Independent Marketing Manager – The Fractional CMO for Your SME
Get a marketing manager for your business, hired part-time as an independent contractor.
Are Your Marketing Ducks In A Row?
Let's Find Out! Get your free copy of this ebook today!
Schedule a Free Initial 1-Hour Consultation
Digital marketing tends to have a lot of technical jargon and the internet is massive, so it can feel overwhelming. We can help you figure out what you need with a no-pressure, one-hour consultation. Schedule your free consultation today.
The Fractional CMO for SMEs
Independent Marketing Manager Service, in Gilbert, AZ and nationwide
Within the lifespan of a small to medium enterprise (SME), there is a stage where the business needs to hire a marketing manager, but the business is not big enough to hire one full time on the payroll. So what can a business owner do if they know they need someone besides themselves to manage the marketing, whether it’s due to the business growing or simply because they don’t want to handle the marketing since it’s not their expertise? An Independent Marketing Manager is the solution. This is a marketing manager hired part-time as an independent contractor.
Hiring a part-time executive for a business is not a new strategy. In the corporate world this position would be called a “Frational CMO”, which is a part-time Chief Marketing Officer. Yet, Mirex Marketing serves small to medium-sized businesses, so we prefer not to use a term that sounds so corporate. An Independent Marketing Manager or Fractional Marketing Manager is the “fractional CMO” for SMEs.
Why Hire A Fractional Marketing Manger:
Hiring a Fractional Marketing Manager does not have to happen at a specific level of revenue or when you’ve hired a specific number of employees. Or in other words, there’s no specific guideline for how big your business has to be, and that’s one of the major benefits of the service – its very flexible. It can happen any time you decide that you need someone in this position for your business to grow, and you don’t want to handle the marketing because you are engaged with other business operations.
While there is no specific business size that can benefit from an Independent Marketing Manager, here are some guidelines that may help indicate when it is needed:
- Business owner is wearing too many hats
- Marketing starts to get ignored when business increases, then you refocus on marketing when business decreases, creating an uncomfortable lag, and dips and peaks in sales.
- Business has tried different marketing attempts one channel at a time without optimizing the entire customer journey or having a plan to optimize a complete marketing mix.
- The business has 2 or more marketing channels in their marketing mix and they’re not sure if those channels are working or which one is working.
- Business has multiple marketing people or agencies working for them but they don’t have a consistent, branded approach.
- Business has technical people performing creative tasks or vice versa.
- Business has a poor presence online (website, local business listings, social media, advertising, etc.).
- Business owner and other decision makers have an antiquated view of marketing or are afraid of digital marketing because they don’t understand the technology and how it all works together.
- Business has reached an impasse for growth.
- Business owner is planning to sell the business within the next 3-5 years and wants to ensure that the brand, website, digital presence and overall marketability of the business is optimized for a maximum sale.
It is proven that delegation, outsourcing and automation are the keys to growth in any business. Hiring a Fractional or Independent Marketing Manager can help ensure that all three are utilized effectively to help grow your business while alleviating some of the pressure of marketing off your shoulders.
What is included with an Independent Marketing Manager Service?
The Independent Marketing Manager Service can be tailored to fit the needs of your business. The level or volume of marketing operations will depend on your goals and budget. Yet, in general a marketing manager will provide the following for your business:
- Review and possibly refine the brand and overall marketing message for the business. The Marketing Manager will learn this brand to ensure that multi-channel marketing has consistent branding.
- Review intake operations and the current setup of the organization’s CRM. If it’s a sales-based organization then the Marketing Manager will work closely with the Sales Manager to help ensure that leads fit the sales pipeline process.
- Help set up email marketing, text messaging, website chat, and AI tools to help optimize remarketing and customer intake.
- Review the business website to ensure that it is optimized for conversions so that any marketing which drives traffic to the website is more efficient.
- Set up tracking and analytics for the website and all marketing channels to track traffic sources, website activity, and leads.
- Act as a creative director or will work with your creative director to ensure that all marketing collateral is on-brand. Most paid advertising channels will have the cost of the creative worked into their service. Where creative services are lacking in those channels the Mirex Marketing creative team can step in, often at no additional cost with the Marketing Management Service.
- Work with you, the business owner, and other decision makers in the business to create seasonal promotions, set marketing goals within an alotted budget, and review those goals and progress on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Obviously, more management is needed with the more marketing channels the business is utilizing, larger marketing teams, and the higher the marketing budget, and the less marketing operations that the business has the less management is needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Independent Marketing Manager or Fractional Marketing Manager service cost?
