Why B2B SaaS Startups Should Hire a Fractional CMO?

Introduction

Whether you are a Bootstrap or VC-funded startup, you might face budget constraints. It requires a lot of capital to design the B2B SaaS product, let alone market it. Additionally, you need a robust and effective marketing strategy that will pay off every penny you invest in it.

Nevertheless, this is something that requires marketing expertise, and then comes the need to hire a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Another expense, right? What if I tell you that you can reduce the costs incurred by hiring a Fractional CMO?

Do you like the idea of a Fractional CMO? Explore how they are different from a traditional CMO in this article. Furthermore, understand their responsibilities and go through the checklist to consider when hiring one for your startup. Before we begin discussing Fractional CMO, let us reflect on the existing challenges you might be facing while marketing your B2B SaaS product.

Marketing Challenges Faced By B2B SaaS Startups

With expertise in your SaaS domain, you are well-versed in making an innovative product. However, marketing it might be a challenge for you. Why? Marketing is a whole different aspect that requires a thorough understanding of the concepts, such as identifying the ICPs and managing the limited budget for several marketing areas. Here are some of the common marketing challenges that many startups face:

1. Identifying the Right ICP

The identification of an Ideal Customer Profile is the foremost step in planning a marketing strategy. Many SaaS startups struggle to create the right profile and customer persona, which impacts the key messaging and other aspects of marketing. As a result, the marketing efforts will go in vain if the ICP is not clear, leading to a waste of effort and expenses.

2. Lack of Strategic Direction

B2B SaaS startups focus mostly on hiring sales talent and often neglect focusing on creating a robust product fit strategy and go-to-market strategy. This is also rooted in the improper identification of ICP and a lack of marketing leadership.

3. Limited Resources

Early-stage startups have limited resources, especially when they are not VC-backed. It results in having small teams, where individuals function as a Jack of all Trades, Master of None. This results in inefficient marketing strategies based on goals and objectives, and not being able to track them with the right KPIs.

4. Competitive Market

Learning about the competitive landscape is a crucial part of marketing. What’s important is creating a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that sets your marketing strategy apart from your competitors.

5. Customer Churn

B2B SaaS startups might face the issue of increased customer churn rate. This might be a consequence of not onboarding the customer effectively, where they face challenges in understanding the product and its features. It’s not just about customer acquisition; the responsibility of their retention also matters.

SaaS startups encounter all the presented marketing challenges, so they require a Chief Marketing Officer to guide the team with marketing strategies. A constrained budget prevents startups from hiring a full-time CMO. That’s where the concept of Fractional CMO comes in, alleviating the marketing issues for startups.

What is a Fractional CMO?

A Fractional CMO serves as a part-time marketing leader for your B2B SaaS startup. They utilize their marketing expertise to enhance the overall marketing efforts of your team, adhering to the key goals and objectives.

However, they are not a full-time chief marketing officer, which can be a great decision for startups to hire them. This is because it will reduce the cost of hiring a traditional CMO.

A SaaS Fractional CMO builds and executes marketing strategies while advising the marketing team with actionable insights, such as which content topics are performing well or what kind of email subject lines are improving the open rates. They have certain responsibilities that you should know before hiring them.

What Does a Fractional CMO Do?

A Fractional CMO works efficiently for a B2B SaaS startup, utilizing their skills to improve the marketing efforts. In order to contribute well to the organization, they perform the following tasks:

1. Identifies Goals and Manages KPI

Your SaaS company must establish its main marketing objectives, such as generating leads or making customers convert, before executing the strategic plan. The fractional CMO sets KPIs by establishing goals that the organization has defined.

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The KPI measurements move from their group members while establishing tracking systems to monitor marketing outcome efficiency. These companies utilize digital marketing tools including HubSpot, Salesforce, Google Analytics and also use Amplitude.

These part time CMOs benefit from these tools that enable them to track their key performance indicators for reviews and adjustments after review of periodic outcome results.

2. Manages Marketing Funnel

The Fractional CMO manages the awareness, consideration, and conversion stage of the marketing funnel. They identify the demographic and psychographic profile of the target audience (founders, developers, CTOs) to create customer personas.

They map out the B2B SaaS customer’s journey and utilize automation platforms like HubSpot to nurture leads at each stage. With such CRM and automation tools, communication with leads becomes effective, and it is easy to track and nurture them. The SaaS Fractional CMOs review the funnel performance through KPIs and optimize the digital marketing strategy accordingly.

3. Plans Digital Marketing Strategy

With the rise in digital trends, the marketing aspect has also become more digital. The Fractional CMO oversees the content marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, and paid advertising efforts. They ensure that the product’s value proposition comes out cohesively across all digital platforms.

They create a calendar for content and social media marketing, or rather, a content playbook for better communication and collaboration with teams. These things specify the relevant tasks and topics that need to be covered to meet the desired objectives and match the buyers’ interests.

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Fractional CMOs also set priorities for the SEO aspect. It plays an important role in increasing the reach to potential customers, along with high-quality content. Talking about the high-quality content, especially technical one, considering your niche, you might try your hand at partnering with a technical content writing agency that will help you produce content that will convert.

