Home / Situations

Find the marketing situation that sounds like yours.

SFMA treats this as a Bay Area marketing agency problem, not a vague strategy exercise. The repair path runs through website clarity, SEO, AI visibility, paid ads, messaging, conversion, and lead quality.

You know something is off. The list below names common situations: a bad agency experience, a board meeting, a weak funnel, a missed revenue number, a broken tech stack. Pick the closest one and read what to do next.

Built for founders, operators, CMOs, VPs of marketing, and product leaders who want a clear first step before committing to a strategy.

Use these pages when your problem is more specific than "we need marketing help." Each page explains the situation in plain English, what usually causes it, and what kind of help should come first.

Marketing Review call

You have one specific question.

I have one specific marketing question

You landed here because a single decision point or customer discovery question is holding you up. You do not need a full engagement. You need 60 minutes with someone who has seen your situation before.

Bay Area Marketing Review Call · $500

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I just left FAANG and need marketing ownership

You shipped at a major tech company. Now you are a founder. You know product. You do not know marketing. You need outside marketing direction on your positioning and first channel before hiring or spending.

Bay Area Marketing Review Call · $500

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I just left a SF agency and want a second opinion

The agency did not work. Now you are wondering if the problem was the agency, your marketing fundamentals, or your expectations. You need a second opinion before hiring again.

Bay Area Marketing Review Call · $500

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Series A close coming up, I have one marketing question

You are closing Series A. Your GTM assumption is being questioned or you are realizing you have not thought through it. You need clarity on one element before the close or before you spend the capital.

Bay Area Marketing Review Call · $500

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I have a marketing blind spot and I know it

There is one area of marketing you do not understand and you know it is holding you back. You need a focused marketing review on that blind spot, not a full strategy overhaul.

Bay Area Marketing Review Call · $500

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Monthly marketing review

You need monthly strategic check-in.

Bootstrapped and cannot afford a CMO

You have revenue. You do not have CMO budget. You need someone to review your marketing monthly, catch strategic drift, and keep you accountable to your plan without the overhead.

Lite Marketing Review-on-Retainer · $1,500/month

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We need a monthly marketing check-in

Your team is executing but you have no external perspective. You need someone to look at your numbers, your channel mix, and your positioning monthly and give you one clear recommendation.

Lite Marketing Review-on-Retainer · $1,500/month

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Board meeting coming up and marketing is not ready

You have a board meeting in two weeks. Your board is expecting a marketing update. Your team is not ready with the narrative. You need someone to help you structure the story in 48 hours.

Lite Marketing Review-on-Retainer · $1,500/month

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Strategic intervention

You are stuck on one decision.

Should we replace our agency

Your agency is underperforming but you are not sure if the problem is them or you. You need a strategic intervention to make that decision with clarity before wasting another six months and budget.

Ad-hoc Strategic Intervention

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Should we exit this channel

One of your marketing channels is draining budget. You do not know if the issue is your execution, your positioning, or if the channel is genuinely not fit. You need a focused intervention to decide.

Ad-hoc Strategic Intervention

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Should we make this marketing hire

You are about to hire a marketer or bring on fractional help. You are not sure if the hire is the right call, if you are hiring at the right level, or if there is a better way to fill the gap.

Ad-hoc Strategic Intervention

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What does the replatform mean for marketing

Your company is replatforming. You do not know what that means for your GTM or if your positioning needs to shift. You need clarity on the marketing implications before you commit to the rebuild timeline.

Ad-hoc Strategic Intervention

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Full marketing review

Your marketing function is in question.

Our marketing does not fit Series B

You are heading into Series B. Your current marketing story is thin or does not justify the kind of growth your investors expect. You need a full marketing review to rebuild your positioning and demand generation before the raise.

Full Marketing Review · $15,000-$25,000

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I cannot justify the marketing budget to the board

Your board is questioning your marketing spend. You have no clarity on CAC, LTV, or channel ROI. You need a full marketing review to show the board what your marketing function is actually worth.

Full Marketing Review · $15,000-$25,000

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The board is questioning the CMO strategy

Your CMO strategy is under fire. You need an independent marketing review to either validate the strategy or show where course correction is needed. The marketing review gives you advantage for that conversation.

Full Marketing Review · $15,000-$25,000

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The full funnel is broken

Your entire marketing funnel is leaking. Awareness is weak, conversion is worse, and retention is falling. You need a whole-funnel marketing review across all three stages to understand where to fix.

Full Marketing Review · $15,000-$25,000

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Ongoing strategy

You need embedded marketing leadership.

I need a fractional CMO in the Bay Area

You are past the marketing review phase. You need someone embedded with your team, on-site quarterly, coaching your team and building your strategy. Not a consultant. A CMO.

