Senior marketing leadership, tied to your revenue.
An embedded senior strategist for local businesses that have outgrown vendor-style agency relationships and aren’t ready for a full-time CMO. Scoped around your revenue goals, not a marketing package.
Talk about fitStrategic leadership, embedded in your business.
A senior marketing strategist who functions as your marketing director, owning the plan and tying every decision to your revenue.
This isn’t marketing help. It’s the person accountable for what marketing returns.
Businesses doing $1M to $5M are usually past doing it themselves and not ready to build a department. You don’t need more vendors. You need one senior owner of the strategy, in the room when decisions get made, measured against booked revenue. That’s the role this fills, scoped to exactly what your business needs and nothing it doesn’t.
In-house leadership. Not a vendor.
Most local businesses have hired an agency before, and most were disappointed. Not because the agency was dishonest, but because the model is mismatched. An agency sells a package and executes it. A Fractional CMO partners on strategy and makes every decision serve your revenue.
Vendor-style relationship
- Pre-packaged service tiers
- Junior team executes a fixed scope
- Strategy set at the start, then locked
- Optimized for marketing KPIs (traffic, leads)
- Communication through an account manager
- Vendor mindset: you outsource to them
In-house partnership
- Custom-scoped around your business
- A senior strategist owns every decision
- Strategy evolves with your business
- Optimized for your revenue goals
- Direct access to Anna and her team
- In-house mindset: we work for you
This is why we call ourselves a consultancy, not an agency. The work, the team, and the pricing all reflect that distinction.
What we build together.
Every engagement is custom-scoped. What stays constant is the strategic framework. What varies is the depth at each layer.
Strategic foundation
- Revenue goals mapping
- Competitive positioning
- Customer journey definition
- Marketing budget allocation
AI visibility infrastructure
- Schema and structured data
- Entity authority building
- Citation strategy
- Content extractability
Cornerstone content
- Pillar pages and guides
- Service and location pages
- FAQ libraries with schema
- Editorial calendar
Paid media
- Campaign strategy and structure
- Audience and creative direction
- Conversion tracking
- Performance optimization
Local search authority
- Google Business Profile
- Local citation management
- Reviews strategy
- Geographic relevance signals
Sales and ops alignment
- Lead routing and qualification
- CRM strategy
- Marketing-sourced revenue tracking
- Attribution clarity
The work doesn’t start with channels. It starts with the business.
Right for some businesses. Not all.
Fractional CMO is the deepest partnership we offer. The fit has to be right on both sides.
This is right for you if
- ✓You generate $1M to $5M in annual revenue
- ✓You’ve grown beyond an owner-operator setup
- ✓You’ve tried agencies and found them lacking
- ✓You want senior leadership but can’t justify a full-time CMO
- ✓You treat marketing as a long-term function
- ✓You can commit to a 12-month engagement
This isn’t right for you if
- ✕You’re under $1M in annual revenue
- ✕You want execution without strategic ownership
- ✕You’re shopping for the lowest-priced option
- ✕You need month-to-month or a 30-day trial
- ✕You don’t have buy-in for strategic investment
Not ready for Fractional CMO yet? Start with the AI Visibility Audit or Launch & Learn. Both are on-ramps when the timing is right.
An investment that earns its keep.
This is senior leadership accountable to one number: the revenue marketing returns. It’s built for owners already winning who want to scale past their ceiling. Strategy first. Tied to revenue. Built to grow it.
Engagements start at $8,000/mo and scope up from there.
We hold a floor because strategy this senior only works when it goes deep, and we take one client per vertical per market so it can.
12-month initial term. 90-day notice for non-renewal at end of term. Annual auto-renewal.
Talk about fitFrom first conversation to engagement start.
Start with context
The audit, a Launch & Learn, or a warm intro. We start where you are.
Scoping conversation
Direct talk about your business, your goals, and what leadership at this level looks like for you.
Custom proposal
A detailed scope with time commitment, deliverables, and pricing, built around your situation.
First 90 days
Strategic foundation. Revenue mapping. Channel and content roadmap.
Ongoing partnership
Embedded leadership. Strategy reviewed quarterly. Scope revisited annually.
A strategic marketing consultancy for businesses that want to be cited.
Top of Search is a marketing consultancy in Wilmington, NC that helps owner-operated local businesses get cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. The practice specializes in AI visibility, AEO, and local SEO, and works most often with home services and real estate businesses. There are three ways to work with Top of Search: the AI Visibility Audit, a scored six-section diagnostic and roadmap; Launch and Learn, a 90 day paid media sprint; and Fractional CMO partnerships for businesses ready for long-term strategic leadership. Founded by Anna Curry, who has worked in marketing since 2008. Top of Search publishes Cited, a weekly newsletter on AI visibility for local business owners.
More about Anna →What people ask before booking.
What’s the difference between a Fractional CMO and an agency?
An agency sells a service package and executes a predetermined scope. A Fractional CMO is a senior strategist who functions as your marketing leader, with strategy and tactics calibrated to your revenue goals. Agencies optimize for marketing KPIs like impressions and traffic. A Fractional CMO optimizes for your business outcomes. We call ourselves a consultancy because that distinction matters.
How does the 12-month commitment work?
Engagements begin with a 12-month initial term so there’s runway to build a strategic foundation and see it produce results. After the initial term, it auto-renews annually unless either party gives 90-day notice for non-renewal. The 12 months also protects against engagements that get cut short before the work has time to compound.
What if my business needs change mid-engagement?
They will. Scope is revisited annually at renewal, and significant changes can happen mid-term through a formal scope amendment. What we don’t do is absorb scope creep without addressing it directly. New scope means a new conversation about time, pricing, and priorities.
Do you take competing clients in the same market?
For Fractional CMO engagements, we work with one client per vertical per market. That exclusivity is what lets us go deep enough to actually move revenue. For the audit and Launch & Learn, it doesn’t apply, because the work is shorter and the depth of partnership is different.
What’s included at the $8,000 starting price?
A baseline engagement: strategic foundation work, AI visibility infrastructure, cornerstone content at a defined cadence, paid campaigns appropriate to scope, local search authority, and direct access to Anna. The $8,000 is the floor because strategy this senior only works when it goes deep, and we hold one client per vertical per market so it can. Scope and time commitment determine where the actual engagement lands above it.
Do you work with businesses outside your area?
Yes. We work with local businesses across the United States. The methodology was built and tested locally, but the AI visibility work and strategic leadership transfer across geographies. In-person time is built into engagements that warrant it.
What if I’m not sure I’m ready?
Start with the AI Visibility Audit or Launch & Learn. The audit is a $1,000 diagnostic on where you stand in AI search. Launch & Learn is a 90-day paid-advertising test that builds and runs a campaign so you learn whether paid traffic is the right lever. Both are on-ramps to Fractional CMO when the timing is right.
How quickly can we start?
From first conversation to engagement start is usually 4 to 6 weeks. That time is used to scope the engagement thoroughly, finalize the proposal, and prepare the foundation work. Engagement begins on a defined start date that gives both sides runway to plan.
Ready for strategic marketing leadership tied to your revenue?
Custom-scoped to what your business actually needs. Engagements start at $8,000 per month on a 12-month term.
For local businesses that want to be cited.