How to Prep Your Business to Work With a Fractional CMO
So you’re flirting with the idea of hiring a Fractional CMO. First of all, good call. You’re about to make one of the smartest moves for your business since you stopped using Papyrus font and got rid of that Wix site from 2012.
But here’s the thing: working with a Fractional CMO is not the same as hiring a freelancer or downloading a marketing course you’ll never finish. This is a real relationship—and like any healthy relationship, it works best when both sides come prepared.
Think of this post as your onboarding checklist meets pre-date pep talk. If you want to get the most out of your CMO (especially a bad bitch team like Ivy House), here’s how to prep like a pro.
Step 1: Get Honest About What’s Working—and What’s Not
Before we roll in like the marketing Avengers, we need a lay of the land. That means we’ll ask questions. The kind that might make you squirm a little.
What’s your current monthly revenue?
Where are your leads coming from?
What platforms are working? Which ones are ghosts?
Do you have any tracking in place, or are we working off vibes?
What content is converting, and what’s just noise?
The more honest you are, the faster we can diagnose what’s broken and start fixing it. No shame. No judgment. Just real talk.
Step 2: Know Your Goals (Even If They’re a Little Messy)
You don’t need a vision board with color-coded KPIs. But we do need to know what you’re aiming for.
Think:
“I want to consistently bring in 10 new clients a month.”
“I want to grow my email list by 5K before my next launch.”
“I want to build brand recognition and stop being the best-kept secret.”
Even vague-but-vibey goals help. Are you trying to scale? Build thought leadership? Launch a new offer? Exit and sell the company in two years?
We’ll turn the fog into a roadmap—but we need a general direction to point the compass.
Step 3: Give Us the Damn Passwords
We love a systems-savvy queen, but if we have to track down your login to Canva, Meta Business Suite, and your abandoned Mailchimp account from 2019, we’re all gonna cry.
Before onboarding, make sure you can access:
Website backend + analytics
Email platform (ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, etc.)
Social media accounts (IG, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok)
Ad accounts (Google, Meta)
Brand assets: logo files, fonts, headshots, color palette, etc.
Bonus points if you’ve got past campaigns, offers, or audience insights in a neat little folder. But we’re not picky—we’ll organize the chaos. Just don’t gatekeep your logins.
Step 4: Clear the Clutter (and Your Calendar)
Fractional CMO magic works best when there’s space to breathe. That means:
Letting go of micromanaging every post
Trusting us to speak in your brand voice (we do our homework)
Giving timely feedback so things don’t stall
Making room in your calendar for a weekly call or quick check-in
You don’t need to babysit us. You do need to treat us like a strategic partner—not a task rabbit.
We bring the leadership, the execution, the spark. You bring the vision, the access, and the willingness to let go of the marketing wheel (because we’re better drivers, anyway).
Step 5: Be Ready to Let Go of Old Sh*t That’s Not Working
This one’s big. Because we know how attached business owners get to things that once worked. Your launch from 2021. The font your cousin picked. The sales funnel that kinda worked that one time.
But part of working with a CMO is trusting them to call the shots. Sometimes that means overhauling your website, ditching outdated platforms, retiring tired content, or (gasp) finally picking a consistent brand voice.
Don’t panic—we’re not here to bulldoze your brand. But we will clean house if needed. You hired us for our experience—don’t cling to the clutter.
Step 6: Trust the Process (Even When It’s Not Instant)
Let’s be clear: this isn’t a “buy now, go viral tomorrow” situation. If that’s what you want, go buy an AI caption pack and cross your fingers.
We’re here to build sustainable, strategic growth—not throw together a quick-hit campaign that burns out in a week. That means we may start with foundational work that doesn’t feel flashy: strategy docs, campaign plans, brand audits.
But then? We light that sh*t up.
Marketing is a long game—but it pays off when it’s done right. And that’s what we do.
TL;DR
Want to get the most out of your Fractional CMO relationship? Here’s what you need to bring to the table:
Transparency (about goals, data, and what’s falling flat)
Access (to tools, assets, and decision-making power)
Trust (in the process and the people guiding it)
Flexibility (to evolve and grow as your brand does)
We’ll bring the rest: the strategy, the content, the design, the execution, the energy, and the marketing glow-up you didn’t know you needed.
This is where your “figuring it out as you go” era ends—and your scaling era begins.
[Let’s build your marketing empire—book a free discovery call here.]
