It's a Marketer's Buffet!

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You're joining a new company at an earlier stage, and you don't quite have your team or structure nailed yet. Or, you're inheriting a team that may be a little junior and green around the ears. The CEO has set aggressive goals for the first 90 days, and you want to make sure you hit the ground running. 

Rubber meets the road. You need to deliver. 

The bad news? It's going to be rough. 

The good news is that you don't have to do it alone.

Regarding fractional/part-time help for marketing, there are many options. Especially with the recent economic downturn, many marketers are striking out on their own and going down the self-employment route. 

But - here's the kicker: there are too many options, and many marketing leaders we talk to don't know how to orient themselves or start somewhere. 

We'll help you navigate this better. 

But first, let's break down what the options are: 

• Fractional CMOS / Advisors 

• Freelancers

• Consultants

• Agencies

• Contractors. 

So how do you know which kind of hired help to bring & what can you expect to pay? 

The following are general ballparks based on my experience of being or working with folks across the spectrum. There are some similarities, but there are also some differences. 

Let's start with the 'new' kid on the block.

Fractional CMOS / Advisors 

First, I'd advise to be wary of anyone calling themselves a fractional CMO. I've come across too many people who were content marketing managers at a startup who now bill themselves as fractional CMOs. It sounds better than calling yourself a freelancer. But a true 'fractional' CMO must actually be qualified enough to be a CMO (for the business you are trying to hire them for). 

Fractional CMOS has become a new 'trend'; buyers beware. 

Ironically, most actually good CMOS who end up doing fractional work don't call themselves fractional CMOs; they bill themselves as advisors. 

So what is an advisor / fCMO, and when do you need to hire one? In a nutshell, if you need more hands-off, one call a week plus high-level strategy and team structure help. Advisors are great at advising but typically won't be hands-on with keyboard execution. 

Advisors can help answer questions like: 

• What should my GTM strategy be?

• Who is my next hire? 

• How can I build a marketing strategy to go upmarket?

• What is the right time to start a field marketing program?

• How can I expand into a new market?

• How can I launch this new product line without cannibalizing my existing product line?

• What's the best structure for my team?

• How can I measure marketing performance and team?

Advisors also help unblock founders and marketing leaders. They act like sounding boards and help you think through more challenging high-level problems foundational to your org. Like Amazon likes to call them, these are one-way doors. Typically, these are strategic decisions involving a lot of investment and are difficult to reverse (or, sometimes, quite impossible).

Cost / Investment wise, it varies since there are so many folks billing themselves as advisors or factional CMOS. But the average is $300/hr for advisory work. If this sounds high, it's because these are highly experienced folks who can probably help more in an hour (if you ask the right questions) than you fumbling your way through the dark. 

Typically, engagements with advisors only last for a short term. They come and solve your problems in theory, and it is up to you and your team to deliver.

Consultants 

Generally, consultants are a bit more hands-on than advisors/ fCMOs. Unlike advisors with a breadth of experience, consultants are more hands-on but also focused on specific areas of marketing. While consultants are less strategic, broadly speaking, they can help with specialized areas like Revops, Demand Gen, Content, or Product marketing. 

A consultant is typically a mix of strategic & hands-on. As a Demand Consultant, I would advise companies on their GTM strategy or marketing mix while also working with the team to build marketing programs, align with goals & help shape the strategy and execution. 

Hiring the correct type of consultants is important because consultants can be specific to a business area. If you have a content marketing problem, hire a content marketing consultant (as opposed to a 'marketing consultant'). 

Cost/Investment for Consultants:

Consultants' rates can vary widely depending on their expertise and the complexity of their tasks. Generally, you can expect to pay anywhere from $180 to $450 per hour. 

A consultant is ideal if you have an in-house team but need help improving efficiency or expertise in a particular business area. Unlike fCMOs or Advisors, consultants aren't entirely hands-off; they balance execution and strategy. 

Freelancers

Freelancers are a flexible option for businesses looking for a more hands-on approach in specific areas of marketing. Unlike consultants who may provide a mix of strategic and execution support, freelancers usually specialize in executing tasks within particular areas. 

A common place where companies get freelancer help is writing or content marketing. This happens because, for the most part, it's very easy to scope out a chunk of work, i.e., write about topic X vs trying to provide them context on the whole business. 

Freelancers are ideal for short-term projects or augmenting your team's capabilities without the commitment of an FT hire when you need less strategic insights and more manpower to execute against a specific scope. 

Freelancers typically need more hand-holding to get into a working rhythm. Finally, also remember that freelancers will stick closely to the scope of work, so you must be clear about your expectations for them to meet them. 

Cost/Investment for Freelancers:

Freelancer rates are generally project-based or hourly, ranging from $50 to $120 per hour. 

Agencies

((GOOD)) Agencies combine the strategic input of consultants with a wide variety of skills and operational talent. Agencies are ideal when you need to solve complex problems with minimal oversight. They excel at bringing together different expertise and orchestrating them for effective solutions. 

Suppose freelancers must define the problem, solution, and steps to get there (and have the freelancer execute). In that case, advisors help them think through issues, and consultants figure out problems and perform in a specific area - agencies are, in some ways, the best of all. They figure out the problem (why is my revenue down this Q compared to last) - come up with a solution (because we didn't invest enough in top of the funnel three months ago) and deliver against the solution (we should diversify our marketing mix and measure our average sales cycle so we can invest before we need revenue to mature) with minimal oversight. Agencies combine different expertise from strategy to execution to help organizations do more.

Cost/Investment for Agencies:

Typically, good agencies start at 10K+ (monthly retainer), but I've also seen many terrible agencies charge 15-20K without delivering meaningful work or results. Many agencies will charge % of spend (on the paid side), but we prefer charging a flat retainer and a variable cost of creative on top. 

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42 Agency helps B2B companies with RevOps / Demand Generation and Creative. We help our clients across the spectrum of these services because Demand Gen needs Creative + Content (Paid / SEO / Affiliate / Organic / Field), a robust measurement infrastructure (RevOps) and Full Funnel Marketing to work. 

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Contractors

Contractors are similar to freelancers but often work on a longer-term basis. They can fill specific roles within your marketing team, bringing specialized skills for the duration of a project or a set period.

Contractors more closely work with your team, typically not working across multiple clients (like freelancers) but being " without being on payroll (which can have tax benefits).

Cost/Investment for Contractors:

Contractor rates are typically hourly (billed at longer-term contracts) or fixed-term contract-based. Rates can range from $80 to $130 per hour. 

Which one should you choose?

As with most things in marketing, there isn't a one-size-fits-all answer to building your dream team and meeting your goals. An excellent place to start is to consider how much runway and velocity you need to deliver and then plan accordingly.

Agencies typically deliver faster for strategic+executive work; freelancers are the best for very specialized and defined tasks; fractional CMOs and Consultants are typically the best at helping you understand the challenge you're facing; and contractors are like having an in-house employee and may take some time to ramp up but are a lot more helpful when it comes to long-term execution.

What you may need also changes according to the maturity of your organization, the type of product you sell, the existing talent on your team, etc. 

Earlier-stage companies may benefit from a mix of contractors and freelancers, while more mature companies, for example, may benefit from an agency.

Whatever it is, we hope this piece brings a bit more clarity.