Learn more about hiring a fractional CMO
Fractional CMO · West Des Moines, IA
Senior marketing leadership for West Des Moines businesses in the Greater Des Moines area. Iowa's financial capital home to principal financial group, wells fargo operations, and major insurance company headquar. Get the executive leadership your business needs without the full-time cost.
A fractional CMO is a part-time Chief Marketing Officer who provides full executive-level marketing leadership -- go-to-market strategy, demand generation, team management, and pipeline accountability -- on a monthly retainer at $8,000 to $20,000 per month rather than a $280,000 to $450,000 full-time hire. For growth-stage B2B companies at $1M to $20M in revenue, the fractional CMO model delivers the same strategic output as a full-time CMO with no equity dilution, no benefits overhead, and a first-results timeline of 30 days.
Not sure a fractional CMO is the right move?
Take the 60-second fit check →Free, no obligation. If it's a fit, you'll pick a time to talk with Mark directly.West Des Moines is the economic heavyweight of the Des Moines metro, and its mix of buyers is unusually concentrated. The city is home to Hy-Vee's corporate headquarters, one of the metro's largest employers, a major Wells Fargo home-lending and financial-services hub, the annuities carrier Athene, and Farm Bureau Financial Services. Growth-stage B2B companies here are usually trying to sell into, or alongside, these giants, which means their marketing has to earn credibility with sophisticated procurement, risk, and IT teams. A senior fractional CMO gives a $1M to $20M company the strategic leadership to compete for that attention without carrying a full-time executive salary.
The city has also become one of the most important data-center markets in the country. Microsoft has built roughly six data-center campuses in West Des Moines since 2009, investing billions and adding an estimated $2 billion to the local tax base, enough that the city now ranks among the highest assessed property values in Iowa despite its modest population. That footprint has pulled in infrastructure, energy, construction-tech, and managed-services vendors. For these firms, marketing is about landing a handful of very large accounts, and a fractional CMO builds the focused, account-based motion that kind of market demands.
In West Des Moines, the job is to help a growth-stage company punch above its weight against far larger competitors and win time-poor enterprise buyers, month-to-month with no contract, so the engagement is measured in pipeline. Core deliverables for the local market include:
West Des Moines runs on finance. Athene's fixed-indexed-annuity business, Wells Fargo's home-lending operations, and Farm Bureau's insurance lines make this one of the densest financial-services markets between Chicago and Denver. Selling into or around these institutions means marketing that respects compliance, security review, and multi-stakeholder buying. Messaging that would work for a consumer app falls flat with a risk officer or a procurement lead at a carrier.
The Microsoft data-center corridor has layered a second economy on top of the financial one. The campuses, spanning well over a million square feet each, have created sustained demand for electrical, mechanical, networking, security, and specialized-services suppliers. Firms chasing that work are often technically excellent but marketing-thin, and a single contract can transform their year, which makes disciplined account targeting far more valuable than broad awareness spend.
Hy-Vee's headquarters and the retail-and-logistics ecosystem around West Glen and Jordan Creek Town Center add a third buyer type: retail, consumer-goods, and services vendors selling into a large regional chain. Across all three, West Des Moines buyers are well-resourced and selective, which raises the bar for the marketing that reaches them.
The concentration of large employers in West Des Moines is a double-edged sword for growth-stage firms. On one hand, Hy-Vee, Wells Fargo, Athene, and the Microsoft campuses create enormous local demand and a deep vendor economy. On the other, those same organizations absorb most of the region's senior marketing talent into corporate teams and set a high expectation for polish that small challengers must meet, and a full-time CMO capable of operating at that level commands compensation few sub-$20M companies can justify.
Buyer behavior skews enterprise even when the deal is mid-sized: procurement processes, security questionnaires, and committee sign-off are common because the buyers are trained by their scale, which rewards vendors who market with proof, patience, and precision. A fractional CMO engaged month-to-month can install an account-based, evidence-led motion, decide where a lean team should and should not spend, and hold the whole program accountable to pipeline, giving a West Des Moines company senior firepower it could not otherwise afford.
That is a core use case in West Des Moines. Selling to a Hy-Vee-scale retailer or an Athene-scale carrier requires enterprise positioning, references, and an account-based plan that maps the buying committee. A senior fractional CMO builds that motion, coordinates sales and marketing around named accounts, and makes sure your small team focuses its effort where the large local employers actually buy, rather than spreading thin across generic campaigns.
