By Amy Hanan
The legal industry is evolving, and marketing must evolve with it. Amy Hanan explores how the CMO+ model—and the rise of fractional CMO partnerships—can help law firms and legal tech companies turn marketing into a true growth engine.
The role of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) has expanded far beyond brand campaigns and lead generation. According to McKinsey, companies where marketing sits at the center of business strategy are twice as likely to achieve more than 5% annual growth. This shift reflects how the modern CMO has evolved from marketing executor to multidimensional business leader—what many now call “CMO+”. The CMO+ mindset integrates marketing with strategy, data, revenue, and client experience to drive business outcomes.
In law firms, this concept may sound familiar through the Chief Marketing & Business Development Officer (CMBDO) role. These leaders often connect marketing, business development, client experience, and communications into one function. But too often, these roles are still viewed as service functions rather than growth engines and, in many firms, marketing and business development still operate largely as separate silos. Similarly, in legal tech companies, titles like Chief Growth Officer sound expansive but often remain rooted in lead generation and performance marketing, missing integration into business strategy, brand differentiation, or client engagement strategy.
Building a Bridge to CMO+
Implementing a true CMO+ model takes time. It requires new skill sets, cross-departmental alignment, clear metrics, and culture change. For many law firms or emerging legal tech providers, hiring a full-time CMO+ may not be immediately practical. But without this evolution, they risk underutilizing marketing’s full power to drive growth and innovation.
That’s where the Fractional CMO becomes a valuable bridge. Fractional executives bring strategic expertise across marketing, communications, operations, and data—and can help firms accelerate transformation while defining what a CMO+ model looks like internally.
In this sense, the Fractional CMO is the “plus” in your CMO+. They bring outside-in perspective, cross-industry insight, and operational frameworks that can help align marketing to business outcomes—revenue growth, retention, and reputation. They can assess the maturity of the current function, establish KPIs, and partner with leadership to measure marketing’s real impact on the business. Fractional CMOs can also complement in-house marketing leaders, serving as strategic partners during key inflection points such as post-merger integration, market expansion, or rebranding.
Why a fractional CMO is the “Plus” in your CMO+ model
- Strategic capability on demand: Fractional CMOs deliver seasoned leadership without long-term overhead. They help define go-to-market strategy, refine brand positioning, and identify new growth channels.
- Partnership with in-house and leadership: Fractional CMOs enhance—not replace—existing teams, collaborating closely with internal leaders to co-create the CMO+ model.
- Metrics and measurement infrastructure: Fractional CMOs often come with frameworks for dashboards, attribution models, KPIs and reporting that help tie marketing activity to business outcomes.
- Rapid execution and early wins: While internal teams build new skills, a fractional CMO can drive early performance, show value, and build momentum.
- Capability transfer: Fractional CMOs help embed systems, methods, and culture so teams can sustain success after transition.
How legal organizations can begin
For law firms or legal-tech providers ready to evolve:
- Define your “plus.” Clarify what growth outcomes your marketing should drive—beyond leads or visibility.
- Map the gaps. Evaluate where your marketing stands today versus the CMO+ aspiration.
- Engage a fractional CMO partner. Use a fractional CMO to accelerate alignment, establish metrics, and drive measurable early impact.
Build momentum. Use those early wins to build internal advocacy for investing in the full CMO+ model.
The future of CMO+ in legal
All firms, technology, and service providers across the legal industry are facing challenges with delivery models shifting, client expectations changing, global markets becoming more competitive, and technology advancing faster than ever. The ability to unify brand, client engagement, and growth strategy under a CMO+ model will become a differentiator. The CMO+ model offers a path forward for the next generation of legal industry leaders, and fractional CMOs can help you get there faster.
Further reading:
McKinsey: The Changing Role of the CMO and What It Means for Growth
Harvard Business Review: Does the Chief Marketing Officer Role Need an Update?
Amy Hanan is chief growth officer at LIMELIGHT, where she helps companies in highly regulated industries accelerate growth and transform marketing strategies through fractional CMO engagements. A senior marketing executive with more than 20 years of experience across legal, GRC, financial services and technology, she previously served as CMO of LRN, leading global marketing transformation, accelerating demand generation, and advancing thought leadership in ethics and compliance.