Does your Agency need a Fractional CMO?

If there’s one thing most of us can agree on with agencies, it’s that, despite best intentions, their own marketing and communications can fall down the list of priorities. Even if there’s an existing marketing team or a strong manager in place, Marketing is still a problem for the founder or CEO, and it can be an emotive, stressful one to boot.

When the agency leader is pulled from one focus to another, it can leave a marketing manager floundering, doing bits here and there, often without a clear strategy. All of this is why Fractional CMOs for agencies are becoming more popular, and it’s a topic I want to dive into a little more today as someone with two clients that I act as a “fractional CMO” for.

Why take on a Fractional CMO for your agency:

A fractional CMO fills the gap between the Founder & Board. Not as a consultant who throws ideas over the fence, but as an embedded leader who drives strategy, aligns teams, and ensures marketing actually delivers. I’ve had the pleasure of fulfilling this role on an ongoing basis for Clarity, a global communications agency, since October 2024, as well as on a short-term project basis for NOVOS.

With 16 years in marketing (11 of those working with agencies!) I bring the seniority, structure, experience, and decision-making to make marketing work more efficiently, resulting in an altogether more enjoyable experience for all parties.

Common marketing challenges faced by Agencies:

Many agencies assume that because they know marketing, they should be able to handle their own. It’s easy, right?

But marketing an agency is very different from marketing a client’s business. Without a dedicated and experienced strategic lead with the experience and innate know-how, agency marketing often suffers from:

• Lack of Consistency: Content gets published at random, social media presence fluctuates, and campaigns happen when there’s time rather than as part of a structured plan. Agencies that do this often end up with a weak brand presence, despite delivering great work for clients, and scrambling to fill pipelines when things dry up, causing stress for everyone involved.

• Unclear Positioning: Many agencies struggle to articulate what actually makes them different. They might talk about their services, but fail to communicate a compelling narrative that makes them stand out in a crowded market. They might be jaded, too close to it, or frankly, f*cking tired of thinking about it, but a senior pair of eyes can be transformational when it comes to injecting inspiration and refreshing lacklustre positioning.

• Reactive decision-making: Instead of executing a long-term strategy that meets the requirements of objectives and agency growth targets, agencies operate in bursts of activity. A new website gets built, then sits untouched for years. A PR push happens, then stops. This lack of continuity and “Random Acts of Marketing” weaken credibility.

• Underutilised teams: In-house marketers / marketing teams are often incredibly strong in execution but lack the experience to drive high-level strategy and often aren’t, to quote my favourite musical Hamilton, “in the room where it happens” and are therefore operating on the back foot more often than not. They’re great at delivering content, running campaigns, or managing social, but without strategic oversight, these efforts become disconnected and can even feel misaligned with the agency’s growth aspirations.

An agency Fractional CMO addresses these issues by taking ownership of marketing at a senior leadership level, ensuring it’s happening with purpose and impact.

This can involve strategic oversight, participating in senior team or Board strategy sessions, meetings, reporting, and even steering the roles of the existing marketers in the team by mentoring and developing them further, including setting objectives and supporting them to strive for more seniority within a specific timeline.

Of course, this list is not exhaustive, and every client I’ve worked with at this level has had unique objectives, such as elevating their Marketing game to be attractive to potential buyers / investors, wanting to expand into new areas of expertise or territories, or a thousand other examples.

“I already have an internal Marketing Manager. Why do I also need a Fractional CMO?”

Your existing marketing person / team is probably fantastic. I will forever advocate for internal marketing talent within agencies because they have an incredibly tough job. Chances are, there are usually only one or two of them in an average agency, meaning they’re overstretched and don’t have anyone to guide them towards their next steps.

Nobody can touch them when it comes to timely execution and doing things to a set plan - they are shit hot. But, the problem is, founders and leaders usually end up being the ones still setting the plan, amongst the 10,000 other things they have on their plate.

