Your Chief Marketing Officer has a big job. She works with senior leadership to understand the company's goals, then develops strategies and associated initiatives to move the needle on those goals. On top of that, she leads execution on those strategies and initiatives, and reports on results. Finally, she analyzes the results to optimize successes and plan future initiatives.
And there's more. Today's marketing leaders must have a solid understanding online marketing in addition to traditional marketing techniques. Search optimization, website usability, social media, audience targeting, and email are some of the new proficiencies a CMO has to have. Without a solid grasp of these, opportunities will be missed.
But not all companies have a CMO at their disposal. In the absence of senior marketing leadership, companies may employ a marketing person or team consisting of mid-level professionals focused on executing tasks that come from the CEO or other leadership. Others outsource everything to a firm or firms.
There is real value in having a senior marketing professional sitting between leadership and execution. Only an experience leader can properly ensure alignment between goals, direction, and initiatives. Further, in the same way that marketing and brand touch all parts of a business, marketing leadership should give input on products, plans, and initiatives company-wide.
Whether you plan to use an outsourced CMO for a short period, or long-term, here are some situations in which it's an appropriate solution to consider.

1. When growth is a priority - Is your product ripe for more widespread adoption among your target audience? Then you need strategic leadership. The right CMO can help you find more customers similar to your best customers. Plus she can help you identify new channels and markets you yet haven't considered.
   Example: When you have an existing customer base, but are ready for more of them. An outsourced CMO can look at your audience, channels, and message with fresh eyes. They can evaluate the intersections between product, customer, and timing in order to find the ways to get your message to the people most likely to act.
   
2. When seeking investment (especially after series A) - For startups the first investment round gets the company off the ground on vision. After the initial round comes the more structured and stringent process of raising venture funding. This means the company needs to be running and ready to scale. During this time it is important for a company to find and understand its market and audience.
   Example: I coach several startups with solid products, and a limited following. They have built their MVP and gained some adoption. Now is the time to find the people most likely to buy their product, and then multiply that audience in order to prove the product's viability and the company's ability to find a fit with their market.
   Budgets at startups are often low. Before hiring an entry or mid-level marketer and hoping he'll grow into the CMO role, consider outsourcing. A contract CMO can save the company 75% over hiring a full-time CMO with the same experience.
   
3. During a crisis - There are situations in which an outsourced CMO should be brought in for a finite period of time in order to solve a specific problem.
   Example: Let's say 
    - your sales rely heavily on traffic from Google, but you keep losing ground in search rankings.
    - your teams aren't working well together, and its starting to affect sales.
    - your website is getting traffic, but isn't selling.
    - your Facebook ads have stopped producing.
    -OR sales have just plain dropped off.
   It's time to engage an expert to triage and rehab the situation. An expert can diagnose the problem, develop a plan to address it, lead execution of the solution, and report on the results.
   
4. When you need strategic marketing leadership, but not the full-time price tag - You can expect to pay an outsourced CMO roughly 25% - 50% what you would pay an in-house CMO.
   Example: Companies creating revenue of $3 - $5M a year, with 15 - 75 employees will usually have a marketing team, but not senior leadership with advanced marketing experience. Keeping an outsourced CMO on retainer can help these companies ensure they are targeting the right audiences with the right messages using the best channels. They can ensure the appropriate key performance indicators are being reported on a regular basis, and provide invaluable mentorship to the team.
   
5. Between full-time in-house CMO's​ - The search for the right in-house CMO can sometimes stretch for an extended period of time. During that time your marketing will likely become more task-based, and less strategic by the minute. The existing in-house team and vendors need guidance and oversight. It can be a good time to consider outsourcing CMO duties for a little while.

