Fractional CMO Responsibilities for B2B SaaS Companies: What to Expect

Hiring the right fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) for your B2B SaaS company can be one of the best investments a founder can make.

For any startup, the cost of people is its biggest expense. 

Over-hiring early with a full-time staff can eat up valuable resources and limit flexibility when you need both of these items the most.

This is why many B2B SaaS companies under $10M in ARR look to fractional CMOs to drive strategy and implementation rather than bringing in a full-time CMO. 

A fractional CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) can drive growth for your B2B SaaS company by giving you senior-level marketing expertise on a part-time or contract basis. Rather than 40 hours a week, most software companies only require 10-15 hours of an experienced SaaS marketing chief. 

Working with a part-time CMO not only saves money, but it allows the enterprise to afford a much higher-level individual with specific experience in their area of SaaS. 

Here’s an in-depth look at their responsibilities, how to measure their success, and how to determine if they are a good fit for your company.

How a Fractional CMO Drives Revenue For Software

A fractional CMO is different from a traditional consultant. Consultants tend to be more project-based. 

On the other hand, fractional CMOs sit in a full-accountability leadership seat. They act as an inside member of your organization to lead your team and agencies. Typical consultants, on the other hand, tend to sit outside your organization and play little role in day-to-day operations.

The advantage is clear: fractional CMOs are real team members rather than just temporary players. 

With B2B SaaS it is critical that every team member truly leans in and isn’t just there to collect a fee and be done with it.

Fractional CMOs have six main responsibilities that help drive more revenue and growth rapidly:

1. Marketing Strategy & GTM (Go-to-Market) Planning
   The fractional CMO develops and executes strategic marketing plans aligned with your product, target audience, and business goals. They are charged with leading positioning, messaging, and defining ideal customer personas for your SaaS products. They choose strategies that match your average contract size, sales cycle, and market position.
   
   
2. Revenue-Focused Marketing 
   The fractional CMO has to align marketing campaigns with sales goals to drive qualified leads, pipeline growth, and revenue without wasting time. To do this, they will implement lead generation funnels, create effective inbound channel campaigns, and improve lead nurturing through automation tools. The end goal is ROI (return on investment) and ROAS (return on ad spend): there must be a clear focus here, or you might end up losing money as you build your customer base.
   
   
3. Brand Awareness & Thought Leadership
   The fractional CMO will build brand authority through content marketing, SEO, webinars, and events, creating trust within the industry. Having a “buzz” that truly matches the innovation you are bringing with your software isn’t a vanity metric… it is a key way that prospects will trust and find you. The CMO will focus PR efforts on only high-influence activities (rather than relatively useless “press releases”), securing speaking engagements in relevant SaaS industry conferences, and lining up editorial features, publications, podcasts, and blogs.
   
   
4. Demand Generation & Performance Marketing 
   The fractional CMO will conceive, launch, and optimize paid channels (Google Ads, LinkedIn, Facebook, and marketplaces like G2, Capterra, and SoftwareAdvice) and performance marketing campaigns. They will often source high-quality target audience lists for use in these efforts and manage ABM (Account-Based Marketing) efforts to target these high-value accounts.
   
   
5. Growth Marketing Experiments & A/B Testing 
   The fractional CMO runs small, rapid experiments (e.g., on landing pages, hero copy and images, funnel structure and email campaigns) to identify scalable marketing channels. Using data feedback and A/B testing, they work to Improve conversion rates across the funnel and satisfy true potential customer intent that sends prospects warmly and quickly through the sale process. 
   
   
6. Reporting and Data Feedback 
   The fractional CMO establishes clear data-based goals and measures the ongoing progress of the marketing strategy against these goals. Using a CRM like Hubspot, they create dashboards showing ongoing marketing KPIs like MQL flow, progress through the funnel, top channels with costs for generating leads, CAC (“cost of acquiring a customer”) and more. These dashboards and metrics should be established in quarterly sprints and measure progressin monthly and weekly increments so it is clear when projects are on or off track.

Responsibilities of a Fractional CMO for B2B SaaS

The key to a successful fractional CMO is how well they are able to juggle the full accountability for the marketing function within a less than full-time schedule. This is not an easy task, so it is important to speak to other founders who have worked with your prospective fractional CMO to ensure they will be a good fit for your specific needs.

