5 reasons why you should hire a virtual CMO

Simply put, a virtual CMO is someone who can help discover new opportunities at an executive level. Hiring a virtual CMO provides a cost-effective way to improve your marketing efforts while still achieving your business goals.

First, a virtual CMO will assist in auditing your current business and marketing infrastructure. Once that’s complete, they’ll create a strategy outlining the steps and suggest the tools and software needed to achieve these objectives. When the plan is in place, the virtual CMO can manage and oversee the execution of the strategy, enabling you to benefit from the value of a senior marketing professional.  

Suppose your company decides to hire a virtual CMO. In that case, you can expect a fresh perspective with an outsiders view and an in-depth analysis of your marketing opportunities - something that almost all small to midsized businesses need. The ultimate goal for your virtual CMO is to drive revenue growth and increase the company’s brand awareness within your company’s industry, including inbound and outbound strategies.  

Whatever your business requirements, to get the most out of a virtual CMO, you must involve them with other management sessions, getting them to speak with other executives within the company to create a synergy between marketing and business departments.  

1. Cost efficiency 

You might be thinking, “Well why don’t I just hire an in-house executive leader as a solution?” As tempting as that may be, careful consideration needs to be carried out regarding the salary expectations of this individual and their experience.  

Many businesses in the ‘scaling up’ stages of their business growth often see this as a potential option, but it is a financial burden. It would be hard to justify a full-time CMO whilst the company is still growing. By outsourcing to a virtual CMO, you can agree on a contract and how many days/hours this person would be needed in line with your marketing objectives, making this a much more cost-effective and efficient approach.  

By potentially saving money that would go towards a full-time salary, it allows you to invest in other areas of marketing such as tools and software to help generate growth.  

According to Deloitte’s outsourcing statistics report, the main reason businesses outsource is cost reduction (70%), followed by the second most popular reason, flexibility (40%).  

2. A wide array of expertise 

Businesses often hire junior-level staff to cut costs, but this can easily go side-ways.  

By hiring a virtual CMO you eliminate the lack of experience. How? An experienced virtual CMO has vast expertise in the field, but they will also have a huge contact list full of experts within particular areas, such as web design, SEO, PPC etc. With all these resources at hand, the experienced CMO can bring everything and execute a marketing strategy.  

3. Unaffected by workplace conditions 

The best part of hiring a virtual CMO is that the individual can start right away. Of course, there is always a short period of learning new processes, however, there’s no need for this person to communicate with HR, discuss pensions or go through a company onboarding process.  

Without these distractions combined with their years of experience, it will correlate to a more prosperous and consistent marketing strategy execution. As a business owner, you can continue doing what you do best whilst your new virtual CMO gets to work on your behalf. 

4. Accountability  

One of the biggest issues for business owners is knowing what everybody is working on and when tasks will be completed. When you set out to work with a virtual CMO, you will have discussed what they can do, how they can do it and how long it will take. The scope of work is already decided or can be factored in, leaving you with more confidence that you don’t have to micromanage.  

It’s worth noting that virtual CMO’s tend to work on flexible contracts, with an option to extend depending on the project, which clearly outlines the number of hours they’ll complete and the deliverables you should expect. We would recommend finding a virtual CMO that don’t have rigid retainers that keeps you locked in.  

Remember that the virtual CMO’s role is to help identify the gaps in your marketing, build up the strategy, and then manage its execution. Therefore, day-to-day work will be completed alongside your existing marketing team if you have one in-house. If not, they’ll be able to recommend and source specialists in all areas of marketing.  

5. Mentorship 

This can provide additional benefits when recruiting new staff within the same department, where your virtual CMO will be able to guide on the type of person your business should be hiring.  

So should you hire a Virtual CMO? 

If you’re considering whether to hire a virtual CMO due to financial reasons, then the answer is yes. A contracted executive-level CMO is a great solution for SMEs that cannot afford to pay a full-time in-house CMO. 

If time is the reason, then the answer is also yes. Marketing is a skill that takes years to learn and execute successfully; therefore, a CMO is vital to the growth of your business.  

Did you know? 

Did you know? Carter Consulting can help you discover your marketing goals and become your marketing function of the business. As your virtual CMO, we will identify the key marketing activities that your business would benefit from and prioritise strategically.

Speak to us today by booking a discovery call so that we can understand your requirements.