Strategic Marketing Consultant & Fractional CMO, Strategy Before Spend

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Stop the "Random Acts of Marketing"

You are looking for a marketing consultant or fractional CMO because you are tired of guessing. You are tired of throwing money at different channels and hoping something sticks.

At STUN, we call this the “Channel Buffet” approach: picking tactics without a plan. It is expensive, inefficient, and exhausting.

We operate on a strict hierarchy: Strategy Before Spend. We don’t talk about ads, social, or billboards until we have defined the Goal, the Audience, and the Message.

Who This Is For

This is for businesses that are spending money on marketing but still lack clarity, consistency, or measurable direction.

It is especially valuable for companies launching a new offer, entering a new market, managing multiple vendors, supporting an internal marketing team, or trying to turn scattered tactics into a smarter growth plan.

The Business Value of a Data-Driven Strategy

Why pay for strategy? Because data is cheaper than failure.

Research from McKinsey shows that data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, 6 times more likely to retain them, and 19 times more likely to be profitable than their peers. When you have a clear map, you stop wasting budget on audiences that will never convert.

The Reality Gap: Most marketing plans we review aren’t strategies; they are shopping lists. They list what the company will buy (Ads, SEO, Events) but never explain why.

If you can’t state your primary goal in one sentence, you don’t have a strategy. You have a budget leak.

The High Cost of the "Channel-First" Trap

When you start with channels (“We need to be on TikTok!”), you fall into specific traps:

  1. The Fragmented Funnel: Your social team is chasing “likes,” your sales team is chasing “leads,” and your PR team is chasing “clips.” No one is rowing in the same direction.
  2. The “Cheapest is Best” Fallacy: You hire the cheapest vendors for each channel. The result is a disjointed brand presence, with quality varying wildly from platform to platform.
  3. The ROI Black Box: Because there was no strategy, there are no clear KPIs. You reach the end of the year and have no idea which dollar actually made you money.

Our Methodology: The Strategic Compass

We act as your navigational system.

  1. Goal Clarity: Are we growing market share? Launching a product? Recruiting talent? We pick one North Star.
  2. Audience & Journey Mapping: We map exactly who the buyer is and where they experience friction. We use data to find the leaks in your bucket.
  3. The UVP Filter: We ensure your Unique Value Proposition is strong enough to survive contact with the market. If you sound like your competitor, we rewrite the script.
  4. Channel Selection: Only after steps 1-3 do we pick the channels. We invest only where your audience lives.

THE STUN SERVICE MENU:
Strategic Marketing Capabilities

MARKETING STRATEGY & PLANNING:


Marketing Audits & Assessments
Go-to-Market Strategy
Annual Marketing Plans
Budget Allocation & ROI Modeling

FRACTIONAL CMO SERVICES:


Executive-Level Marketing Leadership
Team Direction & Accountability
Vendor & Agency Management
Board & C-Suite Reporting

CAMPAIGN STRATEGY:


Campaign Architecture & Messaging
Channel Selection & Media Planning
Launch Playbooks
Performance Frameworks & KPIs

RESEARCH & INSIGHTS:


Competitive Intelligence
Audience Research & Segmentation
Market Opportunity Analysis

Industries Industries

INDUSTRIES WE SERVE

Strategy Before Spend applies across sectors. We have delivered marketing strategy for:

Construction, Engineering,& Disaster Relief
Government & Public Sector
Economic Development
Education & Higher Ed
Tourism & Destination Marketing

Insurance & Financial Services
Non-Profit
Real Estate & Development
Food and Beverage

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

A Strategy is the Why and Who (the thinking). A Plan is the What and When (the calendar). You cannot have a good plan without a strategy.

Yes. We often act as the “Strategic Overlay” or Fractional CMO, guiding your internal marketing director and coordinators to ensure they are executing effectively.

We move beyond “vanity metrics” (impressions) to “business metrics” (CAC, LTV, Pipeline Velocity, Conversion Rates).

Engagements vary based on scope, from a one-time fee to an ongoing engagement.

Are you ready to stop spending and start investing?

Let's Partner Up

RELATED READING
Strategy Before Spend: Why Your Marketing Plan Isn't a Channel Menu | Brand Before Broadcast


Strategy Before Spend: Why Your Marketing Plan Isn't a Channel Menu | Brand Before Broadcast