Why a Fractional CMO Makes Sense Right Now (Especially in Canada)
With Canada’s economy slowing until mid-2025, many businesses are cautious about hiring. A Fractional CMO provides senior marketing leadership without the full-time overhead.
Let’s be honest: marketing is often one of the first things to get squeezed when the economy tightens. And in Canada right now, the pressure is real.
As Benjamin Tal, Deputy Chief Economist at CIBC, recently put it:
“We don’t see the Canadian economy growing in any significant way until the middle of 2025.”
That’s a sobering outlook—and a call to think differently about how we lead growth in uncertain times.
Businesses Are Playing Defense. That Makes Sense.
According to the Bank of Canada’s most recent Business Outlook Survey:
“Heightened trade uncertainty has also led many businesses to scale back their hiring and investment plans.”
I see this firsthand in conversations with founders and leadership teams across Canada. They’re trying to:
- Do more with less
- Keep costs predictable
- Avoid major commitments until there’s more clarity on rates, demand, and policy
But here’s the thing: pulling back on growth leadership doesn’t make the uncertainty go away. It just makes it harder to navigate.
Marketing Still Needs a Leader
When the economy is unpredictable, it’s easy to default to marketing as a set of tasks—running ads, sending emails, publishing content.
But if no one is driving the bigger picture—your positioning, your roadmap, your alignment across teams—those tactics become disconnected and expensive.
What you actually need is clarity. You need someone to:
- Ask the right questions
- Diagnose the real problems
- Align your team
- Build a smart plan
- Hold it accountable to outcomes
That’s exactly what Realmont Consulting provides.
Why Fractional Makes Sense Right Now
If you’re hesitant to add a full-time marketing executive to payroll—you’re not alone. Most Canadian businesses are holding back on hiring.
As Reuters reported just last month:
“Businesses remain cautious and are keeping hiring and investment under check.”
A Fractional CMO gives you access to executive-level leadership—strategic thinking, positioning, planning, and oversight—without the long-term cost or commitment of a full-time hire.
It’s a low-risk, high-impact way to stay focused on growth while keeping your burn rate in check.
Implementation Priority
High Impact (Start Here)
- Audit your current marketing strategy and positioning
- Align roadmap to business goals and market conditions
- Simplify spend by focusing only on proven, high-return channels
Medium Impact (Next Phase)
- Create operating cadence across marketing, sales, and leadership teams
- Standardize reporting to link marketing directly to revenue outcomes
- Reallocate resources toward scalable growth initiatives
Long-Term (Ongoing)
- Build resilience with brand equity and long-term positioning
- Develop playbooks for repeatable growth
- Invest in internal team development with leadership guidance
Measuring Success
Track these metrics to ensure clarity and leadership are paying off:
- Pipeline Contribution: Marketing-sourced revenue growth
- Cost per Opportunity: Trending down as spend is focused
- Win Rate: Lift from clearer positioning and messaging
- Budget Efficiency: Reduced waste across disconnected tactics
- Team Alignment: Fewer silos, clearer accountability
The Bottom Line
If your marketing feels fragmented, misaligned, or reactive—it’s probably not a resource problem. It’s a leadership problem.
You don’t need to hire a full-time CMO.
You don’t need to wait for the economy to recover.
You just need to stop, ask better questions, and build a smarter path forward.
That’s what I do. And if it sounds like something your business could use right now—I’d love to talk.