A Fractional CMO will Turbo Charge your growth
A fractional CMO from Value Creators is the key to hyper-acceleration of your business without an eye-watering overhead.
Some of our work
£2m to £14.5m EBITDA
£1m to £10m EBITDA
£0m to £30m EBITDA
Due Diligence & Portfolio Value Creation
Portfolio Value Creation
Portfolio Value Creation
What is a Fractional CMO?
A Fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is a highly experienced successful board level / C-Suite Marketing leader for a fraction of the cost of a full time CMO as they are not in your business full time.
Fractional CMOs will harness customer insights, develop high growth marketing strategies and ensure cost effective successful execution into real results. They do so by being immersed within your business, but only part time, and as 80% of your growth will come from 20% of your strategy fractional CMOs can have a huge impact without being there 100% of the time.
How a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer will make your business grow faster
A good Fractional CMO will have a portfolio of high growth success stories. Our Fractional CMOs use the Value Creators Insight - Strategy - Execution (I-S-E) model as a framework to growth.
- Insight: What do we know / need to know
- Strategy: How do we leverage to build a competitive advantage
- Execution: best in class delivered at pace
Because your Value Creators Fractional CMO will be imbedded into your team they will over see the execution of the growth marketing activity ensuring real success in key metrics.
The Benefits of a Fractional CMO
A Fractional CMO can be a very cost effective way to grow your business as you get high level marketing expertise without the huge overhead of a full time hire.
A full time CMO will be able to deliver a huge impact to your business but it comes at a high cost. Imagine if you could get >80%+ of the impact but at a fraction of the cost.
The big difference between a Marketing Consultant and a Fractional CMO is ownership of the execution. Typically consultants will deliver a strategy to a business, whereas a Fractional CMO will also oversee the execution of the activity, ensuring payback and value addition for your investment.
| Role | Insight | Strategy | Execution | Cost | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO | Yes | Yes | Yes | ££ | High |
| Full Time CMO | Yes | Yes | Yes | £££££ | High |
| External Consultant | Yes | Yes | No | ££ | High (if execution right) |
Does my business need a Fractional CMO?
If you want a clear strategy executed well to turbo charge your businesses growth and add some significant value then you need a CMO. In addition if your business is in the lifestage of protecting working capital and not ready for the cost of a full time CMO then a Fractional CMO could be the perfect solution.
Fractional CMO Responsibilities
A Value Creators Fractional CMO will take on the full remit of responsibilities you'd expect from a full time CMO:
- Insight generation
- Strategy Construction
- Execution Ownership
- Team Recruitment / Management
- Ownership of results
Fractional CMO Costs
A fractional CMO costs a fraction of a full time CMO and typically has a day rate of £1,000 to £1,500. A full time CMO salary band is £100k to £300k p.a. depending on sector, experience, loaction and business size. So the fractional approach could deliver >80%+ of the impact of a full time CMO for about 1/3rd of the cost - which is exceptional value for money.
What does a CMO cost a business per year
The all-inclusive cost of a CMO to a business is c. £200k to £250k a year,
- based on a basic gross salary of £150k,
- employer NIC of £22k (15.05% from April 2025),
- employer pension contribution of £4.3k (modelled at the minimum 3%),
- a bonus of £37.5k (25%)
- and potentially a recruitment cost of £30k (20% fees in this example).
Many leaders don’t think their businesses are big enough to warrant that expense even though the Marketing Strategy devised and executed by the CMO can be the key to unlocking growth.
The rise of the Fractional CMO is a perfect solution to accelerate growth without breaking the bank as you can benefit from the marketing strategy at a fraction of the cost.
How much cheaper is a Fractional CMO than a full time CMO
A Fractional CMO will be on a day rate of between £1,000 and £1,500 depending on experience, the level of the role, and the length of the contract.
They tend to work between 2 and 10 days a month for a particular business. For this comparison we’ve taken examples of 5 and 10 days a month worked on a day rate of £1k.
· Annualised 5 days a month on £1k day rate = £60k p.a.
· Annualised 10 days a month on £1k day rate = £120k p.a.
· And if outside IR35 there is:
- no Employer NIC costs
- no holiday or sick pay
- no bonus (unless contractually agreed)
- potentially no recruitment cost if sourced direct vs. through recruitment agency
So the Fractional CMO approach can be as much as:
· £180k cheaper p.a. than a full time CMO in the 5 days a month scenario
· £120k cheaper p.a. than a full time CMO in the 10 days a month scenario
Value Creators Fractional CMO values
- Think BIG, start small, scale (or fail) fast & cheap
- Don't let perfection get in way of good
- Deliver with Pace & Purpose
What people say about us?
Don't just take it from us
Warwick Ley
Investor & Business Leader
“As Marketing Director, Phil has led and delivered an enormous step change for Help-Link in its digital marketing strategy and brand development in an exceptionally quick timeframe. His impact at both a strategic development and execution level has been significant. "
Richard Harrison
CEO at Switch2 Energy Ltd
“Phil is a highly talented marketer, with a deep understanding of how to design & execute an effective marketing strategy. He has an exceptional ability in Digital marketing - probably the best I've witnessed!"
Mark Pegler
Managing Director at ParkVia
“Phil joined us on an interim basis as marketing director, following Mercia Technologies' investment in July 2018. During his time with ParkCloud, Phil brought energy to the team, and helped us to move the business forward. Phil is a strong change agent, who facilitated a clearer vision for our B2C strategy.”