Senior Fractional CMO · Strategy + Execution
Fractional CMO for Technical, Strategic, and AI Driven Growth
I am Melissa Barrotti, a senior Fractional CMO and the founder of CMO MiMi Co. I lead marketing for SMBs and venture backed startups that need a strategic operator at the top of the funnel and a technical builder underneath it.
When You Need a Fractional CMO, Not Another Agency
Most growth stage companies do not need a full time Chief Marketing Officer. They need a Fractional CMO who can set strategy, hire and direct the team, choose the stack, and stay close enough to the work to know what is actually shipping. That is the seat I take.
Hiring a Fractional CMO is the right move when marketing has outgrown a single channel manager but cannot yet justify a six figure executive. It is also the right move when an existing team is producing volume without measurable revenue, when an agency is delivering tactics without a strategy behind them, or when a founder is spending hours every week trying to direct work they do not have the bandwidth to oversee.
Career Timeline
Fourteen Years Building Digital Marketing From the Inside
My experience as a Fractional CMO is rooted in fourteen years of building, breaking, and rebuilding marketing systems across in house, agency, and consulting environments. Here is the path that shaped how I lead.
2012 · Google Workspace Certified Deployment and Administrator
Earned the Google Workspace Deployment and Administrator certification. This was the foundation for the operational and technical fluency I bring to every Fractional CMO engagement today, from stack architecture to data governance.
2014 · Marketing and Operations Manager, Multi Location Dental Group
Led marketing and operations for a large multi location dental chain. During this period I started designing and shipping SEO friendly WordPress sites for the group and for early outside clients, learning quickly that strategy without execution is just an opinion.
2015 · PPC Manager, Agency
First agency role, running paid media for clients across verticals. Built a deep technical understanding of Google Ads, Meta Ads, attribution, and conversion infrastructure that still informs how I architect performance for Fractional CMO clients.
2016 · Independent Consulting Practice
Began taking on freelance clients in parallel with agency work. Eventually moved to consulting as a primary practice, learning how to translate executive level strategy into work that small teams could actually execute and measure.
2022 · Growth Manager, Agency
Second agency tour, this time as Growth Manager. Owned the full growth function across SEO, paid, lifecycle, and conversion. Saw firsthand the gap between what an agency can deliver and what an embedded marketing leader can drive inside a business.
2025 · Founded CMO MiMi Co
Launched CMO MiMi Co, my full service Fractional CMO consultancy for SMBs and startups that need a senior operator without the cost of a full time hire. The practice combines classic growth fundamentals with AI native workflows from day one.
What I Own as Your Fractional CMO
A Fractional CMO engagement should never feel like a coaching call. When I take the seat, I own the same scope a full time CMO would own, scaled to match your stage and budget.
- Marketing strategy, positioning, and the quarterly plan that turns it into shippable work
- Team structure and hiring, including evaluating, briefing, and managing agencies and freelancers
- Marketing technology stack selection, integration, and governance
- Channel ownership across SEO, paid media, lifecycle, content, and partnerships
- Reporting, attribution, and the revenue conversation with the rest of the leadership team
- AI workflows and automation, treated as core marketing infrastructure rather than experiments
Technical, Strategic, and Tactical in One Seat
Most Fractional CMO listings are one of three things: a strategist who hands work off, a generalist who rebrands existing playbooks, or a tactician without the seniority to influence the business. I deliver all three competencies in one hire.
I can sit in a board meeting and defend a positioning decision in revenue terms, then close my laptop and rebuild the analytics layer, ship the WordPress refactor, or write the prompt library that the team will use the next morning. That range is what makes a Fractional CMO actually accountable for outcomes instead of just deliverables.
Fractional Marketing Leadership for the AI Era
The discipline is changing faster than most operators can keep up with. AI has collapsed the cost of producing content, pages, ads, and reporting, which means the value of a marketing leader is no longer in producing those artifacts. It is in deciding what to build, what to retire, and which compounding asset to invest in next.
A Fractional CMO who is fluent in AI workflows, traditional growth fundamentals, and marketing operations is rare on purpose. I am building CMO MiMi Co around that intersection, and the writing and frameworks behind it will live here on this site. New essays and case studies on AI driven marketing leadership are publishing soon under the journal section.
Fractional CMO Engagements
Ready to Hire a Fractional CMO Who Owns the Outcome?
If you need a senior marketing leader who can set the strategy and ship the work, let us talk.