Fractional CMO · $15,000-$20,000/month

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We have a marketing leadership gap

You have a team but no strategy above them. You have tactical execution but no one thinking about positioning, demand generation, or unit economics. You need fractional leadership to set direction.

Fractional CMO · $15,000-$20,000/month

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It is too early for a full-time CMO

You have grown into needing marketing leadership but hiring a full-time CMO right now is premature or wasteful. You need a fractional CMO to prove out the role before committing to a full hire.

Fractional CMO · $15,000-$20,000/month

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We have a marketing team but no strategy above them

Your team is heads-down executing but you have no one connecting their work to the business strategy or thinking about what comes next. You need a fractional CMO for that layer.

Fractional CMO · $15,000-$20,000/month

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Portfolio strategy

Your VC portfolio needs marketing clarity.

VC portfolio marketing is a blind spot for us

You manage seed through Series A companies in your portfolio. You do not have a way to assess their marketing maturity or help them at the GTM level. You need a portfolio retainer to plug that gap.

VC Portfolio Retainer · $25,000-$50,000/quarter

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Portco marketing quality is uneven across the portfolio

Some of your companies have strong marketing. Others are wandering. You have no standard for assessing or improving marketing quality across the portfolio. You need a retainer to level-set.

VC Portfolio Retainer · $25,000-$50,000/quarter

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The fund cannot staff portfolio marketing review

You know your portfolio companies need marketing help but you do not have someone on staff to review and guide them. You need a fractional service to do those marketing reviews and give you strategic summaries.

VC Portfolio Retainer · $25,000-$50,000/quarter

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Portfolio engagement

You need cross-portfolio pattern recognition.

We need cross-portfolio marketing pattern recognition

You manage 10 plus portfolio companies. You need to spot patterns in what is working at one company and replicate it at others. You need strategic infrastructure for multi-portco learning and execution.

Multi-Client Portfolio · $500K-$1M/year

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Family office portfolio marketing

Your office owns diversified companies across verticals. You need someone thinking about shared GTM patterns, positioning discipline, and demand generation best practices across the portfolio.

Multi-Client Portfolio · $500K-$1M/year

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PE platform marketing consolidation

You are consolidating marketing across platform companies. You need someone to build the shared infrastructure, spot operating advantage, and create a repeatable playbook for GTM scaling.

Multi-Client Portfolio · $500K-$1M/year

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Function rebuild

Your marketing function needs a full rebuild.

Marketing function is broken and needs a full rebuild

Your marketing operation is fragmented, unaligned, or dysfunctional. Fixing one piece is not enough. You need a full rebuild of how your team, tools, and strategy connect. Multi-month engagement.

Full Marketing-Function Rebuild · $1M-$3M project

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Series C marketing is bolted together

You are heading into Series C. Your current marketing is assembled from disparate tactics and channels. You need a cohesive, scaled, and defensible marketing function before the growth acceleration.

Full Marketing-Function Rebuild · $1M-$3M project

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Marketing operations have no process

Campaigns, tools, handoffs, and reporting are moving through people instead of a working system. You need marketing operations cleaned up before scale makes the chaos permanent.

Full Marketing-Function Rebuild · $1M-$3M project

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A faster competitor is taking share

The product is still strong, but the buyer can no longer see why your company should win. You need to name the value attributes the market is actually choosing on.

Positioning Sprint · $7,500 flat

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Questions

Questions before you choose a page.

What are these pages?

These pages name specific marketing situations in plain English. Each page explains what is happening, why it usually happens, and what kind of help should come first.

How do I find the right situation?

Scroll the list above. Find the title that names what you are dealing with. Open it. You will land on a page that describes your situation, names the cause, and points you to a specific marketing review or strategy engagement. No pages are sales pitches. Each page helps you choose the right first step.

What should I do after I open one?

Use the page that sounds closest to your company. It will explain what is likely happening, what changes when it is addressed, and which marketing review call or strategy engagement should come first.

Are these pages for every situation?

No. These pages cover common situations for Bay Area founders, operators, Series A through C companies, bootstrapped companies, VCs with portfolios, and teams with broken marketing functions. If your situation is not listed, describe it in the contact form.

Can I skip this page and go straight to a service?

Yes. Browse the services directly. But starting with the situation page is often faster because it names the problem and shows what kind of help fits.

Buyer value check

Choose the right path before contacting anyone.

Buyer scene

Use this page to choose the right route before scanning ten more pages or contacting another agency.

Decision it should support

Decide which page family matches the commercial pressure: offer, industry, buyer type, problem, service, or research.

Best next step

Use the review when leadership needs a written priority map and 90-day path before more spend.

Marketing Strategy Review →

Find the closest situation. Then ask for the right marketing review.

If one of these pages sounds like your company, start there. If none of them fit, use the Marketing Strategy Review and describe the problem in your own words.

Find the closest situation →