Small Businesses Turning to Virtual CMOs as Cost-Effective Alternatives

In the era of digital, job roles are evolving. Increasing remote opportunities are allowing small businesses and start-ups better access to resources around the globe. Particularly when it comes to marketing.

Traditionally you would expect to find a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) in a large organisation, but this often comes with a price tag.

This week, Australian entrepreneur and start-up marketing guru Elisa Chan, announced a joint partnership with travel industry veteran Lisa Maroun to merge their two independent businesses, Traveller Inspired (a business Maroun founded in 2014) and meko8 (Chan’s marketing agency founded in 2016) to form Enspired+.

Formerly, the individual companies provided marketing services from start to finish including media management, sales, events, public relations, promotions, branding and research and digital campaigns.

Together, the companies have over 20 years of marketing experience and serve over 25 clients ranging from small businesses to multinationals. Their existing client base represents a joint market capitalisation of over $5 Billion USD. Following the merger Chan said “Enspired+ will increasingly take on larger clients beyond the travel and technology industries.”

Lisa Maroun and Elisa Chan

Speaking about their offerings, Chan said “Enspired+ is an integrated marketing agency offering businesses outside-the-box marketing solutions for their business growth. By working on an ‘as-needs’ basis, we tap into our network of over 30 local and global marketing specialists to offer businesses of all sizes, the skillsets in marketing that they might be lacking due to financial or resourcing constraints.”

By drawing on these skills, the expertise of others, and their own invaluable experience across an array of marketing disciplines, Chan says it’s why they can offer consistently creative and flexible delivery.

Having worked with over 40 start-ups across the globe since Chan sold her first start-up in 2011, she knows that expert marketing can deliver outstanding results, but often start-ups and small businesses can’t afford their own marketing team. That’s why Chan and Maroun set out to solve this problem with Enspired+.

Enspired+ currently serve customers in two ways:

Complete marketing projects – By creating goal-orientated plans, start-ups can feel like they have their own in-house CMO with frequent checkpoints for tracking.

Month-month marketing – That aims to work in the short term to focus on achieving business goals, like better social media presence or searchability.

It’s a refreshingly simple approach that allows them to solve the revenue problems of larger firms while helping start-ups scale quickly. It also works well with mid-level or medium sized businesses needing marketing assistance.

These are the kind of services backed by genuine experience and trusted networks that are making virtual CMOs stand out for start-ups and larger businesses alike to make a difference in their marketing. Because now, they can get the benefits of an in-house CMO without the cost by going virtual, but also without compromising on skill, experience and creativity.