A fractional CMO for growing South African businesses.
Senior marketing leadership without the full-time salary. We set the strategy, own the plan and the numbers, and bring the team that builds it. Based in Johannesburg, working with businesses and schools across South Africa.
Leadership you can afford, starting now.
A full-time chief marketing officer in Johannesburg is reported to cost between R1.5 million and R2.5 million a year, before benefits, tools or a team. Most growing businesses cannot carry that, and many do not need it every day. They need the thinking, the accountability and the decisions.
Reported Johannesburg salary range, May 2026. Excludes recruitment, benefits and the team beneath them.
- Months to hire and onboard
- One person’s experience
- Fixed cost whether you need them or not
An agreed number of days each month, scoped to your size and your goals, with designers, developers and ad specialists behind it.
- Started within weeks, not months
- Ten years of work across industries
- Scales up or down as you grow
Strategy first. Then we build it.
Every engagement starts with the same four moves. Nothing is guesswork, and you always know what we are doing and why.
A Marketing Diagnostic: your numbers, your website, your ads, your competitors and your customers. We find what is working, what is leaking and what is missing.
A 90-day plan with priorities, budget and targets in plain language. You see exactly where each rand goes and what it should return.
We lead the work and manage the people doing it: your team, our team, or both. Websites, ads, SEO, content, brand and campaigns, all pointed at the same goals.
A monthly review in business terms: leads, sales, cost per lead and what we change next. No vanity metrics.
A marketing department with someone senior in charge.
Who you serve, why you win and how that shows up in everything you publish.
Channel mix and budget decisions based on your numbers, not on what an agency prefers to sell.
Web design, Google Ads, SEO, social, content, photography and video from one accountable team.
Already working with an agency or freelancers? We brief them, review their work and report on results.
Role definitions, interview support and onboarding when you are ready to build an in-house team.
What happened, what it cost, what it returned and what we do next, in a page you can forward to your partners.
Pick the level that fits.
Prices are per month, in rands. You can move up or down as the business changes.
A senior head to steer
For owners who run the work themselves and want an experienced person pointing the way.
- A monthly strategy session
- A written 90-day plan
- A monthly review of your numbers
- Questions answered between sessions
Marketing led, week to week
We take charge of your marketing and hold everyone doing the work to the plan.
- Everything in Advisor
- A weekly check-in
- We brief and manage your agencies and freelancers
- Budget and channel decisions
- A monthly report you can forward to your partners
We lead it and do the work
Leadership and a team behind it, with one point of contact for all of it.
- Everything in Fractional CMO
- Our team runs your ads, website, SEO and content
- One point of contact
- Quarterly planning
All three levels run on a three-month minimum. Ad spend is paid straight to the platforms, and production work at the Growth partner level is quoted with you.
If you sign a retainer within 30 days, we credit the Diagnostic against your first months.
Signs you need a CMO, not another freelancer.
- 01You spend on marketing but cannot say what it returns.
- 02Your website, ads and social media all tell a different story.
- 03You have an agency or freelancers, but nobody owns the plan.
- 04Growth depends on you, and marketing is not where your time is best spent.
- 05Admissions, enquiries or sales are flat and you are not sure why.
A retainer is not for everyone, yet.
You pay for ads, a site or an agency and nobody senior owns the plan. A few days a month of the right person usually pays for itself in what stops being wasted.
If marketing spend is still tiny, a working website and a Diagnostic will do more for you than a retainer. We will say so and point you at the cheaper first step.
View access to your accounts, and someone who can say yes. Without both, a good plan stays on paper, and we would rather not take your money for that.
Fractional CMO, answered.
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your business for an agreed part of the month instead of full time. They set the strategy, own the plan and the budget, manage the people and suppliers doing the work, and report on results.
How much does a fractional CMO cost in South Africa?
A full-time CMO in Johannesburg is reported to cost R1.5 million to R2.5 million a year. Our fractional levels start at R12,000 a month for an Advisor, R20,000 a month for a Fractional CMO and R35,000 a month for a Growth Partner, all on a three-month minimum. Most clients begin with a Marketing Diagnostic, from R10,000.
How is this different from hiring a marketing agency?
An agency usually sells you a service such as ads, a website or social media. A fractional CMO starts with your business goals, decides which of those services you need, in what order, and holds the people delivering them accountable. We can also do the work, but the strategy comes first.
Who is a fractional CMO right for?
Owner-led businesses and schools that spend on marketing but lack senior marketing leadership: companies that have outgrown ad hoc marketing, are running several suppliers without a single plan, or are preparing to hire an in-house marketing team.
What is the Marketing Diagnostic?
It is where every engagement begins. We review your website, search visibility, advertising, brand and numbers, and give you a clear picture of what is working, what is not and what to do first. You can act on it with us or with anyone else.
Where do you work?
We are based in Johannesburg and work with businesses and schools across Gauteng and South Africa, in person and remotely.
Let us look at your marketing.
Book a diagnostic call. We will tell you honestly what is working, what is not and whether a fractional CMO is the right fit.