Senior marketing leadership without a full-time hire
A fractional CMO brings the strategic marketing thinking your company needs without the cost, commitment, or overhead of a full-time executive. Dave Haviland has provided fractional CMO services to private companies in Michigan and beyond since 2007.
A fractional CMO is your head of marketing, part-time and fully committed
A fractional Chief Marketing Officer fills the senior marketing leadership role on a part-time basis. They set the marketing strategy, lead the team, manage agencies and vendors, own the roadmap, and sit at the leadership table, without the full-time salary, benefits, and long-term commitment of a permanent hire.
For most private companies in the $1M to $20M range, a full-time CMO is hard to justify. But operating without senior marketing thinking means the marketing function runs without direction: campaigns that don't connect to strategy, a brand that doesn't reflect where the company is, and spend that produces activity without producing growth.
A fractional CMO solves that.
Private companies where the work is personal.
Dave's clientsare owners and leaders of private companies: family businesses, closely-held companies,and founder-led firms where decisions carry real weight and relationshipsmatter. Not publicly traded. Not on a venture capital timeline. Running on thefounder's conviction, the leadership team's trust, and years of built equity.
These are $1M to$20M companies. Thirty employees or a hundred. Services businesses,manufacturers, professional firms. What they share: a leader who takes the workseriously, cares about the culture they've built, and needs a thinking partnerwho can hold up in the room.
What fractional CMO work looks like in practice
Marketing strategy
Where marketing should focus, what the brand needs to say, how to position the company in its competitive market, and how to allocate limited resources for the highest return.
Team and agency leadership
Leading the internal marketing team if there is one, managing external agencies and vendors, and building the marketing function's capability over time.
Go-to-market execution
Working through major marketing decisions: a brand refresh, a website relaunch, a new market entry, a lead generation build. Dave has led all of these.
Executive-level presence
Representing marketing at the leadership team level, connecting marketing decisions to business decisions, and making sure the marketing function is driving business outcomes.
Marketing strategy that drives your business
Most fractional CMOs are former marketing executives who bring deep channel or execution expertise. That's valuable. Dave is a business strategist who does marketing.
His practice spans strategy, leadership, and marketing for private company owners. When he serves as a fractional CMO, he's making sure the marketing reflects where the company is competitively, what the sales motion requires, and where the business is going. The marketing and the strategy are connected.
For companies navigating growth, repositioning, or a transition, that connection matters.
Based in Ann Arbor. Working with clients across Michigan and beyond
Dave's fractional CMO practice is rooted in Southeast Michigan: Ann Arbor, Detroit, and the surrounding region. He has worked with private companies across Michigan and with clients in other states.
Michigan clients span Ann Arbor, Brighton, Canton, Chelsea, Detroit, Dexter, Howell, Milan, Northville, Novi, Plymouth, Saline, Ypsilanti, Traverse City, and Marquette.
For Michigan-based private companies looking for fractional CMO services, Dave is one of the few senior-level options with a track record specifically in the private company space.
Let's talk about whether there's a fit →
Fractional CMO services work well in some situations. Not all of them
Works best when
- The company has real marketing needs but can't justify or doesn't want a full-time CMO
- There's existing marketing activity (a team, an agency, a budget) that needs strategic leadership
- The CEO or owner wants a senior marketing voice at the table
- The company is at an inflection point where marketing strategy matters more than it used to
Not the right fit when
- The company needs day-to-day execution across a large team with no desire for strategic involvement
- Marketing is expected to be a pure cost center with no connection to business strategy
- The company is looking for a vendor relationship rather than a leadership relationship
Common questions
What does a fractional CMO cost?
Fractional CMO engagements are priced as a quarterly retainer based on scope. For private companies in the $1M to $20M range, that typically runs well below the fully loaded cost of a full-time marketing executive. Dave scopes each engagement after a diagnostic conversation.
How is a fractional CMO different from a marketing agency?
An agency executes. A fractional CMO leads. Dave sets the marketing strategy, manages the team and any agencies, and represents marketing at the leadership level. Many clients keep their agency and bring in a fractional CMO to direct it.
How long does a fractional CMO engagement last?
Most run a year or more, but the commitment is quarter-to-quarter. Marketing strategy takes time to set, execute, and adjust, and the value compounds as Dave gets deeper into the business. Some engagements end when the company is ready to hire full-time. Others continue for years.
When should a company hire a full-time CMO instead?
When the marketing function is large enough to need daily leadership, or when marketing is the primary engine of the business and warrants a full-time executive. Dave will say so when that line has been crossed.
Does Dave work with companies outside Michigan?
Yes. The practice is based in Ann Arbor and most clients are in Southeast Michigan, but Dave has worked with private companies in other states. Most fractional CMO work happens through a mix of on-site sessions and remote collaboration.
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