Utilized by Some of the Best
Does This Sound Like You?
A marketing manager was struggling to do her job with limited tech skills while being strapped for time and wearing way too many hats. She was frustrated, felt undervalued and overwhelmed, and was angry that she had to handle it all.
Then she started delegating some parts of SEO, a few ad campaigns, the website, some technical and design tasks, and a bit of the analytics to O8.
The list continued to grow, as did the results from it all, including our involvement in overall marketing strategy.
Now she can do everything she wanted to, with the skills she has, while looking amazing to management and better justifying the work she does...and she doesn’t hate her job anymore. In fact, she loves it!
How It Works
We assign an experienced Customer Success Manager (CSM) to your account, who serves as the main liaison between your team and ours.
Your CSM manages workflow, quality, skillset assignment, and timelines. You get a transparent project portal with an overview of all work being done.
We open up communication with your assigned team as they begin to become a part of your daily workflow.
"I am very glad we decided to partner with O8. Specifically, I love that they drive the process for us, their proactive communication, and the fast, quality results regardless that we are likely the 'smallest fish in the pond' of clients."
Macaire Merkel
“[...] From the very beginning, the O8 team was very methodical in their approach, providing critical input, listening carefully to our needs and recommending changes that would ultimately benefit the end user. As our company moves forward, we continue to rely on O8 for their professionalism, expertise and long-term support. They are a valued partner and, in our view, an extension of our marketing team.”
David Wargin
Fuel Your Marketing on an Hourly Basis
Contracts are hourly and month-to-month so you can test-drive us and easily ramp up or down. As an extension of your team, we do everything from full-featured website redesigns to running your ads and social media. Our customer retention rates are above 95%!
Example Scenarios
You have a specific need.
- You desire X hours per month of additional support in one or more service categories.
- Service categories include standard agency services like web design, development, marketing strategy, SEO, paid ads, UX, CRM, etc.
You have specific goals.
- Increasing website leads or conversions
- Improving paid ad campaign performance
- Improving overall strategy with more brainpower
- Adding more capacity to meet the demands of management
What a Fractional Marketing Team Looks Like
Any role can be filled either by your company exclusively, by the fractional marketing team, or by both (role supplementation).
Marketing Side
Not enough time or support? You need someone to get it done. We have smart, efficient doers to drive campaigns across the finish line.
A digital change agent to develop a plan and drive measurable results from your marketing and help select the proper marketing technology stack to grow your business.
No data, or too much data with no actionable insights? We turn data into next steps with SMART goals.
Need help with defining goals, audience personas, key messages, and marketing or campaign strategy? We make sure your marketing has a goal and a plan to measure and achieve it.
Competitors outrank you on Google? Bounce rates too high? We ensure you have the right tools, data, and insights to optimize your site to rank and convert.
Cost per clicks too high? Campaigns aren't performing well? Targeting isn't on point? We find the right audience, drive the right traffic, and create ROI/ROAS.
You need more out of your marketing. More conversions. More applications. More tours. More registrations. More leads. More sales. We find what is not working and make it work.
A picture tells a thousand words, but copy can make or break a business. We write copy that gets rankings, grabs attention, and increases conversions.
Need more engaging and inspiring collateral? Want a website you can be proud to show your friends and colleagues? We design marketing that converts "pretty" to revenue.
Tech Side
Big technical decisions, hosting, DNS, security, disaster recovery planning...we help manage what you would love to ignore, but can't.
Ever had a project go sideways because the project manager didn't understand the technology? We've got you covered.
All the things you didn't know were important, until someone had to deal with them a few years later. We help you avoid technical debt.
Engaging experiences that translate to new business, conversions, leads.... We create powerful experiences.
Designers who have made their life's career out of all things web, who also understand CMS at a deep level.
That magical, complex user interface needs a specialist to handle it beautifully, with expertise that keeps the code maintainable.
Specialists in web development and custom programming, we handle the hard-core code with experience and care to ensure the finished product is maintainable.
Everything from heatmaps and analytics to more complex datasets, this is a very specific skill that merits a specialized touch.
CRMs can seem easy on the surface, but they often require deep knowledge and can make or break your business. We fix entire CRM setups, implement and integrate new ones, and ensure best practices.
What You Get
Google Data Studio dashboard to track your marketing metrics, KPIs, and goals.
KPI document with a defined strategy, business objective, and measurable KPIs.
