Fractional CMO and part-time CMO describe the same model: a senior marketing leader who works inside your company for a fraction of the week. The word fractional comes from the American startup and venture capital world. In France you hear it in companies with international investors, an English-speaking board or a team spread over several countries. French-speaking SMEs tend to say part-time CMO or directeur marketing à temps partagé.
iytro, founded in 2019, created the Part-time CMO model in France. It has 400+ clients, 86% of whom recommend it, and it is B Corp certified. If you want the practical side first (days, budget, on-site organisation), read the part-time CMO in France page. This page is about the decision.
Full-time CMO. This is the right answer when the company is large enough to fill five days a week with leadership work. In France it means a permanent contract, a search that takes months and a decision that is slow to undo if the fit is wrong. A fractional CMO gives you senior leadership now and lets you define the full-time role later with more certainty.
Agency. An agency executes campaigns, content or a website. It works to a brief and sits outside the company. Someone senior inside still has to write the brief, arbitrate the budget and judge the results. That is the fractional CMO's job.
Freelancer. A good freelancer covers one speciality. A founder who manages five of them becomes the marketing director by default. A fractional CMO takes that coordination off the founder's desk and answers for the whole.
If what you lack is execution capacity under senior direction, iytro also offers 1+1, a small subscription team, and On Demand, a scoped project delivered as a finished asset.
The leader is embedded one to three days a week, or as interim. iytro charges 1,100 to 1,500 € per day. Two days a week is about 10,000 to 12,000 € per month. There is no long-term commitment and the number of days is adjusted month by month. The offer is described on the part-time CMO page.
On location: iytro has offices in Paris, Barcelona and New York. In France its leaders work from Paris. They go on site with clients in other French cities when needed and work remotely otherwise.
Days 1 to 30: diagnosis. The leader meets the founders, sales, product and the existing marketers, reviews the numbers, the budget and the agency contracts, and listens to customers. The output is a short document: where growth comes from today, what is being wasted, what the priorities are.
Days 31 to 60: plan and first decisions. Positioning and target segments are settled. The budget is reallocated. Roles in the team are clarified, and agencies are confirmed, re-briefed or stopped. A small number of indicators is agreed with the CEO and the board.
Days 61 to 90: execution rhythm. Campaigns run on the new plan, with a weekly review and a monthly report to leadership. At that point you can judge the model on facts and decide whether to keep the same number of days, reduce it or prepare a full-time hire.
The Qovoltis and Veesion case studies describe two such engagements.
Yes. Both terms describe a senior marketing leader embedded in the company one to three days a week. Fractional is the word used in international, VC-backed contexts; part-time CMO is more common among French companies.
Yes. A fractional or interim period is a common way to cover the gap between two CMOs and to define the full-time role before starting the search.
iytro has offices in Paris, Barcelona and New York. For French companies its leaders work from Paris, on site when needed and remotely otherwise.
