Marketing / Fractional CMOUpdated July 2026

We build your marketing engine.

We don't rent it back to you. A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who joins part-time, sets the strategy, and installs the system your marketing runs on: positioning, channels, content workflows, and reporting. Then we train your team to own it. A traditional agency profits from your dependence. We profit from your independence.

Request a free fit callScore your operation first

No pitch. You'll leave with two or three concrete next steps, whether or not we work together.

Build the engine, or rent it forever

Most companies don't have a marketing problem. They have an ownership problem. They've rented their marketing (to an agency, to a freelancer, to a tool stack nobody fully understands) and the moment the invoices stop, the marketing stops with them. There's no system left behind, only a dependency.

A fractional CMO engagement with ESLR is the opposite. I come in as your senior marketing leader, set the strategy, and build the machine that runs it: the positioning, the channel plan, the content and campaign workflows, the dashboards that tell you what's actually working. Then I document it and train the people who'll keep it running. And if the gap is wider than marketing, the fractional COO engagement covers the whole operations seat.

Market context

What a fractional CMO costs across the market

Across the market, fractional CMOs bill $200 to $350 an hour, per CMOx's published rate guide; the guide's own working example runs about 40 hours a month at $200, roughly $8,000 a month. We scope every engagement to a defined exit instead of an open-ended retainer, so the spend buys assets your team keeps.

$200 to $350 an hour

The going market rate for fractional CMO work, per CMOx's published rate guide.

CMOx fractional CMO rate guide
About 40 hours a month

The working example in the same rate guide: $8,000 a month at $200 an hour. Senior marketing leadership at a fraction of a full-time executive's cost.

CMOx

Fractional CMO vs. the agency retainer

Same monthly check, very different thing on the other end of it.

Assets vs. activity

What you're paying for

Agency: a roster of activity, posts shipped, ads managed, hours billed. Fractional CMO: a marketing system and the strategy behind it, built to outlast the engagement.

Ownership

Where the knowledge lives

Agency: inside the agency, on purpose. Leave and you start over. ESLR: inside your company, documented SOPs, named owners, a team that knows why each piece exists.

Seniority

Who's actually on your account

Agency: often a senior pitch, then a junior execution. ESLR: one senior operator who has launched and scaled marketing at real companies, in the room the whole way.

The exit

How it ends

Agency: ideally, it never does, that's the business model. ESLR: every engagement is built toward a graduation date, when your team runs the engine without me.

Weighing a fractional COO instead? Read the honest comparison

What we install

Not a menu of deliverables. The connected pieces of a marketing system that keeps running after I'm gone.

Positioning & messaging

The clear, defensible answer to who you're for and why you win, written down, agreed on, and used consistently across every channel instead of reinvented per campaign.

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Channel & campaign strategy

An honest read on where your customers actually are and a focused plan to reach them. Fewer channels run well beats every channel run poorly.

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Content & production workflow

A documented pipeline for getting marketing made and shipped on a cadence (briefs, review, publish, repurpose) so output doesn't depend on heroics or my presence.

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Marketing tech & AI workflows

A right-sized stack and the automations that remove busywork. We wire AI into the parts of marketing it genuinely accelerates, and leave humans on the parts that need them.

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Measurement & reporting

Dashboards your team can read without me translating, the few metrics that drive decisions, defined once and tracked the same way every week.

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Team & capability building

We hire, train, or upskill the people who'll own this after graduation, and document the SOPs so the system survives turnover.

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How the engagement works

Designed from day one with the exit in mind. Every phase moves ownership toward your team.

  1. 01

    1. Diagnose

    We start with the truth, not a pitch. I audit what you have (positioning, channels, spend, tools, the people doing the work) and find the highest-leverage gaps. You get a clear read on what's working, what's rented, and what to build.

  2. 02

    2. Strategy & blueprint

    We agree on positioning, the channel plan, the metrics that matter, and the shape of the system we're going to build. This is the map the rest of the engagement runs against, and the document your team keeps.

  3. 03

    3. Build & install

    I stand up the workflows, the tech and AI automations, the content pipeline, and the reporting, running them live so we tune them against real results, not theory.

  4. 04

    4. Train & transfer

    From the start, your team is in the work, not watching it. We document every system as an SOP and hand operations over piece by piece, so ownership is earned, not dumped at the end.

