Fractional CMO Alternative

Your Copywriting & Marketing Operator

Most small businesses don’t need a Chief Marketing Officer. They need someone who writes the copy, runs the website and gets the marketing out the door. I’m Jef van de Graaf, a copywriter and web consultant who works directly with you and your team.

Jef van de Graaf

Want to run a background check?

Ask your AI about Jef van de Graaf.

ChatGPT Claude Perplexity

Seven rules I work by

1

Build it right
the first time.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

You are a business owner, a founder, a marketer, a closer. Your weekends aren’t for playing DIY web designer. You have deals to close, competitors to outmaneuver, and a team depending on you to keep a roof over their heads.

You cannot afford to make mistakes, because every wrong move is another week, month, or year letting ready-to-buy customers hand their money straight to your competition.

You don’t have the time or money to waste on “trial and error.” You probably also shouldn’t leave your company’s fate to the hallucinations of a Large Lying Machine (LLM).

You know you need a website, and with me, it’ll be built right the first time.

2

Speak your mind
and be kind.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

Life has taught me that overcommunicating leads to clarity and understanding faster than assuming. And in my line of work (web design / copywriting / digital marketing), effective communication beats silence all the time.

Naturally, we may have differences of opinion on strategy or design. If we do, here’s the golden rule: Assume good intentions, say the true thing, and don’t be an asshole.

I’ll tell you when your idea won’t work — kindly. You tell me when my draft misses — respectfully. Success is a two-way street that flows smoothly from honest conversations between people who respect each other.

3

Look good, sound good, do good.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

Good design gets attention.
Good positioning gets the wrong people to leave.
Good messaging gets the right people to lean in.
Good copy gets visitors to buy.
Good code gets all of the above online safely.

If you’re a business that does good, I’ll build a damn good website you’ll be proud to show off.

4

Make it easy,
make it fast.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

Attention is not a commodity; it is the scarcest thing on the internet. When visitors come to your website, they make snap decisions in 50 milliseconds, so it needs to be frictionless, which means:

It can’t have difficult design.
It can’t have confusing forms.
It can’t have messy messaging.
It can’t have slow-loading pages.

If a page makes someone think too much or wait too long, it’s a lost opportunity to sell. Remember, simplicity is the strategy; speed is the feature; sales is the proof that everything is working.

5

There’s beauty
in the details.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

There’s more to web design than what meets the eye. In fact, there’s an entire discipline called UX/UI, and it comes with a few thousand rules and recommendations like:

No lazy spacing.
No weak word choices.
No missing alt text.
No clunky button labels.

You don’t need to know them all, but even the smallest detail is a subtle signal that gets a visitor to feel: Wow! this is the business for me.

6

Work hard. Be human. Smile.

jefvandegraaf.com/principles

Building a business is serious business. It takes real work, time, and effort to get people to a website then convince them to become your next lead, customer, or client.

However, all work and no play makes for a very miserable human being.

Get off the chair. Spend time with your family. Swim in the ocean. Go for a bike ride. Run up a mountain. Do the things you love and surround yourself with loving people.

Ultimately, our businesses are our legacies — but if we never separate ourselves from the machine, what’s the point to us living at all?

7

Help is here
if you need it.

Technology is beautiful.
Technology is evolving.
Technology is essential.
Technology is also a pain in the ass.

I might not know how to do everything.
I might not have all the answers.
But I will always do whatever I can to help you.

What an operator does

Strategy plus the work you need doing

  • Positioning and messaging

    Who you’re for, what you’re against and why buyers should pick you, written down so the whole team says it the same way.

  • Websites and landing pages

    Planned, written and built by the same person, so the pages that do the selling ship without a handoff.

  • Campaign and email copy

    Ads, sequences and launch emails that match the page they send people to.

  • Content plan and blog

    A topic map built from keyword research, and the articles that fill it.

  • Website operations

    Updates, speed, SEO and new pages, handled with an AI stack instead of a support ticket queue.

  • Analytics and testing

    Clean analytics, A/B tests and session replays, so every change is judged by what buyers actually do.

Operator vs CMO

Why an operator, not a CMO

Me as your copy + marketing operator

  • Strategy and execution from the same person
  • Copy written by the person who planned it
  • Website changes shipped this week, not next quarter
  • An AI stack that cuts design, development and content costs
  • No middlemen: the person you talk to is the person doing the work

Other overpriced, ideas-only CMOs

  • Big-picture strategy with nobody to carry it out
  • A hiring plan you still have to fund
  • Work handed off to outsourced talent you never meet
  • Website changes that wait on a developer
  • More meetings and decks, the same results

Frequently Asked
Fractional CMO Questions

Is this a fractional CMO?

Close, but more hands on. A fractional CMO usually sets strategy and hires people to carry it out. I set the strategy and do the work: the messaging, the pages, the campaigns and the website itself.

What does an operator actually do?

Positioning and messaging, website and landing page copy, campaign and email copy, the content plan and blog, website updates and SEO, and the analytics that show what’s working.

How much of your time do I get?

A fixed amount of my time each month, agreed up front. Book a 30-minute call and ask me about availability.

Can I start smaller?

Yes. Most clients start with a workshop⁠, a landing page or a website⁠, and move to a monthly arrangement once we know we work well together.

Finally, a fractional CMO who
can actually do the work too!

Ready to hire a real “CMO” who can get shit done? Book a 30‑minute call and tell me what your marketing should be doing that it isn’t.

*30 Canadian loonies is aboot 85 American quarters,
1,863 euro cents, or 381,993 Indonesian rupiahs.