What is Fractional?
A fractional Chief Communications Officer / Comms Leader is essentially a seasoned professional who acts as your Head of Comms without being a full-time employee. (Like a fractional CFO does for finance)
A fractional comms leader would provide the overall strategy for an org’s communications, so things like:
- The high-level narrative shaping and positioning of the brand and any products/services
- Internal comms and employees experience
- Customer Communications and CX
- Reputation Management and Public Relations
- Crisis Communications
The list can go on, but a fractional leader works with other leaders in the company to ensure intentional communications is worked into every function, giving it the best chance for success.
Why Fractional?
There are many reasons and scenarios where bringing in a fractional comms leader is a good choice for an organization. What we see most with our clients are the following:
- Businesses on the smaller size (sub $5m) need a comms/marketing expert to create that function and be embedding in the current leadership team, but they can’t invest in a full-time executive yet.
- Mid-sized org with 1 or 2 comms employees need someone experienced to build a strategy and look at programs holistically while also providing more senior-level direction and education to the current team.
- An org is going through major change (M&A, strategy shift, leadership change, etc.) and needs an objective expert or someone with that specific experience to help.
- A CMO with more a demand-gen background needs a partner to cover the communications side of things or be a coach/sounding board to make sure comms doesn’t get left out.
Every org is different, so when we work with clients, we spend time up front defining the needs, budget, and impact objectives to make sure the investment is what the business needs at the time.
Fractional vs …
Fractional CCO vs An Agency
An agency is a great choice if you need more support in execution. A fractional CCO owns the strategy that an agency executes against.
Agencies are built to run campaigns, pitch media, or manage a specific channel – and that’s awesome. Agencies don’t, however, sit in on leadership meetings, understand nuanced business goals and context, or make the judgement calls on comms orchestration and messaging.
A fractional CCO acts as an executive level leader, integrating and collaborating with other functional leaders. They can also work with agencies (or help you find / manage one). If you already have an agency and things still feel scattered, that’s usually a strategy gap, not an execution gap. That’s what a fractional leader fixes.
Fractional CCO vs. a full-time CCO
Same seat, different commitment.
A full-time CCO is a $200K+ salary, benefits, and a multi-month search — before they’ve done a single day of work and like any full-time exec, the ramp up is at least 90 days. For some orgs, this is absolutely necessary, but it’s a big ask for mid-sized, small or start-up companies that still need thoughtful comms strategy.
A fractional CCO provides that same senior-level judgment, embedded in your leadership team, at a fraction of the cost and without the hiring runway. Most fractional CCOs (including Way and Words) bills out around $200-$300/hr or works on negotiated retainers that run from $5k/month and up, depending on the scope and complexity of the work needed.
Further Reading
Check out some articles on fractional comms leaders and the role itself:
- Fractional Comms Leadership is Coming of Age, but It’s Not Like Other Fractional Roles [CommsCollective]
- Fractional leadership is the future. Here’s how to make it work [Fast Company]
- Ask your preferred AI tool: “What are the pros and cons of working with a fractional comms leader / fractional CCO”