  5. 05

    5. Graduate

    The engagement ends on a defined exit: your team runs the marketing engine, the systems are documented and owned, and I'm available as a backstop, not a dependency. The greatest achievement you can have as a business owner is to build yourself out of day-to-day operations. The same is true of your marketing.

I've done this at scale before I did it for you

I'm not a consultant who learned marketing from a course.I built expansion operations at Uber, Lime, and Sealed. Those were roles, not clients, and I label them that way on purpose. Those were my roles, not ESLR clients. That's where I learned what actually moves a market versus what just looks busy. I also run my own companies on these systems. Freaky Foot Tours, which I co-founded in 2015 and now operates in Flagstaff, Prescott, and Tucson, runs day to day without me, because the marketing engine is built and owned, not rented. That's the whole thesis, lived.

Recognition

Named to the Arizona Daily Sun's "20 Under 40." Featured as a Mylance Member Spotlight and a guest on The Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Podcast (Ep. 839).

On the record

On the record

Client quotes from ESLR's earlier website and SEO engagements, verbatim and named.

It wasn't an easy task (build a robust, creative website in one month) and ESLR delivered ahead of schedule and on budget. Communication was fantastic and they were highly responsive throughout, with insightful suggestions along the way. 10/10, would hire again.
DonStop Inc · website build
ESLR developed an amazing website for me. It came out beautifully, it's easy to navigate, and the SEO is great. They were quick and communicative, and went above and beyond to show me what makes a site successful. I highly recommend this true professional.
NatalieMountain Serenity Massage · website + SEO
ESLR was a fantastic SEO partner. Knowledgeable, worked within our budget, and, most important, got the job done and got results fast. Communicative, open, and efficient. I can't wait for our next project.
PatrickMorris Marketing Group · SEO partner

Questions

Questions about a fractional CMO engagement

What does a fractional CMO actually do?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader you bring on part-time to set strategy and build the systems your marketing runs on, without the cost of a full-time executive. At ESLR, that specifically means installing a marketing engine your team can own: positioning, channel strategy, content and reporting workflows, and the training to run them after the engagement ends.
What does a fractional CMO cost?
Market rates run $200 to $350 an hour, per CMOx's published rate guide, whose own working example is about 40 hours a month at $200, roughly $8,000 a month. ESLR scopes each engagement to a defined exit, so you are buying an installed system, not a permanent line item. We will put a firm number on your scope in the fit call.
How is this different from hiring a marketing agency?
An agency is built to keep you on a retainer, the knowledge and the systems live inside the agency, so the work stops when the invoices do. ESLR builds the marketing system inside your company and trains your team to own it. A traditional agency profits from your dependence; we profit from your independence. The simplest test: when the engagement ends, what do you keep? With an agency, often nothing but the invoices. With us, the whole engine.
Won't I just become dependent on you instead?
No, that's designed out from the start. Every engagement has a defined graduation: documented SOPs, named in-house owners, and a handover plan that moves operations to your team in stages. The goal is to make ESLR unnecessary. After that, I'm available as a backstop or for periodic strategy, not as a permanent line item.
Do I need to already have a marketing team?
Not necessarily. Part of the work is figuring out who should own each piece, sometimes that's existing staff we upskill, sometimes it's a hire we help you make and train. If you have no one, we build the system to be lean and document it thoroughly so a single capable owner can run it. By the end, a real person inside your company holds the keys.
Where does AI fit into the marketing system?
AI handles the parts of marketing it genuinely accelerates (research, drafting, repurposing, repetitive production) wired into your workflows so it removes busywork instead of adding tools. We keep humans on judgment, voice, and strategy. The automations get documented like everything else, so your team can run and adjust them without me.
Is ESLR local to Flagstaff, or do you work remotely?
Both. ESLR is based in Flagstaff, Arizona, and works with clients nationally and remotely. A fractional CMO engagement is built to run effectively without being in the same room every day, that's part of why the systems and documentation matter so much.

Stop renting your marketing. Start owning it.

If you're tired of paying for activity and want to walk away with a marketing engine your team actually owns, let's talk. A short fit call tells us both whether a fractional CMO engagement is the right move, and what graduation would look like for you.

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