You don’t need a full-time salary to get full-time strategy.

You need a Fractional CSMO who drives real results, without the corporate price tag.

When businesses try to “DIY” their way to growth, they usually end up with a Frankenstein team of under-qualified marketers, disconnected salespeople, and zero leadership in between.

Hiring a full-time CMO seems like the answer, until you see the cost.

The better move?

Fractional.

What Most Companies Try to Do

As a business owner for over a decade, I’ve seen this play out again and again.

• Loyal employees get promoted into marketing leadership roles… with no formal training.
• Agencies are brought in to “run marketing,” while the company scrambles to understand ROI.
• Strategy lives outside the company instead of being led from within.
• The CEO is left without a clear picture of what’s working—and what’s not.

In other cases, the business hires a full-time CMO too early—before they can truly afford it. Or worse, marketing tasks get scattered across the team with no direction, no alignment, and no results.

The outcome?

A whole lot of motion.

Zero measurable growth.

The True Cost of a Full-Time CMO

Let’s break it down:

• Average salary: $180,000–$300,000/year
• Add bonuses, benefits, and payroll taxes
• Still need to hire a team to execute underneath them
• And most full-time CMOs? They’re not hands-on with day-to-day execution

For small to mid-sized businesses, the overhead simply doesn’t make sense.

What a Fractional CSMO Brings to the Table

A Fractional CSMO offers executive-level thinking without executive-level cost.

Here’s what that looks like:

• A clearly defined, high-level strategy aligned to your business goals
• Integration into your leadership team—weekly, monthly, or project-based
• Vendor and internal team accountability (with real KPIs)
• System building + team training that empowers your people long-term
• Execution support without the six-figure salary

And here’s the part no one talks about:
A well-retained Fractional CSMO often outperforms a full-time exec—because their ROI is the metric that matters most.

This isn’t about how much marketing “costs.”
This is about how much your marketing can return—when it’s led by someone who knows how to extract performance.

When to Choose Which Option

Full-Time CSMO or High-Engagement Fractional CSMO:

‍When you're scaling past $30M+
You have in-house creative and marketing staff
You need daily oversight and executive presence

Fractional CSMO:

‍When you’re under $30M
Running lean
Need strategy, execution, and accountability fast, without the full-time price tag

Fractional leaders deliver real impact without the infrastructure tax.

It’s All About Results

If you want to grow, you need to execute.

And to execute, you need leadership driving strategy, systems, and accountability.

A Fractional CSMO sets up dashboards that let you track performance in real time.‍

No more guessing. No more “I think this is working.”

Just data-backed decisions, and growth you can measure.

Strategy Requires Execution

Strategy without execution is worthless.

Execution without leadership is chaos.

A Fractional CSMO bridges both, without the full-time baggage.

Want to talk about what this could look like in your business?

Email me directly: sean@tierlevel.com‍

Let’s build something worth scaling.

SML