For companies whose marketing has outgrown its current owner. I diagnose, set the strategy, build what is missing and, when it helps, lead the function part-time: plan, budget, agencies and a report to the CEO on pipeline, not activity.
Strategy, annual plan, budget, vendor management and CEO-level reporting, on a retainer that fits the stage of the business. Call it a fractional CMO if you like; I call it running your marketing one or two days a week.
For the company about to hire its first marketer, or that just lost one. I stand up brand, website, CRM, attribution and reporting, then hire and train the team to run it.
Lifecycle stages, lead scoring and routing, SLAs and sales enablement in HubSpot or Salesforce, so both teams agree on what a good lead is.
Be found whether buyers search or ask. Technical SEO, content structured for answer engines, and a way to measure presence in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
Typically $2M to $50M in revenue, 10 to 200 people, and either no marketing leader or a first marketer who needs senior direction.
The founder, the sales leader or an office manager owns it between other jobs, and it shows in the pipeline.
Agencies and freelancers produce work, nobody owns the strategy, the budget or the number it is supposed to move.
A rebrand, a new market, a website that has to be rebuilt, an acquisition, or AI search eating the traffic you used to count on.
If two of the three sound familiar, and tell me which ones.
Every engagement runs the same four moves, whether it is a 30-day assessment or a two-year rebuild. The letters are a coincidence I decided to keep.
Find out what is true before deciding what to do. Audit the brand, funnel, data, stack and team. Interview sales. Baseline where you show up in Google and in AI answers.
Turn the findings into a sequence: what to fix first, what to stop, what to build, who does it, what it costs. Agreed with the CEO or partners before anything is bought.
Build and launch. Website, CRM and tracking first so nothing leaks, then the few programs most likely to move pipeline: content, search, paid, partners, sales enablement.
Read the numbers, cut what is not working, double down on what is. Train the team or hire the person who will run it, document everything, and hand off clean when the time comes.
Published so you can decide before we talk. Scope and start date set the final number; nothing starts without one in writing. Prices as of Q4 2026.
The Identify step of the IRMO Playbook. Audit of brand, funnel, data, stack and team, a baseline of where you show up in Google and AI answers, and a prioritized 90-day plan with a number attached.
Senior judgment on call for a founder or first marketer who will do the work. Two strategy sessions a month, async access in between, a quarterly roadmap.
I run marketing: plan, budget, agencies and vendors, the team, the dashboard, the Monday report. Two days a week is $12,500.
Defined outcome, defined price. Website rebuilds, HubSpot or Salesforce lead flow, AI content operations, brand and launch work. Most land between $8,000 and $35,000.
| Option | Cost | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Director of Marketing, Chicago | $140K to $180K salary | $175K to $230K loaded, plus 8 to 12 weeks to hire |
| Part-time marketing leader, 1 day a week | $90K a year | Starts in two weeks, no benefits, no recruiter fee, 30-day exit |
| Part-time marketing leader, 2 days a week | $150K a year | Senior seat at roughly the salary alone of a full-time director |
Salary ranges are Chicago-area market figures for a Director of Marketing in 2026; loaded cost assumes benefits, taxes and recruiting at 25 to 30 percent.
Rebuilt the digital foundation and lead engine for a lender with 50+ loan officers, producing $40M in qualified opportunities in 30 days.
Built a complete marketing function as the first marketing hire: rebrand, a 700+ page Next.js website, attribution, reporting and a review engine.
Rebuilt paid search and consolidated vendors for a medical equipment franchise system, contributing to a record sales month.
Short answers to the things most people want to know before they send the form. Anything else, ask in the note.
