Senior marketing leadership

Fractional CMO services

A senior marketing leader who sets the strategy and stays to lead the work that comes after it. Strategy first, then the marketing built on it, by one senior team.

From $7,000 a month, three-month minimum

Book a free fit call or see both tiers
Brian Murnion leading a marketing strategy session at a whiteboard
Brian Murnion, founder and chief strategist, and the person who would be your fractional CMO

$270K+

All-in cost of a full-time CMO, often closer to $320K

50 to 75%

What companies save going fractional instead

3 mo

Minimum to start, and most engagements go a year or more

Forbes

Featured in Forbes

Two ways to engage

Fractional CMO pricing and tiers

Both start with a three-month minimum. Plan for longer, because a rebuilt strategy takes six to twelve months to show up in lead volume and close rates.

Tier one

Fractional CMO

$7,000 / month

Three-month minimum

For companies that already have people doing the marketing but no senior leader setting the direction.

  • Brand positioning and the marketing strategy that follows from it
  • A clear plan and priorities your team can work from
  • Leadership of your existing people and any agencies you already use
  • A senior person in the room for the decisions that matter
  • Direction every month, rather than a deck that gathers dust
Book a fit call

Tier two

Fractional CMO and Team

$13,000 / month

Three-month minimum

For companies without the bench, or whose growth has flattened and who want us running the marketing rather than directing someone else’s team.

  • Everything in the Fractional CMO tier
  • Our team executing the marketing underneath the strategy
  • Design, web, SEO, paid media, email, and content as the plan calls for
  • One senior group from strategy through production, with no vendor handoff
  • The on-ramp to a full Let’s Canoe engagement when you’re ready
Book a fit call

The market rate

What a fractional CMO costs in 2026

Published 2026 rates put strategy-only leadership between $8,000 and $15,000 a month, and leadership with an execution team between $15,000 and $25,000. Here is where we sit against that.

What you’re buyingTypical 2026 rateLet’s Canoe
Senior marketing leadership, strategy and direction $8,000 to $15,000 a month $7,000 a month
Leadership plus a team executing underneath it $15,000 to $25,000 a month $13,000 a month
Average hourly consulting rate $200 to $350 an hour $185 an hour
Full-time CMO, salary and benefits $270,000 to $320,000 a year $84,000 a year at Tier one

We price below the band on purpose. A senior-led agency can carry a fractional CMO seat at these numbers because the same team already does the work underneath it, so we’re not marking up a subcontractor. Both tiers are flat monthly retainers, so you know the number before you start and it doesn’t move with the hours in a given week.

The comparison

Fractional CMO vs. marketing agency

Nearly every article on this question lands in the same place: hire the CMO, then let them manage an agency underneath. That means two vendors and a handoff between them. Here’s the honest read on all four options.

Fractional CMO alone Marketing agency alone A CMO plus a separate agency Let’s Canoe
Who sets the strategy The CMO Nobody, or the client by default The CMO The CMO, who is also on the work
Who does the work Your team, if you have one The agency The agency, managed by the CMO The same senior team
When it stalls The plan was right, nobody executed Execution was fine, aimed at the wrong thing Each side points at the other One group owns both halves
Ramp time Weeks Weeks Twice, once for each vendor Once
Monthly cost $8,000 to $15,000 Varies by scope Both, added together $7,000 or $13,000
Best when You have a capable team and no leader Your strategy is settled and working You need scale one vendor can’t cover Growth has flattened and you need both halves fixed

Three of these four are the right answer for somebody: an agency when your strategy is settled and working, or a fractional CMO on its own when you have a strong team that only needs direction. The pair is the expensive one. You pay two retainers, you onboard twice, and part of what you pay the CMO for goes to managing the other vendor.

The role

What a fractional CMO actually does

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with you part time, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. The job is the same as a full-time CMO: own the marketing strategy, set the priorities, lead the people and the spend, and stay accountable for whether marketing brings in customers. The difference is the hours and the price, not the seniority.

In practice that means deciding what the brand stands for and who it’s for, turning that into a plan the company can work from, and leading the execution so the plan survives contact with reality. A good fractional CMO also tells you what not to do, and that call is worth more than the next campaign. The point is direction from someone who has done it before, without a permanent six-figure seat on the payroll.

This is the Let’s Canoe Framework applied to a leadership seat. If your growth has flattened, the gap between the strategy and the execution is where it stalled, and our growth gap calculator is a quick way to see the size of it before we ever talk.

The math

Fractional CMO vs. a full-time CMO

A full-time CMO is a major commitment before you know it’s working. A fractional one gives you the senior thinking now, on a three-month start instead of a multi-year contract.

