Some questions we hear often.
If you’re wondering how we work, what to expect, or whether we’re the right fit, you’re not alone. These are the questions that tend to come up early.
We’ve gathered them here to give you a clearer picture of our approach, our pace, and how we usually support founders and teams.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are some of the things people usually want clarity on:
About Growth Genies
What is Growth Genies?
Growth Genies is a Fractional CMO practice based in Dubai and London. We work with founders and leadership teams at owner-led businesses to build the marketing strategy, structure, and operating cadence that makes marketing function as a system, not a collection of disconnected activities.
We are not a creative agency. We are not a media buyer. We are the strategic and operational layer that sits above execution, setting direction, aligning vendors, and making sure every marketing decision is anchored to a documented strategy.
Where are you based?
We are based in Dubai, UAE and London, UK. Most of our work is delivered remotely, which means we can work effectively with clients regardless of location. We have active clients across the UAE, UK, India, Australia, and Canada.
For in-person workshops and roundtables, we run sessions in Dubai and London. If you're outside those cities and want an in-person engagement, get in touch, we can usually make it work.
How is Growth Genies different from a traditional marketing agency?
Four things set us apart from a typical agency:
Strategy before execution.Every engagement starts with a documented strategy. No channel is activated, no vendor is briefed, and no budget is allocated until the strategy defines where they fit.
One point of accountability. Your Fractional CMO owns the marketing system, priorities, vendors, results. Not a team of account managers rotating through your account.
We build systems, not campaigns.The work is designed to compound over time. Campaigns end. Systems improve through use.
We don't execute. We direct. Tactical execution stays with your team or your vendors. We focus on what most agencies don't, making sure everything connects to a strategy that makes business sense.
What exactly does "Fractional CMO" mean?
A Fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with your business on a part-time or fixed-term basis, typically one to three days per week, rather than as a full-time hire.
You get CMO-level strategic leadership, operating cadence, and accountability without the cost or commitment of a full-time executive. The Fractional CMO owns the marketing function, manages vendors and internal teams, sets quarterly priorities, and keeps execution aligned to strategy.
It's a model that works particularly well for businesses at the £500k–£5M revenue stage, large enough to need strategic leadership, but not yet at the scale where a full-time CMO makes financial sense.
Who do you typically work with?
We work best with owner-led businesses generating revenue who are ready to treat marketing as a structured function rather than a series of ad hoc decisions. Most of our clients fall into one of these situations:
Marketing activity is scattered across multiple vendors with no coherent strategy connecting them
The founder is still making most of the marketing decisions and wants to step back
The business has tried agencies and seen inconsistent results without understanding why
Leadership wants clarity on what's working and a system for making better decisions
We work across industries — professional services, consulting, finance, technology, and solopreneurs — primarily in the UK and UAE but with clients across seven countries.
The MOS Framework
What is the Marketing Operating System (MOS)?
The Marketing Operating System is the framework we use to build and run marketing inside a client's business. It has seven components, each serving a specific function:
Strategy First Core— the strategic foundation that leads every decision
Workstream Engine— roles, responsibilities, and SOPs that make execution consistent
Campaign Builder— a repeatable process for planning and running focused campaigns
AI Marketing Hub— AI workflows embedded into daily execution
Scorecard & Signals— metrics tied to strategy, not vanity numbers
Momentum Meeting— a monthly operating cadence for accountability and focus
Optimisation Loop— quarterly system refinement based on what's actually working
MOS is not a menu of services. It is a single integrated system. Every component connects to the others. The value compounds over time as the system is refined through use.
What does "Strategy First" mean in practice?
Strategy First means that no execution begins until a documented strategy exists. Before any channel is activated, any vendor is briefed, or any campaign is planned, we establish:
What business objectives marketing is serving this quarter
Who the ideal client is and what they actually need to hear
What the core message is and how it translates across channels
Which initiatives are priorities and which are distractions
In practice, this means the first engagement with every client is the Strategy First Plan — a structured 60-day process that produces 12 documented deliverables before any ongoing execution begins.
What is the Marketing Hourglass?
The Marketing Hourglass is a customer journey framework used inside the Strategy First Plan. It maps every stage a customer moves through, from first awareness through to referral, and identifies the key actions, messages, and touchpoints at each stage.
The seven stages are: Know, Like, Trust, Try, Buy, Repeat, and Refer. Unlike a traditional funnel, the Hourglass captures what happens after the sale, which is where most of the growth opportunity actually sits for established businesses.
Does the MOS framework work for any industry?
Yes, with one qualification: MOS is designed for businesses that have a defined service or product and an existing customer base. It is not suited for pre-revenue businesses or companies still validating their offer.
We have installed MOS across professional services, finance, management consulting, technology, and solopreneur businesses. The framework adapts to the specific business, the methodology stays consistent.
What is the Marketing Strategy Pyramid?
