How to choose a fractional CMO in the Midwest

A fractional CMO is senior marketing leadership for a few days a month. You are hiring judgment and management, not a team that also makes every asset, unless the contract says they will.

The job is to decide what marketing is for, hire or direct the people who do it, and sit with the numbers. If what you need is posts, pages or a campaign produced, hire the firm that does that and keep the leadership question separate.

Write these down before you talk to a fractional CMO. A vague brief produces a vague price.

• Write the decisions you need made in the first ninety days.
• Say how many days a month you actually have budget and appetite for.
• List the agencies and employees this person would direct.
• Decide what they will do personally and what they will only review.

Ask each firm the same list. The useful part is the difference in the answers, not a polished version of the question.

• What will you do yourself, and what will you hand to an agency or an employee?
• Which decisions do you expect to own, and which stay with the founder?
• How many other clients do you have on the same days?
• What does a bad-fit client look like for you?
• How do we end the engagement if the fit is wrong?

the Midwest covers several states. Firms in different states can all belong on this list and still differ on price, travel and who shows up. State and city pages count where the listed firms are based. They do not rank cities.

A region named on a homepage is not the same thing as an office in your city. Use the city and state on the profile.

12 fractional CMOs are on this list in the Midwest, re-checked September 28, 2026. Nobody pays to be ranked. They are based in Indianapolis, IN (2); Minneapolis, MN (2); Chicago, IL (1); Clinton Township, MI (1); Eden Prairie, MN (1); Lafayette, IN (1); Marion, IA (1); Omaha, NE (1), and 2 more cities.

Where a team size is stated: 9 are 1–10 people, 3 are 11–50 people.

7 of 12 state a founding year. The earliest stated year is 2000 and the latest is 2022.

12 of 12 name a leader. 4 of 12 name at least one client. 1 of 12 publish a price. If a profile leaves a line out, no source stated it.

Specialties named by more than one firm: fractional CMO (8); brand strategy (2); fractional and interim CMO (2); fractional marketing director (2).

In the list's order: Authentic, yorCMO, Digital Authority Partners, Treefrog Marketing | Kelly Rice Fractional CMO, Epiphany Marketing, Maven Marketing, HPZ Marketing, Daniel Incandela, Devra Callaghan, Fractional CMO, Bootstrap Creative, Eppo Marketing, CMO To-Go.

Write the job in one paragraph. Keep the two or three firms whose reason for being here matches that job.

Open each profile. It says who leads the firm, work they can show, and a price if they published one. If they did not publish a price, the profile shows a typical estimate and says it is not a quote.

Then ask each firm for one piece of work like yours, and the name of the person who would do it.

The order weighs how long the firm has done the work, clients it can name, its size, and how clear its specialism is. Nobody pays to be ranked.

One card is marked Featured. It is paid placement for Fracs, which shares this list's publisher. It sits outside the ranking.

If a profile leaves out a leader, a price, or a founding year, no source stated it.

• Editorial standards
• Fractional CMO cost guide
• FAQ

Open a firm for who leads it, work it can show, any price it published, and why it made the list.

• 01 Authentic — Minneapolis, MN
• 02 yorCMO — Omaha, NE
• 03 Digital Authority Partners — Chicago, IL
• 04 Treefrog Marketing | Kelly Rice Fractional CMO — Lafayette, IN
• 05 Epiphany Marketing — Marion, IA
• 06 Maven Marketing — Eden Prairie, MN
• 07 HPZ Marketing — Minneapolis, MN
• 08 Daniel Incandela — Indianapolis, IN
• 09 Devra Callaghan, Fractional CMO — Indianapolis, IN
• 10 Bootstrap Creative — Clinton Township, MI
• 11 Eppo Marketing — Urbandale, IA
• 12 CMO To-Go — West Des Moines, IA

These pages group firms that share a city or a state on this list. A place with one listed firm links from the comparison page straight to that firm's profile.

• Where they are based
• Indianapolis, IN (2)
• Minneapolis, MN (2)
• Indiana (3)
• Iowa (3)
• Minnesota (3)