Sheila Rondeau | Fractional CMOs & The 90-Day Win
This video is a podcast interview with Sheila Rondeau 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 assessing engagement strategies, achieving early wins, and aligning marketing efforts with company goals. They emphasize the importance of understanding customer experiences, clear messaging, and leveraging media opportunities to build brand credibility.
Key points
🔍 Engagement Strategies: Evaluating how companies engage their consumers through digital channels, social media, and email marketing.
📊 Clear Messaging: Ensuring the company has a clear, consistent message to attract and retain customers.
🗣️ Early Wins: Identifying and implementing quick wins, such as media placements and PR stunts, to build credibility and visibility.
📈 Customer Experience: Focusing on improving customer experience to change buying habits and increase sales.
💡 Media Opportunities: Leveraging media appearances, interviews, and articles to enhance brand recognition and credibility.
🤝 Stakeholder Engagement: Engaging key stakeholders early on to ensure alignment with the company’s vision and strategy.
🚀 Execution and Resources: Ensuring that marketing plans are realistic and executable with the available resources.
👥 Team Collaboration: Working closely with various departments to ensure a unified approach to marketing and customer engagement.
🧠 Marketing Education: Educating clients on the complexity of marketing and setting realistic expectations regarding timelines and outcomes.
📋 Long-term Objectives: Developing a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes both short-term and long-term goals.
Summary
- Introduction: The podcast introduces the topic of fractional CMOs and their impact within the first 90 days.
- Day One Assessment: Sheila explains her approach to identifying core problems when starting a new engagement, focusing on consumer engagement and clear messaging.
- Sheila’s Background: Sheila shares her background as the founder of MOG XP, an experiential marketing company that focuses on creating customized marketing programs.
- Early Wins: Sheila discusses the importance of achieving early wins through media placements, PR stunts, and leveraging existing organizational memberships.
- Media Engagement: Sheila highlights the importance of using media opportunities to build brand credibility and visibility, and tailoring the spokesperson based on the industry and media type.
- Client Assumptions: Sheila addresses common misconceptions clients have about their brand’s recognition and the importance of building trust and credibility.
- Content Strategy: Discussing the importance of creating content that provides value to the audience and positions the company as a solution provider.
- Maximizing CMO Value: Sheila outlines what CEOs need to do to get the most value out of hiring a fractional CMO, including being prepared with clear goals and customer insights.
- Readiness for a CMO: Signs that a company is not ready for a fractional CMO, such as lacking a brand guideline or a clear, unified message.
- Podcast Engagement: Sheila explains how to get clients featured on podcasts and the value of media appearances for building brand recognition.
Quotes - 00:37: “When you start a new engagement, it’s boots on the ground or boots virtually, however it works these days.” – Dean Waye
- 00:49: “We look at problems a little differently than most traditional CMOs.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 01:02: “When we go into companies, we look at how they engage their consumers through digital, social media, email marketing.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 01:29: “It is about clear messaging, figuring out what that plan is, and if we are able to jump start and pull the people in that are the low-hanging fruit.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 01:45: “We can get you sales right away, we can get you visibility, and we can start getting your brand recognized.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 02:08: “MOG XP actually stands for Marketing Operations Group Experiential.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 02:44: “We look at popups, social media, digital, and large-scale in-person events that push to digital and then push back to in-person to create long-term engagements.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 03:10: “The first thing I look at is what organizations do they belong to, how do we get people at those organizations to start talking to grow your brand.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 03:55: “Doing things to give you something to talk about and reasons to send out press releases, get you on a radio station or an article written about you in a trade magazine or a local business journal.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 04:45: “Your brand needs to be recognized as an expert in your field, have a clear message, and people need to understand how you solve a problem for them.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 05:30: “At a beer company, you want the brew master; you don’t want the marketing folks or the CEO.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 05:55: “If you are looking at a tech company, you want one of the lead technicians who can also speak people speak and not tech speak.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 06:30: “People do business with people they know, like, and trust.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 07:00: “The sooner you stop talking about you and start solving problems for them, the sooner you start signing deals.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 07:45: “Talk to people, not at people, and then let sales finish up by talking with people.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 08:10: “Give them things of value that they can use and tips, then offer them solutions.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 09:00: “You hire a CMO when you’ve done the work ahead of time, so be prepared to tell me who you are, how you want to talk about yourself, what value you bring, who are your core customers, how did you find them, and why did they pick you.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 10:30: “If they don’t have a brand guideline, they really shouldn’t be hiring you.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 11:00: “You should have a clear message from the leadership down to the receptionist; one clear message.” – Sheila Rondeau
- 12:30: “The sooner you stop talking about yourself and start solving problems for them, the sooner you start signing deals.” – Sheila Rondeau