Startups and emerging businesses often need executive-level marketing expertise to grow and become profitable. However, they also have limited budgets that prevent them from attracting and hiring a full-time marketing executive. Until recently, they had to choose between settling for lower-quality talent or investing precious resources in higher-quality hires at the risk of going under.

This isn’t the case anymore, thanks to the fractional recruiting model. Businesses can now hire marketing executives for only a portion of their time, getting the expertise and commitment they need without breaking the bank.

In this article, we’ll explain the role of a fractional executive in marketing in great detail. You’ll also learn about the benefits of hiring a fractional executive leader, recruiting best practices, and the steps you can take to optimize the relationship with the new hire. In the end, we’ll introduce a platform that lets you hire exceptional fractional CMOs and other marketing experts effortlessly.

What Is a Fractional Executive?

A fractional executive is a high-level professional who’s legally considered an independent contractor. Instead of working full-time for a single employer, they have flexible schedules and can split their time among multiple companies.

Still, unlike typical contractors and freelancers, fractional executives are more deeply committed and invested. They need to know the ins and outs of the business they collaborate with and can build a strong relationship with their employer. They work a specific number of hours per week or month or handle specific projects, and they may occasionally work full-time for one employer if needed.

The table below breaks down the differences between full-time, part-time, freelance, and fractional employment:

Hiring executives on a fractional basis is especially popular among startups, who often have technical expertise but lack the business acumen to become competitive and profitable. By bringing in a fractional executive, they receive the necessary experience and leadership while their core teams focus on developing the product.

Fractional Executives in Marketing

Markets and consumer preferences are constantly evolving, so businesses must adapt their marketing efforts on the fly to remain competitive. A fractional executive leader specialized in marketing can provide the necessary expertise to navigate these changes.

Fractional marketing executives can step in during critical periods to steer a business’ marketing operations in the right direction. Using their diverse experience and knowledge of industry trends, they can devise marketing strategies, oversee specific campaigns, and analyze performance to ensure marketing and overall business goals are met.

Types of Fractional Executive Roles in Marketing

Learn about the most common fractional executive roles in marketing and their characteristics:

Keep in mind that the hierarchy, title names, and individual responsibilities vary across businesses and industries.

Bigger companies may also have fractional marketing executives who lead specific marketing teams, such as chief growth officers or chief brand officers.

Key Roles and Responsibilities of a Marketing Fractional Executive

The duties of a fractional executive are similar to those of an in-house marketing executive. They may include:

• Defining goals, setting priorities, and creating marketing plans 
• Identifying and analyzing the target demographic and competitors
• Understanding and overseeing various marketing channels
• Hiring marketing team members

The main difference between in-house and fractional marketing executives is that the latter are engaged with the business ad hoc and typically work on specific areas or projects. For example, a B2B fractional CMO may help a new startup figure out product-market fit, penetrate the market, or launch new products. Such support during the early stages is crucial for fledgling businesses to ensure smooth sailing later on.

Executives who specialize in specific marketing areas can assist businesses with occasional initiatives. For instance, a chief brand officer can support a company as it develops a brand positioning strategy or during a major rebranding campaign. When the business wants to run a content marketing campaign, it can bring in a chief content officer to plan and oversee it.

Key Benefits of Hiring a Fractional Executive

While some businesses need an in-house marketing executive to provide hands-on support, others don’t—and many can’t. With their limited budgets, startups often have to choose between:

• Working with no direction and hoping for the best
• Making an untimely promotion and risk taking the business in the wrong direction with a less experienced executive
• Recruit a high-quality full-time executive and make budget cuts elsewhere

Fractional hiring provides an ideal middle-ground solution. The four most notable benefits of hiring a fractional executive are:

1. Lower costs: Since you’re hiring the executive for only a fraction of their time, you don’t have to offer them a full-time salary or provide all the benefits full-time employees get. You’re only paying for the time you need their expertise
2. Flexibility: The fractional arrangement allows you to adapt to ongoing needs. If you run into a problem or want to scale your marketing efforts, you can request additional support from the executive. You can even hire another fractional executive with expertise in an adjacent field
3. Faster time-to-hire: Fractional recruiting is often quicker since it doesn’t require thorough screening, negotiation, and onboarding like traditional recruiting
4. Fresh perspective: An external executive with vast expertise can assess your marketing efforts objectively and propose innovative solutions

As a result, your business can keep up with industry trends, solve problems timely, and enjoy uninterrupted growth.

When To Hire a Fractional Executive

A fractional marketing executive’s expertise and oversight can be particularly beneficial when your business is in a critical stage or experiencing roadblocks. Check out some examples of situations that call for fractional executive leadership:

How To Choose the Best Fractional Executive

There’s no universal formula for finding the ideal fractional executive—it all depends on what your business needs. Still, you’d want to go for someone who is: 

• Experienced: Whether fractional or not, your executive should have a proven track record of marketing and leadership success. They must know the ins and outs of the marketing world, be well-versed in various verticals, and keep up with industry trends
• Independent: An executive makes many high-stakes decisions, so they must be fearless, self-reliant, and a quick learner. With an executive that requires minimal oversight, you can focus on your work and trust them to get the job done
• Communicative: A fractional executive should also be a great listener, ask the right questions, and write great reports. That way, you can have a smooth collaboration and a friendly relationship 
• Well-organized: Since they’ll be working for multiple employers, the fractional executive must have excellent time management skills to make sure every company gets the attention it needs
• Adaptable: A fractional executive’s schedule changes all the time, so they must know how to navigate these changes with ease. They also have to be resourceful since they’ll need to make quick and tough decisions

In addition to having all these qualities, your fractional leader should fit in with your company culture and share your values.