The Marketing Strategy Pyramid is the layered framework inside Strategy First that ensures marketing decisions are made in the right order. It has five layers:
Business Strategy— the commercial foundation that all marketing must align to
Brand Strategy— how the business is positioned and perceived
Growth Strategy— channels, campaigns, and acquisition mechanisms
Customer Strategy— how the business retains and grows existing relationships
Team Strategy— who does what and how work is coordinated
Most businesses start at layer three or four. The pyramid ensures the lower layers are defined first — so that growth activity is built on a stable base, not assumption.
Services & engagements
What services does Growth Genies offer?
We offer two primary engagements:
Strategy First Plan— a structured 60-day engagement that produces a complete marketing strategy. 12 deliverables including a competitive audit, ideal client profiles, core message framework, Marketing Hourglass, and a prioritised execution roadmap.
Marketing Operating System (MOS) — ongoing engagement— an ongoing Fractional CMO engagement that installs and operates the full MOS framework. Includes strategy, systems, campaign planning, scorecard, monthly Momentum Meeting, and quarterly optimisation.
Most clients start with the Strategy First Plan, which then flows into the ongoing MOS engagement if there is a fit on both sides.
How do we get started?
The process is straightforward:
Step 1 — Book a conversation.
A 30-minute call to understand your business, where marketing is breaking down, and whether there's a clear fit.
Step 2 — Receive a proposal.
If there's a fit, you'll receive a scoped proposal within five business days. It covers the engagement structure, timeline, and investment.
Step 3 — Kickoff.
Once agreed, we schedule the Kickoff Call and the engagement begins.
There is no obligation to commit at the first conversation. It is genuinely just a conversation — not a pitch.
What do I actually get from the Strategy First Plan?
The Strategy First Plan runs over 60 days and produces 12 documented deliverables across two phases:
Total Online Presence Audit
Competitive Landscape analysis
Industry Landscape review
Client Interviews (conducted with your existing clients)
Ideal Customer Personas
Core Message Proposal
Marketing Hourglass (full customer journey map)
Strategy Considerations
Content Considerations
Priority Initiatives (ranked, with rationale)
Execution Calendar
Recommended Next Steps
The engagement includes a Kickoff Call, a Midpoint Review, and a Final Presentation. Everything is documented. You own all the outputs.
Do you work remotely or in person?
The majority of our work is delivered remotely. All milestone calls, reviews, and Momentum Meetings run via video. This works well and is the default format for all engagements.
For clients in Dubai or London, we can incorporate in-person sessions at key moments — strategy workshops, team presentations, or onboarding days. This is available on request and is discussed during the proposal stage.
How many clients do you work with at a time?
We keep our client base small deliberately. The Fractional CMO model only works if the people running it have genuine bandwidth to think clearly about each client's business.
We do not publish a specific number because capacity changes. If we are at capacity when you reach out, we will tell you and discuss whether a future start date works for your timeline.
Pricing & commitment
How much does it cost to work with Growth Genies?
We don't publish fixed pricing publicly because every engagement is scoped to the specific business — its size, complexity, and what the work involves.
What we can say is that our pricing reflects senior strategic leadership, not agency execution rates. The investment is typically in line with a part-time senior hire — structured as a fixed project fee for the Strategy First Plan, and a monthly retainer for ongoing MOS engagements.
After your first conversation, if there's a fit, you'll receive a clear proposal with the full investment outlined before any commitment is made.
Is there a minimum contract length?
The Strategy First Plan is a fixed 60-day engagement — that is the minimum and the full scope. There is no lock-in beyond that.
For ongoing MOS retainers, we work on a rolling monthly basis after an initial committed period — typically three months. This gives both sides enough time for the system to show results before deciding whether to continue. Marketing systems take longer than 30 days to produce meaningful data.
Do I need a large marketing budget to work with you?
No. The Strategy First Plan produces a strategy regardless of budget size — and often one of its outputs is a clearer picture of how to allocate a modest budget more effectively.
What matters more than budget size is whether you're ready to make decisions and act on them. A large budget without a strategy is wasted. A modest budget with a clear strategy and a system for execution can produce disproportionate results.
What if the engagement doesn't deliver what we expected?
We have a structured milestone process specifically to prevent this. At the Midpoint Call (day 30 of the Strategy First Plan), both sides review progress and direction. If something is off, we adjust it then — not at the end.
We are also selective about who we work with. If after the initial conversation we don't believe we can deliver a clear improvement, we'll say so. We would rather have that conversation early than take on an engagement where the fit isn't right.
We don't offer generic satisfaction guarantees. We offer transparency, a structured process, and clear outputs — which is more useful.
Can I skip the Strategy First Plan and go straight to the ongoing engagement?
No. The Strategy First Plan is the foundation of the entire engagement. Without it, there is no strategy to execute against, no defined ideal client, no core message, and no way to measure whether anything is working.
Skipping it and going straight to execution is exactly the pattern that produces the scattered, inconsistent marketing most of our clients come to us to fix. We won't replicate that problem inside our own engagement.
Let's Talk
Whether you have a specific question, want to explore working together, or just need a sounding board
We’re happy to listen.
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