Additionally, part time CMOs ensure that the SaaS company is reaching out to their potential and existing customers through another communication channel, email. They ensure that the email marketing campaign includes welcome emails, nurture sequences, onboarding emails, and newsletters.

The Fractional CMO for startups makes sure of the appropriate budget allocation for Ads across different channels, like Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads. They define the key Ad objectives, such as lead generation, website traffic, and retargeting Ads. Additionally, they ensure that the creatives, ad copy, and landing pages are well established. Based on the ad performance (CTR, ROI), they refine their messaging, target areas, and bidding strategy.

4. Collaborates with the Sales Team

The SaaS Fractional CMO collaborates with the sales team to ensure that the messaging is consistent and their sales efforts align with the company’s objectives. This helps them ensure that the sales and marketing strategies are mutual and cohesive.

They work on identifying the key challenges faced by the sales team that act as friction points, such as misaligned goals and a lack of product understanding. They provide them with enablement assets like case studies, buyer persona guides, and product features to help them gain insights and engage the prospects efficiently.

5. Crisis Management

No one can anticipate the future crisis, but there should be someone in your team who can manage the crisis. It could be negative reviews, spikes in customer churn, product outages, or anything.

That’s where the Fractional CMO brings their expertise in dealing with the crises that occur. They ensure that your SaaS company responds in a manner that aligns with your business goals and values. Additionally, they curate messages that resonate with your target customers.

In short, a part time Fractional CMO helps you develop a crisis management plan that comes in handy in dealing with crises quickly and effectively.

Fractional CMO vs Full-time CMO

Even though the Fractional CMO and full-time CMO have similar roles and responsibilities, they vary in different aspects. Here’s a quick differentiation between the two:

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The Fractional CMO can be a great fit for the B2B SaaS Startups compared to a full-time CMO, as they bring a diverse set of experience to the table. You get to hire a chief marketing officer who has worked with multiple SaaS companies and understands the intricacies of the industry. Unlike the time-consuming process of hiring a full-time CMO, it typically takes a few days to hire a Fractional CMO, getting the work in action as quickly as possible.

Additionally, hiring a part time chief marketing officer is a fair deal where you don’t have to pay a handsome amount of salary and receive domain expertise with fresh perspectives compared to a full-time CMO.

Checklist for Picking the Right Fractional CMO

Hiring a Fractional CMO for your B2B SaaS startup can be a tedious process if you don’t have a proper checklist to consider. Here’s a quick checklist for you when you decide to hire a Fractional CMO:

Domain Expertise:
A part time chief marketing officer should have relevant experience in the B2B SaaS industry. Without domain expertise, it will take much time for them to understand the industry dynamics. Then only they would be able to plan strategies as per buyer personas.
Proven Track Record:
Analyze their expertise through a proven track record. Based on your company’s goals and objectives, identify if they would be able to contribute effectively. For instance, whether they could increase the MQLs and ROI, or reduce the CAC for the previous companies.
Leadership Quality:
A Fractional CMO should possess leadership skills, as they will be leading the marketing team. A team can be managed well if the officer has good communication skills and can motivate the members with empathy.
Availability:
Discuss whether the part time CMO is willing to work for only a short period or a mid-term period. Their availability should align with the work timings of your organization for better communication. Additionally, they should be able to commit time based on the amount of work.
Location:
Your organization's work model determines whether location matters or not in terms of selecting the B2B Fractional CMO. If you have a work-from-the-office model, they should be located in the same geographic areas. It is also important that they have the capabilities to speak the native language, e.g., English. If that role is remote, the timings and workflow can be disrupted based on different geographic locations.

These are some of the important factors you should take into account when hiring a part time chief marketing officer for your SaaS startup. You can find and engage with them on freelance service marketplaces like Fiverr, or you can partner with a Fractional CMO agency. Additionally, discuss everything before hiring, so you don’t face any issues with the availability, domain expertise, and leadership quality.

Conclusion

The decision to hire a Fractional CMO can be a great one for your B2B SaaS startup. They bring their marketing expertise to the table and help you utilize your resources in an effective manner. A Fractional CMO will mostly help lower the expense of hiring a full-time CMO. They will recognize the KPIs, oversee the marketing funnel, develop a digital marketing strategy, and lead the marketing team effectively.

Now, what’s your plan – hiring a CMO full-time or part-time?

FAQs

1. What is the Difference Between a Fractional CMO and a Marketing Consultant?

Marketing consultants concentrate their knowledge on resolving particular market-related problems, while Fractional CMOs handle complete marketing strategy development and team guidance.

2. What is the Difference Between Interim and Fractional CMO?

While a Fractional CMO is hired for a short to mid-term period, the Interim CMO works for a fixed period and can become a full-time CMO too.

3. How Many Hours Does a Fractional CMO Work?

A Fractional CMO can work for your B2B SaaS company for around 20 hours per week. It can extend based on the amount of work to be done.

4. How Do I Know if I Need a Fractional CMO? What Are the Signs to Look for?

When you see your marketing efforts go in vain due to a lack of team and can’t hire a full-time CMO with expertise in the B2B SaaS domain, that’s when you need to hire a Fractional CMO.