Senior marketing leadership on a retained basis, for B2B scale-ups and growth-stage companies that need enterprise-grade direction on digital transformation, marketing automation, and AI readiness; without the overhead of a full-time executive. Not a consultant who visits. A leader who stays.
Start a conversationThis is not project-based consulting. It is a retained strategic relationship. You get a senior marketing technology leader who understands your context, attends your leadership meetings, and takes accountability for the direction of your marketing architecture over time.
IDADAY's fractional CMO model is specifically focused on the intersection of marketing and technology. This is not about running campaigns or managing agencies. It is about the architectural decisions that determine whether your marketing investment creates compounding value or just adds complexity.
Architecture-level direction on your marketing stack. Which platforms to invest in, which to sunset, and how the pieces connect to your commercial model.
Honest evaluation of whether your data foundation, CRM architecture, and operational processes can support the AI capabilities being promised by your vendors.
Beyond tool selection. How your marketing automation connects to revenue, how data flows between systems, and where the operating model needs to change.
Independent counsel during platform selections, contract renewals, and partner evaluations. Someone at the table whose incentives are aligned with yours.
Making marketing technology investment legible to the people who approve it. Translating stack complexity into business language.
Training, onboarding, and people enablement across local teams. The strategic direction only matters if the people executing it understand why.
Marketing has been run by the founders or a lean team. Growth has made the stack and the decisions too complex for that to hold, but a full-time CMO is still a step too far.
Your board and investors want AI in the go-to-market. Vendors are selling AI features. Nobody senior has independently assessed whether your data foundation can actually support them.
Due diligence is coming. Your marketing, RevOps, and data story needs to stand up to investor or acquirer scrutiny, from someone who has been through enterprise-grade transitions before.
Your VP Marketing or CMO is strong on brand and demand but needs a specialist on marketing technology, automation, and data architecture decisions.
A contract renewal, re-platforming, or first serious MarTech investment is approaching. You want independent counsel before committing to a multi-year vendor relationship.
Arjen Segers has been on both sides of the table. Four years directing B2B marketing at Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), the global organisational consulting and executive search firm. Eight years as a senior MarTech consultant across large-scale transformation programmes at organisations like Deloitte and DHL Express.
One of very few Adobe Certified Masters (Marketo Engage Architect) in Europe. Harvard Innovation Strategy Programme. Certified in Anthropic's AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations, grounding the AI readiness work in a structured framework rather than vendor narrative. But the value is not in credentials; it is in the pattern recognition that comes from having been the buyer, the builder, and the advisor across dozens of enterprise marketing transformations.
That track record is exactly what a scale-up gets without the enterprise price tag: the architectural judgment of someone who has done it at global scale, embedded in your team a few days a month. Based in Voorburg, near The Hague, working with B2B scale-ups and growth-stage companies in The Hague, Leiden, across the Randstad, and the wider Netherlands and Europe.
Marketing Manager Northern Europe at the NYSE-listed global consulting firm. Accountable for multi-country strategy and execution across the Nordics and Benelux, including temporarily heading the full marketing department for the German market. Demand generation, brand, events, thought leadership, and executive engagement.
When IDADAY recommends a platform decision or an operating model change, it comes from someone who has owned the budget, managed the team, and presented the results to regional executives in a complex matrix organisation.
Korn Ferry (NYSE: KFY), 2014 - 2018Seven years as a senior marketing technology consultant across enterprise programmes. Clients ranging from global logistics operators and professional services firms to FMCG multinationals and industrial manufacturers. Work spanning maturity assessments, campaign architecture design, Centers of Excellence, and scalable operating models across multi-country environments.
The stack consolidation questions, the data governance gaps, the operating model misalignments -- they repeat across industries. The value is not starting from scratch. It is recognising which pattern you are in.
Including DHL Express, Deloitte, UnileverSince 2018, Arjen has led the Adobe Marketo User Group for the Benelux -- quarterly meetups hosted at Adyen, Booking.com, Uber, DHL Express, and Adobe. Combined with active participation in Europe's RevOps and Marketing Operations leadership circles, the advisory stays grounded in what practitioners actually experience, not what vendors promise.
Adobe User Group Leader, 2018 - present| Fractional CMO | Marketing consultant | Full-time CMO | Agency | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship | Embedded in leadership team | Project-based, then leaves | Permanent hire | External supplier |
| Accountability | Owns strategic direction | Delivers recommendations | Owns strategic direction | Owns deliverables |
| Time commitment | 2 - 4 days per month | Varies by project | Full-time | Retainer or project hours |
| Context depth | Builds over quarters | Starts fresh each engagement | Deep and continuous | Limited to briefings |
| Architecture decisions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Rarely |
| Vendor independence | Yes | Varies | Yes | Often conflicted |
| Cost | Fraction of full-time | Lower per project | EUR 150k - 250k+ annually | Retainer + project fees |
| Time to impact | Weeks | Weeks | Months (hiring cycle) | Weeks |
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works with your organisation on a part-time or retained basis, typically 2-4 days per month. They provide the strategic leadership of a full-time Chief Marketing Officer without the cost and commitment of a permanent hire. This model is particularly valuable for organisations navigating digital transformation, marketing technology decisions, or AI readiness initiatives that require experienced leadership but not a full-time role.
Yes, this is the most common fit. Scale-ups and growth-stage B2B companies often need senior marketing and technology leadership well before the budget or scope justifies a full-time CMO. A fractional CMO gives them that strategic direction a few days a month, with the architectural judgment of someone who has operated at enterprise scale. Very early, pre-revenue startups are usually better served by hands-on execution than by fractional strategic leadership.
Fractional CMO engagements typically range from EUR 4,000 to EUR 12,000 per month depending on scope, seniority, and time commitment. IDADAY structures its fractional CMO engagements as quarterly retainers with a defined scope of strategic deliverables.
A marketing consultant typically delivers a specific project or recommendation and leaves. A fractional CMO becomes part of your leadership team on an ongoing basis, attending board meetings, directing strategy, and taking accountability for marketing outcomes over time. IDADAY's fractional CMO model specifically focuses on marketing technology architecture and digital transformation; the strategic layer above implementation.
Common triggers include: a scale-up has outgrown founder-led or junior marketing but is not ready for a full-time CMO, investors or the board expect an AI and go-to-market story the current team cannot build, a major platform decision or migration is approaching, the company is preparing for a funding round or exit and the marketing and data story needs to stand up to due diligence, or an existing marketing lead needs a specialist sparring partner on technology and data architecture.
A fractional CMO brings senior experience at a fraction of the cost and without the 6-month hiring cycle. You get immediate access to pattern recognition from dozens of enterprise engagements; not someone learning your industry on the job. The model works best when you need strategic leadership but the scope does not justify a full-time executive, or when you need a specialist perspective that complements your existing leadership team.
A marketing agency is an external supplier that owns deliverables such as campaigns, content, or advertising. A fractional CMO is embedded in your leadership team and owns strategic direction: platform decisions, marketing architecture, operating model design, and vendor governance. Agencies execute; a fractional CMO decides what should be executed and why. IDADAY specifically focuses on the architecture decisions that sit above implementation.
A 30-minute call to understand your situation. No pitch, no proposal template. Just a conversation about whether a fractional CMO model fits what you are navigating.
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