A fractional CMO works part of the week, so the in-house team, agencies and founder carry the work in between. When nobody has written down who does what, three problems tend to appear. Work stalls because people wait for decisions they could have made themselves. The founder keeps making marketing decisions out of habit, which undermines the fractional CMO. And agencies take direction from several people at once. A RACI chart is a simple way to prevent this. It lists the main activities and, for each, who is Responsible for doing the work, who is Accountable for the result, who must be Consulted and who should be Informed. This article explains how to build one for a fractional CMO engagement and gives a starting version you can adapt.
What RACI means
RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Responsible means the person or people who do the work. Accountable means the single person who owns the result and makes the final decision; there should be exactly one per activity. Consulted means people whose input is sought before the decision, in a two-way conversation. Informed means people who are told about the decision or result afterwards. The value of the chart is not the letters themselves but the conversations needed to agree them, especially about who is accountable. In a fractional engagement, those conversations are what stop the founder and the fractional CMO from making conflicting decisions.
The principles behind a good split
Four principles help. First, the fractional CMO should be accountable for marketing strategy, budget allocation within agreed limits, measurement and reporting, because those are the reasons for hiring the role. Second, the in-house team should be responsible for execution and should be able to make day-to-day decisions without waiting for the fractional CMO's working days. Third, the founder should be consulted on decisions that affect the whole company, such as brand changes, pricing and large budget shifts, and accountable for those that exceed the agreed limits. Fourth, sales should be consulted on anything that affects lead definitions, handoffs and targeting, because those decisions only work if sales accepts them.
A starting RACI for a fractional CMO engagement
Adapt this to your company. R = responsible, A = accountable, C = consulted, I = informed.
| Activity | Fractional CMO | In-house marketing | Agencies | Sales lead | Founder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual and quarterly marketing plan | A | R | C | C | C |
| Budget allocation within limits | A | C | C | I | I |
| Budget changes above limits | R | I | I | I | A |
| Brand and positioning changes | R | C | C | C | A |
| Lead definitions and handoff rules | A | R | I | C | I |
| Campaign execution | C | A | R | I | I |
| Agency selection and contracts | A | C | I | I | C |
| Weekly performance review | A | R | C | I | I |
| Monthly report to leadership | A | R | C | C | I |
| Tracking and CRM data quality | A | R | C | C | I |
| Hiring marketing staff | A | C | I | C | C |
Where an activity has no in-house marketer, move the R to an agency or freelancer and keep the A with the fractional CMO.
Where companies usually get it wrong
The most common problem is two accountable people. The founder and the fractional CMO both believe they own the marketing budget, so agencies receive conflicting instructions and the team does not know whose decision stands. Write spending limits into the chart: below a stated amount the fractional CMO decides, above it the founder does. A second problem is a responsible gap: the fractional CMO is accountable for tracking quality, but nobody in-house is responsible for keeping the CRM clean, so it degrades between working days. A third is consulting too many people. If every campaign needs the founder's input, execution slows to the founder's availability. Consulted should mean genuinely needed input, not courtesy.
Making the RACI work between working days
Because the fractional CMO is not present every day, the in-house team needs clear authority for routine decisions. Define what the marketing manager or lead can decide alone, for example pausing an underperforming ad within the weekly budget or approving content that follows the brand guidelines. Agree a channel for urgent questions on non-working days and a response time. Keep a shared decision log where the fractional CMO records decisions and the reasoning, so the team can apply the same logic to similar situations. Over time, more decisions should move from the fractional CMO to the in-house lead, which is part of building a function that does not depend on one person.
Agencies in the RACI
Agencies are usually responsible for executing their channels and consulted on plans that affect them. They should not be accountable for marketing-wide decisions, and they should take direction from one person, normally the fractional CMO or the in-house lead, not from the founder directly. Share the relevant part of the RACI with each agency so that they know who approves their work and who to escalate to. This alone removes a large share of the confusion that agencies report when a new marketing leader joins.
Reviewing and updating the chart
Review the RACI at each quarterly planning session. As the in-house team grows in capability, shift accountability for more activities from the fractional CMO to the in-house lead. As the engagement approaches its end, the chart becomes the handover plan: every activity where the fractional CMO is accountable needs a new accountable owner. Updating it quarterly means there are no surprises when the time comes.
Introducing the RACI to the team
How the chart is introduced matters as much as its content. Share a draft with the founder first and agree the founder's own column, because that is where the hardest conversations sit. Then walk the in-house team and the sales lead through it in a short meeting, explaining the reasoning rather than only the letters, and invite changes. Share the agency rows with each agency in writing. Store the final version somewhere everyone can find it and refer back to it when a disagreement arises about who should decide. In the first few weeks, expect some activities to be missing; add them as they come up rather than trying to anticipate everything at the start. A RACI that the team helped shape is far more likely to be followed than one handed down.
Adapting the RACI to different team shapes
The starting chart assumes one in-house marketer, a few agencies, a sales lead and a founder. Other shapes need adjustment. With no in-house marketer, agencies and freelancers take the responsible role for execution, and the fractional CMO needs a little more time for coordination, because nobody internal is checking work between working days. With a larger in-house team, split the in-house column by role, for example demand generation, content and marketing operations, so that each person knows which activities they own. In a company with a separate customer success or product marketing function, add columns for them on activities such as positioning, launches and expansion campaigns. In a D2C brand, replace the sales lead column with an operations or e-commerce lead, who should be consulted on promotions, stock and fulfilment, because marketing decisions there affect inventory and delivery. Whatever the shape, keep one accountable person per activity.
Using the RACI in day-to-day decisions
The chart is most useful when it is used, not filed. When a question arises about who should decide, check the chart first and follow it, even if it would be faster for the founder to answer. When the same type of question keeps coming up and is not on the chart, add a row. When a decision goes wrong, check whether the right people were consulted; often the problem is that sales or the founder learned about a change after it was made. In the weekly review, a quick look at open decisions and their accountable owners keeps work moving between the fractional CMO's working days.
FAQ
Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed. Responsible people do the work, one accountable person owns the result, consulted people give input before decisions and informed people are told afterwards.
The fractional CMO within agreed limits, and the founder above them. Write the limits into the chart so there is only one accountable person for each decision.
Not directly once a fractional CMO is in place. Agencies should take direction from one person, normally the fractional CMO or the in-house lead.
Review it each quarter. Shift accountability to the in-house lead as their capability grows, and use it as the handover plan when the engagement ends.
Move the responsible role to agencies or freelancers and keep the fractional CMO accountable. Consider whether there is enough execution capacity for the plan.