Fractional cmo Marketing leadership for aCCOUNTING & Advisory FIRMS
Strategy without marketing systems is like ideas without execution.
The stalled strategy folder
Every firm I walk into has one of these. A collection of marketing articles. Strategic goals and new services to launch. The new brand identity from a few years back. The go-to-market plan from the last offsite. A competitive positioning PDF the creative agency delivered. Notes and action items from the last partner retreat or agency.
All of it reasonable and well thought out.
All of it in a folder or marketing drive nobody opened since.
Most firms in this position don't have a marketing strategy problem. They have an ownership problem. A coordinator handles what he or she can. A mix of vendors manage design, copy, website, and SEO. Partners network on their own, independently, with no shared story. Someone paid for a strategy eighteen months ago, and it's still sitting in a drawer, because a plan without someone accountable for running it was never going to survive fiscal year end or tax season.
In the last few years, the problem has gotten worse.
AI makes it extremely fast to generate ideas. Even great ideas. But firms without systems, and the critical stakeholder and leadership alignment needed to achieve targeted growth, creates only resource-draining chaos. Result: more ideas, less execution.
Your marketing strategy doesn't need another rewrite.
You need someone who owns it. And who has experience driving growth while managing the extra workload that comes with it.
Build-Drive-Transfer
I'm Justin Robinette. I build compounding marketing operations — an approach that builds steady, long-term authoritative trust over time, rather than short campaign bursts of collateral damage to your firm.
I have spent the last fifteen years leading the marketing function of accounting and advisory firms — including two regional CPA firms, a top-20 national firm, and most recently as the first marketing hire at a tech-forward outsourced accounting consultancy. My role was to ensure marketing investments gained traction and achieved business results.
Here's what I've learned in my career that drives the highest enterprise value and marketing executive ROI:
Build Systems. Turn the strategy you already have — the one from last year's partner retreat — into an aligned marketing machine: Brand, positioning, pipeline, content, proposals, campaigns, reporting, and more.
Drive Targeted Growth. I run it as your marketing leader until it produces. Weekly cadence, real numbers, one accountable operator that keeps your focus locked in.
Transfer Knowledge. I train your team, or hire capable junior marketing staff, to run it without me. The systems and knowledge base stays. The dependency doesn't.
The firms that grow sustainably aren't the ones that market the loudest — they're the ones that build a clear, differentiated message and align focused marketing execution systems.
B2B marketing strategy + the system that runs it.
I do both halves of the job. I can build your marketing strategy from scratch — I've done it repeatedly — or sharpen the one you already have. But strategy is only the input. What I'm actually accountable for is building the machine that turns it into execution and consistency.
Brand Strategy & Positioning
Clarifying what your firm stands for, who it's for, and why it wins — in language that resonates with partners, clients, and recruits alike. Built to last, not just to launch.
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Demand Generation for B2B
Marketing that connects to pipeline. Content, campaigns, and programs designed around how professional services clients actually make buying decisions — not B2C playbooks retrofitted to your firm.
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Marketing Function Buildout
Building a marketing department — or rebuilding one — from the operating model up. Team structure, tooling, processes, and metrics that scale.
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My Experience & Track Record
HubSpot Integration
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Custom Module Development
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SEO & PPC
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If you've got the strategy but not the operational traction, I'm here for you.
I work with accounting, advisory, and B2B professional services firms — and the PE-backed platforms building them — at a growth or transition inflection point. In most cases you don't need a full-time CMO yet. You need someone at that level to build the machine.
Six signals:
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You've invested in strategy or branding before, and it never fully translated into pipeline
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Every significant new client still traces back to a founder's or partner's personal network
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Marketing is producing content but not contributing to revenue
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You're growing through M&A and the brands aren't aligning
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You're preparing for a PE transaction or capital raise and the marketing operation needs to sharpen — or transfer cleanly
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You've outgrown your agency but aren't ready to hire a full marketing team
"This theme lets our marketers maintain our website without a developer."
Frequently Asked Questions
Why not hire a full-time CMO?
A full-time CMO runs $275,000+ all-in, and most firms under $50M don't have full-time CMO work to give one. You need the strategy, the system, and the leadership to build it — not the headcount. When you eventually do need the headcount, I'll help you recruit for it and hand off a function that's ready to run.
Why not just use an agency?
Agencies are great in a lot of ways: a deep bench of talent, specialists on their team or a network you can top into. But Agencies typically don't execute inside a system; they don't build one, and they don't lead. They need someone to hand them strategy, judge their output, and connect their activity to pipeline. When nobody inside the firm can do that, you get deliverables instead of growth. I build the system the agency plugs into — and I've managed enough retainers to make yours accountable.
What makes you different from other fractional CMOs?
Two things. First, most fractional CMOs sell strategy — the thinking. I sell the machine that makes the thinking real, which is where firms actually get stuck. Second, fifteen-plus years exclusively in accounting, advisory, and financial services, so I'm not learning your business on your retainer. And the engagement ends with a handoff, not a dependency.
Let's talk about
what you're building.
If something here resonates — or if you know someone it might — I'm always glad to have a straightforward conversation about what's going on at your firm and whether there's a fit.
RobinetteCMO at a glance
Ideal fit
Accounting and advisory firms between $15M-50M in revenue. Goals: remain independent and need a solid fractional CMO-level leader to help them build sustainable marketing operations, or they are preparing to transact and need systems that survive diligence, or already integrating after a deal and their stretched marketing team has to catch up.
Engagement types
Fractional CMO retainer & project-based marketing services
Based in
Minneapolis – St. Paul, MN · Available nationally
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/justinrobinette