The role is the same and the commitment is not. A full-time chief marketing officer costs $270,000 or more once you add salary, bonus, and benefits, and the search alone takes six to nine months. You’re committing to that number before you know whether the strategy works.

A fractional CMO does the same strategic job part time. You get the positioning, the plan, the priorities, and the leadership, and you find out inside a quarter whether it’s the right direction. If it is, you keep going. If it isn’t, you haven’t put a permanent executive on the payroll to find out.

For most companies between $1M and $50M in revenue, that math is straightforward. Below that range a strong marketing manager covers it. Above it, a full-time seat starts to make sense.

Tier one, annualized

$84,000

against $270,000 to $320,000 for the full-time seat

Roughly a quarter of the cost for the senior thinking, with no headcount, no benefits, and no nine-month search.

The engagement

How a fractional CMO engagement works

Month one

Find the constraint

The first weeks are diagnosis. We look at where growth is actually stuck, whether that’s the brand, the reach, or the offer, and name the one thing to fix first instead of trying to fix everything at once.

Months one and two

Set the direction

Positioning decided and written down, then a marketing roadmap built on top of it with clear priorities. You and your team leave with a direction you can defend, rather than a list of tactics.

Month three onward

Lead it month to month

Direction every month, leading your team or ours. Lead volume, lead quality, and close rates move somewhere in the six to twelve month range, which is why we recommend planning past the three-month minimum.

Company size

When to hire a fractional CMO for a small business

Most fractional CMO engagements sit between roughly $1M and $50M in revenue, and the strongest fit is the lower half of that range. A founder-led company doing a few million with no senior marketing leader is a good candidate, because the owner is making marketing calls between everything else.

Below about $1M, a capable marketing manager covers it and the money is better spent on execution. Above $50M, a full-time seat starts to pay for itself. In between is where you need senior strategy and a permanent executive is hard to justify.

Signs you’re ready

  • Growth has flattened while spend keeps going up
  • Marketing feels scattered and reactive
  • Your team is busy without a clear direction
  • Sales and marketing are not aligned
  • You can’t say in one sentence what makes you different

Where we are

Fractional CMO services in Montana

We work from our office in downtown Billings, and we lead marketing for companies across Montana and the Mountain West. In-state clients get in-person time when the work calls for it, which matters more in the first month than it does later.

Montana companies hit the fractional CMO decision for a particular reason. The senior marketing talent pool here is thin, so a full-time CMO means recruiting from out of state and paying to relocate them, or settling for someone more junior than the job needs. A fractional seat gets you the senior judgment without either problem.

We also work with clients well outside the state. Engagements are remote-first with on-site work when it makes sense, and where you’re located matters less than whether the marketing problem is one we’re the right team to lead.

Billings Bozeman Missoula Kalispell Great Falls Helena Sheridan, WY Nationwide, remote-first

Who you would work with

Who your fractional CMO would be

I’ve been leading marketing strategy for twenty years. As your fractional CMO, I’m the one in the room, not an account manager relaying decisions from someone you never meet. We take a limited number of engagements at a time so it stays that way.

If the fit is right, the fastest start is a short call. If it isn’t, I’ll tell you that too, and point you somewhere useful.

Brian Murnion, founder and chief strategist

Book a free fit call Call 406-998-7901
Brian Murnion, founder and chief strategist of Let's Canoe

Next step

Senior marketing leadership, without the full-time seat

Start with a free fit call. We’ll talk through where growth is stuck, tell you honestly whether a fractional CMO is the right move, and recommend a tier if it is. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.

Book a free fit call or call 406-998-7901

Questions

Fractional CMO FAQ

Common questions about what a fractional CMO is, what one costs, and when to hire. If yours isn’t here, book a free fit call, and we’ll answer it.