Optimizing the Relationship With Your Fractional Executive

There are some best practices you need to follow to ensure frictionless and successful collaboration with your fractional executive. Before they start working for you, you should:

1. Clearly define their role: Have a clear picture of what your executive will be doing before you even begin recruiting. Having a list of priorities will make it easier for you to pinpoint a suitable candidate
2. Discuss the terms thoroughly: Once you’re ready to hire, you should figure out the specifics, such as the executive’s availability and payment schedule. You should also define your short- and long-term expectations
3. Prepare an NDA: Your fractional executive may work for other companies. To prevent proprietary and confidential information from getting into competitors’ hands, have the executive sign an NDA
4. Introduce them to the team: Even though they’re not a full-time employee, the fractional executive will collaborate with your team for a while. You should make the transition easier for both sides with a proper introduction

Once work is underway, it’s advisable that you:

1. Communicate regularly: Foster open communication, be responsive, send them relevant updates, and offer support, especially in the beginning
2. Avoid micromanaging: While you should be appropriately involved, you must also trust the executive’s expertise and decision-making ability
3. Nurture the relationship: Like with any other employee, you should do your best to ensure your fractional executive feels appreciated and included

Pitfalls of Hiring a Fractional Executive

The biggest challenge of hiring a fractional executive is not the collaboration itself but finding an individual who is experienced, has the right attitude, and fits in with your company culture. This process is often:

• Time-consuming: You have to create a job post, screen applications and candidates, and go through multiple rounds of interviews. According to Merje, the recruiting process for executive positions can take anywhere from four weeks to four months
• Exhausting: The hiring process also requires a lot of effort and involves multiple people. If you’re a marketing expert yourself, you’ll be able to evaluate candidates more easily, but you’ll also be distracted from your primary duties
• Costly: As recruiting takes a lot of time and effort, it also costs a lot. This is especially true when you’re hiring for a high-impact role such as an executive
• Risky: At the end of the day, your chosen executive may not work out for you. They may end up being less skilled than expected, unreliable, unmotivated, or a wrong cultural fit. In that case, you’ll need to start over and spend even more resources finding another candidate

While talent marketplaces like Upwork and Freelancer are mostly free and have made connecting with fractional marketing talent more accessible, they can’t guarantee candidate quality, so you still have to conduct thorough screening yourself.

To bypass the traditional, resource-intensive recruiting process, consider partnering with an on-demand recruiting platform or agency. To streamline the process even further, opt for a platform that specializes in hiring for marketing roles, has a diverse network of pre-vetted marketing experts, and offers quality assurance—such as MarketerHire.

Why Is MarketerHire the Best Choice for Hiring a Fractional Executive?

You don’t need to spend weeks or months browsing through applications and interviewing candidates only to end up with an unsuitable fractional executive. Get matched with battle-tested marketing experts on demand with MarketerHire, a hiring platform designed by marketers for marketers. 

Since its launch in 2018, MarketerHire has successfully matched businesses with experts 25,000 times. It has worked with some of today’s most prominent brands, including:

• Buzzfeed
• Netflix
• Skillshare
• Forbes
• Lyft

MarketerHire has taken many steps to ensure you’re connecting with the best of the best. Its marketing experts pre-vet each candidate, allowing only the top 3% to join the network. The vetting process is elaborate and comprises multiple stages:

1. In-depth skill assessments
2. Live interviews
3. Test projects

Once MarketerHire learns about your hiring needs, it’ll tap into its network of proven experts to find a fitting fractional executive. It uses a proprietary MarketerMatch system, which combines AI and hand selection to identify the perfect individual for the role and your team.

MarketerHire eliminates the risk of making a bad hire by offering a trial period to assess fit. If you’re not satisfied, MarketerHire will find a replacement match for free.

By letting MarketerHire’s experts take the wheel, you can get minimally involved without worrying about hiring an unskilled or ill-suited candidate. You’ll also get a dedicated marketing manager to guide and support you throughout the recruiting process.

How MarketerHire Works

MarketerHire can connect you with fractional experts for any role, from executives such as CMOs to specialists like SEOs, paid social experts, and marketing analysts. Here’s what the recruiting process looks like:

1. Describe your project: You meet with your dedicated marketing manager to talk about your business, projects, and the type of fractional executive you’re looking for
2. Meet your executive: MarketerHire finds you a match within 48 hours
3. Kick off your project: Your new fractional hire can start working their magic within three days

If you want to scale up, scale down, or cancel, MarketerHire lets you do it effortlessly with its short-term, no-obligation contract.

You can also recruit MarketerHire’s pre-vetted Expert Assistants for your marketing, design, or sales team. The assistants can handle any repetitive tasks your team is stuck with, allowing them to focus on high-impact work.

Hiring a top-notch fractional marketing expert has never been easier thanks to MarketerHire. Reach out today and leverage the strategic genius of a fractional executive within days!

Other Fractional Hiring Resources To Check Out

Want to learn more about hiring fractional marketers? Take a look at our other articles: