How much should I inspect to invest every month?

Answer:

That depends on how ambitious you want to be with your growth plan. We counsel that you put in place two free sessions before we can answer that question. 

Session 1 - sets up all the measurement systems to see where you are now, where your competition are and what the search potential is out there for you to secure.

Session 2 - reviews, what share of web traffic you have? How hard it is to get an increase share, what resources you would need and therefore the cost.

The ROI is relatively easy, if you know how many enquiries you get from web traffic now, your conversion rate and the customer value.

If that isn't set up we will help you set it up to gain a very clear ROI.

Every business is different and while the methodology is a well trodden path, we need to do the research and set up the ROI measurement to answer that question.

See the Session outlines we advise here   

What kind of ROI expectation should i have?

Answer

That depends on where you are starting from and what a new customer is worth to you, however let me give you the venture capitalist approach:

- They use two measurements

- What does it cost to acquire a customer (CAC)

- What's that customer typical going to generate in profit over the contract term? (Life time value or LTV)

If LTV / CAC is greater than 1 you should invest in growing your customers

If LTV / CAC is greater than 3 you are under investing in marketing

How do I work out my CAC?

Simple add all your sales and marketing costs together and divide it by the customers you have.

We will use that number to ensure your investing the right amount in marketing, depending on your appetite for growth.

One key thing we will measure is are we deploying marketing that is increasing the cost to acquire customers or reducing it. 

We recommend you read this blog on the lowest cost highest return methods we employ so that you pay no more than your best competitor, and considerably less than any competitor using an external agency.

That blog is here 

The gist is we aim to be 40% of what an agency would charge and generate 15-30 times the content at 10X the speed of an agency. The blog tells you how we would advocate achieving that.

How will you tailor your strategy to our industry and market?

Answer

We review where you are in the marketplace and at least 5 competitors of your choice to establish how they are performing as part of the free consultation , only then can we see where you are, where the low hanging fruit is, what share of traffic you have and what the opportunity to grow is.

That approach is free, involves 2, 45 minute 1-2-1 sessions (online) and 2 days of our follow up to develop the plan, look at the opportunity and resource options.

So essentially we do not know how to NOT tailor our approach because it is in our DNA to Tailor every customers solution.

We specialise in small business customers who have scarce resources, limited marketing expertise to give them a low cost, high output solution.

We do not specialise in certain sectors and only work with one company in each sector so we are not conflicted.

We look at your growth goals in session 2 of the free consultation to understand where you would like to get to, with a keen eye on 5 of your competitors and how they are doing?

Our objective grow your market share, by building your early , late and middle stage pipeline.

We can show you precisely how that is done.

Secondly we like to listen to and quiz sales folk & customers to understand what we need to fix to generate more sales, this we call trade marketing, ie extremely close to your sales organisation.    

What kind of reports will I receive and when?

Answer

We report weekly in activity reviews however the measurements systems we put in place in session 1 of the free consultation give you, online, real time access to the following:

Google Analytics - so you can we in real time web traffic trends, growth, bounce rates, page performance either at a high level or at a drill into the detail level.

Google Search Console - will tell you via alerts what we are doing to your online presence however we will point you at what is right & wrong in Session 1. Again you will have real time login access.

SERanking is what we use to assess our performance on your search words in real time, and we will set up a project in SERanking in session 1 in order to deliver the insights in session 2. You will have access to SERanking so you can see what proportion of your keywords are improving in ranking and what traffic to expect.

Google Lighthouse we set up in session 1 to establish how your website technically performs, you will have access to this after session 1 and we will use the outputs to see if there is remedial work we need to undertake.    

Yes, we are not advocating spending on expensive campaigns, we are advocating hiring young, high energy people and giving them simple, low cost or free, but highly effective tools to produce high quality content that ranks. 

Or to produce trade marketing tools and process that suspects and prospects enjoy and therefore convert to customers. Think of frictionless customer journeys where we know what you want as a prospect because of what you opened, read and clicked on. 

We discuss ad review expense and results weekly.

If it does not give us. a return we cancel it.

We can because we design the customer journey from suspect, who doesn't realise there is a fix for his/her problem or pain all the way through to a prospect in the pipeline signing up.

- Everything is measured across the entire journey 

- Everything is constantly reviewed, fettled and tweaked till we are happy its an optimised process.

- Transparency of the impact on your business is what we design into the processes.  

We use the best tools, the fastest process and young keen hungry people to get results, so that you have a high energy flexible marketing service that's agile.

If something needs to change its changed in an agile manner as adaptability is designed into the team and tools/processes.

We design into how we build the ability to be agile and adaptable.

We are a results based marketing partnership so everything is reviewed, all of the time.

The team are encouraged to be curious and learn daily, so if we find a new better way of doing things, or simply want to test an idea - we do it.

The results are measurable and transparent so we know if it made a difference.  

We have tools that monitor competition at early pipeline suspect to prospect and later in the prospect to customer process with trade marketing and feedback. See  the Bisley example where we review our numbers and competitors continually.

We monitor sales results and customer feedback from all personas in the decision making process looking for new ideas and angles, so we can adapt and tweak in an agile and proactive fashion.

Reacting is therefore minimised by th proactive stance however, we are not the only source of great ideas. 

At Communications Edge the owner of the business is your main point of contact to ensure you get the best input and experience.

We recommend weekly reviews as a minimum, however if we need more frequent contact especially in early phases of assignments then as often as decisions need making.

Early in an assignment twice a week is common.

We tread a very fine line in not taking to much of your time away from your business whilst wanting to move fast and iterate quickly. 

Our DNA comes from our leadership who break everything down into "This means this" as the industry likes jargon, we like english and whats the business impact of that phrase or term?