Here are key items a fractional CMO will manage on your behalf (and under your control) as a software company founder:

• Develop and manage KPIs for marketing campaigns in full alignment with business growth goals
  A fractional CMO develops and manages KPIs by first aligning them with the company’s strategic goals, focusing on metrics that drive measurable growth and impact. They first identify key objectives—such as increasing lead generation, improving conversion rates, or expanding market share—and set specific, achievable targets for each.
  
  Working closely with team leaders, the fractional CMO ensures that KPIs are clearly communicated, actionable, and trackable. They leverage tools like dashboards for real-time insights. Regularly reviewing and adjusting KPIs based on performance data allows the fractional CMO to adapt strategies quickly, ensuring continuous progress. When something goes off track, they should be the first to notice, flag and tackle these issues so they don’t linger.
  
  
• Build and manage lead funnels using automation platforms (e.g., HubSpot)
  A fractional CMO builds and manages lead funnels using automation platforms like HubSpot by first mapping out the entire customer journey. It should be clear how a potential customer moves from awareness to conversion, so they can set up automated workflows that nurture leads at each stage.
  
  They segment the audience based on criteria such as behavior, demographics, and engagement. This work allows the fractional CMO to create targeted email campaigns, lead scoring systems, and personalized content to move prospects down the funnel.
  
  By integrating HubSpot's CRM and automation tools, the fractional CMO ensures that leads are efficiently tracked, nurtured, and handed off to the sales team when they are truly sales-ready. Regularly reviewing funnel performance through analytics helps optimize workflows and improve conversion rates. This ensures the funnel consistently delivers high-quality leads that align with your software company’s growth objectives.
  
  
• Oversee content strategy, SEO, paid advertising, and email marketing efforts
  A fractional CMO should immediately take charge of setting cohesive goals across all potential inbound channels to drive lead generation, engagement, and conversion. They establish a content calendar focusing on relevant topics that align with buyer personas and pain points. This allows them or the team to optimize every piece for SEO to attract maximum organic traffic from actual high-quality prospects searching for a solution to their unique pain points.
  
  Paid advertising efforts are closely managed with targeted campaigns, such as Google Search, Facebook, and LinkedIn ads, that appeal to specific segments as they move through the sales funnel. The fractional CMO creates automated, segmented nurture sequences for email marketing to engage leads based on behavior and lifecycle stage. By monitoring performance metrics like engagement rates, keyword rankings, and ad spend ROI, they refine each strategy to ensure that all channels work in harmony. You want to see consistent results aligned with the company’s growth objectives, and you also want to see fast action if a channel is not performing as expected.
  
  
• Collaborate with sales teams to ensure alignment and develop SaaS sales enablement tools
  A fractional CMO for B2B SaaS collaborates with sales teams by setting regular communication channels to align on goals, target audiences, and messaging. With this focus, they ensure that marketing and sales strategies are cohesive and mutually reinforcing.
  
  They work with sales leadership to identify common challenges in the sales process and develop sales enablement tools—such as buyer persona guides, battle cards, case studies, and product feature sheets—that equip the team with the insights and materials needed to engage prospects effectively.
  
  A common strategy for the fractional CMO is to help solidify funnel pipeline stages and make sure these stages are properly enforced and automated within the CRM. For example, if marketing and sales are not aligned on what is an SQL and what is an MQL, there will be a lot of crossed wires and dropped balls with prospects. The business will suffer if leads are not properly nurtured and followed up on.
  
  Using data-driven insights, the fractional CMO adjusts messaging and marketing assets to reflect the latest customer feedback and pain points. This helps the sales team address objections and highlight product value more effectively. By fostering a feedback loop and providing resources that address specific sales needs, they will drive more efficient lead-to-customer conversion.
  
  
• Manage relationships with agencies, freelancers, and vendors to execute campaigns efficiently
  Having the software CEO directly oversee agencies' work is a recipe for disaster. They can become a bottleneck for the constant communication and feedback needed to get maximum performance from the agency. They can also harbor unrealistic expectations for speed and results that work against the natural timeline of a well-oiled agency process.
  
  A fractional CMO for B2B SaaS manages relationships with agencies, freelancers, and vendors by setting clear objectives, timelines, and KPIs for each partner. Every contributor should clearly understand their role in achieving campaign goals. The CMO selects and onboard partners based on their expertise, fit with the brand’s objectives, and proven track record in similar projects.
  
