Fractional CMO
A fractional CMO who owns the number.
Jake steps in as your part-time marketing leader. Strategy, positioning, channels, and the weekly priorities, whether the work runs through your team, your agencies, or AI agents built for you. If we ever part ways, everything built stays with you.
The engagement
Senior marketing leadership, scoped to fit.
Flexible terms, and you own every system the engagement builds.
Founder-led by Jake Bauman. The person on the weekly call is the person who wrote your plan and answers for your number.
In plain terms
What a fractional CMO is, and what makes this one different.
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who runs your marketing part time, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive. The NorthSignal engagement is flexible by design. Jake sets the direction, owns the number, and leads whatever execution the plan calls for. Sometimes that is your in-house team and your agencies. Sometimes it is AI growth agents built on your accounts and owned by you outright. Usually it is both. The shape and the terms are scoped to your business, and everything built along the way stays yours.
The moment
You have outgrown founder-led marketing.
Most businesses do not need a marketing executive on day one. Then one quarter the signs stack up. If more than one of these sounds familiar, the leadership layer is the gap.
You are still the best marketer in the company, and your calendar shows it.
There is a marketing team, or a stack of tools, but nobody setting direction.
Two or three agencies each optimize their own channel, and no one owns the whole number.
Growth flattened, and every month brings a new theory about why.
You want senior marketing leadership, and a full-time executive hire is not the right move yet.
How it runs
One leader. Execution that fits. Your name on all of it.
A traditional fractional CMO hands you strategy and leaves the staffing problem on your desk. This engagement covers both, with whatever mix of people, agencies, and agents your plan actually needs.
Direction, from Jake
Positioning, offer, channels, budget, and the weekly call where priorities get set and defended. The decisions a CMO is paid to make, made by a person who answers for them.
Execution, staffed to fit
Your in-house team, your agencies, your tools, and where it pays, AI growth agents built on your accounts. Jake leads the resources you have and adds what the plan is missing.
Ownership, from day one
Every playbook, system, and agent the engagement creates belongs to you the day it ships. The leadership is the only part you rent.
You rent the leadership. You own everything it builds.
The rhythm
What a month actually looks like.
No discovery quarter. No deck that sits. The operating rhythm starts in the first two weeks and holds for as long as the engagement runs.
Weekly
The operating call and the brief
One working call to set the three priorities that matter this week. One written brief with what moved, what did not, and the math behind both.
Daily
The work keeps moving
Between calls, execution carries on across your team, your vendors, and any agents we have built. Jake reviews what ships against your standards.
Monthly
One number, reported plainly
A monthly report against the number we agreed to move. No vanity dashboard. If something is not working, the report says so and names the change.
Quarterly
The plan gets rewritten
A quarterly review that reads the last ninety days honestly and proposes the next, with the trade-offs named before you approve them.
Engagement
Scoped to what you actually need.
The right shape depends on how much of the function you need led. We settle the depth and the terms with you on the call, so you are never buying a package that does not fit. A few of the ways this tends to run.
Advisory
Direction and priorities. Jake sets the plan, runs the weekly call, and keeps the function on track while your team carries the day to day.
Embedded leadership
The full function. Jake owns the number and leads execution across your team, your agencies, and any agents we build together.
Project sprint
A defined push. A repositioning, a launch, or a specific build, scoped to a fixed window with a clear finish line.
Whichever shape fits, it costs a fraction of a full-time marketing hire, and everything the engagement builds stays yours. We settle the number on the free Growth Audit Call, before you decide anything.
How it starts
Ninety days of foundation. Then flexible from there.
The engagement is scoped to how much leadership your function needs, on the free call, after the audit shows where the gaps are. Any agent builds are priced separately, whether or not you run the engagement.
01
The audit and the call
Start with the free Agentic Audit, then a working call with Jake. You leave with a plain answer on whether the engagement fits, which shape suits you, and what it would take.
02
The first ninety days
Positioning sharpened, the plan written, the operating rhythm installed, and the execution staffed, whether that means your team, your agencies, or the first agent build. The function starts running.
03
Ongoing leadership, on your terms
No long-term contract. You stay because the number is moving, not because leaving costs you the system. If we part ways, everything built stays yours and keeps working.
Right fit
Who this is for, honestly.
A real executive disqualifies. If the engagement is not the right move for your business, the call is where we say so.
Best for
Businesses roughly between $1M and $20M in revenue that need marketing decided, not just done.
Owners ready to hand the marketing keys to someone who reports plainly and answers for the number.
Teams juggling agencies and tools that need one person accountable for the whole function.
Owners who want AI working inside their marketing without betting the function on it.
Not for
Pre-revenue startups still finding the offer. You need conviction and customers, not marketing overhead.
Companies that want an executive in the building five days a week. That is a full-time hire, and we will say so.
Anyone looking for someone to approve what they already decided. Jake will disagree out loud.
Get in touch
Tell Jake where your marketing stands.
Send a few lines about your business and what marketing looks like today. The note goes straight to Jake’s inbox, he reads every one himself, and you hear back from him, not a sequence.
Rather talk it through first? The Growth Audit Call is free, thirty minutes, and with Jake directly.
Common questions
What owners ask before they hand over the keys.
What is a fractional CMO?
A senior marketing leader who runs your marketing part time. You get executive-level direction, accountability for the number, and leadership for your team and vendors, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
Agencies follow your direction and execute a channel. A fractional CMO sets the direction and owns the outcome. In this engagement Jake leads the whole function, including the agencies, so every channel answers to one plan and one number.
How does the engagement work?
It is flexible. Some clients want advisory direction while their team executes. Some want Jake embedded and owning the whole function. Some want a fixed project, like a repositioning or a launch. We settle the shape and the terms together on the free Growth Audit Call, so you are never buying a package that does not fit.
What does it cost?
It depends on the shape you need, so we scope it with you on the free call rather than quote a number cold. Whatever the shape, it costs a fraction of a full-time marketing hire, and you leave the call knowing exactly what it would take before you decide anything.
Do I have to buy the agent builds too?
No. The engagement stands on its own as marketing leadership. Positioning, channel strategy, budget, and making your existing team and agencies effective. If the plan calls for an AI agent, that is a separate build you own outright, priced on the pricing page. Some clients never need one.
Is part-time leadership actually enough?
For most businesses under $20M, yes. Direction is a part-time job when the execution is staffed well. Your team and vendors carry the daily work, AI agents can absorb more of it where that fits, and the leadership hours go where they matter, on positioning, priorities, and judgment.
What happens if we part ways?
You keep everything the engagement built. The strategy, the playbooks, the reporting, and any agents were created on your accounts and belong to you. The function keeps running without us. That is the point.
Is there a long-term contract?
No. The engagement runs on flexible terms, and after the first ninety days of foundation work you are never locked in. We would rather earn the renewal than write a clause that forces it.
Ready To Talk
Your audit shows the gaps. The Growth Audit Call maps which agent closes them first.
A free 30-minute working session with Jake. Bring your numbers. You leave with a clear next move and the math behind it.
Email Jake directly at jake@northsignal.studio