This usually leads to frustration on the part of the leader that they’re still having to do a lot of the thinking and bigger picture work, when they know there are people who could do it with more focus and with more experience within this very specific area.

Here are a handful of things an agency Fractional CMO can bring to the table:

Strategic Ownership: More content, more campaigns, more activity isn’t always the answer. Fractional CMOs can help agencies define a clear and focused strategy that supports business objectives and builds long-term positioning. Instead of chasing short-term tactics, we focus on what will drive real growth in line with your business goals and targets.

Leadership for Internal Talent / Teams: A team without dedicated leadership will always struggle to connect its efforts to a bigger goal. Fractional CMOs step in as that leadership figure, providing direction, refining messaging, and making sure everything fits into a bigger picture while managing the talent within the team to perform in line with the business' strategy and targets.

Taking Marketing Off the Founder’s Plate: If the agency founder is still making marketing decisions, it can be a problem. Founders should be focused on overall business growth, not tweaking website copy or agonising over LinkedIn posts. I'm sorry to say they can often be a roadblock.

A Fractional CMO ensures marketing is handled properly, freeing up time for what really matters. It also removes emotion from it, which can sometimes be present when the agency is the founder’s baby. I get it.

Managing Multi-Channel Execution: If there’s one statement I say more than most, it’s “no more random acts of Marketing”, and I’ve helped countless clients rid themselves of the scattergun approach they’ve adopted in the past. It ensures things like PR, content, demand generation, paid media, brand positioning, and website overhauls all work together. A Fractional CMO should co-ordinate these efforts into a clear, measurable strategy, so marketing isn’t just a collection of disconnected tactics but a cohesive growth engine.

Driving Results: A Fractional CMO isn’t just there to oversee marketing; they’re there to make sure it delivers, and they should be confident in setting the numbers. That means tracking performance, ensuring accountability, and refining the approaches when needed.

Timely Experience with other Agencies: I get asked a LOT, “Is it just us?” and it can be very cathartic for agency leaders to hear that no, it isn’t.

Lack of agency marketing focus usually stems from best intentions gone awry, usually when client expectations step up a notch and good habits become harder to maintain. Working with a Fractional CMO means having someone on your team who understands the unique challenges of Agencies and can apply relevant, timely expertise to problem-solve and find better ways of approaching objectives.

The clients I am a Fractional CMO for have hired me to structure their marketing strategies, align their teams, alleviate panic and stress, and drive real progress. Every agency is different, but the need for strong leadership and strategic execution is universal.

When should an Agency consider hiring a Fractional CMO?

If any of the following apply to your agency, it’s probably time to think about bringing in fractional CMO support:

• You have an internal marketing team, but they lack senior leadership and strategic direction.

• The agency’s positioning and messaging feel unclear or inconsistent, and it’s been bothering you for too long.

• Marketing is something you fit in when there’s time, rather than a structured function of the business.

• You’re struggling to generate new business through your own marketing efforts, relying on referrals and sometimes, sheer luck.

• You need to level up your content, PR, and demand generation efforts, but lack the time or expertise to manage them in-house.

• Marketing activity from your competitors is driving you up the wall with envy.

Hiring a Fractional CMO isn’t just about plugging a gap and ticking “worry about marketing” off your list. Well, it’s certainly one of the advantages, but introducing fractional leadership to your agency marketing efforts is more about bringing the leadership, accountability, and structure that ensures marketing is a valuable, strategic function of your business rather than an afterthought.

I’m beginning to receive more enquiries about this area as more agencies look to seriously level up everything they’ve done before in order to compete effectively within an increasingly demanding and cut-throat industry.

For agencies that are serious about growth, it’s an investment that can make a phenomenal difference.

Ready to add a Fractional CMO to your agency’s arsenal in 2025?

Let’s have a conversation. I have limited availability for Fractional CMO clients, but I have an opening from May 2025.

Access my Calendly to schedule a no-obligation consultation, where we can discuss your challenges and requirements and see if there’s a way to work together.