Yes. Vendors serving the West Des Moines data-center campuses win through a small number of large relationships, which is precisely where account-based marketing outperforms broad advertising. A fractional CMO identifies the general contractors, operators, and procurement paths tied to those campuses, builds credibility content aimed at technical decision-makers, and structures nurture for long infrastructure timelines, all without a permanent executive hire.
Because the metro's largest employers set senior-marketing pay, and a full-time CMO who can operate at Hy-Vee or Wells Fargo standards is expensive and hard to recruit for a growth-stage firm. A fractional CMO gives you that seniority immediately, month-to-month, with no contract, and scales down once your internal team can carry the load. You get enterprise-grade leadership sized to a company doing $1M to $20M, not $200M.
West Des Moines insurance and banking deals often take several quarters, so a fractional CMO front-loads the compounding work, positioning, targeting, and sales alignment, in the first 90 days, while closed revenue tracks the buyer's cycle. The early wins are usually cleaner pipeline and better-qualified opportunities; the revenue follows as the annuities, banking, or infrastructure buyer moves through its own procurement timeline.
Compliance-ready demand programs for the annuities and insurance ecosystem anchored by Athene and Farm Bureau Financial Services.
See work →Account-based motions for firms selling into Wells Fargo-scale lenders and Des Moines financial institutions.
See work →Focused targeting of the suppliers and contractors serving West Des Moines's Microsoft data-center campuses.
See work →Category positioning strong enough to win shelf and vendor status with a Hy-Vee-scale regional chain.
See work →| Option | Monthly Cost | Strategic Leadership | Execution | Accountability | Time to Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO (MarkCMO) | $8K -- $20K/mo | ✅ Full C-suite | ✅ Manages team & agencies | ✅ Revenue KPIs | ✅ 30-60 days |
| Full-Time CMO | $23K -- $42K/mo + equity | ✅ Full C-suite | ✅ Full ownership | ✅ Revenue KPIs | ❌ 6-12 month ramp |
| Marketing Agency | $8K -- $25K/mo | ❌ Tactical only | ✅ Campaign execution | ❌ Deliverable-based | 🟡 60-90 days |
| Marketing Consultant | $5K -- $20K/project | 🟡 Strategy only | ❌ No execution | ❌ Deliverable-based | ❌ You execute |
| VP of Marketing Hire | $15K -- $22K/mo + equity | 🟡 Director-level | ✅ Partial ownership | 🟡 Partial KPIs | ❌ 3-6 month ramp |
Most companies do not have a marketing problem. They have a strategy clarity problem. Once the ICP is defined precisely and the positioning is locked, demand generation becomes predictable.
MarkCMO serves businesses across every functional leadership discipline in West Des Moines, IA. Click any service to explore how it applies to your specific growth challenge.
Read all client testimonials →
Mark Gabrielli is a Fractional CMO and COO with 19+ ventures across 12 industries and $50M+ in revenue built. He is not a consultant who delivers a slide deck and disappears. He is a working operator -- the kind of senior marketing leader who sits in your weekly leadership meeting, manages your team, runs your agency relationships, and stays until the results are real, repeatable, and yours to keep.
Mark serves growth-stage B2B companies across West Des Moines and nationwide, with deep experience in the industries that define West Des Moines's economy. He holds a track record that includes companies in healthcare, SaaS, aerospace, manufacturing, fintech, logistics, and professional services -- from pre-revenue startups to $50M+ businesses preparing for exit or Series B raises.
Learn more: About Mark | Results and Case Studies | Fractional CMO Services | How to Measure Fractional CMO ROI
From first call to compounding results -- here is exactly what the engagement looks like.
Book a 30-minute strategy call at no cost. We audit your current marketing, revenue gaps, team structure, and the single biggest lever holding back your growth. You leave with a clear diagnosis before spending a dollar.
We deliver your full GTM strategy, ICP definition, competitive positioning, messaging architecture, and a 90-day demand generation plan. Every deliverable is board-presentable and execution-ready from day one.
Campaigns go live. We manage your marketing team, agencies, and freelancers with clear KPIs at every level. Outbound sequences launch. Pipeline starts building. You get weekly check-ins and monthly board-ready reports.
Systems compound. Revenue attribution is wired to real numbers. The marketing engine runs without you managing every detail. You stay because the results justify it -- not because you are locked in.