Fractional CMO basics

What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your company part time instead of as a full-time hire. You get chief marketing officer experience, setting strategy, leading the team, and owning results, for a fraction of the cost and hours of a permanent executive. It’s a common choice for companies that need senior direction but don’t yet need, or can’t yet justify, a full-time CMO.
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO owns your marketing strategy and leadership. That means defining your brand positioning and audience, turning it into a plan with clear priorities, leading the people and agencies who execute, managing the budget, and staying accountable for whether marketing brings in customers. A good one also tells you what to stop doing, and that matters more than the next campaign.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a full-time CMO?
The role is the same, the commitment is not. A full-time CMO is a permanent executive on your payroll at $270,000 or more all in. A fractional CMO does the same strategic job part time, for a fraction of the cost, on a short minimum instead of a long-term contract. You trade hours per week for flexibility and a much lower commitment while you prove the value.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing consultant?
A consultant diagnoses and advises, then hands you a report to act on. A fractional CMO takes ownership: they set the strategy and then lead it month to month, including the team and the execution. A consultant tells you what to do, and a fractional CMO stays and makes sure it happens.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?
An agency executes campaigns. A fractional CMO sets the direction those campaigns should follow and decides whether they’re working. Most companies eventually need both, which means two retainers and a CMO spending part of their hours managing the other vendor. Let’s Canoe is unusual because we provide the leadership and the execution team together, so the strategy and the work stay with one senior group.
Is a fractional CMO the same as an interim CMO?
Not quite. An interim CMO is a full-time, temporary placeholder while you search for a permanent hire, on a set number of months. A fractional CMO is an ongoing, part-time arrangement that can last as long as it’s useful. Interim is a stopgap, and fractional is a deliberate way to get senior leadership without a full-time seat.
How many hours a week does a fractional CMO work?
It varies with the engagement, but strategic fractional CMO work runs around 10 to 15 hours a week, or a few days a month. The hours matter less than the seniority of the decisions. You’re paying for judgment and direction rather than a seat filled forty hours a week.
What does CMO stand for?
CMO stands for chief marketing officer, the executive responsible for a company’s entire marketing function: strategy, brand, demand, team, and budget. A fractional CMO holds that same responsibility on a part-time basis.

Cost and engagement

How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Published 2026 rates run from about $8,000 to $15,000 a month for strategy and leadership, and $15,000 to $25,000 when an execution team comes with it. Hourly arrangements, where they’re offered, run $200 to $350 an hour. Our two tiers sit below both bands at $7,000 and $13,000 a month.
How much does a fractional CMO cost at Let’s Canoe?
Two tiers. Fractional CMO is $7,000 a month: strategy, priorities, and leadership of your existing team. Fractional CMO and Team is $13,000 a month: the same leadership plus our team executing the marketing underneath it. Both run on a three-month minimum, and most engagements go a year or more.
Why do you price below the market rate?
Because the same senior team that would lead your marketing also does the work underneath it. We aren’t marking up a subcontractor or carrying the overhead of a firm that only sells leadership, so the seat costs less to provide. The price reflects how we’re built rather than a discount.
Why is there a three-month minimum?
Because anything shorter is a setup for failure. The first few weeks go to diagnosis and setting direction, which means real momentum doesn’t arrive until after that. Three months is the floor where the work can start to compound rather than stopping right as it begins.
How long before I see results?
Six to twelve months on average. Positioning and a rebuilt plan need a few cycles before lead volume, lead quality, and close rates move. Three months proves the fit and the direction, and the results build from there. Anyone promising a turnaround in one quarter is selling you tactics.
Is a fractional CMO cheaper than a full-time CMO?
Yes, significantly. A full-time CMO costs $270,000 or more once you include salary, bonus, and benefits. Our Tier one runs $84,000 a year for the same strategic leadership, which is roughly a quarter of the cost. For most companies under $50M in revenue, the math strongly favors fractional.
What is included in the monthly rate?
At the Fractional CMO tier, you get the strategy, the plan, the priorities, and senior leadership of your existing team and agencies. At the Fractional CMO and Team tier, you also get our team executing the marketing, across design, web, SEO, paid media, email, and content as the plan calls for. There are no per-deliverable surprises inside the retainer.
Do you require a long contract?
No. The minimum is three months, and after that it continues month to month for as long as it’s useful. We’d rather earn the next month than lock you into a year. Results take six to twelve months on average, so plan past the minimum, but the commitment itself stays short.
How is a fractional CMO billed?
We bill a flat monthly retainer, so the cost is predictable and you’re not watching a clock. You know the number before you start, and it doesn’t move with the hours in a given week. That keeps the focus on outcomes and direction rather than time sheets.
What is the return on a fractional CMO?
The return shows up in two places: money you don’t spend and growth you don’t miss. You avoid a six-figure full-time salary while still getting senior direction, and you stop spending marketing budget on tactics that were never going to work without a strategy underneath them. The clearest return is the campaigns and hires a fractional CMO talks you out of.

