Fractional CMO
A senior marketing leader, without the full-time salary.
You get a seasoned marketer who owns your strategy, directs your vendors and answers for what your marketing budget actually produces.
Sound familiar?
Most growing companies do not have a strategy problem
They have five vendors executing tactics and nobody accountable for whether any of it works.
Many vendors, no owner
An agency reports on its own channel. Nobody looks across all of them and asks what is working.
Spend you cannot explain
You are paying for ads, SEO and tools, and cannot say which dollars produced revenue.
Decisions waiting on you
Marketing choices land on the founder because there is no one senior to make them.
What you get
Executive-level marketing, on your terms
Strategy and a plan
A clear marketing plan tied to revenue goals, with priorities in order and the reasons behind them.
Vendor and agency direction
We brief, manage and hold your agencies and freelancers to results. Keep the ones that work, replace the ones that do not.
Budget and measurement
We set up the tracking, connect spend to revenue and report in plain English, so you know what to cut and what to double.
Coaching for your team
Hands-on training so your people can run more of it themselves over time.
How an engagement runs
From first call to a working rhythm
Look at what you have
We review your marketing, tracking, ad accounts and search presence, and listen to where the business wants to go.
Agree the plan
A short, prioritized plan with owners, budgets and the numbers that will tell us it is working.
Run it weekly
We direct the work, review the numbers and adjust. You hear from us in plain English, not dashboards.
Build your capacity
As results come in, we train your team and hand over what you can own. Some clients stay for months, others for years.
How it compares
Fractional CMO, full-time hire or agency?
Three ways to get marketing done. The difference is who answers for the result.
| Fractional CMO | Full-time CMO | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior strategy | Yes | Yes | Varies by account team |
| Accountable for | Your whole marketing budget | Your whole marketing budget | Its own channel |
| Directs your other vendors | Yes | Yes | Rarely |
| Hands-on work | Runs Google Ads, SEO and AI visibility directly | Usually hires it out | Its own channel |
| Commitment | Month to month after an initial term | A full-time hire | Contract per channel |
| How you pay | A monthly retainer | Salary, benefits and often equity | Retainer or a share of ad spend |
Proof of work
We do this work in the open
Public programs and our own sites are where we test what we recommend.
Seattle ABC Program
City of Seattle Office of Economic Development
We audit and advise Seattle small businesses on their websites, Google Business Profiles, search visibility and marketing, then hand them a plan they can act on.
Digital Sales Access Program
City of Seattle small business training
The City of Seattle program that gives small businesses free point-of-sale systems and the training to use them. We train owners in Google Analytics 4, Search Console, Business Profile, Google Ads and Tag Manager.
Oahu Travel Guide
Our own site, built and run with AI
A travel guide with an interactive map, an itinerary builder and a drive map, produced with AI tooling. It is where we test AI workflows before we recommend them to clients.
Visit oahutravelguidehi.com ›Not sure where you stand?
Start with the AI Visibility Audit
We ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews the questions your customers ask, and show you exactly who they name. Reviewed by the Surf Rider Media team, back in two business days.
$500 when you book by December 31 (regularly $1,000).
Common questions
Fractional CMO questions
What is a fractional CMO?
A part-time Chief Marketing Officer who brings executive-level strategy and leadership to your business without the full-time overhead.
What does a fractional CMO do?
They own your marketing strategy, direct your teams and vendors, connect spend to revenue and align marketing with your business goals, on a flexible basis.
How is this different from an agency?
An agency executes a channel and reports on that channel. A fractional CMO is accountable for the result across your whole marketing spend, and can direct the agencies you already use.
Do you also do the work?
Yes, where it helps. We run Google Ads, SEO and AI visibility work ourselves, and we direct and coach the rest of your team or vendors.
Who is it for?
Growing companies and organizations that need senior marketing guidance without a full-time hire.
How long do engagements last?
It depends on your goals. Some clients work with us for a single workshop, others keep us on for months or years.
Request
Ready for a senior marketer in your corner?
Tell us where the business is headed and where marketing is stuck.
Prefer to start without a conversation? Run the AI Visibility Audit.