  Through regular check-ins and detailed briefings, the fractional CMO provides guidance and feedback to keep projects aligned with the overall strategy while maintaining flexibility for creative input. They leverage project management tools to track progress, ensure accountability, and facilitate communication, while using data from past campaigns to refine partnerships and beat the drum for better results. Keeping a structured yet collaborative approach enables the fractional CMO to optimize costs, maximize ROI, and deliver high-quality results across multiple campaigns.
  
  

How to Measure a Fractional CMO’s Results

As a busy CMO, it can be next to impossible to keep a constant eye on the results and strategies your marketing team and agencies are conducting. 

It is important to take a big step back and establish measurables that keep your fractional CMO right on target. These OKRs make it far simpler for you to see where the CMO’s results are meeting expectations or falling short.

Here are three areas to measure your fractional CMO by:

1. Marketing KPIs
   Marketing KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measurable values that track the effectiveness of marketing efforts and help assess whether a company’s marketing strategies are meeting their goals. Here are some of the most common marketing KPIs used across inbound channels for software:
   
   
   • Lead Generation (MQLs): Number of qualified leads generated.
   • Average Value per Demo: Working back from the typical value of a closed-won customer and calculating the likelihood that an SQL (sales qualified lead) becomes a customer, how much is each successful Demo conversation worth? 
   • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): How much it costs to acquire each new customer.
   • Pipeline Growth & Sales-Qualified Leads (SQLs): Alignment with sales and potential revenue impact in the pipeline.
   • Conversion Rate: Website traffic to lead conversions or free trial to paid conversion rate.
   • Average Revenue per Customer (ARPU) or Average Contract Value (ACV): Size of typical customer revenue generated per year
   • Churn Rate & Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Impact on customer retention and revenue growth.
     
     
2. Campaign Performance
   Specific marketing campaigns need to be highly effective in achieving goals like lead generation, customer acquisition, brand awareness, and customer engagement. As a founder, you need to know what’s working and what needs optimization.
   
   It is important to:
   • Monitor the effectiveness of performance marketing efforts (e.g., CTRs, CPC, conversion rates).
   • Assess organic growth through SEO and content efforts (e.g., traffic increase, ranking improvements).
   • See a regular cadence and usage of content offers such as webinars, eBooks, templates, videos and other items. Are they truly driving engagement and warm MQLs?
     
     
3. Team Collaboration & Execution Speed
   Track how well the fractional CMO integrates with existing teams and accelerates marketing operations. Some of this is soft feedback: how energetic and inspiring are they to work with? Are they solving issues and building bridges? Or are they acting in a manner that damages morale, threatens alignment, and gets in the way of company progress?

How Often Should I Meet with My Fractional CMO?

Every B2B SaaS company is different in its structure of management and cadence of meetings, but when it comes to marketing, meeting often is best. You need to be sure they are keeping all projects and strategy right on track, while also sniffing out new opportunities at every turn. 

For any meeting, it is important to stay on top of what matters most. Instruct your fractional CMO to “lead with the red.” This means spending minimal time on successful, on track items and devoting most of the time allotted to looking closely at areas that are not proceeding according to plan.

In general, a weekly action meeting between the CEO and the fractional CMO is a great standard to start with. The CMOs job is integral to the success of the enterprise, so the CEO should be deeply involved in strategizing and measuring the ongoing success of these efforts. 

However, since building strategy around quarterly sprints is common, occasional meetings should also be held to step away from weekly sprints and ensure that everything is moving forward at a higher level.

Here is a recommended meeting cadence for a CEO and fractional CMO:

• Weekly Meetings: Here you should discuss ongoing projects, key metrics, and campaign updates. Are there key blockers that are impeding progress that the CEO can help remove? Are there unexpected inputs from the business, the business environment, or competitors to be mindful of? Are all KPIs on track?
  
  
• Monthly Check-ins: Monthly meetings are a great time for deeper performance reviews, strategy adjustments, and progress against quarterly goals. Examine each marketing channel in detail, look at underperforming areas, and explore solutions to perennial blockers. It is also a good time to think about resources: budget, time, and people. Does the CMO truly have what is needed to succeed and hit the quarterly goals?
  
