Whatever your investment thesis, one fact is for certain: When your private equity (PE) group invests in a portfolio company, you expect to scale it significantly and quickly. You have various levers at your disposal. One of the most effective—yet, sometimes overlooked—is marketing. 

Many middle market companies get to the attractive target stage by leveraging the founder’s relationships, referrals and reputation. But that approach won’t drive the growth you’re looking for post-close. And while operational improvements can wring more profit out of the same revenue, it takes strategic, systematic, proactive marketing to boost the top line.  

Deploying a fractional marketing team is the most effective, efficient way to accelerate predictable growth and create greater value across your portfolio companies. It’s the secret weapon that helps you scale far beyond the limitations of traditional in-house marketing teams. 

Fractional Marketing Aligns with PE Goals 

Fractional marketing is the ideal antidote to what ails the marketing function at most middle market companies: Gaps in expertise, no agility to flex or adapt as conditions change, and insufficient infrastructure to support growth marketing. It’s typically a couple of marketing generalists with no background in strategy and no expertise in the specialty areas indispensable to modern marketing. 

Marketri’s fractional marketing model eliminates those common challenges, with an approach that’s tailor-made for PE portfolio companies: 

• Our flexible, scalable model provides access to the exact slice of marketing skillsets and expertise needed, without tying up budget on in-house positions the business doesn’t require full time. (So, you’re growing revenue without growing head count.)  

• It avoids the need to focus precious time and resource trying to attract and retain scarce marketing talent.  

• It brings a built-in sense of urgency, since an outsourced partner must drive measurable results if they expect to stay engaged. 

• And since fractional marketing allows portfolio companies to allocate more of their budget to marketing execution, it drives a predictable pipeline that fuels faster, higher growth. 

Fractional Marketing Adapts to Any PE Time Horizon 

Fractional marketing brings the flexibility to support different PE strategies and the agility to adapt to various investment timelines. 

For PE groups that plan to exit portfolio companies within 5 to 7 years: 

A fractional marketing team’s speed to execution is a major asset. A senior-level Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) conducts due diligence quickly and thoroughly, then creates a strategic go-to-market plan and compelling brand positioning that differentiates the company and its product/service. The fractional marketing team executes the plan flawlessly and with urgency, tapping the right specialists, applying best practices, and tracking against key performance indicators (KPIs) for high accountability. A tech-forward partner like Marketri can even help portfolio companies leverage AI to drive marketing efficiencies, and select and implement the right marketing technology to support ambitious growth.  

Once you divest the company or merge it into a larger organization, you have the flexibility to wind down the fractional marketing engagement if you choose.     

For PE groups with longer investment horizons: 

Fractional marketing offers the same flexibility and agility, and the same focus on building the foundation to support modern marketing that drives predictable growth. Then as the company matures, the fractional team can help the portfolio company transition to an in-house marketing team, getting the right talent in the right seats for the best ROI. 

Our “build, train, transfer” model provides the perfect runway to scale the business until you’re ready to exit. And if you plan to stay invested in a portfolio company longer and don’t intend to bring the marketing function fully in-house, that’s fine, too. The beauty of the fractional marketing model is its ability to flex with a PE group’s goals and strategy.   

Fractional Marketing Complements Value Creation 

A fractional marketing team is even equipped to help build greater value in a PE group’s portfolio companies. A Marketri Fractional CMO can serve as a member of the internal value creation team, bringing the benefit of their experience across a wide range of middle market companies. Our CMOs have helped many PE-backed businesses create greater value ahead of the next liquidity event—improving metrics that will matter to the next buyers, like deal velocity, average deal size, and customer acquisition cost (CAC). And as an AI-forward partner, we can help the value creation team operationalize AI across entire enterprises. 

A Fractional CMO is an especially valuable partner for PE value creation teams that want to assess the effectiveness of an internal marketing function. They can determine if the business has the right talent in place, with all the skillsets needed for strategic marketing. And they can evaluate the marketing tech stack and other foundational elements and recommend ways to scale this infrastructure to support aggressive growth.     

What Fractional Marketing Success Looks Like for a PE-backed Company 

Marketri’s experience with Cardiovascular Logistics (CVL) is a prime example of how fractional marketing helps PE-backed businesses get further, faster. 

CVL is a cardiovascular platform formed in 2023 when Lee Equity Partners joined forces with Cardiovascular Institute of the South. As a new entity, CVL had no internal marketing leaders and simply leaned on its individual practices to get basic marketing tasks done. There was no strategic positioning, no go-to-market plan, and no team of modern marketers to execute a comprehensive program. Meanwhile other platforms were entering the market, dialing up the competitive pressure. 

CVL hired Marketri as its fractional marketing partner in early 2024. We quickly created messaging that differentiated the brand, stood up a marketing tech stack, and developed strategic thought leadership and other engaging assets. All the innovative clinical work happening at the individual practices now served as proof points of CVL’s unique approach and vital mission.  

CVL now boasts five top-tier cardiology practices—including what was previously the largest independent cardiovascular practice in the US. Here’s what the head of business development had to say about our impact: “The Marketri Fractional CMO offering has been perfect for us as we have been able to leverage best-in-class expertise at a fraction of the cost of a full internal marketing function. They helped us develop a full strategy to build out our brand consistent with our deep-seated mission, vision and values. They got us firmly established as a social media powerhouse in our space, and their digital expertise and adoption of technology is superb. They also provided the tools to grow and expand our business in a strategic manner and the ability to measure results.”  

Successful PE Groups Partner with Marketri 

When you’re scaling a business on a defined timeline with limited resources, every day and every dollar counts. That’s what makes Marketri’s fractional marketing model ideal for PE groups. We provide the marketing strategy, execution, and measurement you need to scale your portfolio companies, without the big, risky FTE investment of a full internal team. 

Marketri customizes every marketing plan to the business’s goals and needs, but we also leverage a playbook of best practices proven to drive revenue and generate predictable growth. We become the PE group’s growth partner, developing and executing a strategic go-to-market plan that scales your portfolio companies faster, more effectively, and with more agility. 

Whether you’re six months post-close or 18 months from exit, now is the time to invest in a marketing engine that drives measurable, top-line growth. Fractional marketing gives you the speed, flexibility, and results your portfolio companies need to outperform.

Schedule a consultation to find out how Marketri can turn your portfolio company marketing into a strategic lever that drives higher, faster growth.