Is a fractional CMO right for you

When should I hire a fractional CMO?
Hire one when you need senior marketing direction but don’t need, or can’t yet justify, a full-time CMO. Common triggers: growth has stalled, marketing feels scattered and reactive, you’re spending on tactics with no strategy underneath, or your team is capable but has no senior leader. If marketing is happening but not compounding, that’s the moment.
What are the signs I need a fractional CMO?
A few common ones: campaigns feel disconnected, more spend isn’t producing more leads, your team is busy without a clear direction, sales and marketing aren’t aligned, or you can’t say in one sentence what makes you different. Any of these points to a missing strategic leader rather than a missing tactic.
What size company needs a fractional CMO?
Most fractional CMO engagements sit between roughly $1M and $50M in revenue. Below that, a strong marketing manager covers it. Above that, a full-time CMO starts to make sense. In between is the range where you need senior strategy but a permanent executive is hard to justify.
Do small businesses need a fractional CMO?
Some do. A founder-led company doing a few million in revenue with no senior marketing leader is a strong fit, because the owner is making marketing calls between everything else. A fractional CMO takes that off their plate and brings direction the business has never had. Very early or pre-revenue companies are better served by a capable marketer first.
Can a fractional CMO help a company whose growth has stalled?
Yes, and that’s one of the most common reasons companies call. A plateau looks like a tactics problem and is almost always a strategy problem. The levers got pulled, the spend went up, and the line stayed flat. A fractional CMO finds the actual constraint, whether it’s the brand, the reach, or the offer, and rebuilds the plan around it. Our growth gap calculator is a fast first look.
Does a fractional CMO work for B2B companies?
Yes. B2B is one of the most common settings for fractional marketing leadership, because the sales cycles are long, the positioning is subtle, and the cost of an unclear message is high. A fractional CMO brings the senior judgment to align marketing with how your buyers actually decide.
Does a fractional CMO work for ecommerce and consumer brands?
Yes. Ecommerce and consumer brands benefit from a fractional CMO when the brand needs to stand for something beyond price and the channels need a strategy tying them together. The work covers positioning, retention, and the full funnel rather than chasing one more ad platform.
Do I need a fractional CMO if I already have a marketing team?
Yes, in most of the cases we see. A capable team without senior direction stays busy without compounding, because nobody is setting the strategy or saying no to the wrong work. A fractional CMO gives that team a leader, which makes the people you already have more effective rather than replacing them.
Should I hire a fractional CMO or a marketing manager?
They solve different problems. A marketing manager executes the plan, and a fractional CMO decides what the plan should be. If you have people who can do the work but no one setting the direction, you need the CMO. If you have a clear strategy and need hands to run it, you need a manager. Many companies need the strategist first, then hire the manager to carry out what the strategist set up.

Working with Let’s Canoe

What are your two fractional CMO tiers?
Fractional CMO at $7,000 a month is strategy, priorities, and leadership of your existing team. Fractional CMO and Team at $13,000 a month adds our team executing the marketing underneath the strategy. The first is for companies with people to lead, and the second is for companies that want it both directed and run.
Will my fractional CMO also handle execution?
That’s the choice between our two tiers. At the Fractional CMO tier, we set and lead the strategy and your team executes. At Fractional CMO and Team, our group executes the marketing too, so the strategy and the work stay under one roof with no vendor handoff. Most companies whose growth has stalled choose the second.
What if I only need strategy, not execution?
Then the Fractional CMO tier is the fit. You get the positioning, the plan, the priorities, and a senior leader for your existing team and agencies, without paying for execution you don’t need. If the work later calls for more hands, moving up a tier is straightforward.
What happens in the first 30 days?
Diagnosis first. We look at where growth is actually stuck and name the single most important thing to fix, rather than trying to fix everything. From there we set the positioning and the early priorities, so by the end of the first month you have a direction you can defend.
Who will I actually work with?
Brian Murnion, our founder and chief strategist, leads the engagement directly. There’s no account manager relaying decisions from someone you never meet. We take a limited number of engagements at a time so the senior person stays on the work from start to finish.
How is Let’s Canoe’s fractional CMO different?
Two things. We’re founder-led, so the person setting your strategy is the one you talk to. And we’re a brand agency that leads with strategy, so we provide the leadership and the execution team together instead of pointing you to outside vendors. The strategy and the work stay with one senior group, which is where most fractional arrangements break down.
Do you work with clients outside Montana?
Yes. We’re based in Billings, Montana, and work with clients across the country. Engagements run remote-first, with on-site work when it makes sense. Where you’re located matters less than whether the marketing problem is one we’re the right team to lead.
How do we get started?
With a short, free fit call. We talk through where growth is stuck and whether a fractional CMO is the right answer for you right now. If it is, we’ll recommend a tier and a starting point. If it isn’t, we’ll say so. No pressure either way.

A brand agency in Billings, Montana. We set the brand strategy, then build the marketing on top of it, with one senior team from strategy through production.

406-998-7901
team@letscanoe.com
119 N 29th St, Billings, MT 59101

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