Access to our rock star team that fills all 18 roles at a fraction of the cost of hiring.
Extremely high retention. The same people stay with you for years.
Dedicated Customer Success Manager, your point of contact who is trained in marketing and tech.
Access to our infrastructure for remote communication and collaboration.
Neuromarketing expertise. We bring brain-based insight to your marketing!
Advanced expertise in Drupal, WordPress, and other open source CMS platforms.
Need more? Just ask - we accept all challenges!
Our Team
Seth CEO and Marketing Engineer
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Josh VP, Sales and Marketing
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Andy VP, Digital Marketing
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
Cory VP, Digital Strategy
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Tyler Director, Customer Success and Strategy
Golden Valley, Minnesota
Adam Web Engineer and CSM
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Hadley Manager of Marketing and Business Relationships
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Justin Director, UX & Design
New Brighton, Minnesota
Answers to questions we commonly hear:
Do you replace marketing team members?
COVID-19 is changing many company dynamics.
Historically we have not replaced anyone and instead have helped make existing marketing teams more effective, helping businesses avoid new hires. However, companies are now faced with a lot more pressure and some tough decisions.
- If staffing has been reduced or furloughed, we can often fill gaps at a lesser cost than rehiring.
- No matter your situation, we can bring a fresh perspective that skyrockets your marketing ROI and pumps in new ideas.
- Since all of our clients are marketing teams at other companies, we know what everyone else is doing right now, and can share ideas. Now is the time to infuse new knowledge, capacity, and ideas into your marketing and digital presence to help you adapt.
I already have several vendors / how is this different from outsourcing?
We have seen companies fire entire marketing teams because they outsourced so much of the work to vendors. These vendors rarely communicate and share knowledge, let alone act as a true extension of your team.
This causes inefficiency to skyrocket, results to plummet, and costs to soar. At a certain point, the CEO asks the marketing team, "what are you actually doing here?"
We call this inefficiency "vendor spaghetti." A fractional team is the best solution to vendor spaghetti. We call this "near-sourcing" since it is very different from outsourcing.
But I already have a CMO or some of these other roles filled!
Great! Many of our clients do.
But, unless your marketing team has all 18 roles filled and you're hiring to complete the last one, it usually makes more sense to hire a fractional team.
Why not hire a traditional agency to do this work?
Traditional agencies do not function as an extension of your team. They want to win work and bill hours, whereas your coworkers just want your company (and hopefully you as an individual) to succeed.
We act as your coworkers. If you don't succeed long-term, neither do we.
Agencies generally want to take entire projects off your plate, whereas we want to help you execute projects – we still want your input, creativity, inspiration, and insider context and company knowledge. Also, many needs aren't even a "project" -- they're simple requests. We help you get those done, too.
Finally, agencies tend not to be proactive or responsive, and simply do what they're told. They'll get back to you— on their timeline. A good coworker, however, is proactive, responsive, says something when they see something, and gives honest input and helpful suggestions. They know what needs to be done before you even have to ask.
Do you work with existing marketing teams?
Yes, that's exactly how it works! Your existing marketing team holds the in-house context, internal company relationships, and works as our creative partner.
We help them be more successful, produce stronger work, stay relevant and sophisticated, and focus on what they do best. Everyone wins!
If anything, we keep the threat of upper management at bay because the marketers we work with start producing better results by working with us! As the company grows, they do bring some of these roles in-house, and that’s ok, we are happy for them when they do!
Why can’t I just hire another marketer?
As digital marketing gets more technical and complex, marketers are wearing too many hats.
It's impossible for them to wear all 18, and painful to wear more than a few.
This leads to burn-out, sub-par results, and marketing that just plain doesn't work.
It's impossible for one person to know and do everything.
I’ve heard of a “fractional CMO” before. How is this different?
Sometimes businesses hire a fractional CMO if they can't afford a full-time, experienced CMO at upwards of $175,000 per year.
You can get the same benefits of a fractional CMO at about half the cost, plus our 18-role team.
Whereas a fractional CMO's revenue is usually spread across one person, ours is spread across a team, so we cost less.
Unless they work with us, a fractional CMO does not have a team like ours at their disposal. Instead, they hire contractors and agencies who:
- don’t know you or each other
- aren't part of a team; aren't part of your team
- are more costly and less efficient than a consolidated team
- don’t share the same knowledge and processes
- don't share the same desire to serve you