-backed growth plays, and scaling mid-market brands.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth.
You’re probably too big to improvise or not sexy enough to warrant a CMO.
Too small to justify a +$200k Head of Marketing role.
Or maybe you think all this collaboration toward growth is healthy, until no one is accountable for the trajectory or the outcome.
The result? Busy marketing. Expensive agencies. Mediocre commercial outcomes.
Let’s shift your activity to direction
Marketing performance is driven by clarity and quality, not volume.
Research consistently shows creative and strategic direction are the biggest drivers of marketing effectiveness. Nielsen Catalina found creative quality alone drives 47% of sales impact.
Without senior leadership setting direction, marketing defaults to motion instead of momentum.
That’s where a Fractional Head of Marketing changes the equation.
The Model
I operate as your Head of Marketing. Part-time.
Not a consultant observing from the sidelines. Not an agency selling projects. Not someone billing by the hour.
I embed within your leadership team and:
Set strategic direction
Define quarterly priorities
Align marketing to commercial outcomes
Elevate brief quality
Hold agencies accountable
Protect ROI
Without the cost, risk, or overhead of a full-time executive hire.
Package Options
Option 1 - Strategic Anchor
$53,000 + GST per annum
The Strategic Anchor is for businesses with momentum but no clear marketing owner.
Revenue is moving. Activity exists. Agencies are engaged. But if you’re honest, no one is commercially steering the system or fully confident it’s delivering the right ROI for the business.
You don’t need another campaign.
You need direction.
Strategic Anchor installs a senior marketing authority at the strategic level. A strategy gets crafted, properly. Priorities get disciplined. Performance gets defined. Agencies stop freelancing your budget. Your leadership team finally has clarity on what matters and why.
Execution remains inside your business.
Setting the strategic direction does not.
You get:
An annual marketing strategy linked to achieving the business’s objectives
Defined 12-month marketing growth priorities and sequencing
Quarterly commercial roadmaps with clear focus areas
A formal performance framework with agreed KPIs
Clear “start, stop, continue” discipline for your team
Elevated brief standards and pre-launch review of major initiatives
Senior marketing decision support for you and your leadership team
The engagement runs through a structured strategic cadence across the year, with fortnightly steering and embedded leadership touchpoints.
For most growing businesses, this is the inflection point. Marketing moves from reactive to targeted and directed.
Option 2 - Embedded Growth Lead
$91,000 + GST per annum
This is the ‘Strategic Anchor’ plus operational leadership and accountability.
Embedded Growth Lead is for businesses ready to treat marketing as a true growth engine.
You don’t just want clarity.
You want someone running it.
This is full executive marketing leadership embedded inside your business. The strategy is defined and now the implementation and execution is led. Internal marketing resources are directed. Agencies are actively managed. Campaigns are activated under commercial governance. Quarterly outcomes are reviewed and owned.
This is not advisory.
It is operational leadership.
You get everything in Strategic Anchor, plus:
Full ownership and implementation of the marketing strategy and execution roadmap across the business
Direct leadership of internal marketing resources
Agency management and optimisation
Integrated go-to-market planning and activation governance
Formal marketing operating rhythm and reporting cadence
Executive planning and budgeting integration
Quarterly performance review with commercial accountability
Capability assessment and team structure recommendations
Marketing earns its seat at the executive table.
And keeps it.
This is what a Head of Marketing does, without the fixed overhead, recruitment risk or long-term employment liability.
The Difference
Strategic Anchor sets the direction and governance framework for your team to implement and execute to.
Embedded Growth Lead sets the direction and runs the engine.
One installs strategic discipline.
The other installs strategic discipline and operational command.
Both replace activity with performance.
Ready to get your business humming?
Let’s chat. No pitch. No theatre. Just clarity.
