The trend toward remote work and the “gig” economy has introduced the benefits of fractional to one-person businesses, 500-employee corporations, and everything in between.
You might be intrigued by supplementing your well-led marketing team with fractional content specialists, SEO experts, seasoned copywriters, or talented graphic designers. But what might get in your way is a boatload of misperceptions or the “Five C Myths” of fractional teams. These Five C Myths are cost, commitment, communication, competencies, and capacity.
If you’ve considered employing fractional talent to help with your marketing department but are wary because of some horror stories you’ve heard, read on. By the end of this article, you’ll understand why the Five C Myths are — well, myths. You’ll also understand how fractional experts — including skilled content strategists, creators, and analysts — can increase your marketing team’s productivity, helping you vastly improve content quality and quantity and conquer your competition.
The Brief Overview: Defining a Fractional Team
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce defines fractional hiring as bringing on board an individual for a “fraction” of the time that a full-time employee would work. Under this definition, fractional experts are often lumped into the same classification as part-time employees or freelance contractors. There are similarities — fractional experts are self-employed, can be retained for project work or permanent endeavors, and share their time with several clients.
However, fractional team members differ from freelancers or part-time employers because of their years of focused experience and extensive knowledge base. As your marketing leaders partner with skilled fractional teams, you benefit from a group with in-depth intelligence, concentrated skills, and off-the-charts abilities.
Implementing fractional roles into your organization means you can handle challenges cost-effectively and capably. The process also allows your leaders to focus on big-picture strategies rather than spending their time churning out blogs, infographics, PowerPoint presentations, or other needed content.
But first, let’s bust the “Five Cs” of those fractional myths.
Myth #1: Cost
- Misperception: Fractional teams cost too much
- Reality: Hiring fractional talent and integrating fractional roles reduces payroll and other personal-related expenses
Let’s take a look at the following table, which details the average rates of full-time employees and their fractional expert counterparts. Keep in mind that personnel costs can vary based on several factors like experience and geographic location.
If the hourly rates of the above-mentioned fractional jobs put you off, consider the following:
- Fractional experts don’t generate recruiting, hiring, or payroll costs
- There’s no “downtime” with fractional experts as there might be with full-time employees, leading to higher productivity levels
- Fractional teams add to your cost savings through remote work and using their equipment
Thanks to the above, companies have saved between 20 and 40 percent by hiring fractional talent instead of full-time employees to plug gaps.
Myth #2: Communication
- Misperception: Because many fractional teams work off-site, communicating with them is impossible
- Reality: Many tools exist to streamline interactions between yourself, your full-time employees, and your fractional team
Certainly, many fractional experts work off-site and might only show up in your office periodically. But technology makes it easy to stay in touch. Plenty of tools like Zoom, Google Meets, and Microsoft Teams (not to mention email, texts, and messaging services like Slack or Teams) allow for continuous connections between your marketing leaders and fractional team.
Myth #3: Commitment
- Misperception: Fractional teams don’t have the same commitment to companies as full-time employees
- Reality: Fractional team members are highly committed to you and will work hard to help you reach your marketing goals
Put another way, fractional experts are also business owners who provide a service. They’ll do everything possible to ensure you’re happy with that service. This means they focus on your needs, creating and implementing results-oriented strategies to help you reach your goals.
Still, you might be concerned that fractional experts “share” their time with other organizations, meaning less time for you. Put those concerns aside. Your fractional team member is a time-management wonder, capable of handling multiple tasks and projects for different companies.
Myth #4: Competencies
- Misperception: Fractional employees lack the experience or educational background for full-time jobs
- Reality: Fractional experts are seasoned professionals with years of experience, knowledge and training
We’ll repeat this louder for those in the back of the room. Fractional experts differ from freelance generalists because they’re highly specialized in their marketing fields. They’ve been through every challenge or success you can imagine.
The fractional copywriter has a vast background in creating compelling content that generates leads. Meanwhile, the fractional content specialist has extensive knowledge in determining strategy and delegating tasks to the right people. The fractional SEO expert understands what’s needed to get your messaging to the right audiences.
Furthermore, because of their intense focus on their fields, fractional experts keep up with the latest trends. As a result, their state-of-the-art intelligence and proven techniques boost your marketing efforts, helping you stand out.
Myth #5: Capacity
- Misperception: Fractional teams are helpful only with small jobs or one-off projects
- Reality: Because of their flexibility, fractional teams handle any and all gaps you need to be plugged
Fractional teams can be hired for your short-term campaigns. Or, you can leverage them as part of your full-time marketing team to develop and implement longer-term tasks and higher-level strategies.
You might hire a fractional team to spearhead your ongoing social media campaigns. Or you could turn to that team to design and implement a continuous content strategy. Maybe you need experts to help improve your SEO efforts over time.
The beauty of fractional teams is their flexibility and ability to fill the existing openings in your marketing team.
Successfully Integrating a Fractional Team
Hopefully, the above myth-busting discussion relieved your concerns about bringing fractional teams on board. If you’re gung-ho about bringing these experts on board, consider the following to create a successful synergy between your team and fractional experts.
Define roles, responsibilities, and expectations. You have expectations for your employees, which you outline and discuss with them. You need to do the same when you bring fractional teams into your organizational culture. They need to know what you expect, including responsibilities, KPIs, and other information. Also, provide onboarding and training to ensure your fractional experts understand their tasks and corporate culture.
Keep communication open. We mentioned above that plenty of technology exists to keep in touch with your fractional team. Use that technology to schedule regular meetings, set agendas, and keep projects moving. Establish appropriate response times for emails and messages. It’s also a good idea to pair fractional team members with your employees for faster responses.
Provide access to company resources. Because your fractional experts are an extension of your marketing team, they must have access to the same information and material as your full-time employees. Don’t be shy about allowing them access to corporate information, campaign numbers, click-throughs, or anything that can help them get the job done.
Ensure regular feedback and evaluations. Similar to how you treat your full-time employees, providing feedback and assessment to your fractional experts is essential. These fractional team members need to know that they’re working toward your goals effectively. They also need to know if something isn’t quite right and requires re-setting.
Myth-Busting to Benefit Your Marketing Efforts
Understanding the reality behind fractional teams’ “Five C” myths reveals a clear picture that focuses on high-level expertise to solidify and direct your company’s overall marketing and content efforts. Pairing fractional experts with high-quality marketing leadership can help you reach your company’s objectives with help from seasoned experts while saving considerable costs and efforts from recruiting, hiring, and retaining full-time employees.
ClearVoice has the experts available to help you form a fractional marketing dream team to help you with everything from high-level strategy to in-the-trenches content development. To get started on building your specialized fractional team, connect with a content specialist today.
