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.
Seven rules I work by
Build it right
the first time.
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.
Speak your mind
and be kind.
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.
Look good, sound good, do good.
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.
Make it easy,
make it fast.
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.
There’s beauty
in the details.
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.
Work hard. Be human. Smile.
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?
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.