Managed Marketing Department — fCMO leadership plus AI-native execution.
Twelve months. Bi-weekly cadence. The transferable marketing system, built and run for you — with roughly 60% of the work AI-executed under our methodology. Net annual benefit: ~$180K vs. building the same capability in-house.
- fCMO leadership + bi-weekly reviews
- AI-native content, email & ad production
- Marketing dashboard, refreshed monthly
- Quarterly strategy refresh & re-scoring
- Annual planning & budget development
- Owner-independent by design
Six functions running monthly. Sixty percent AI-executed.
Tier 3 isn't a retainer with vague "strategy support." It's a defined operating model — six functions, documented cadence, real outputs every month, with AI doing the lift it's good at and humans doing the lift it isn't.
fCMO Leadership
Senior marketing leadership, bi-weekly. Strategy decisions, prioritization, escalation, coaching for your internal team. The CMO seat at your leadership table — without the in-house cost.
AI-Native Content Production
Editorial calendar executed weekly. Content produced against your documented brand voice. Email, LinkedIn, blog, video — all running on a documented cadence with measured output.
Demand Generation Operations
Paid and organic demand programs. Lead enrichment against your ICP roster. Funnel optimization. Attribution wired in. Campaign reporting in your monthly dashboard.
Marketing Dashboard & KPI Cadence
Your monthly marketing dashboard, maintained and refreshed. Leading and lagging KPIs across all six areas. Variance flags. Budget vs. actuals. The transferable-system layer.
Quarterly Strategy Refresh
Every quarter, the 6 To Fix scorecard re-runs. Areas re-scored. Playbook updates approved. The strategic record stays current, not stale. Your marketing operation evolves with the business.
Owner-Independence Build
Across all the above, the through-line: documentation, transferability, and AI-leverage that reduces your dependency on us and your team's dependency on you. Year 1 ends with marketing that runs without you.
Twelve months. Two phases.
Foundation & First Wins
Month 1 audit (if not already done) plus playbook lock. Month 2 build: brand assets, ICP enrichment, KPI dashboard, sales playbook. Month 3 review — money-back guarantee window closes only when you're satisfied.
Marketing Function, Running
Bi-weekly cadence. Monthly dashboards. Content production at AI-native scale. Demand programs always on. Quarterly re-scoring. Systems Maturity score climbing each quarter.
Annual Planning + Renewal
Full Tier 1 re-score against year-1 baseline. Annual marketing plan and budget. Renewal/restructure conversation — including the option to take the function in-house once it's been built.
Lower cost. Senior leadership. Owner-independent by design.
The traditional path to a marketing function at this revenue stage is a Director of Marketing ($165K + benefits), a coordinator ($75K + benefits), and an agency retainer (~$60K/year). Total carry: roughly $300K, plus 6–12 months of build time before anything compounds.
Tier 3 replaces that line item with a single, productized engagement at $60–90K per year — with senior fCMO leadership on the strategy seat and roughly 60% of the work AI-executed. The math nets out to about $180K in annual benefit over building the same capability in-house.
The savings aren't the point. The transferability is. What you're paying for is a marketing function that runs without you in the room — and that shows up as goodwill the day a buyer opens the file.
Tier 3 is for owners who want marketing that runs without them.
You're a fit if
- You're past Tier 2 (or you'd skip ahead because the audit was clear) and you want both ongoing leadership and ongoing execution
- Your current marketing spend is fragmented — agency here, freelancer there, internal coordinator stretched thin — and the math doesn't add up
- You're 3–5 years from a sale, succession, or step-back and you want the marketing function to be diligence-ready before then
- You've considered hiring a Director or VP of Marketing but the cost, recruiting time, and risk of a bad hire feel disproportionate at your stage
- You're willing to operate transparently — shared dashboards, shared KPIs, shared roadmaps — because that's how this engagement works
You're not a fit if
- You haven't done Tier 1 or Tier 2 yet — we won't take Tier 3 engagements without one of them complete
- You want execution only, with no strategic leadership layer — that's an agency, not Strategic Glue
- You're not committed to the 12-month term (the 3-month money-back guarantee gives you the off-ramp)
- Your internal team isn't ready to operate in a shared-cadence model
What to expect.
The audit answers most owner questions on its own. These are the ones we hear before the engagement starts.
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Where does the $180K net benefit number come from?
It's the delta between building the marketing function in-house at this revenue stage (Director ~$165K + benefits, coordinator ~$75K + benefits, agency retainer ~$60K = roughly $300K all-in) versus a Tier 3 engagement at $60–90K/year. The savings are real, but they're a byproduct, not the point. The point is that you get senior strategic leadership and AI-leveraged execution in a single line item — and the function is owner-independent by design.
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How does the 3-month money-back guarantee work?
At any point in the first 90 days of Tier 3, if you're not satisfied with the work, the engagement ends and the full retainer to that point is refunded. No clauses, no offsets. The guarantee exists because the methodology earns its keep in the first 90 days — or it doesn't earn it at all. Past month 3, the 12-month term applies.
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What does "60% AI-executable" actually mean in practice?
It means about 60% of the work that historically required a coordinator or a junior agency role — content drafting, list enrichment, dashboard maintenance, ad copy variants, email production, research, competitive monitoring — is executed against documented playbooks using AI tooling. The remaining 40% is strategic work, creative judgment, relationship work, and review — which still requires senior human attention.
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How does Tier 3 work alongside my existing team?
Most Tier 3 clients have an internal coordinator, ops lead, or junior marketer that we work alongside. We provide the leadership layer and the documented operating system; your team handles the in-context execution we hand off. The end-state is that your internal team is more capable, not displaced.
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What happens after year 1?
Three options. (1) Renew — most common, with a year-2 plan built from the year-1 re-score. (2) Step down to a lighter engagement now that the function is documented and running. (3) Take the function fully in-house with our handoff support, including hiring guidance. The methodology is designed to give you the choice — including the choice to leave.
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Why a 12-month term?
Because the value compounds. Months 1–3 are the build. Months 4–6 the function operates and starts to show measurable lift. Months 7–9 the playbook gets revised against what we've learned. Months 10–12 the system is mature enough to be measured against itself. Shorter terms don't let the compounding happen — which is why the 3-month guarantee covers the build phase and the 12-month term covers the compounding phase.
Twelve months from now, your marketing function runs without you.
Tier 3 starts with a fit call — not a contract. We'll confirm the engagement makes sense for both sides before anything moves forward.
Tell us about your business.
A short form to start the fit conversation. Tier 3 begins with confirming the engagement makes sense for both sides — Terry reads every inquiry personally.