Marketing Leadership

Fractional CMO for
Startups and Growing Businesses

Full marketing leadership without the full-time hire. Strategy, team oversight, sales alignment, and systems — built and run by a CMO with 20 years of Fortune 500 and startup experience.

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Currently accepting 1–2 new engagements. Engagements are scoped individually. Start with a free discovery call.

What This Is

A CMO Who Runs Your Marketing Function — Not Just Advises It

Most growing businesses hit the same wall: the founder is doing marketing between everything else, the Instagram account is inconsistent, the website hasn't been touched in a year, and there's no system for turning leads into revenue.

The answer isn't another agency or another contractor to manage. It's a senior marketing executive who owns the function — sets the strategy, builds the team and systems, manages the execution, and reports directly to you.

That's what a fractional CMO is. And at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.

Fractional CMO vs. the Alternatives

Full-Time CMO $180K–$280K salary + benefits + equity. 6-month hiring process. Full-time headcount.
Agency Executes tactics. No accountability for strategy. Rotates junior staff. Doesn't manage your sales team.
Consultant Delivers a plan. Leaves. You still have to build and run it without the expertise that made the plan.
Fractional CMO Owns the function. Builds the systems. Manages the team. Accountable for outcomes. Scales with you.

Scope of Work

What I Actually Run

Every engagement is scoped to your business. Here's the full range of what gets built and managed.

Marketing Strategy & Planning

  • 90-day and annual marketing plans
  • Channel prioritization and budget allocation
  • Brand positioning and messaging
  • Competitive analysis and market positioning
  • Go-to-market planning for new products or verticals

Sales Team Oversight

  • Sales process design and documentation
  • Lead routing and qualification criteria
  • Collateral development (one-pagers, pitch decks, email scripts)
  • CRM setup and pipeline management
  • Weekly sales standups and performance tracking

Digital Marketing Execution

  • Paid social (Meta Ads) strategy and management
  • Organic social media systems and content strategy
  • SEO and website audit with remediation roadmap
  • Email marketing setup and automations
  • Analytics, attribution, and reporting

Systems & Infrastructure

  • CRM buildout (HubSpot, etc.) and lead workflow design
  • Content calendar and production system
  • UTM framework and conversion tracking
  • Team tools and communication infrastructure
  • Vendor and agency selection and management

New Business Development

  • New vertical business planning and feasibility
  • Partnership strategy and outreach
  • Revenue model development and pricing strategy
  • Investor and stakeholder presentation support
  • B2B partnership decks and proposals

Leadership & Reporting

  • Weekly and monthly marketing reports
  • Board and investor marketing updates
  • Hiring briefs for marketing team buildout
  • Agency and contractor management
  • Cross-functional alignment (sales, ops, product)

Who This Is For

The Right Fit Is Specific

Fractional CMO engagements work best in a narrow set of situations. Here's what they look like.

  • ✓
    Founder-led, 5–75 employees The marketing function is still owned by the CEO. You know you need to change that, but a $200K hire isn't the right move yet.
  • ✓
    Pre-revenue to $5M in revenue You have a real business — or a serious plan for one. You need marketing to become a competitive advantage, not just a social presence.
  • ✓
    Building into a new market or launching a new vertical You need someone who can assess the opportunity, build the go-to-market plan, and run the launch — not just create content for it.
  • ✓
    Marketing and sales aren't working together Leads aren't being followed up on. There's no CRM. The sales team has no collateral. These are fixable operational problems, not people problems.
  • ✓
    Ready to invest in growth This isn't a $500/month retainer. A fractional CMO engagement is a meaningful commitment. The right clients see it as replacing a salary, not adding a vendor.

This Is Not the Right Fit If…

You need someone to post on Instagram three times a week and call it marketing
You want someone to hand you a strategy document and figure out execution yourself
You need an agency to run Meta ads without strategic context for why
The business fundamentals (product, pricing, sales process) still need to be validated
The CEO isn't willing to implement what the CMO recommends

Other Options

If you need targeted help rather than full marketing leadership, there are entry points designed for that.

Marketing Audit (Health Check) — $497 → Strategy Clarity Call — $197 → Paid Social Ads Management →

How It Works

From Discovery to Running Function

Every engagement starts with a clear-eyed audit of where you actually are. Then we build from there.

