FRACTIONAL MARKETING LEADERSHIP · PIPELINE, NOT DECKS
Fractional CMO for B2B SaaS and Technology Companies
A fractional CMO gives you a senior B2B marketing leader, 2–3 days a week, who owns your pipeline number – without the $200K+ hire.
I have run marketing for enterprise B2B companies for 18+ years. In my last in-house role at SPD Technology, marketing attributed $1.3M+ in pipeline in 12 months.
That is the kind of number I sign up to own for you.
I will reply within 24 hours.
MRR growth
for a B2B client
MQLs per month
in a crowded market
From kickoff to
first lead
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing function part-time, typically 2–3 days a week, on a monthly retainer instead of a full-time salary. You get the strategy, the pipeline model, the hiring decisions and the board reporting of a chief marketing officer. You do not get the $150K–$200K salary, the equity, or the six-month search.
A fractional chief marketing officer is not a consultant who hands you a plan and leaves. The role carries the number. If pipeline misses, that is on me, the same way it would be on a full-time CMO. The difference is cost and commitment: you can scale the days up or down as the business changes.
You will hear other names for the same job. A part-time CMO is the same arrangement, usually at one or two days a week. An outsourced CMO is the same thing bought from an agency rather than from an individual. An interim CMO is a full-time executive on a fixed term, usually six to twelve months, covering a vacancy until you hire. I work as a fractional CMO because B2B SaaS companies between $2M and $30M ARR rarely need five days a week of marketing leadership. They need the right two or three.
Who This Is For
I take on three or four fractional CMO clients at a time. These are the companies where the model works.
Fractional CMO for SaaS companies
You are a B2B SaaS company between $2M and $30M ARR, post-seed to Series B. You are hiring your first marketing leader or replacing one who left. You have a marketing team of one to six people, or a set of agencies and freelancers nobody is managing. You need someone to set the pipeline target, build the plan to hit it, and report on it to the board.
Fractional CMO for startups
You are pre-Series A. The founder still runs sales and most of marketing. You have product-market fit signals and a handful of paying customers, but no repeatable way to generate demand. You need a marketing leader to build the first version of the machine, not a marketing coordinator to post on LinkedIn.
IT and software development firms
You sell software development, cloud, data or security services to enterprise buyers. Your pipeline comes from referrals and outbound, and you want inbound to carry a share of it. I spent most of my career marketing exactly this kind of company. See the marketing services for IT companies page for the execution side.
Not a fit: companies that already have a marketing leader and only need hands to execute. In that case you want an , an or a one-off , not a fractional CMO.
What fractional CMO services include
Strategy and positioning
- Ideal customer profile and segment priority, written down and agreed with sales
- Positioning and messaging that a buyer can repeat back to you
- Channel strategy with a budget per channel and a target per channel
- A quarterly plan the team can execute without me in the room
Pipeline model and reporting
- A pipeline model from traffic to closed-won, with conversion rates per stage
- Marketing-sourced and marketing-influenced pipeline defined and tracked in your CRM
- A single monthly report the CEO and board actually read
- The that matter at your stage, and the vanity metrics I stop reporting
SEO, AEO and content leadership
Team, agency and tool management
- Hiring plan: which role to hire next, the job description, and the interview loop
- Management of your existing agencies and freelancers against written deliverables
- Martech audit: what you pay for, what you use, what to cancel
- Coaching for the marketer who will eventually take over from me
Board and investor reporting
- A marketing section of the board deck that shows pipeline, efficiency and forecast
- CAC, payback and pipeline coverage calculated the way investors calculate them
- A clear answer to “what would you do with another $500K?”
Fractional CMO vs. agency vs. full-time hire
Most companies choosing a fractional CMO are really choosing between three options. Here is the honest comparison.
| Fractional CMO | Marketing agency | Full-time CMO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per year | $5,000/month, no benefits or equity | $5,000–$25,000/month retainer plus ad spend | $150K–$200K salary before benefits, bonus, equity and tools |
| Time to impact | 90-day roadmap in week 4, first pipeline changes in 60–90 days | Execution starts fast, strategy is usually yours to supply | 3–6 months to hire, 90 days to ramp |
| What you get | One senior leader who owns the number and manages everyone else | Hands for a defined channel or deliverable | A full-time executive, plus the team they will ask to hire |
| When to choose | $2M–$30M ARR, first marketing leader, or replacing one | You already have a leader and need execution | $30M+ ARR, or marketing is your main growth engine and needs five days a week |
A fractional CMO agency sells you the same role with a bench behind it. That works if you also want the agency to execute. If you want independence from execution, hire the individual and let them choose the vendors. An interim CMO makes sense when you have an open full-time seat and need it filled for six months while you search.
