These three guides cover the questions owners face when they decide to take marketing seriously: whether to hire senior help, what the first quarter should look like, and how to keep marketing on track month after month. Each one uses worked numbers you can swap for your own, plus checklists you can use straight away.
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The first 90 days with a fractional CMO
A good fractional CMO spends two weeks listening, delivers a written plan by week four, runs it for eight weeks and ends the quarter with an honest review. This guide shows what each stage should produce, so you can judge any marketing leader against it.
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Fractional CMO or full-time marketing hire? A decision guide for owners
For most businesses with one to five people touching marketing, a fractional CMO gives senior direction sooner and with less risk. A full-time leader makes sense once the volume of decisions and people fills a week, every week.
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The marketing operating rhythm: weekly, monthly, quarterly
Marketing stays on track when it has a fixed cadence: a short weekly check-in on tasks, a monthly review of results and decisions, and a quarterly reset of the plan. This guide gives you agendas, attendee lists and the common failure points.
Fractional CMO versus a full-time marketing hire
Fractional CMO vs full-time hire helps you decide which route fits your business right now.
It covers:
- the full cost of a full-time hire, beyond salary
- what a fractional lead can and can't do in a few days a month
- a break-even method based on your own revenue and marketing spend
- warning signs that you have outgrown fractional help
- the hybrid route: a fractional CMO directing a junior in-house marketer
Read it if you are weighing a job posting against a retainer.
The first 90 days with a fractional CMO
The first 90 days walks through a fractional CMO's first quarter, week by week.
It covers:
- what to hand over on day one, and a checklist of logins and documents
- the questions a good fractional CMO should ask in the first fortnight
- what a written plan should contain by week four
- how to tell at day 45 whether the engagement is on track
- what the day-90 review should decide
Read it before you start with any fractional marketing leader, not only us, so you know what good looks like.
A marketing operating rhythm: weekly, monthly, quarterly
The marketing operating rhythm sets out the meetings, reports and decisions that keep marketing running without the owner chasing it.
It covers:
- a 15-minute weekly check-in agenda
- a one-hour monthly review built around a scorecard
- a half-day quarterly reset
- who should attend each, and who shouldn't
- common ways the rhythm breaks down, and how to repair it
Read it if you have marketing help but no structure around it.
How the guides connect to our services
Each guide maps onto a service, so you can see what doing it yourself involves versus having someone run it for you:
- the hiring guide relates to fractional CMO leadership
- the 90-day guide relates to the 90-day marketing plan
- the rhythm guide relates to the marketing scorecard and marketing operations
Many owners use the guides to run things themselves for a while, and call when they want a second pair of senior eyes. Either way works.
Who these guides are written for
The guides assume you run a business, not a marketing department. You don't need marketing jargon to follow them, and every recommendation comes with the reasoning behind it so you can disagree intelligently.
They are especially useful if:
- you are the person who currently makes most marketing decisions, usually in the evenings
- you pay at least one agency or freelancer and aren't sure how to judge them
- you're considering a marketing hire and want to understand the role first
- your business is growing into new locations or provinces and the old way of doing marketing no longer fits
How to use them with your team
Each guide includes a checklist or agenda you can lift directly. A practical approach is to read one guide, pick a single change, and try it for a month: a weekly 15-minute check-in, a one-page scorecard, or a day-one handover list for a new vendor. Small, consistent changes outlast big plans that never start.
A note on the numbers
Every figure in these guides is a worked example, not a market benchmark. We use round numbers so the arithmetic is easy to follow. Put your own figures in place of ours: the decisions come from your margins, your customer values and your capacity, not from an industry average.
If you'd like help applying a guide to your business, see pricing for hourly consulting, which suits exactly that kind of question.
Frequently asked questions
Are the guides free to use?
Yes. Read them, print them and use the checklists with your own team or vendors. They are written to be useful even if you never work with us.
Which guide should I read first?
If you're deciding whether to bring in senior marketing help, start with the fractional CMO versus full-time hire guide. If you've already decided, read the first 90 days guide. If you have help but no structure, read the operating rhythm guide.
Are the numbers in the guides real benchmarks?
No. The figures are worked examples to show the method. Replace them with your own numbers; the arithmetic is what matters.