  
• Quarterly Strategy Sessions: Quarterly meetings are for planning new initiatives, budgets, and future campaigns based on results and forecasts. Did the fractional CMO hit their targets, whether Rocks, OKRs, and/or KPIs? If something is way off track, why? What truly succeeded and should be “doubled down on” in the next quarter? How has the environment, competitors, or the needs of customers changed in ways that should force a change in marketing strategy? Is marketing properly resourced going forward to meet the goals of the next quarter and for the year in total? What campaigns should end, which need adjustments and which should start now?

How to Determine if a Fractional CMO is the Right Fit

When a business moves at the speed of software, there is no room for “B” players in the enterprise. One of the advantages of a fractional CMO is that they are both less expensive and more easily adjusted than a full-time employee. At the same time, the best outcome is to find the perfect fit from the first day.

Here are 5 factors that will help any SaaS founder determine if a fractional CMO is a good fit.

1. Industry Experience & SaaS Expertise
   • Ensure the candidate has experience with B2B SaaS go-to-market strategies, subscription models, and demand generation. Experience in B2C or ecommerce can actually be a liability, because these customers are generally easier to source and have faster sales cycles. B2B SaaS involves longer sales cycles and much more complex buyer journeys.
   • Look for expertise in scaling SaaS marketing operations with automation tools (e.g., HubSpot, Marketo). Putting your CRM in the hands of an inexperienced marketing lead can send your company into disaster quickly, as so much relies on the effectiveness of this central tool.
   • Ask about the CMO's experience in your vertical and their view on the customer for your software. Do they understand a typical customer's pain points and how these prospects find software solutions in your vertical?
     
     
2. Cultural Fit and Collaboration Skills
   • The CMO should align with your company’s values and culture while working well with internal teams (sales, product, etc.)
   • Ask about the tactical speed and cadence of their methods—do these match your business's internal clock?
   • If working remotely, are they located in a region that is compatible with other team members in your business? They will need to be available during your business hours for meetings and collaboration.
     
     
3. Results-Driven Track Record
   • Ask for examples of successful campaigns they’ve executed, including metrics achieved and growth outcomes.
   • Be sure to talk to at least 2 references from their past to learn more about how their work performed and was received by their previous employers. Watch out for red flags like lack of attention to detail, unavailability for meetings, slow communication and failure to meet goals (especially ones they set themselves). Did they make the CEOs work easier, or more complicated? Were they able to lead the function, or required the CEO to make all the decisions?
     
     
4. Agility and Flexibility
   • They should be comfortable working in fast-paced environments, adjusting strategies quickly based on data.
   • This is a good area to explore with your potential fractional CMOs references as well: did they have a method that works, or were they “making it up as they go along”? When results worked against their strategy, were they quick to point out the discrepancy and make an effective plan to fix it? You want someone with a playbook, but not so rigid that they can’t stay in alignment with the quick-shifting needs of a software company.
     
     
5. Clear Communication & Strategic Vision
   • Evaluate their ability to communicate complex marketing strategies clearly and align with the company’s long-term vision. Do they speak in acronyms, or is it easy to understand and learn from their approach?
   • Ask about their meeting cadence, onboarding process, and plans for getting smart quick on your customer and your product. Will this meet your needs for oversight and your needed speed of execution?
   • Make sure that any potential candidate can sketch out an overall plan that aligns well with your knowledge of the customer journey and marketplace. After they are hired and refine the plan, there will be plenty of refinement, but you should feel confident that they have a handle on the proper approach and will be effective right away in moving the needle.
     
     

Work with a Fractional CMO to Grow Your Software Company Fast

Fractional CMOs and software startups are a great match, but only if your top goals and objectives are well matched to the specific skills of the CMO you hire. 

As a software founder, you should never settle for second best: keep looking and talking to potential fractional CMOs until you are sure of a strong fit.

A fractional CMO can accelerate your B2B SaaS growth through strategic marketing, demand generation, and sales alignment. With measurable KPIs and the right meeting cadence, their impact can be significant without the overhead of a full-time executive. 

When you see the right combination of SaaS expertise, vertical-specific knowledge, a data-driven mindset, and proven marketing leadership experience, you know you have the right fractional CMO to lead your marketing and your company to the next level.