Results measured in pipeline generated, CAC reduced, and revenue compounded -- not reports delivered or hours billed.
"We hired our fractional CMO without ever meeting in person. Within 60 days we had pipeline attribution, a demand generation system, and $1.2M in qualified opportunities. Geography is irrelevant when the work is strategy, data analysis, and pipeline architecture -- all of which happen on screens and in dashboards. The results are what show up in the CRM.",
"The best fractional CMOs are not local -- they are experienced. Restricting your search to your metro area eliminates most of the operators who have built demand generation systems at companies your size and stage. We found the right person through a national search and the engagement has been transformational. CAC dropped 41% in 90 days.",
"Every week: a 60-minute strategy call with real numbers. Every month: a board-ready pipeline report. Every quarter: a commercial review that reallocates budget toward what is working and away from what is not. That cadence produces CMO-quality commercial leadership at a fraction of full-time cost -- and it works completely remotely.",
West Des Moines, Iowa is Iowa's financial capital home to Principal Financial Group, Wells Fargo operations, and major insurance company headquarters. Its economy leans on financial services, insurance, technology. That mix shapes how companies here grow: West Des Moines businesses compete for talent and customers against far larger marketing budgets, and generic tactics rarely move the number. What West Des Moines growth companies need is senior marketing leadership that understands the Greater Des Moines market, owns the strategy, and is accountable to revenue, without carrying a full-time executive salary.
| County | Polk County |
|---|---|
| Metro area | Greater Des Moines |
| Population | approximately 68,000 |
| Coordinates | 41.581, -93.745 |
| Revenue range served | 1 million to 100 million dollars |
| Engagement | 5,000 to 15,000 dollars per month, month to month |
MarkCMO gives West Des Moines businesses a fractional CMO who owns the marketing number: positioning built for West Des Moines buyers, a demand engine tuned to the Greater Des Moines market, and the reporting investors expect, without a full-time CMO salary.
West Des Moines businesses need a fractional CMO once revenue depends on a repeatable marketing engine they do not have in house, usually between 1 million and 100 million dollars in revenue. In the Greater Des Moines market, where West Des Moines companies compete against larger budgets, MarkCMO installs the positioning, demand generation, and board-level reporting to scale, for 5,000 to 15,000 dollars per month. Choose the one where the person on the call does the work and you can leave month to month.
Book a free 30-minute strategy call with Mark Gabrielli or call 321-917-5738. You will get a straight read on your West Des Moines marketing and the one or two things to fix first, whether or not we work together.
Reviewed by Mark Gabrielli, Fractional CMO and COO. Last verified July 2026.
Book a free 30-minute call with Mark. You will walk away with a clear, honest diagnosis and the one or two things to fix first, whether or not we work together.
Book a free strategy call →Every MarkCMO engagement is structured to protect you. You stay because the results are compounding -- not because you are locked in. Cancel any time. No fees, no questions.
No hidden scope. No surprise invoices. Every MarkCMO engagement includes the full fractional CMO capability stack from day one.
Full go-to-market strategy, ideal customer profile definition, competitive positioning, and messaging architecture tailored to your market.
Multi-channel pipeline engine -- SEO, content marketing, paid media, email nurture, and outbound -- built as compounding systems, not one-off campaigns.
C-suite management of your marketing team, agency partners, and freelancers with clear accountability and performance benchmarks at every level.
Weekly leadership check-ins, monthly board-ready pipeline reports, and revenue attribution dashboards that replace gut feeling with data.
CRM configuration, attribution modeling, marketing technology optimization, and performance dashboards wired directly to revenue KPIs.
No long-term contracts. No cancellation fees. Engage for as long as it drives results -- exit any time with zero friction.
Every MarkCMO engagement is structured to protect you. You stay because the results are compounding -- not because you are locked in.
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. No pitch deck. No sales pressure. An honest conversation about your West Des Moines market, your current marketing, and exactly what it would take to build pipeline this quarter.
Month-to-month. No contracts. First results in 30 days. Serving West Des Moines, Iowa, and nationwide.
30 minutes with Mark Gabrielli. No pitch. A direct read on your biggest marketing gaps and what moves revenue fastest. Responds personally within 24 hours.
60 seconds. Mark responds personally within 24 hours.
Mark will personally follow up within 24 hours.
Or reach him directly: [email protected] · +1 (321) 917-5738