A fractional CMO does not get hired because a CEO read a post about fractional work. They get hired the week a marketing head quits, a funding round closes, or the board asks "what is marketing actually doing?" and nobody can answer. Your job is to be in the inbox that week with something the CEO can read in two minutes.
That something is a one-page 90-day plan outline. Not a deck, not a credentials PDF. Here is the full outline, the email that carries it, and the numbers that keep the practice from turning into five half-clients.
The CEO who has a budget and no strategy
Your buyer is the CEO or founder of a company with 10 to 50 people and a marketing budget that is already being spent. They have a part-time freelancer, an agency on a retainer, or a coordinator two years out of school. What they lack is someone who decides what to do and what to stop doing.
Two triggers account for most openings. The first is funding: a seed or Series A round with a plan to "invest in growth." The second is a departure: a marketing director left and the CEO is now reviewing campaign reports they don't understand. You can often find both in public. Funding gets announced. A departure shows up as a job posting for a marketing lead that's been open for 60 days.
Companies like that have a stated problem you can name. They don't have the hours to hire someone full time or the salary to pay an experienced one, and they know it.
The one-page 90-day plan, sent before the first call
Draft this from public information in under an hour: the company's website, its ads in the Meta Ad Library, its LinkedIn posts, a few reviews, the pricing page. Then send the outline. Use this structure every time, so you build it once and fill it fast.
- Where marketing stands today (3 lines). What you can see: channels in use, how the message reads, what the site asks visitors to do.
- The one number to move (1 line). Qualified leads per month, demo requests, or trial starts. One, not five.
- Days 1 to 30: diagnose. Audit channels, interview five customers, read the pipeline data, fix the message on the home page.
- Days 31 to 60: pick two bets. Choose two channels and stop the rest. Agree a budget per bet.
- Days 61 to 90: run and report. Weekly numbers, a monthly review with the CEO, and a decision at day 90 on whether to hire full time or continue.
- What I need from you. Access to the analytics, an hour a week, one decision-maker I can ask.
- Fee. A flat monthly amount for a stated number of days.
The plan sells because it shows you've already looked. The CEO who replies with edits is 80 percent of the way to hiring you.
The email to the CEO
Subject: A 90-day marketing plan for Brightline Freight Software
Hi Olivia, I saw you closed your seed round in September and the marketing lead role has been posted for two months. I spent an hour on your site and ads and put together a one-page 90-day plan: what I'd diagnose first, the two channels I'd test, and the one number I'd track (demo requests). It's attached. I work as a fractional CMO for a small number of companies, a few days a week, and I'd suggest a 30-day diagnostic first so neither of us commits to more than we should. Worth a 20-minute call? Nadia Brooks, [mailing address]. Reply "no thanks" and I'll stop.
The company name is fictional, of course. The structure isn't: a trigger, an hour of real work, an attachment, a small first step. You are not asking for a retainer. You are asking for 20 minutes and offering a diagnostic.
Follow up with a diagnosis, not a reminder
Day four: send one specific finding. "Your demo form asks for eleven fields. Mid-market SaaS sites that ask for four or five typically convert better, and I'd test that in the first two weeks." Say it as a hypothesis, not a statistic. Day ten: a one-line check-in with the plan re-attached. Day 18: "Closing the loop. I'll check back after your board meeting in January." Then actually put it on your calendar. Hiring decisions at this size often wait for a board cycle.
Do not follow up with "just checking in." CEOs tolerate a third email if it contains something new. They don't if it only exists to remind them you exist.
Selling a 90-day plan, not your hours
Hourly pricing teaches the CEO to watch the clock. A plan with a start, a middle and a decision at day 90 teaches them to watch the outcome. A typical shape: a 30-day diagnostic at a flat fee, then a monthly retainer for a set number of days per week, with a note that you will tell the CEO if the company is ready to hire a full-time head of marketing. Saying that out loud is persuasive. It tells them you are not trying to stay forever.
Staying under four clients
The arithmetic is simple. If each client gets two days a week, you are full at two and a half clients. At four clients you're giving most of them a day and a half, and the work goes thin. Cap the book at four. Keep one slot open for a diagnostic. Track the pipeline as carefully as you track client work: a client ending is normal, and a four-client practice that loses one has lost a quarter of its revenue.
The CFO version of this practice follows a similar route; see how to get clients as a fractional CFO. For agency-style delivery, read getting clients for a marketing agency, and for solo advisory work, freelance consultants. The step of reaching a CEO directly is covered in getting meetings with decision-makers.
A fractional practice lives on a steady supply of CEOs who just hit a trigger. Rocketship finds founders and CEOs at companies of the right size by name, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the call on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required. The AI workers handle the follow-ups.