01

Discovery & Audit

A structured assessment of your current marketing and sales operation — what exists, what's broken, what's missing, and what the business actually needs from marketing to hit its goals. This becomes the foundation for the engagement plan.

02

Foundation & Systems

Before spending on acquisition, the infrastructure has to work. CRM, tracking, content systems, sales collateral, brand positioning, and the website — these get built or fixed first. The order is deliberate: revenue before polish.

03

Active Management

Once the foundation is in place, the function runs. Paid campaigns launch. Content cadence hits. Sales reps have what they need. Weekly reporting tracks what's working. The CMO is accountable for outcomes, not just deliverables.

Jenn Mangold, Fractional CMO — The Social Growth Group

The CMO

Jenn Mangold

Founder & Fractional CMO

Jenn joined HomeAway as an early employee and built their social media marketing program from zero. She stayed for 13 years — through the IPO, the rebrand to Vrbo, and the Expedia Group acquisition. That's not a resume line. That's building a marketing function at scale, inside a company that went from startup to Fortune 500.

After Vrbo, she ran digital and paid media programs at Indeed, 3M, and Aceable. Current fractional CMO engagements span luxury hospitality, travel, and service businesses. In those engagements, she owns the marketing function, manages the sales team, builds the go-to-market plan, and develops the new revenue streams — not just the campaigns.

"Most founders don't have a marketing problem. They have a marketing leadership problem. There's no one accountable for the whole function."

20+
Years in Digital
$165M+
Revenue Attributed
13
Years at Vrbo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO owns the marketing function on a part-time or contract basis — setting strategy, managing the team and vendors, overseeing execution, and reporting to the CEO. Unlike a consultant who advises and leaves, a fractional CMO is accountable for outcomes. Depending on the engagement, that includes sales team oversight, CRM buildout, content systems, paid media, SEO, and new business development.
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing agency?
An agency executes tactics. A fractional CMO owns the strategy those tactics serve. The difference is accountability — a fractional CMO is responsible for the marketing function, not just a deliverable. In practice, that means managing or selecting agencies and vendors, not just being one.
How much does a fractional CMO engagement cost?
Engagements are custom-scoped based on company size, growth stage, and the scope of the marketing function needed. A full-time CMO costs $180,000–$280,000 per year in salary alone — before benefits or equity. A fractional engagement delivers equivalent strategic leadership at a fraction of that cost, with no long-term headcount commitment. Book a discovery call to discuss scope and fit.
What size company is this right for?
Typically companies between 5 and 75 employees that are past the early product stage but not yet large enough to justify a full-time executive marketing hire. The sweet spot is founder-led businesses in growth mode — scaling revenue, entering new markets, or building toward a capital raise — who need marketing to be a competitive advantage, not just a social presence.
Do you work with pre-revenue companies?
Yes, with the right business model and founder commitment. Pre-revenue engagements focus on building the marketing and sales infrastructure before spending on acquisition: positioning, website, sales process, CRM, content systems, and go-to-market strategy. Revenue acceleration comes from the right foundation — not early ad spend on a broken funnel.
What industries do you work in?
Current and prior engagements span luxury hospitality and travel, vacation rental, service businesses, consumer brands, and funded startups. The common thread is founder-led growth companies where marketing needs to become a competitive advantage — not just a cost center managed by whoever has bandwidth that week.

Further Reading

If you're still evaluating whether this model fits your business, these go deeper.

From the Blog

The Strategic Advantage of a Fractional CMO for Startups

Why funded startups stall without senior marketing leadership — and what the first 90 days of an engagement actually looks like.

Read Article →

From the Blog

Why a Fractional CMO for Service Businesses Is a Smart Strategic Move

How service businesses get expert marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time executive — and how to know when the timing is right.

Read Article →

Ready to Talk About Your Business?

Start with a free discovery call. We'll look at where your marketing and sales function stands, what's missing, and whether a fractional CMO engagement is the right fit.

Book a Discovery Call Learn More About Jenn

Prefer to start smaller? A $497 Marketing Audit is a common starting point before a full engagement.