A fractional CMO who has actually run the department.
Senior marketing leadership on a part-time basis: strategy, team direction, budget ownership and accountability for results. Extra Medium's founder currently serves as fractional CMO for consumer brands and manufacturers in the US and UK.
What a fractional CMO means here.
A fractional CMO is an experienced chief marketing officer who leads your marketing part-time, typically one to three days a week, instead of joining as a full-time executive. They own strategy, budget, team and agencies, and they are accountable for results the way a full-time CMO would be.
Companies hire a fractional CMO when they have outgrown tactics but are not ready for, or cannot justify, a full-time executive salary. It is the difference between buying more marketing and finally having someone decide what marketing should be.
You will recognize yourself, or you won’t.
- You are spending real money on agencies and freelancers and nobody owns the overall plan.
- The founder is still the de facto head of marketing and it is costing the business focus.
- You need executive-level judgment on budget, channels and hires, without a $250K+ executive package.
- You are preparing for a launch, a raise, an expansion or an exit and marketing needs a grown-up in the room.
The work, in order.
Diagnose in the first 30 days
We audit spend, funnel, team, tooling and data, then present a ranked plan. You should know within a month what to stop, start and scale.
Own the number
A fractional CMO is not an advisor who sends a deck. We take ownership of the marketing plan, the budget and the results, and we run the weekly rhythm with your team and partners.
Build the machine
We set up the reporting, processes and partners so marketing runs as a system, then increasingly step back from execution as your team matures.
Plan the handoff
The best outcome is a marketing function that no longer needs us. We hire or develop your internal lead and leave documented strategy, playbooks and dashboards behind.
Specifically.
- Marketing strategy and annual plan
- Budget ownership and channel allocation
- Agency and vendor selection and management
- Team direction, hiring plans and coaching
- Paid media, email, SEO and content oversight
- Ecommerce and Shopify growth leadership
- Board and leadership reporting
- Brand and positioning decisions
- Launch and go-to-market leadership
- AI adoption across marketing operations
Our founder has led marketing inside companies at every stage: a startup he founded and scaled to more than 900,000 users, a Fortune 500 retailer's websites and apps serving millions of customers, and a global medical device manufacturer during post-acquisition integration. Today he serves as fractional CMO for a high-growth nutritional supplement brand and a UK medical device manufacturer, owning strategy end to end across Google, Meta, affiliate, influencer, creator, UGC, Reddit and AI-driven channels.
That mix matters. A fractional CMO who has only ever worked at agencies tends to see every problem as a campaign. One who has owned a P&L knows that sometimes the highest-leverage move is fixing pricing, killing a channel, or telling the founder the honest thing nobody else will.
Straight answers.
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO sets marketing strategy, owns the budget, directs the team and agencies, and reports results to leadership, on a part-time schedule. Day to day that means deciding where money goes, what gets built, who does the work, and whether it is working.
When should a company hire a fractional CMO?
The clearest signals are: marketing spend above roughly $20K a month with no senior owner; a founder still making every marketing decision; multiple agencies with no one coordinating them; or a launch, funding round or expansion coming that needs executive-grade marketing leadership. If a full-time CMO is not yet justified but the decisions are already executive-level, a fractional CMO fits.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Fractional CMO engagements are typically a monthly retainer tied to a set number of days per week, usually a fraction of a full-time CMO's total compensation. Extra Medium scopes engagements to the size and stage of the business. A conversation about where you are is the fastest way to a real number.
Fractional CMO vs. marketing agency: what is the difference?
An agency executes a scope. A fractional CMO decides the scope, and then hires, manages or replaces the agencies. If you already have execution partners and lack direction, you need the CMO. If you have direction and lack hands, you need the agency. Extra Medium can be either, but we will tell you which one you actually need.
Do you offer fractional CMO services in Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads?
Yes. Extra Medium is headquartered in Virginia Beach and serves companies across Hampton Roads, Richmond, Charlottesville, Roanoke, Washington DC and North Carolina in person, plus clients nationally and in the UK remotely.
Find another medium.
- Growth Marketing AgencyExtra Medium is a growth marketing agency that treats growth as a system: acquisition, conversion, retention and the analytics that connect them.
- Go-To-Market Strategy ConsultantPositioning, audience, offer, channels and launch sequencing for products and companies entering the market, or entering a new one.
- Ecommerce Growth AgencyAcquisition, conversion, retention and subscription growth for DTC and ecommerce brands.
- Brand Strategy & Positioning AgencyPositioning, messaging and creative direction for businesses that want to be remembered, not just recognized.
- AI Consulting & Business AutomationAI strategy and implementation for businesses that want their operations, marketing and data connected: AI agents, automation, custom applications, integrations and the intelligence dashboards that make sense of it all.
- Why most growth problems aren't actually advertising problems.
- When a company needs a fractional CMO instead of another agency.
What are you trying to make happen?
Don’t know what you need? Good. That’s our job.
Got it. We’ll be in touch shortly.
Usually within one business day. If it is urgent, email hello@xmedium.co.
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Virginia Beach · Chicago · London. Clients across the US and UK.