Leadership embedded
The Village CMO.
A fractional Chief Marketing Officer embedded in your village, with the seniority and accountability of a full-time CMO — one to two days a week, month to month.
Who it's for
For operators who need senior thinking, not another agency.
The Village CMO engagement is built for:
Independent retirement village operators and small operator groups in Australia where senior marketing leadership doesn't yet exist in-house.
Operators preparing for a new facility launch, a major rebuild, or a strategic occupancy push where the next twelve months matter more than the previous five.
Not-for-profit aged care providers who want senior marketing leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time CMO.
Operators who have outgrown the agency-of-the-month model and want a single accountable marketing leader who knows the sector.
Owns the number
Occupancy and enquiry volume sit with one accountable person, not spread across three suppliers.
Sets the direction
Strategy, budget and channel decisions made by someone who knows the sector from the inside.
Runs the team
Briefs and manages your existing suppliers, or builds the in-house capability to replace them.
How it works
Embedded, not outsourced.
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One to two days a week
On site or remote, with a standing rhythm your team can plan around.
Marketing strategy & planning
Annual and quarterly marketing plans tied to occupancy targets, with channel mix, budget allocation, and quarterly board reporting on what marketing is contributing to pipeline.
Resident & family experience
Communications across the resident journey, license renewals, family engagement, reputation management — all sit within the Village CMO remit because all of them affect future enquiries.
Month to month
No lock-in. The arrangement continues because it's working, not because of a contract.
Campaign leadership
Brief, oversee, and approve all major campaigns — paid acquisition, email, content, events, open days, facility launches. The marketing leader for the engagement, regardless of who executes.
The team
Direct the work of in-house marketing staff, coach junior marketers, and manage external agency or freelance relationships so the operator gets coherent, accountable execution.
Board-ready reporting
A monthly pack that answers the questions a board actually asks, in language it uses.
The marketing engine
Ownership of the CRM (typically HubSpot), lead capture systems, automated nurture workflows tuned to the 12-to-24-month decision cycle, and the integration between marketing, sales and village operations.
Reporting & accountability
Monthly performance reports, quarterly board updates, and a single source of truth on what marketing is producing — by channel, by campaign, by pipeline stage.
What success looks like in the first 90 days.
A Village CMO engagement isn't measured by activity. It is measured by what changes inside the business.
In the first 90 days, the operator should see:
A complete picture of where every enquiry has come from, where each one currently sits, and what's been done about it — for the first time, possibly ever. A documented marketing plan tied to occupancy outcomes, with quarterly board reporting in place. Automated workflows that mean every enquiry gets a meaningful response within hours, not days, regardless of who is at their desk. A clearer view of which marketing investments are working and which can be cut. And a marketing team — internal or supplier-side — that knows what it's doing this quarter and why.
By month 6 to 12, the system has compounded. Dormant leads are re-engaging. The board sees a defensible link between marketing spend and resident contribution. The village manager and sales consultant are operating from one shared view of the pipeline. And the operator is making decisions on data they previously didn't have.
Who the Village CMO isn't for.
If you have an experienced marketing manager
The Village CMO probably isn't the right fit, and that's a good outcome to know upfront. What you most likely need is specific capability brought in on defined projects: a HubSpot implementation, a website rebuild, a CRM and lead-flow redesign, a campaign program.
The practice offers exactly this through The Modules — seven defined-scope project engagements built for operators with internal ownership who need expert capability layered in. The Modules are not "Village CMO Lite." They are a different offer for a different situation, and many of the practice's longest relationships are Module-only.
If you want cheap campaign execution
The Village CMO isn't the right fit either. The role only works when the operator gives a fractional leader real authority — and when both sides treat the engagement as leadership, not service delivery.
If you only want an independent assessment
Start with a Digital Diagnostic. Four weeks, $1,995 ex. GST, fixed price. Many operators run the Diagnostic, act on the findings themselves, and never come back — and that is a successful engagement.
it Makes Sense
Why a fractional CMO, not an agency.
Accountability
A fractional CMO is in your leadership team. They sit in your board meetings. They own outcomes, not deliverables. Agencies own deliverables; that's a different relationship, and a different level of skin in the game.
Continuity
Most operators in this sector cycle through agencies every 18 to 24 months — the strategy resets each time, the institutional knowledge walks out the door, and the marketing engine never compounds. A fractional CMO relationship is built to last years; the system that gets built gets deeper every quarter, not reset.
Cost
A full-time CMO with retirement living and aged care experience commands $200K+ in Australia. A Village CMO engagement at one to two days a week delivers that seniority at a fraction of the cost — the right answer for operators who need leadership but cannot yet justify a full-time hire.
Start with a conversation
Is the Village CMO right for your village?
A 20-minute discovery call is the easiest way to find out. We'll ask the right questions, listen to where you are, and tell you honestly whether the fit is there. If it is, the next step is usually a Diagnostic. If it isn't, we'll tell you that too.
Operating creed: No family forgotten. No enquiry lost.