In my opinion, a good outsourced CMO will be focused on finding the highest impact strategies for reaching your ideal customer. This shouldn't include branding or rebranding right away. It SHOULD include strategies for messaging to more customer who resemble or have a personal relationship with your current customers.
CMO outsourcing is a new service my company, Kelly Coulter and Associates, provides to a select few companies. Depending on your needs the cost can be as low as $4500 a month. That's a hell of a savings vs. the $15K or more a full-time, in-house CMO can cost.
And there are others out there. Lots of consultants and firms are offering this service. Google it - you'll see. Whoever you use remember to check references and ask every question you can think of. Get your candidate to meet with everyone he/she will be working with, and make an informed decision.
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The last call I had in 2015 was with one of my favorite new clients, Bronxville Wellness Sanctuary in New York. I was a little nervous going in to this call because we ran a holiday campaign on Facebook promoting gift cards, and I didn't have access to the part of their system that would show me the sales. So I wasn't going to know the resulting sales numbers until I talked to them.
So, when Stephanie told me not only was the gift card campaign a success, but that their business is up 30% over last year since they started working with me in September, I was floored! 
I knew that we were posting the right messages and that we were targeting the people most likely to act on those messages. But I had no idea the strategy had been this effective!
Here is what Stephanie had to say about our work together:
"Since working with Kelly on marketing, social media management and gift certificate campaigns, our business has increased 30%! Kelly and her team are easy, professional and take the time to listen to our vision while also giving us valuable feedback based on their marketing expertise. As a small business, we value this immensely. We are grateful to be partners."

Thanks, Stephanie! We value your partnership, and we are proud to call you clients and friends.
So, you have to be wondering exactly what we did to achieve these fantastic results. If you have ever done a free 20 minute strategy consultation with me you already know that I am happy to hand out free information. Here is the list of work we have done with BWS so far:

1. Online Marketing Action Plan - Our work together started in August 2015 with a strategic online marketing action plan. We identified the ideal message and audience, and outlined the plan for reaching that specific ideal audience.
   WHY IT WORKS: Many marketing strategies focus on blasting the message out to as many potential customers as possible. Online marketing with my team is very different. We focus on the IDEAL audience. Because the right message aimed at the right audience at the right time will result in action more often.
   WANT MORE? My 2016 Marketing Action Plan Creation Group starts on January 19th. Together we will create your 2016 Marketing Action Plan in just 7 bi-weekly sessions. The plan will propel you and your team through the entire year.
   Would you rather hire someone to write the plan? We can do that. Order here > (but hurry, the price will go up soon!)
2. Search-term-driven Content Calendar - In October we began the process of taking over some of the social posting responsibilities for BWS. The first step was creation of an editorial content calendar. This combines audience interests with target search terms. The result is a document that guides blog post creation and social posts, and fuels collaboration between our teams by identifying a topic and an article title for each week.
   WHY IT WORKS: The Content Calendar gives structure and form to an otherwise nebulous tasks. Blog post writers don't have to worry about coming up with topics - the topics are already identified for the year - and they are based on search goals to optimize the impact of each post. Zero guessing involved!
   WANT MORE? I hate to sound like a broken record, but we will create a content calendar during the Marketing Action Plan Creation Group. Or you can hire us to do it for you (send an email).
3. Social content promotion - Once the calendar was completed, we took over much of the posting responsibility for BWS. With this partnership here is how it works:
    - They write their new blog posts based on the content calendar
    - We promote new content by posting on Facebook and Twitter
    - They augment the social posts by adding pictures and updates in real time whenever they like
   WHY IT WORKS: We post consistently, and during the times more of their followers are logged in. And we know how to post in ways that drive traffic to the new content.
   WANT MORE? We can do the same for you. Send an email here.
4. Facebook Ad promoting gift certificates - This December we ran a paid Facebook ad campaign promoting online gift certificate purchases. The campaign focused on a few key points:
    - instant purchase online (so important for last minute gift givers!)
    - gift certificates could be delivered via email, mail, or they could be printed immediately
   WHY IT WORKS: Ads were shown to a select audience only. You saw the ad if you were in the geographically appropriate area AND if you were similar in online behavior to their current customers. This second point is really important - you only saw the ad if you are similar in online behavior to current customers. Like most businesses, the customer base for a wellness center is unique. We focused these ads only on those who were most likely to buy.
   WANT MORE: Facebook ad campaigns start at $1000. You guessed it - send an email.

​So that's the work we have done with BWS so far. And the results have been amazing.
​One more thing - this year we will start looking at promoting some of the virtual energy healing services offered by Stephanie at BWS. I have done two virtual energy sessions with Stephanie and - despite the distance between us the sessions were amazing! It was like meditation on steroids. I highly recommend giving it a try!
Questions or comments? Leave them below and I will respond - or Tweet me at @KellyLCoulter. Oh, and if you learned something new from this post I would really appreciate a like and a retweet using the links below.