That depends on how well your marketing is set up currently, the size of your business, the size of your entire marketing team, and the volume of your marketing operations. It can range between $500-$5,000 per month. At the high end of that spectrum, $5,000 per month would be a true “part-time” team member of your business, dedicating 15 hours a week in your business to manage the marketing operations. If your business needs more than that then it might be time to think about hiring a Marketing Director that can work full time.
Many small businesses, with around 5-20 employees and utilizing 3-4 marketing channels can effectively use a Marketing Management service between $500-$1,000 per month, especially if Mirex Marketing is providing other services like digital ad campaign management.
Do I get to pick who the Marketing Manager is or does Mirex Marketing just assign one?
Currently Mirex Marketing has one individual can that fill this role. Of course you can have a free consultation to determine if this individual is right for your business. He comes highly experienced and qualified as the owner and operator of Mirex Marketing for over 10 years with multiple annual certifications and training.
My business already has a marketing manager; are there other roles on a marketing team that you can provide?
Absolutely. Mirex Marketing offers marketing consultations for any custom needs that your business might have. Mirex Marketing can also offer the positions of Fractional Digital Manager or Creative Director. All other positions would be included with any particular marketing service that you might be getting, such as the Webmaster Service or Digital Ad Campaign Manager.
If I use Mirex Marketing for digital marketing, do I still need a Marketing Manager or the Independent Marketing Manager Service?
Depending on the needs of your business and your marketing goals, the Mirex Marketing team can be your entire marketing team, or we can be part of your team. Any particular service will only provide what is in the scope of that service. Whether you have a team to manage or additional needs beyond what included with a particular service, the Marketing Manager service helps cover the whole field of play, instead of just one or two bases.
You can be the marketing manager for own business or have a marketing director to watch the elements of your marketing that are not included in any particular service, or Mirex Marketing can provide both marketing management and the services you’re interested in. Here are some examples to help answer this question:
You hire Mirex Marketing to provide digital ad campaign management. This includes built-in tracking and metrics for the ad campaign itself. It does not include setting up Google Analytics for your website to track traffic sources and website engagement. Mirex Marketing can set up Google Analytics as a stand-alone service or as part of the Marketing Management service.
You hire Mirex Marketing for online presence and digital advertising, but you’re also interested in running print ads and you have another agency doing Public Relations. Who is going to set up tracking for your offline or PR activity and help monitor the results?
Your business is growing and you’ve hired a social media manager. Until now your social media manager could handle odds and ends for your marketing but now you need a more consice team approach.
You have Mirex Marketing managing your website while you manage your CRM and ecommerce platform, but you’re not sure what promotions to offer seasonally and you need someone to help write your blogs. Asking Mirex Marketing to provide additional favors as your webmaster is called “scope creap” within the industry, and with the Independent Marketing Manager service there is no scope creap. You would have a manager to help make sure everything gets done.
Better Business Growth
The benefits of the Independent Marketing Manager Service
If you’re ready for your business to grow with a more complete marketing team, then consider these benefits of the Independent Marketing Manager Service:
Alleviates Pressure
You focus on the areas of business where you want to work, and let us handle the marketing.
Maintain Branding
Keep brand tone and a consistent marketing message across multiple marketing channels.
More Consistent Growth
Grow the business gradually with more consistency and less lags and dips in leads and sales.
Cross Channel Tracking
See which channels are working and which are not with multi-channel tracking.
Cover All The Bases
Cover the elements of your marketing that not included within the scope of current services.
Stay On Task
Monthly or quarterly marketing meetings keep the business on task for goals and seasons.
Why Choose Mirex Marketing to Manage Your Marketing?
When you choose Mirex, you are getting more than just a part-time manager—you are getting a partnership backed by a full creative and technical team.
- You get Personalized Service: Big agencies treat you like “just another account.” We provide the dedicated attention and expertise your business deserves.
- You get True Expertise: With over 10 years serving entrepreneurs and local businesses, we know what it takes to get found online and thrive.
- You get Full-Service Backing: If we identify a gap in your marketing, the Mirex Marketing team is ready to step in with our full suite of digital services—from business-grade WordPress website development to powerful SEO & Digital Advertising.
Ready for True Marketing Leadership?
It’s time to move beyond ad-hoc marketing and gain the strategic advantage you deserve.
Contact us today for a Free Initial Consultation. Let’s talk about how we can get customers to see that your business rocks!