Strategic leadership. Hands-on execution. Real growth.
A fractional CMO owns your marketing strategy, budget decisions and results on a part-time basis, without a full-time executive salary. Here, that's Haley Gray: 25+ years in technology, a Duke MBA in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and In2itive's team behind her to get the work done.
Signs you need a fractional CMO
A lot of owners think they need more marketing. Usually what they need is someone in charge of the marketing they already have.
Vendors nobody coordinates
Your SEO person, your ads person and your web developer each send a report. None of them have talked to each other, and nobody is checking whether their work adds up to anything.
A team with no strategy owner
Your marketing staff are busy and capable, but they're executing tasks, not setting direction. They're waiting for someone to say what matters most this quarter.
Spend you can't tie to revenue
You know what you spend each month. You don't know which part of it produces customers, so every budget conversation is a guess.
Outgrowing founder-led marketing
Referrals and your own hustle built the business. Now you're the bottleneck, and marketing happens in the gaps between everything else you do.
A new tactic every quarter
Podcast, then video, then a new website, then back to email. Each one gets a burst of effort and gets dropped before it has a chance to work.
Reports full of vanity metrics
Impressions and followers look busy on a slide. They don't tell you whether to spend more, less, or somewhere else.
Fractional CMO vs. agency vs. full-time hire
Three different answers to three different problems. The expensive mistake is hiring one when you need another.
A marketing agency
Agencies execute: the campaign, the website, the ads. Most aren't set up to tell you which of those you should be doing, or to manage the other vendors you already have. Someone still has to decide what gets done and why.
A full-time CMO
Full ownership and full attention, which is right once marketing is big enough to need a full-time executive. Before that, you're paying senior leadership to spend part of the week on work that doesn't need it.
A fractional CMO
Senior strategy and accountability at the level your business needs now. A fractional CMO sets direction, makes the budget calls, holds your team and vendors to the plan, and answers to you for results.
The strategy of a CMO. The follow-through of a team.
Strategy and priorities
A written marketing strategy tied to your business goals, turned into marketing plans with a short, ranked list of what matters this quarter.
Team and vendor oversight
Your staff and outside vendors work from one plan, with clear briefs, deadlines, and someone actually checking the work.
Budget allocation
Where the money goes, by channel and by month, and moving it when the numbers say a channel has earned more or less.
Reporting that means something
Monthly reporting on leads, sales and cost per customer, with tracking set up so the numbers are real.
Hiring guidance
An honest view of whether the next role should be a hire, a contractor or a vendor, plus help writing the job and interviewing for it.
A team that implements
When work needs doing, In2itive's team can do it: SEO, ads, social, websites, email and CRM, built around The Visibility Engine. One plan, one team.
A true partner in your growth.
Fractional CMO works best when you need direction and accountability more than another pair of hands.
- You’re spending on marketing but nobody owns the strategy
- You have vendors or a team, but no one connecting the dots
- You’re growing and need senior leadership before a full-time hire makes sense
- You want decisions made on data, not gut feel
It's probably not the right fit if you just need someone to post on social a few times a week, or if you aren't ready to make decisions and act on them. This is a partnership, and it only works when both sides show up. Haley wrote about that in why you shouldn't work with her if you don't want a real partner.
Book a strategy sessionHow a fractional CMO engagement works
- 01
Diagnose
We start with what you already have: channels, vendors, team, tools, tracking and numbers. The Growth Diagnostic is often step one, because it shows where growth is leaking before anyone proposes a fix.
- 02
Set strategy and priorities
A written strategy and a 90-day plan: ranked priorities, budget by channel, and what success looks like in numbers.
- 03
Align the team and vendors
Everyone gets the same plan, with clear owners and deadlines. Vendors who aren't pulling their weight get a fair chance to fix it, or get replaced.
- 04
Meet regularly and steer
Standing strategy sessions with you, on a schedule we agree on up front, to make decisions, clear roadblocks and keep the plan on track.
- 05
Report monthly and adjust
What produced leads and revenue, what didn't, and what we're changing next month. More on that in our process.
Fractional CMO FAQ
What does a fractional CMO actually do?
Owns marketing strategy and the decisions that come with it: priorities, budget, which channels and vendors to use, and how results get measured. It's leadership and accountability on an ongoing basis, not a one-time project.
How is that different from a marketing consultant?
A consultant usually delivers recommendations and leaves. A fractional CMO stays, manages the people doing the work and answers for the results month after month.
Do I still need an agency or a marketing team?
Someone still has to do the work. That can be your existing team, your current vendors, In2itive's team, or a mix. We'll tell you honestly which pieces are worth keeping.
Will you help us hire a full-time marketing leader eventually?
Yes, when that's the right next step. Part of the job is building marketing to the point where it needs a full-time person, then helping you define the role, interview candidates and hand off cleanly.
Do you only work with businesses in the Triangle?
No. We're based in Cary, NC, and work with plenty of owners in Raleigh and Durham, but strategy sessions work fine over video and we work with businesses nationwide.
What does fractional CMO support cost?
It depends on scope and how much implementation is included. We'd rather look at what you have and give you a real quote than throw out a number that means nothing. Book a call and we'll walk through it.
Related services and reading
Not sure where to start? The Growth Diagnostic helps us find the one thing to fix first.
Marketing strategy
The thinking behind the plan: who you serve, what you offer, and where growth should come from.
The Visibility Engine
How we connect SEO, social, ads, email and CRM so they work as one system.
Measuring marketing beyond vanity metrics
How to set goals you can actually tie to revenue, and what to stop reporting on.
Senior marketing leadership, without the full-time cost.
Book a call to talk through your goals and whether fractional CMO support is the right fit.
Book a strategy session No hard sell. Just an honest conversation about what’s next.