Fractional CMO retainers typically cost $5,000–$15,000 per month, scaling with depth of involvement and company stage. That model works for some companies. QV Brands takes a different approach: fixed-scope engagements with a defined price and outcome, so you know the number before you start — not a monthly line item with no end date.
Most fractional CMO engagements are structured as monthly retainers between $5,000 and $15,000. The range depends on three things: depth of strategic involvement, company stage, and hours committed per week.
At the lower end, you get positioning input and messaging review, typically 10–15 hours a month. At the higher end, you get an embedded executive: GTM system design, team development, vendor oversight, board-level reporting — 20–30 hours a month.
Either can work. But a retainer is open-ended by design — you're paying for ongoing access, not a fixed deliverable with a fixed price.
QV Brands doesn't run open-ended monthly retainers. Every engagement has a defined scope and a number attached before work begins:
The reasoning: most founder-led businesses don't need an executive on permanent retainer. They need the underlying clarity work done — positioning, narrative, presence — once, well, and then a standing relationship for what comes after.
A full-time CMO costs $200K–$400K a year in salary alone, before equity, benefits, and ramp time — usually premature for companies under $30M in revenue.
An agency retainer runs $8K–$40K a month for execution, not direction — without a defined strategy underneath it, agency spend compounds waste rather than results.
A fractional CMO retainer sits between those two, at $5K–$15K a month, trading a full-time salary for part-time access.
A fixed-scope engagement is a fourth option: instead of paying monthly for ongoing access, you pay once for a defined outcome — positioning clarity, a brand and website, or a growth system — and know exactly what you're getting before you commit.
The question isn't "can we afford ongoing marketing leadership." It's "what is the actual constraint right now — and what's the smallest engagement that resolves it?"
For most founder-led businesses, that constraint is clarity: the positioning is vague, the story doesn't hold together, the website undersells the substance. That's a fixed-scope problem, not a permanent-hire problem. Solve it once, well, before committing to an ongoing retainer of any kind.
Ongoing Advisory is available, but only after an initial Strategy Intensive or Brand & Website Build — and it's scoped to a standing cadence, not open-ended hours.
The Strategy Intensive: $3,500–$7,500, two to three weeks, a defined deliverable. It's the lowest-risk way to get senior strategic input without committing to a retainer.
No — it's more disciplined. A fixed scope forces the highest-leverage work to happen first, rather than stretching across open-ended monthly hours.
That's what Ongoing Advisory is for: continued access on a standing cadence, scoped once the foundational work is already in place.
Written by Rick Julian, Brand Strategist & Founder, QV Brands
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