Marketing involves being seen, being remembered and when all the greatness of your brand, experience and value come together, marketing involves generating sales.
Let's face it: if you're not in front of your target audience and existing customers on a consistent basis, you will be forgotten.
It's nothing you've done or a result of any experiences you may or may not have provided. It's simply the evolution of human behavior over time, accelerated by digital access to information.
The simple fact is that our attention spans move faster today than they they ever have.
Research indicates that the increase in content is exhausting our attention which increases our need for 'new' information therefore switching topics more quickly and more often.
With that said, it's important to keep our brand and our content current and relevant. That's where marketing comes in.
As a small business leader, you're likely wearing multiple hats and marketing is either non-existent or it's a fraction of your time, often prioritized toward the bottom of your to-do list.
The perception of marketing is that it's easy peasy - create a profile on social media, create a piece of content, post it and hope for the best.
If that's not how you run your business, you shouldn't run your marketing efforts that way either. It's a reflection on you and what your customers might expect in buying from you. So you're essentially shooting yourself in the foot by not being all-in on marketing.
Here are 10 reasons why you need a fractional CMO:
Strategy - you need a plan, follow through and accountability in order to see results
Implementation of ideas - you can have the greatest and most unique ideas in the world but if there's no implementation of those ideas, the ideas mean nothing
Process for results - streamlining processes increase efficiencies and impacts the bottom line.
Wider experience - outside perspective allows for creative ideas and overall growth that is likely not recognized by those too close to the business.
Great understanding of alignment - a liaison who understands various team vocabularies creates synergy and better communication providing a streamlined customer experience.
Take the lead, lead the team - one person who owns the marketing objectives as a solo employee or as a team leader to existing employees until a replacement is hired.
Short term commitment, long term results - laser focused on the needs of the company and marketing responsibilities driving results sooner that last longer.
No benefits - this person is not an employee of the company so you save money on all non-salary related expenses including benefits.
Customer centric - great marketers know that for any business of any size to be successful they need to understand who the customer is and why they choose you. Keep existing customers happy while new customers find and choose you.
Quality over quantity - the focus is on the company brand and results, not head count and outward-in team size appearances. Your team size doesn't matter. Your brand and results do.
As you may already know, marketing is so much more complicated than just having a social media profile and making a few posts.
There needs to be an understanding of who you are trying to reach, where they are spending their time, how they consume information, what their biggest pain points are and how your product or service fits into the equation, understanding how and why they purchase and after they become a customer how to continue the experience beyond the purchase.
Hiring a fractional CMO, aka a part-time marketing leader, takes all of these burdens off your shoulders.
A fractional CMO is your marketing resource and an extension of your brand. Marketing professionals like myself who have been in marketing for 20 years know how to market a brand whether it's a small business just starting out or a mid-size business that's established and only needs a temporary resource to keep things moving.
Not sure if a fractional CMO is right for you? Apply and see if it is.
Check out these 10 reasons to hire a fractional CMO
Here are 7 small business marketing challenges and how to solve them
Vicki O'Neill is a fractional CMO in Ohio with over 20 years of marketing leadership experience. She's the founder of KenKay Marketing, a marketing solutions company founded in 2011. Vicki hosts Connect the Dots a marketing and sales educational podcast for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes. She recently launched a new podcast with her Gen Z daughters, The Power of 3X, to help individuals who want to learn about the youngest generation. You will find Vicki on most social media platforms but you'll find her mostly on LinkedIn and Twitter.