Fractional CMO cost
Fractional CMO cost in the US and EU market runs from $5,000 per month, depending on days per week and seniority. My engagements start at $1,500 per month and go up to $4.000 per month. Three things move the number.
Days per week. One day a week covers strategy, reporting and team direction. Two days adds hands-on management of channels and vendors. Three days means I am effectively running the function, including hiring.
Team size managed. Directing one marketer and one agency is different from running a team of six plus four vendors. Management time is real time.
Execution included. If you want my team to also deliver SEO, AEO or content, that is scoped separately through the service pages. The fractional CMO fee covers leadership, not production.
Engagements run a minimum of three months. Most clients stay 9–18 months, until they hire a full-time leader or the business outgrows a part-time one. I help with that hire when the time comes. EUR invoicing is available.
How to hire a fractional CMO: how the engagement works
Hiring a fractional CMO should take two weeks, not two quarters. Here is how the engagement runs once I start.
Phase 1: Audit the revenue leaks (weeks 1–4)
I review your pipeline data, CRM, website, search visibility, content, paid channels and sales process. I interview the founders, sales leaders and your current marketers. I find the two or three places where qualified pipeline is leaking: usually attribution, positioning, or a channel that is funded but not working. If you have already run a with us, this phase is shorter.
Outcome: a written diagnosis with the pipeline math, agreed with the CEO.
Phase 2: 90-day roadmap (weeks 4–6)
I turn the diagnosis into a 90-day plan: a pipeline target, the channels that will deliver it, the budget, the team and vendor changes, and a reporting cadence. The plan fits on two pages. Every line has an owner and a date.
Outcome: a 90-day roadmap and a pipeline model the board has seen and approved.
Phase 3: Run and optimize (ongoing)
I own the number. I run the weekly marketing standup, manage the team and agencies, review every campaign before it ships, and report monthly against the roadmap. Each quarter I reset the plan based on what the data says. If something is not creating pipeline, I stop it.
Outcome: marketing-attributed pipeline reported monthly, with a forecast you can take to the board.
Client Results From Fractional CMO engagement
$1.3M+ In Marketing-Attributed Pipeline For A B2B Software Company.
SPD Technology is a software development outsourcing company with 18+ years in business and four R&D offices in Eastern Europe.
What I did:
Strategy, positioning, website redesign, content marketing, SEO, ABM, CRO, social media.
Results after one year:
- $1.3M+ in marketing-attributed deals added to the pipeline
- Content cited by Verizon Business, GoDaddy, and BBC
- Website traffic from target region: 0 → 2,000+ visits/month
Google Core Update Recovery for a Banking Software Company
What I did:
- Audited multi-year traffic patterns to identify the real drop source
- Connected the decline to March and May 2026 Google core updates
- Reviewed roughly 79 blog posts for topical relevance
- Found that around 57% of content sat outside the company’s banking and fintech core
- Built a recovery roadmap based on revenue exposure and recoverability
Results:
- Root cause isolated: topical-authority demotion, not simple cannibalization
- ~76% organic decline mapped to specific update periods
- Domain recovery began during the engagement, from ~3.7K to ~5.9K monthly visits
- Repeatable diagnostic framework created for the client’s content estate
SEO Growth for a Software Development Company
What I did:
- Built a targeted SEO and authority-building plan
- Improved domain authority with high-quality backlinks
- Focused SEO work on traffic that could convert into qualified inquiries
- Tracked organic growth, form submissions and lead quality
Results:
- Increased Domain Rating from 33 to 44 within 4 months
- Achieved a 436.12% growth in targeted organic traffic
- Drove a 275% increase in contact form submissions
- Generated a 4x growth in qualified leads in a highly competitive industry
40+ MQLs Per Month For A B2B Tech Company With A Crowded Market.
