Jessica Shirra and Michael Becker | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Jessica Shirra and Michael Becker discussing the role and strategies of fractional Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) in achieving significant business wins within the first 90 days of engagement.
Conclusion
Fractional CMOs focus on understanding business goals, addressing legacy processes, and leveraging data to drive growth. They emphasize the importance of clear communication, consistent messaging, and integrating effectively into the team to ensure success.
Key points
🔍 Address Legacy Processes: Tackling outdated thinking and processes to modernize the company’s approach.
📊 Data Utilization: Leveraging data to understand the current state of the business and make informed decisions.
🗣️ Consistent Messaging: Maintaining clear and consistent messaging across all channels to build a strong brand presence and avoid confusion.
📈 Early Wins: Focusing on quick, impactful wins to demonstrate value and build trust with clients.
💡 Customer Insights: Conducting thorough customer research to understand their needs and how they perceive the brand.
🤝 Team Collaboration: Working closely with internal stakeholders to align strategies and improve overall effectiveness.
🚀 Execution and Resources: Developing realistic and executable marketing plans with measurable goals and ensuring the necessary resources are in place.
👥 Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders early on to ensure alignment with the company’s vision and strategy.
🧠 Marketing Education: Educating clients on the importance of strategic marketing and the iterative nature of positioning.
📋 Long-term Objectives: Establishing both short-term and long-term goals to guide marketing efforts and ensure accountability.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Michael’s Background: Michael Becker shares his experience as a technology SL software marketing veteran, having worked with both large enterprises and startups.
- Addressing Legacy Processes: Michael emphasizes the importance of addressing legacy processes and incorporating modern content strategies to engage users.
- Jessica’s Background: Jessica Shirra introduces herself as the founder of Fractional CMO School, with 15 years of experience in marketing, mainly working with direct-to-consumer clients.
- Lack of Data and Tracking: Jessica highlights the common issue of clients not using data to inform decision-making or strategy, and emphasizes the need to tackle this problem early on.
- Information Sharing: Both guests discuss the importance of information sharing, with Jessica mentioning that clients need to trust and hand over control to the fractional CMO to see success.
- Embedding into the Business: Michael advises new fractional CMOs to embed themselves into the business through informational interviews, quick audits, and presenting ideas based on findings.
- Getting to Know the Team: Jessica emphasizes the importance of getting to know the team, understanding their goals, and showing care for them as individuals beyond their roles.
- Impact on Employees: Jessica and Michael discuss the potential changes employees might see when a fractional CMO is brought in, such as better processes, strategic planning, and personal development opportunities.
- Sprint vs. Marathon: Michael prefers an adaptive approach based on the company’s growth stage, while Jessica leans towards a marathon mindset, viewing marketing as a long-term, ongoing process.
Quotes - 00:42: “The number one thing that I tend to see is just a lot of legacy-minded thinking and processes.” – Michael Becker
- 01:36: “Millennials and Gen Z are very different from anything we’ve seen in the past. They are the tech intertwined generation.” – Michael Becker
- 02:07: “It starts and ends with content. Content underlies every single stage, every touchpoint for your users.” – Michael Becker
- 02:36: “How can we be modern, interesting, and engaging using content to build the entire business? That’s where I typically start.” – Michael Becker
- 03:59: “The biggest problem I see is a lack of data and tracking and analytics.” – Jessica Shirra
- 04:45: “They’re not using data to inform their decision-making or their strategy, and they’re also not using data to iterate as they go and learn and make things better.” – Jessica Shirra
- 05:40: “Get out of my way. The clients that see the most success are the ones who trust and hand over the reins.” – Jessica Shirra
- 06:21: “The reason you bring in a fractional anything into your business is to inject a new flavor of thinking and a new way of doing things.” – Michael Becker
- 06:55: “Get out of their way, and if you’re not willing to do that, maybe it’s not the right fit for you right now.” – Michael Becker
- 07:50: “Embed yourself in the business as much as you can. Do as many informational interviews with stakeholders and leaders in the company as you can line up.” – Michael Becker
- 08:30: “I’m always doing some sort of a quick audit, typically a content audit. I’m looking at what they have on their blog, social media channels, website.” – Michael Becker
- 09:15: “Get a very comprehensive idea of what’s been done in the past, where does the company want to go, who is the target audience, what’s working, what’s not working.” – Jessica Shirra
- 09:55: “Spend a lot of time getting to know the team, especially if they’re going to be my direct reports, and understanding what they love about their role and what they don’t love.” – Jessica Shirra
- 10:38: “Make sure that I am showing that I care about them as a human beyond just being somebody to get things done for me.” – Jessica Shirra
- 11:22: “Better processes around how we plan strategically ahead in advance, how much ahead we are working versus that last-minute scramble.” – Jessica Shirra
- 12:05: “Marketing is not a quick fix, and it’s not just turning on a tap and suddenly your company is making millions.” – Jessica Shirra
- 12:35: “Marketing is a science, and it’s all about gathering information, putting a strategy together, and testing hypotheses.” – Jessica Shirra
- 13:22: “I like to position the fractional CMO role and marketing in general as something long-term and ongoing.” – Jessica Shirra
- 13:55: “If you are a seven-figure brand with memberships, courses, masterminds, high-ticket offerings, or e-commerce products, we have strategy packages and ongoing advisory and fractional CMO services.” – Jessica Shirra
- 14:30: “If you are looking to start or grow your fractional CMO business, I have a program called Fractional CMO School where I train everything about how I started my business and grew it to six figures in six months.” – Jessica Shirra