As both the head of a fractional marketing agency and a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), I wear two distinctly different hats. But they’re completely synergistic. My experience as a CEO shapes how I approach marketing, and it makes me a much more effective CMO on behalf of Marketri’s clients. 

While every good CMO might not have been a CEO, if you partner with a strategist who THINKS like one, you’ll get much better results and a higher ROI on your marketing spend. Here’s how I view this unique, must-have professional.  

A CEO-Minded Marketer is Unfailingly Proactive 

As a CEO, you have a lot on your mind. I know from experience! We business owners are constantly thinking about all the functional areas of the company and hyper-focused on making the most informed strategic decisions.  

You don’t have the mind space to worry about marketing. And since it’s not your business’s core competency, you shouldn’t have to.  

If you’re always wondering how your marketing is performing, how your buyer’s behavior is changing, or whether you should be pivoting your strategy to stay ahead of the curve, your CMO isn’t doing their job. CEO-minded marketers like me continually present new ideas, insights, and recommendations designed to improve your marketing results. No need for you to ask about or even think about it. 

A CEO-Minded Marketer is Measurement Focused 

I live and breathe the data of running my company. Just like you, I need to know how we’re performing against our targets, with plenty of notice to adjust as needed. So, I get your penchant for measurement, especially when it comes to marketing.  

The business owners we work with need to know their marketing investment is paying off. And they want more than vanity metrics: Rising website traffic is nice. But what really matters is whether your pipeline is filling with more ideal buyers, your leads are converting to customers, and your revenue and profits are growing. 

As a CMO and a CEO, I don’t just report on which deliverables we completed each month or spout off marketing metrics. I monitor and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your business goals. And I tell you what you truly want to know: Is your marketing driving predictable, profitable revenue growth? 

A CEO-Minded Marketer Knows It’s Just One Spoke on the Wheel 

As a business owner, I know that our own agency’s marketing doesn’t exist in a vacuum: It both affects and is affected by every other area of the business. To maintain a healthy company, it’s important that our marketing spend is predictable, our new business forecasts are accurate, and our cash flow can support the planned marketing initiatives. 

When I’m wearing the Fractional CMO hat, I bring the same mindset to the job.     

My team and I focus on helping B2B companies budget for marketing with confidence and forecast how the pipeline will build and revenue will grow as a result of our efforts. We respect the work of the other parts of the business that impact marketing, and we build strong relationships with those functions to ensure it’s all working holistically. 

A CEO-Minded Marketer Understands That All New Business Isn’t Equal 

Much as you might like to serve every prospect that comes along, some just aren’t a good fit. That’s especially the case in professional services, where the wrong client can over-tax your resources and weigh on your profitability.  

You need your marketing to attract the ideal client profile to your revenue funnel and fill your pipeline with the right leads—not just any leads. As the owner of a professional services firm, I view new business through the same lens.  

I understand that scoring a new client isn’t a win unless it’s a good fit for both parties. That’s why my team and I help B2B companies figure out what their ideal buyer looks and thinks like, create personas that define those buyers at a deep level, and craft marketing strategies and plans to attract the right customers. It’s the only way to build a pipeline of leads that convert to the type of customer you really want to work with. 

A CEO-Minded Marketer is Purposefully Strategic 

Business owners don’t want to invest in an arbitrary list of disconnected marketing tactics with no strategy behind them. Because they know that these activities don’t drive growth. It’s the very definition of throwing money away. 

As the CEO of a marketing strategy consulting firm, I appreciate the importance of building a business on a solid strategic foundation. And when it comes to guiding B2B companies, that means understanding the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Assessing the competitive landscape. Digging deep to uncover what makes your service unique and how it can solve customer challenges. Then building a marketing strategy grounded in the data, always laddering up to your business goals. 

A CMO who thinks like a CEO also gets that the marketing strategy needs to stay agile, especially in times of change and uncertainty—whether it’s the impact of tariffs or the threat of new entrants using AI to disrupt entire industries. That’s why I lead our teams to monitor every client’s landscape, spot emerging trends, and advise them on both the small incremental adjustments and the big transformational changes that will keep their business growing.  

A CEO-Minded Marketer is Driven to Innovate 

Somewhere out there is an entrepreneur developing an innovative solution that could render your product obsolete. Or at the very least, steal a big chunk of your market share.  

The marketing field is no different. In fact, it’s changing at a dizzying speed. If our fractional marketing agency doesn’t keep innovating, we won’t stay relevant. That’s one reason I’ve set Marketri on a course to be the top AI-forward agency: operationalizing this technology to create the most effective, efficient marketing for the B2B companies that partner with us. 

The same quest to innovate drives me and my team to stay current on the constant changes that impact our clients’ marketing: How your B2B buyer’s behavior is changing. How AI-native platforms are transforming the way your buyers conduct online searches. And how the new zero-click behavior is altering the way buyers interact with your brand.  

It’s never been more complicated to attract ideal buyers and move them through their journey. And there’s no single right answer. But a CMO who thinks like a business owner will keep innovating to ensure your marketing is optimized for whatever tomorrow brings. 

Marketri’s entire philosophy and approach are shaped by my experience as a business owner, not just a marketer.  

I’ve sat in your seat. I know what CEOs want from marketing. And that not only makes me a stronger Fractional CMO partner to B2B companies. It ensures I’m infusing CEO-like thinking into everything we do, across the entire Marketri team. 

Our clients get better marketing ROI as a result. And we can do the same for you. 

Schedule a free consultation to learn how the combination of my CEO perspective and our fractional marketing services will drive predictable, profitable growth for your business.  

This post originally featured on LinkedIn’s The Fractional Marketer by Deb Andrews