Master of Code builds digital products – software development outsourcing since 2004.
What I did:
Strategy, website redesign, content marketing, lead gen, PPC, AI chatbot prototypes.
Results:
- PPC-attributed MQLs: 0 → 40+/month
- 5 chatbot prototypes built, used to open conversations with potential partners
Trigger-Based Lead Generation for a Software Development Company
- Built lead lists around job changes, funding, hiring signals and expansion triggers
- Identified decision-makers and manager-level contacts
- Created messaging based on each company’s trigger and buying context
- Connected the campaign to email infrastructure and warmed domains
- 50+ highly qualified C-level contacts identified
- 900+ qualified manager-level contacts identified
- 3.2x higher response rate than previous campaigns
- Faster campaign launch with cleaner targeting and messaging
About Volodymyr Kuriatnyk
I’m Volodymyr (Vlad) Kuriatnyk, a digital marketing expert with 18+ years in enterprise B2B marketing, most recently as head of marketing at SPD Technology.
My work has reached buyers at Bosch, T-Mobile, Kellogg’s and the U.S. Air Force. Content I led has been cited by Verizon Business, GoDaddy and the BBC. The Digital Bloom holds a 5.0 rating on Clutch, is listed as a Top Digital Marketing, SEO and Content Marketing Company in Portugal for 2026, and ranked #5 for International SEO in Canada in May 2026. I also built , a page-by-page SEO audit tool.
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
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My certifications
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Ready to put a senior marketer on your pipeline number?
I will tell you within the first ten minutes whether a fractional CMO is the right model for your company, and if it is not, which service page to read instead. No deck, no proposal theater.
Or email vlad@thedigitalbloom.com. Read the B2B Marketing KPIs guide while you wait.
Fractional CMO FAQ
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who leads your marketing part-time, usually one to three days a week, on a monthly retainer. You get CMO-level strategy, pipeline ownership, team management and board reporting without a full-time salary.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Fractional CMO cost typically runs from $5,000 per month in the US and EU. My engagements start at $1,500 per month. Price depends on days per week, the size of the team and vendor roster I manage, and whether execution is included.
How many hours a week does a fractional CMO work?
Most fractional CMO engagements run 8 to 24 hours a week, which is one to three working days. I set fixed days so your team knows when I am available. Between those days I stay reachable on Slack for decisions that cannot wait.
Fractional CMO vs. marketing agency: which do I need?
Hire a fractional CMO if nobody in your company owns the marketing strategy and the pipeline number. Hire an agency if you already have a leader and need execution in a specific channel. Many of my clients have both: I set the direction and manage the agencies against it.
When should a SaaS company hire a fractional CMO?
The usual trigger is $2M to $5M ARR, when founder-led marketing stops scaling and a full-time CMO is not yet justified. Other triggers: your first marketing leader just left, you are raising a round and need a credible growth story, or you have three agencies and no one measuring them.
What does a fractional CMO do in the first 90 days?
In the first 30 days I audit pipeline data, positioning, channels and team, and deliver a written diagnosis. By day 45 you have a 90-day roadmap with a pipeline target and owners. Days 45 to 90 are execution: fixing attribution, stopping what does not work, and launching the first two or three programs.
Do you manage our existing agencies and freelancers?
Yes. Managing vendors is a core part of the role. I write deliverables and KPIs for each agency, run their monthly reviews, and replace the ones that do not perform. Most companies I join are overpaying at least one vendor.
Can a fractional CMO work with a founder who still runs sales?
Yes, and it is the most common setup at the startup stage. I build the pipeline model with the founder, agree on lead definitions, and set up the handoff from marketing to sales. My job is to make sure the founder’s calendar fills with the right accounts, and that we both see the same numbers.
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing consultant?
A marketing consultant diagnoses and recommends; a fractional CMO owns the result. As a consultant I deliver an audit and a roadmap, and your team executes. As a fractional CMO I run the team, manage the budget and report the pipeline number. If you want a plan, start with . If you want someone accountable for the number, hire a fractional CMO.
What is a fractional head of marketing?
A fractional head of marketing is the same model at a slightly lower level. The role usually runs the marketing team day to day without the board-facing and fundraising responsibilities of a CMO. For a company under $2M ARR, a fractional head of marketing is often the right first hire.