Since 2012, we’ve worked with a variety of Managing Partners, Chief Marketing Officers, and fractional CMOs.
There are a few amazing fractional CMOs out there who we highly recommend. If you are intent on hiring one, please reach out and we’ll send you our vetted list. (We do not accept anything in return for recommending them.)
Below we’ll outline the pros & cons of having a fractional CMO, plus an alternative because In the vast majority of cases it’s not worth having a fractional CMO (we offer outstanding marketing support here).
What is a Personal Injury Law Firm Fractional CMO (fCMO)?
A fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) is a marketing executive who works with your law firm on a part-time, contract, or retainer basis instead of as a full-time employee.
In a perfect world, an fCMO would have 10+ years of marketing leadership with significant experience working with specifically with a personal injury law firm.
They would fix intake leaks, build a system that generates leads, focus on referrals, brand visibility, offer campaign and vendor oversite, manage internal marketing staff. They would understand marketing analytics, CRMs and attribution.
A fCMO should focus on strategy, unlike a “Marketing Manager” who would be hands on.
When do you Need a fCMO or CMO?
A good fCMO will only work with you for a period of time while they set things up for their replacement of a full time in-house CMO.
You might need a fCMO or CMO if you:
- Are spending over $1.5 million each year on advertising
- Brand positioning is clear
- You need dedicated marketing leadership
fCMO vs CMO Costs:
Many fractional CMOs charge around $10,000/mo and work for your firm approximately 4 hours per week. That’s $625/hr or $120,000/yr.
A CMO on salary ranges from $160,000/yr – $250,000/yr depending on experience. You get 10x the support at 40hs/wk. Of course, some CMOs make much more than this or have a bonus structure.
You usually get a very small fraction of the work with a very high fraction of the cost.
Pros and Cons of Hiring a Fractional CMO:
Pros:
- It’s “cheaper”.
- If you can locate a high quality fCMO they will work their way out of their job as fast as possible and hand everything off to a full time CMO.
Cons:
- Many have pre-selected vendors they recommend and fail to disclose they get a commission, or they simply like working with even if it’s not in your best interest
- There is very limited availability with them because they’re focused on their other clients.
- Many are not seasoned in legal marketing and should be avoided, or they lack experience in personal injury marketing
- They usually fail to integrate with internal marketing staff, team dynamics, and company culture.
- In many cases they just simply fail to respond. The majority of them are absolutely impossible to email, call, zoom and just pick up the phone.
- No execution.
Optimize My Firm:
- While we focus on SEO & content, we have integrated with a variety of our larger clients and help manage vendors, configure attribution, or hold their feet to the fire – companies who provide PPC, Social, Video, branding, TV, billboards, and a wide variety of other marketing initiatives.
Other Alternatives:
Let’s say you’re done wearing the marketing hat or need to take a step back, but the cost of a fCMO or CMO doesn’t make sense yet.
Here are some alternate options:
- A good digital marketing vendor may be a great strategic partner. There are a ton of bad vendors out there and a few good ones!
- You may simply need a Marketing Manager. This could be someone who already works at your firm and has been helping with community events, social media and/or video production. But it’s important to not just make them a marketer because they’re already there.
Listen to this Wonderful Podcast about What a CMO Does:
This is one of my favorite podcasts that we’ve done here on our podcast – the episode is called “What a Law Firm CMO Does”. it’s a great interview with Catherine Register, who was promoted to CMO at a personal injury firm in Florida. She was later promoted to COO and moved on to be COO of yet another personal injury law firm. She is super sharp. Check it out here: https://optimizemyfirm.com/pimm-75/.
Recap:
There are very high quality fractional CMOs out there, but, they’re rare.
They will have extensive experience with personal injury marketing.
They will only accept you as a client if they can help while you transition to a full time in-house CMO.
If you still want one after reading this, contact us and we’ll send you names of a few we highly recommend.