You will learn on the way what is and is not important. 

Question: Am I locked into a long term contract?

Answer: no, all are assignments are rolling quarterly assignments that are only quarterly as that gives us time to move resources from contract to contract.  

We'll know via the reviews and numbers and we will agree the end of the agreement.

Yes, you can, we advocate that approach and as all results are monitored daily then we can see when either the need to scale up or down is coming. 

Yes, we advocate that you have control and access to all tools, we effectively just make sure you have the right tools and your team performs to the optimum.

Effectively we are designing in your marketing service capability as an independent business. 

For us we want the business to improve and that includes a good exit or sale, which need you to own the data.

Yes you have admin access to all the tools we advocate and agree you need.

Yes, Your admin access to the tools and data mean they are in your control and ownership, if we part ways, we simply remove our access to your tools.

Question:Can we share case studies and testimonials?

Answer: yes, we show you previous results and achievements right on the home page and in the case study blogs. 

We have moved VPod from ranked 100th on 181 keywords to ranked 7th in 12 months.

The business impact 16X increase in web traffic from 50 web visitors a month to 800.

​

We moved expand reality from 50 visitors a month to a peak of 8,000 a month.

We secured £10k in marketing funds off Meta, and £3k off Vuzix to run specific managed campaigns for them. 

In the CRM and Pipeline growth and conversion statistics.

Question:Will you help train my internal team to reduce dependancy on the agency?

Answer: Yes, we believe training and running an insourced internal team is the right low cost high return formula for small businesses.

Our approach is that the only outsourced factor is the fractional or Interim CMO, the team are yours.

As such them its a question of team maturity as to how much CMO time do you need.

Early assignments its full time, later stage assignments its an hour a day.

Usually at the end of the assignment we have a natural. team leader who takes over having learnt all the role and expertise in cross-training.

Yes because your team is yours, the data is yours, the tools you have admin access to.

You simply lose the CMO input.

That input can be retained on a non exec basis or through whatever mutually agreeable mechanism we agree.

Question: What guarantees if any do you provide?

Answer: A track record and measurability, you will know within 3 months if the relationship is getting results. 

Extract the learns from them and cancel them.

Your Pipeline will grow, your customer base will grow, your cost to acquire customer will shrink and the lifetime value of your customers will increase.

A Fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) is an experienced senior marketing leader who works with your business on a part-time or contract basis.

Unlike a traditional marketing agency, which sells fixed service packages and often focuses on deliverables such as ads, social posts, or reports.

A fractional CMO provides strategic leadership — setting goals, building the plan, selecting the right channels, and ensuring every pound of marketing spend drives measurable growth.

Key Differences:

• Strategic vs. Service-Based: The fractional CMO shapes your overall growth strategy; agencies typically execute pre-defined tactics.

• Cost-Efficient: You pay only for senior expertise and lean execution (often with AI-enabled interns), rather than high retainers plus hidden fees.

• Transparent & ROI-Focused: Fractional CMOs report on pipeline, CAC, and LTV; agencies often emphasise vanity metrics such as impressions or clicks.

• Agile & Integrated: A fractional CMO works as part of your leadership team, adapting quickly to changes. Agencies usually operate at arm’s length and can be slower to respond.

For SMEs, this model delivers enterprise-level strategy without the overhead of a full-time hire or the inefficiencies of large agencies.

A fractional CMO typically costs 30–40% less than a traditional agency. Instead of paying £4,000–£10,000 per month in agency retainers plus hidden fees for “extras,” you invest in strategic leadership (often 1–2 days a week) supported by a lean delivery team. This model focuses your budget on activities that drive measurable pipeline growth, not on overhead.

Yes — especially when guided by a senior CMO and AI-enabled workflows. Interns and early-career marketers can now produce 15× more high-quality content (blogs, social posts, reports) thanks to AI tools for creating content structures these are then customised with tailored writing, design, and optimisation. The fractional CMO ensures brand voice, strategy, and quality standards are met.

We focus on commercial outcomes, not vanity metrics. ROI is measured by tracking:

• Cost per lead and cost per acquisition (CAC)

• Lead-to-deal conversion rates

• Customer lifetime value (LTV)

• Return on marketing spend vs. revenue growth

All metrics are visible in real-time dashboards, ensuring accountability and transparency.

Key KPIs for SME growth include:

• Website traffic & keyword rankings (to capture demand)

• Lead quality & conversion rate (to build pipeline)

• Cost per acquisition (CAC) vs. LTV (to ensure profitable growth)

• Pipeline velocity & payback period (to forecast cash flow)

These metrics link directly to business outcomes — not just impressions or clicks.

Absolutely. One of our core principles is full client ownership. All analytics, ad accounts, CRM systems, dashboards, and content libraries remain in your tenancy. If you change providers, you retain 100% control over your data and platforms.

Most clients see diagnostic insights and quick-win improvements within 30 days. Significant gains in lead generation, content rankings, and pipeline typically appear within 90 days, provided there is consistent implementation of agreed actions.

We primarily work with SMEs and mid-cap businesses in technology, SaaS, workplace solutions, professional services, and high-growth sectors such as sports and leisure. Our approach is data-driven and adaptable, so we can tailor strategies to your industry’s buyer journeys.

You’ll work directly with a fractional CMO as your lead strategist. We hold weekly or bi-weekly reviews (depending on the engagement) supported by intern and specialist resources. For urgent needs, we provide same-day responses via agreed communication channels.

Clients typically get access to:

• Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Google Search Console for web performance

• CRM systems such as HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Salesforce

• SEO & competitive insight tools such as SERanking or SEMrush

• Dashboards in Looker Studio or Power BI for real-time reporting

All tools are set up in your organisation’s accounts, ensuring transparency and long-term control.