Fractional CMO
Danny Daley, founder of Circulate, inside your business a few days a month. Marketing leadership from someone who can inspect the work.
Most fractional CMOs will tell you what to do. Yours should also be able to read the work that comes back and know what good looks like. That takes someone who runs the kind of team you’re paying for, and that is the difference here.
What the role covers
The executive scope
Growth leadership and roadmap ownership
The marketing roadmap, owned: priorities, dates and owners, updated as the commercial picture changes rather than once a year.
Multi channel acquisition strategy
Outbound, inbound, search, LinkedIn, events. Which channels earn budget, which do not, and how they fit together into one pipeline.
Positioning, messaging and go to market
Who you are for, what you say, and how sales and marketing say the same thing to the same buyer.
Agency, partner and team oversight
One owner for every supplier and internal marketer. Clear briefs, useful feedback, and a view on whether the work is earning its budget.
Budget allocation and ROI accountability
Where the money goes, what it returns, and a written monthly report the board can read without a translator.
Marketing systems and lead data
CRM, lead scoring, attribution and tooling set up so every lead has a source and every source has a number.
Trusted by leading brands
One channel, seven parts
Everything that gets you found
Technical SEO
Our Technical SEO expertise helps you maximise the reach of your website in organic search through improved crawling and indexation of high-quality content.
Data Insights
We define exactly who your search presence is built for, so every decision that follows is designed to attract people capable of engaging, converting and driving real business value.
Google Search
When your audience moves from AI answers to deeper research, we make sure your brand dominates the traditional results page.
AI Search
We build content around real questions and clear, authoritative answers, structured so AI models recognise, trust and recommend your brand.
Social Search
Social Search makes your brand genuinely searchable and discoverable in the places modern audiences now turn to for answers, recommendations and inspiration.
Digital PR
Stories the press actually wants, and the links and brand mentions that follow, supporting SEO growth and long term brand value at the same time.
Conversion
We analyse behaviour, remove friction and tighten your funnels so more visitors convert. Higher sales, higher ROI and a website that works as hard as your marketing.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Who it suits.B2B, technical, £2m to £15m.
Marketing reports to a founder, a COO or a CRO who is doing it as a second job. There is real proof, customers, logos and results, but no machine for putting it in front of buyers. Money goes to suppliers and nobody inside has the time to read what comes back. And something has forced the issue: a raise, a board question, a flat quarter or a marketer who left.
Who it does not.Consumer, pre fit, or not ready to act.
Consumer or brand led businesses. Companies still looking for product market fit. Anyone who wants a CMO title on a deck and will not act on the recommendations, or who will not share revenue data, closed won and closed lost. You will hear that early, before anyone signs anything.
We have been working with Circulate for around 6 months and are already impressed with the performance we’re seeing, particularly in our AI search ranking. The team are friendly, knowledgeable, and they really worked hard to get to know our brand and offering, something that can be hard to find!
Anyone can hire a fractional CMO now.
Finding one who can inspect the work is harder.
Most come from a brand or corporate background.
They can direct an agency. Reading its work is harder.
This one has run a delivery team since 2014.
Here the work gets opened and read, not just reported on.
Marketing leadership that can inspect the work.
How we work
Three stages to owning the marketing direction
01
Diagnose and decide
Closed won and closed lost analysis, source attribution and sales call review. Six to eight buyer interviews. A team, agency and tooling audit with every contract term on one page. A pipeline model with a conversion rate at every stage. It ends with a written recommendation and a decision.
02
Commit and build
Positioning signed off and rolled into messaging, the site, sales material and outbound. The proof assets built: case studies and the lead magnet that removes the biggest blocker. Agency and team decisions delivered with costs and notice periods attached.
03
Ship and prove
Campaigns live at modelled volume. Proof published. Attribution working end to end. A board reporting format agreed, and the next quarter planned and budgeted.
Circulate have been instrumental in our company growth over the past 2 years. They always ensure that we are hitting or exceeding our targets.
Frequently asked questions
What does a fractional CMO actually do?
The job a full time CMO would do, part time: strategy, budget, positioning, the team and the agencies, with a weekly rhythm and a monthly written report. One named person, Danny Daley, not a rotating team.
Why this, rather than a career CMO?
Because the work gets inspected. Danny has run Circulate since 2014, so he knows what good agency output looks like, what it should cost and where budget usually leaks. A career CMO can direct a supplier. Fewer can read the work that comes back, and that is where the value is.
Is this a way of selling us Circulate?
It is a fair question, so it is written into the agreement. Circulate may be recommended for delivery and you are under no obligation to appoint us. Any larger piece of work goes to a competitive process with at least two other suppliers, Circulate is held to the same reporting as everyone else, and Circulate is reported on in exactly the same way as everyone else.
How much of your time do we get?
Two options. A weekly strategic call, one on site day a month and a quarterly face to face roadmap session, or a fortnightly call with one on site day a quarter. Both include priority WhatsApp access Monday to Friday, and travel and expenses are included. The right option is scoped to your business, so there is no price list.
What is the minimum term?
Three months, then rolling. Below three months there is only time to diagnose, and the point is to decide and ship.
What do you need from us?
Access to revenue data, closed won and closed lost, the analytics and marketing accounts, and a leadership team that will act on a recommendation within a few days. Without those, accountability is a pose.
Let’s look at your marketing
Three questions on the first call. Who owns marketing today, and what changes if someone else owns it. What decision are you currently unable to make. If this works, what is different in six months.
Latest insights
The differences of working with a permanent & fractional CMO
The differences of working with a permanent & fractional CMO
How do you know if you’re ready for a fractional CMO?
How do you know if you’re ready for a fractional CMO?
What is a Fractional CMO?
What is a Fractional CMO?
