How a Great Chicago Fractional CMO Can Improve Your Business

Chicago has a diverse economy with thriving startups and a range of local businesses. The cultural and entertainment environment also adds vibrancy and opportunities for hospitality and tourism.

Consider a fractional chief marketing officer (CMO) if you want to start a business in this city. Chicago fractional CMO services improve businesses by:

• Defining marketing goals and developing a marketing strategy
• Managing your marketing team
• Developing metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Improving sales and revenue
• Acting as a marketing consultant
• Providing lead-generation strategies

Learn how a fractional CMO can help your business. Let’s go!

Wondering what a Fractional CMO can do for your business? Watch this video below.

Defining Marketing Goals and Developing a Marketing Strategy

A fractional CMO plays a valuable role in determining marketing goals and creating a formidable digital marketing strategy for an organization. They assess the business's marketing efforts, including overall marketing performance, target audience analysis, competitive landscape, and existing marketing strategies.

Their initial assessment identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These form the basis for goal setting. A fractional CMO can work with the organization's leadership to establish clear and measurable marketing goals. These goals should align with the overall business objectives and be specific, realistic, and time-bound.

A CMO can lead market research initiatives to gain a deep understanding of the target audience. This research helps identify market trends, customer insights, and competitive advantages, which inform the marketing strategy.

However, before hiring a fractional CMO, check the qualifications of the prospective candidates, especially their goal-setting and marketing strategy experience. This step ensures that you are getting the best help for your business.

Managing Your Marketing Team

A fractional CMO can contribute to the management of a marketing team by providing strong leadership and guidance. They can offer strategic direction, set clear expectations, and establish a vision for the team's success.

A CMO evaluates the structure and composition of the marketing team to ensure it aligns with the business goals and objectives. They assess the team's skills, identify gaps, and recommend hiring, training, or restructuring as necessary. Aside from these, a factional CMO provides input on team members' performance evaluation and career development plans.

Continuous learning and development are crucial for a high-performing marketing team. A fractional CMO can identify training needs and provide guidance in professional development opportunities through workshops and seminars. These activities enhance the team's skills and knowledge in digital marketing, data analytics, or marketing trends.

A business can benefit from the strategic leadership, industry knowledge, and management skills of a fractional CMO to optimize its team's performance and drive business growth.

Developing Marketing Metrics and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Developing marketing metrics and KPIs are essential responsibilities of a fractional CMO. They start with understanding the overall objectives and goals. Aligning marketing metrics and KPIs with these goals ensures that the marketing efforts directly contribute to the organization's success.

From the business objectives, the fractional CMO should identify the key focus areas of the marketing strategy. These include brand awareness, lead generation, customer acquisition, customer retention, conversion rates, website traffic, and customer satisfaction.

The fractional CMO also defines specific and measurable metrics that indicate marketing performance. Instead of displaying "improve brand awareness," they use a particular metric such as "increase website traffic by 20% within four months" or "achieve a 20% increase in social media followers in three months." Measurable metrics improve tracking and evaluating success.

A fractional CMO selects actionable metrics and KPIs to allow the marketing team to identify areas for improvement and quickly take action. Finally, they establish a system for regularly reporting and measuring the defined metrics and KPIs. They understand transparent processes ensure relevant stakeholders have access to timely and accurate data.

Improving Sales and Revenue

A fractional CMO can help improve sales and revenue for a local business using a comprehensive marketing strategy aligned with the business goals and target market. They create marketing strategies that involve identifying the target audience, crafting compelling value propositions, determining the optimal marketing channels, and developing effective messaging.

They take part in devising customer acquisition strategies to drive targeted traffic and leads to the business. Fractional CMOs use digital marketing tactics such as online advertising campaigns, search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, social media marketing, and partnerships and collaborations with relevant businesses.

A fractional CMO focuses on converting leads into customers by analyzing the customer journey, optimizing user experience, improving the sales funnel, and implementing conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategies. CRO includes A/B testing, optimizing the landing page, and improving the clarity and effectiveness of calls-to-action (CTAs).

CMOs also analyze pricing and packaging strategies, create customer retention and loyalty programs, and other worthwhile methods to improve sales and revenue.

Acting as a Marketing Consultant

Your fractional CMO can be a marketing consultant, one of their primary roles. They can work closely with business owners and stakeholders to understand goals, the target audience, and the competitive landscape. From this understanding, they provide strategic guidance and develop a comprehensive marketing plan.

They also conduct thorough market research and analysis to identify market trends, customer insights, and competitive positioning. Their expertise in branding and positioning strategies can enhance brand perception and differentiation.

With their knowledge of various marketing channels and their effectiveness, a fractional CMO can select the most appropriate marketing channels for reaching the target audience. They can advise on digital marketing channels, traditional advertising methods, social media platforms, content marketing, and other relevant mediums.

Providing Lead-Generation Strategies

Having a fractional CMO helps you create better lead-generation strategies according to the target audience, industry, and goals. They also identify the most effective lead generation channels and tactics such as content marketing, local SEO, social media ads, email marketing, and paid search.

Content is crucial to successful lead generation. A fractional CMO can help develop a content marketing strategy for local SEO. Relevant content includes blog posts, white papers, e-books, case studies, videos, and webinars. Businesses can attract and engage potential leads through compelling and educational content.

A fractional CMO can also optimize the business's website to improve online visibility and drive targeted traffic. Additionally, they also create lead capture forms and landing pages to increase conversion rates and implement lead nurturing strategies such as email automation and follow-ups to move leads farther through the sales funnel.

Paid advertising can also be an effective way to quickly generate leads. A fractional CMO can manage paid advertising campaigns, such as Google Ads, social media ads, or display advertising, to maximize lead generation while monitoring return on ad spend (ROAS).

Summing Up

A Chicago fractional CMO can be a versatile addition to your marketing team. They can help define marketing goals and strategy, manage your marketing team, develop metrics and KPIs, and improve sales and revenue. Fractional CMOs also act as marketing consultants and provide professional help for lead generation.

A fractional CMO can be a great investment for businesses looking to dominate the local market. Contact Digital Authority Partners (DAP) today and learn how a marketing expert can help your local company.