What I do
Senior marketing judgement, in the shape the business needs.
Five ways of working. Each one leaves you with the same thing: marketing decisions made, owned and delivered.
01 · Fractional CMO
Marketing leadership, at the level the business needs.
For businesses that need a CMO's judgement and accountability, but not a CMO's salary or diary.
I join the leadership team as the person responsible for marketing. Not an advisor at the edge of it, and not an extra pair of hands inside it.
In practice that means setting the marketing strategy and getting the board behind it. Owning the budget and being answerable for what it returns. Leading the team, whether that is two people or twenty, and being honest with them about what good looks like. Choosing agencies, briefing them properly and holding them to the brief. What you get is a marketing function that is led, a budget that is defended and returned, and a board that hears about marketing in language it can act on.
How much time it takes depends on what the business needs to get done. Some engagements are a day or two a week for a fixed term, some start heavier and taper as the team grows into it, and some run close to full time for a period. We agree the shape before we start.
- Marketing strategy and the annual plan
- Budget ownership and reporting to the board
- Leading and developing the marketing team
- Agency selection, briefing and management
- Hiring a permanent marketing lead when the time is right
02 · Brand and positioning
A position nobody else has taken.
For businesses that are better than they sound, and know it.
Most companies describe themselves the way they are organised. Clients buy the other way round, and the gap between the two is where the work is.
A programme runs in stages, usually six to ten weeks. I talk to your leadership, your people, your clients and, where I can get to them, the ones who chose somebody else. I map where every competitor has planted its flag, a single word each, because that is the only way the unclaimed ground becomes visible. Then I write the position, the personality and the language the business can use, with the evidence for every claim sitting beside it.
You do not end up with a document. You end up with a platform the whole business can work from, guidelines your team and your suppliers can follow, and, where it is needed, the identity and the website that carry it. Everything lands on something you can point at, because in a market where work arrives by referral, proof is what makes trust transferable.
The website is built on a platform your own team can run, normally WordPress or Webflow, in your name and your ownership, so nothing about it depends on me being around next year.
- Research with leadership, staff, clients and lost prospects
- Category audit, and the ground nobody has claimed
- Positioning, personality, archetype and tone of voice
- Messaging, from the top line down to each service
- Brand guidelines, and the identity where it needs redrawing
- A website your team can run without ringing anyone
03 · Websites
A website that argues your case.
For businesses whose site lists what they do and never says why it matters.
Most website projects start with how it should look. The reason the old one stopped working is almost always what it said.
So this starts with the argument. A short piece on what the business claims and who for, then a page-by-page structure: every page, what it is there to argue, and how many words that takes. Two pages of thinking, not twenty. Only then does anything get designed, because you cannot decide what goes on a page until you have settled what the page is saying.
Design is proved rather than described. The homepage and one inner page worked up in full, usually with the homepage shown more than one way so you choose with your eyes instead of over email. Then it gets built, by me or by your own team against a specification they can follow.
Where the brand already works and the site is the only problem, we start at the structure and design and leave the rest alone. Where it does not, I will say so before you spend anything, because a well-built website carrying the wrong argument is an expensive way to stay invisible.
It is built on a platform your own team can run, normally WordPress or Webflow, in your name and your ownership, so nothing about it depends on me being around next year.
- A page-by-page structure, and what each page has to argue
- Copy written to the positioning, in one voice, to length
- Design proved on a real homepage and inner page
- Built by me, or specified for your own developer to build
- Brand guidelines and a logo pack where the identity needs work
- Every account, the domain and the site in your ownership
04 · Marketing review
A clear view, in writing, in a few weeks.
For businesses that want to know where they stand before they commit to anything larger.
A fixed piece of work, usually three to four weeks, that ends with a short document you could hand to the board.
I talk to the people who run the business, the people who do the marketing and, where it helps, a handful of customers. I look at the numbers, the pipeline, the brand, the channels and the spend. Then I write down what marketing is for in this business, what is working, what is not, what to stop, and what I would do in the next ninety days.
It is deliberately plain. No sixty-page deck, no framework with a trademark. Some clients take the review and act on it themselves. Some ask me to stay and do the work. Either way you leave with a decision you can defend to the board, and a plan for the next ninety days.
- Interviews with leadership, team, and selected customers
- Review of strategy, positioning, channels, pipeline and spend
- A written diagnosis and a ninety-day plan
- A session with the board to talk it through
05 · Investor and board support
Marketing judgement around a deal, and after it.
For private equity investors and the boards of the businesses they back.
Marketing is usually the part of the value creation plan that everyone agrees matters and nobody at the table has run.
Before a deal, I give you an honest read on the target's marketing: how much of the growth story is real, what it would cost to make the rest of it true, and where the risks sit. After a deal, I work with the management team on a 100-day plan that turns the investment case into things people can actually do, and I help find the right permanent marketing leader when that becomes the priority.
For portfolio businesses in between, I can sit on the board or attend when marketing is on the agenda. A steady senior voice that is on the management team's side and can still tell the investor what they need to hear.
- Commercial marketing due diligence
- Post-deal 100-day marketing plans
- Board attendance and non-executive support
- Search and selection for permanent marketing leaders
What this isn't
I am not an agency, and I don't run campaigns.
Brand, positioning and websites are things I do with you, and I will build the site where that is what you need. Running your campaigns, buying your media and managing your channels are not. Where you need a photographer, a developer or a media agency, I will find them, brief them properly and hold them to the brief, and you pay them directly with no margin to me. What you are paying me for is judgement and accountability, and those only stay honest when they are independent of the media being bought.
Questions
Questions about the five ways of working
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing consultant?
A consultant gives you a recommendation and leaves. A fractional CMO takes the marketing seat at the leadership table, owns the budget and the plan, leads the team and the agencies, and is answerable for what marketing returns. What you are buying is judgement and accountability inside the business, not a report.
What is a marketing review?
An independent, written view of where your marketing is and what to do about it, delivered in a few weeks. It covers position, proposition, channels, team, agencies and spend, and ends in a short list of decisions rather than a long list of observations. It is often the first step before a fractional engagement, and sometimes all a business needs.
What does marketing due diligence for private equity involve?
Before a deal, an honest read on the target's marketing: how much of the growth story is real, what it would cost to make the rest of it true, and where the risks sit. After a deal, a 100-day plan that turns the investment case into things the management team can actually do, and help finding the right permanent marketing leader when that becomes the priority.
What does a brand and positioning project involve?
Research with your leadership, your people and your clients, and a category audit that maps where every competitor has chosen to stand. From that evidence comes the position, the personality, the tone of voice and the messaging. A programme usually runs six to ten weeks. Where the identity or the website need to change, those are built too, on a platform your own team can run and in your ownership.
Can you just build the website, without the rest?
Yes, where the brand already works. If the positioning is sound and the problem really is the site, we start at the structure and the design and leave the rest alone. If it is not sound, I will tell you before you spend anything, because a well-built site carrying the wrong argument is an expensive way to stay invisible.
Do you run campaigns or build websites?
Websites, yes. Brand, positioning and the website that carries them are things I do with you, and I will build the site or specify it for your own developer to build. Campaigns, no. Running campaigns, buying media and managing channels are not what I am for. Where you need a photographer, a developer or a media agency, I will find them, brief them properly and hold them to the brief, and you pay them directly with no margin to me.
Talk to Chris
Start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, no slides, to talk through where the business is and whether senior marketing thinking would move it on. If it would, I will tell you what I would do first.
Book a consultation →