Senior marketing leadership, one or two days a week.
You need someone to own marketing: set the plan, manage the agencies, and show what each dollar returns. You may not need a full-time executive to do it.
From $5,000 a month for one day a week.
What I do
- Set a 90-day marketing plan with clear priorities and a budget
- Manage your agencies and freelancers, and hold them to agreed results
- Build the systems that bring customers back: email, SMS and customer data
- Report monthly on revenue, margin, repeat customers and cost per customer
A consultant gives you recommendations and leaves. I take on the marketing function part-time. I set the plan, manage the people and agencies doing the work, make decisions within an agreed budget, and I'm accountable for the numbers.
Who it suits
Retail, hospitality and e-commerce businesses with roughly A$2M to A$20M in revenue that spend on marketing but have nobody senior steering it. It also suits clients who have outgrown a retention retainer, and agencies that need senior cover for a period.
It usually starts with one of these:
- Growth has stalled
- Marketing spend is rising without clear results
- The founder or owner is doing the marketing
- New funding to deploy
- A marketing leader has left or is on leave
- A launch or a new market
How it works
Fast to start, with an easy way out if it isn't right.
- 1
A short call
Thirty minutes to understand your business, your goals and what isn't working.
- 2
A written proposal
Within 48 hours, with three outcomes for the first 30 days, the days per week, the price and the exit terms.
- 3
Work starts
Within a week, with a visible quick win in the first two weeks.
- 4
Month by month
Continue after the first three months, or stop after month one if it is not the right fit.
The terms
- Price
- From $5,000 a month for one day a week, ex GST. Two days a week is scoped on the call.
- The first month
- Written 30-day outcomes are agreed before we start. You can end after month one with two weeks' notice. Otherwise there is a three-month minimum, then month to month.
- Reporting
- Weekly updates in month one, then a monthly one-page owner's report. Reviews at day 3, day 30 and day 90.
- What we measure
- Agreed at the start: revenue and margin, cost per new customer and return on ad spend, website conversion and average order value, repeat purchase rate and customer value, and email and SMS share of revenue.
- Capacity
- I take on a maximum of two CMO clients at a time, so each gets real attention.
- Independence
- The Loyalty Studio also provides customer retention services. If we work together, I'll say so in the proposal, price CMO work separately, and you're free to use another provider for any execution. Every provider is reported against the same measures.
Why me
I'm Toby Dames. I have spent more than 15 years in performance marketing, and before that I ran my own hospitality business and managed a Montblanc boutique. So I've been the owner worrying about margin and staff, and I've been the agency running the campaigns.
That mix means I plan marketing the way an owner thinks about it: in margin, repeat customers and return on spend. I build the email and SMS journeys that bring customers back, and I know how agencies price, staff and report, which helps me get more from yours.
Questions
Why not hire a full-time CMO?
You might. A full-time hire is a large, slow and hard-to-reverse commitment. A fractional leader can start within a week or two, scales up or down month to month, and costs a fraction as much while you work out what you really need.
What will you need from us?
Access to your accounts and data from day one, a named person to work with, a decision-maker who controls the budget, and an execution budget for agencies, media or tools. I'll ask about all of these on the first call.
Do you also do the work?
I lead the strategy, the budget and the reporting, and I build retention journeys myself. Specialist execution such as design, media buying or development is done by your agencies and freelancers, or by partners, with me holding them to results.
What if it isn't working?
Say so. You can end after the first month with two weeks' notice, and the agreed 30-day outcomes mean we'll both know early.
Need someone to own marketing?
Book a 30-minute call. You will get a straight answer on whether a fractional CMO is the right move.