Services
Senior marketing & PR, scoped to what you need.
A small and flexible team of seasoned professionals you can trust to generate measurable results — hired as a full engagement or a single, focused project.
Fractional CMO
Sit in the leadership seat without the $300K hire.
EarnedStrategic PR
30+ years of media relations & crisis comms.
OwnedEngaging Content
Authentic copy and visuals that build identity.
LaunchGo to Market
Concept to market for new products and markets.
SpokespersonMedia Training
C-suite prep for print, broadcast & stage.
ConvertWebsite & Shopify
Fewer pages, faster pages, better forms.
Best fit when
- You're a founder running a $1M–$5M ARR B2B or consumer business.
- You've outgrown a generalist or junior marketing manager but a full-time CMO is two hires too soon.
- You've cycled through agencies and ended up with deliverables instead of outcomes.
- You measure trust and revenue, not impressions.
Fractional CMO
A senior marketing leader. Without the senior-leader hiring decision.
You don't need another agency. You need someone who can sit in the leadership seat, set the strategy, hire and fire the right vendors, and own the number — for a fraction of the cost and commitment of a full-time CMO.
That's what Smart Image's Fractional CMO engagement is built to do.
What's included
- Annual plan, quarterly priorities, and the metric framework that defines success
- Team architecture — what roles in-house, what to outsource, and to whom
- Brand, messaging, ICP definition, and the message house
- Channel mix and budget allocation with math that justifies the bet
- Demand-gen oversight across owned, earned, and paid
- Sales enablement and the marketing-to-revenue handoff
| Level | Hours/mo | Best for | Investment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advisor | ~20 | Marketing team that needs senior oversight | $5K–$8K/mo |
| Operator | ~40–60 | A CMO running the function, not just advising | $10K–$18K/mo |
| Operator + Squad | 40–60 + team | Both the leader and the team they assemble | Custom |
Month-to-month after an initial 90-day commitment, because honest work doesn't need a long-term lock-in.
Strategic PR
Earned credibility, on a journalist's schedule.
Press is the cheapest form of trust there is — and the hardest to manufacture. We've spent three decades placing the kind of coverage that buyers screenshot, board members forward, and competitors notice.
Programs include
- Media relations and earned coverage in outlets that matter to your business
- Corporate messaging architecture and the message house
- Crisis communications and reputation management
- Funding-round, launch, and acquisition communications
- Executive thought-leadership programs — bylines, podcasts, stage
Kira-led. 30 years of relationships with the journalists who cover your category.
Engaging Content
Authentic copy and visuals that earn the click.
Trust is built on a body of work, not a campaign. We help founders publish like an editor, photograph like a brand, and sound like themselves at scale — across long-form articles, short-form video, podcast appearances, and the website pieces that prospects screenshot to forward internally.
Long-form editorial
Pillar articles, buyer guides, and ghostwritten founder POV pieces.
Better Visuals
Smart Image's roots are in commercial photography; we bring seasoned art direction to every project.
Short-form social
LinkedIn-first founder content, reels, and motion graphics.
Sales collateral
Case studies, one-pagers, decks, battlecards — sales-grade artifacts.
Not sure which service you need?
A 30-minute discovery call is the fastest way to find the right next move. No pitch deck, no pressure — we'll spend the time on your business, not ours.
Go to Market
Concept to market — with the math behind every bet.
Most launches fail at messaging and execution, not product. We pressure-test the story, the price, and the channel before a dollar of media spend goes out.
A typical GTM engagement covers
- Opportunity analysis: TAM to SOM, competition, and right-to-win audit
- ICP, positioning, message-house, and value-prop development
- Pricing & packaging tested against the actual buyer
- Channel and partnership strategy
- Launch plan: PR, content, demand-gen, and sales enablement on one timeline
- The first 90 days of execution support post-launch
Track record: Andy's most recent CPG GTM 4X'd sales; the company backed by Mark Cuban exited in 2024.
Media Training
Be the calm voice on the phone.
Kira has trained executives at Fortune 100 brands, Series B founders before their first IPO interview, and CEOs the morning their name landed in a story they didn't want. Same playbook every time: simulate the worst, rehearse the bridge, walk into the room ready.
Formats we train for
- Print and trade journalism interviews
- Broadcast TV and radio — sit-down and live
- Podcast long-form (60–90 minute formats)
- Investor and analyst Q&A
- Conference keynotes and panel debate
- Crisis-response press briefings
Half-day, full-day, or recurring quarterly drills. Recorded video review included.
Website & Shopify
Fewer pages. Faster pages. Better forms.
Your website is where every other channel converts — or doesn't. We rebuild for the metrics that matter: speed, clarity, and the conversion-rate math that turns traffic into revenue.
ROAS on Google Ads, recent rebuild
Lift in unique visitors, 90 days
Cost-per-conversion reduction
Engagements include
- Audit + redesign on WordPress or Shopify (we don't push a single stack)
- Conversion-rate optimization with real user testing
- SEO and AI-search readiness (so Perplexity/Claude/ChatGPT cite you correctly)
- Performance + Core Web Vitals tuning — fast pages, fewer pages
- Lead capture, lead scoring, and CRM handoff
- Paid acquisition rebuild — Google, Meta, LinkedIn
FAQ
Questions founders ask before booking.
How much does a Fractional CMO engagement cost?
Our Fractional CMO tiers are published right on this page: roughly $5K–$8K/mo for an Advisor (~20 hours), $10K–$18K/mo for an Operator (~40–60 hours), and custom pricing for an Operator plus a hand-picked execution squad. Every tier is month-to-month after an initial 90-day commitment.
Do you lock clients into long contracts?
No. We ask for an initial 90-day commitment so the work has time to show results, then it moves to month-to-month. Honest work doesn’t need a long-term lock-in.
Who actually does the work on my account?
Both principals — Kira Perdue and Andy Hagedon — are personally involved in every engagement. When execution needs to scale, we bring in a trusted bench of specialists we hand-pick, brief, and stay accountable for. No bait-and-switch.
Can I hire Smart Image for a single project instead of a full engagement?
Yes. Every service can be scoped as a full ongoing engagement or as a single, focused project — whichever matches what you need right now.
Do you only work with companies in Charleston?
No. Smart Image is headquartered in Charleston, South Carolina and works with founder-led companies nationwide. Most engagements run remotely, with periodic on-site visits for kickoffs, workshops, and quarterly reviews.
The Trust Engine
One method runs through every engagement.
The Trust Engine is Smart Image's three-phase method for converting earned trust into measurable revenue — by aligning your message to the right audience, amplifying it through earned and owned channels, and accelerating buyer decisions with conversion-tested infrastructure.
Align
Diagnose the gap between who you are and who your best customers think you are.
Amplify
Build trust at scale through owned, earned, and paid channels — in that order.
Accelerate
Turn awareness and credibility into pipeline with conversion infrastructure and measurement.