The published monthly range for the same job, across six providers describing the work in almost identical language. None of them explains the gap. Ours is an hourly rate with no retainer behind it.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 15 provider pages, August 2026Provider pages that publish how the arrangement ends: minimum term, notice period, how you stop. Twelve of the fifteen say nothing about terms at all.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 15 provider pages, August 2026Pages that show the deliverable they sell. All fifteen name a roadmap, an action plan or a strategy document. Thirteen show nothing at all.
Source: Southern Tide Media review of 15 provider pages, August 2026What’s included
Some businesses don’t need an agency. They need two hours with someone who has already made the expensive mistakes. This is that, and it stays commitment-free on purpose.
Focus areas · Strategy & measurement
Strategy sessions
A working session on a real decision, not a discovery call in disguise.
In-house team coaching
Regular time with a marketer or small team who own the work and want a sounding board.
Platform & vendor selection
CRM, hosting, booking, email: chosen on fit, not on commission.
Campaign review
A second read on a plan before the budget goes out the door.
Hiring support
What the role should be, and how to tell if a candidate can do it.
Board & owner briefings
The marketing picture, explained for people who don’t do marketing.
AI adoption
Where AI helps a marketing operation today, and where it’s still a toy, from a team that runs it every day.
Audit walkthroughs
A session that turns audit findings, ours or anyone’s, into an ordered plan.
What actually arrives
A written record of the session: the question as you asked it, what was decided, what we ruled out and why, and who owns each next step by when. See a sample set of session notes →
The conflict, disclosed
We sell the execution too, so our advice isn’t neutral, and we’d rather say that than pretend otherwise. In practice it means the notes say what we were told not to quote for, and what you should buy somewhere else.
What an hour with us actually competes with
Every comparison table in this category lists only the things the author sells. This one has the alternatives on it at their published prices, including the two we make nothing from.
| What you could buy | What it costs | How fast it changes anything | Best for | What you do not get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An hour with us | $150/hour, no retainer, no minimum | Same week | One decision you’re stuck on, or a second read before the budget goes out | Nobody does the work afterward. That’s quoted separately at $95/hour |
| An STM plan | From $499/month, month to month | 30–60 days | You want the thinking and the doing from the same people, every month | The strategy covers what the plan covers, not a whole-business review |
| A fractional marketing lead | $1,000–$20,000/month (their published figures) | 30–60 days | You need one person accountable for the whole function, and you have people to do the work | Usually strategy only. The execution is still yours to staff or to buy elsewhere |
| A full-time hire | Salary, plus benefits, tools and recruiting | 90+ days to productivity | The work is permanent and full-time, and you want it in the building | One person’s skill set, at a fixed cost whether the month is busy or quiet |
The cost ranges for the two options we don’t sell are those providers’ own published figures, gathered in a review of 15 marketing-strategy and fractional-CMO pages in August 2026. Six published a monthly retainer, between $1,000 and $20,000, for work described in near-identical terms. We haven’t adjusted them and we’re not claiming they’re wrong. Full-time salary figures are left out on purpose: the seven pages we found publishing one disagreed by a factor of 4.4, with no compensation survey behind any of them, so there’s no number we can stand behind.
That’s a real conflict and it’s worth saying out loud: we earn more when the answer is that you should hire us to do the work. What we do about it is this table, with the options we make nothing from on it at full strength, and the notes you get afterward, which name what we were told not to quote for. If the answer is that you don’t need an agency right now, you’ll hear that inside the hour you paid for.
- The options we don’t sell are on the table. At their own published prices. A comparison that only lists the things we sell is a menu, not a comparison.
- The middle column is the one nobody publishes. Exactly one provider in fifteen published a time-to-impact figure at all. For most buyers it matters more than the price does.
- No salary comparison, on purpose. Seven pages published a full-time marketing salary to compare against, and they disagreed by 4.4×, none citing a compensation survey. We’d rather leave a gap than fill it with a number we can’t stand behind.
- Every row says what you don’t get. Including ours. It’s the quickest way to tell whether a comparison was built to inform you or to steer you.
What actually lands in your inbox afterward
Thirteen of the fifteen pages we reviewed name a roadmap, an action plan or a strategy document as the thing you receive, and not one shows a page of it. This is ours, from a made-up ninety-minute session. Read the full sample session notes →
What they booked the hour for: “We spend about $4,000 a month across Google and Facebook and I can’t tell you whether it works. Do we need to hire someone, switch agencies, or stop advertising altogether?”
The Google Ads conversion action last recorded a booking in March. Every optimization decision since has been made on a signal that had stopped, so nothing about performance can be judged until it’s repaired and one clean month has passed.
Owner: us · quoted separately · by August 29Switching now restarts the learning and throws away the only before-and-after comparison available. There may still be a case for it in November. With two clean months in hand, it would be an argument instead of a hunch.
Owner: Pelican Point · revisit November 3Retargeting a 900-person audience at this spend is buying the same people over and over. The prospecting campaigns are doing the work and shouldn’t be touched during the fix.
Owner: us · by August 22At $4,000 a month in media the role can’t pay for itself. The bottleneck raised in this session was that inquiry emails sit for two or three days. That’s an operations fix, not a hire, and it costs nothing.
Owner: Pelican Point · no date set- Ruled outA rebrand. Nothing in the numbers points at the brand. The inquiries that do arrive convert perfectly well.
- Ruled outMoving to a new booking platform. The current one is plain and it works. Replacing it would eat the year’s budget and fix nothing that was raised today.
- Not from usBlog content at volume. They already hold a strong local position and the next dollar should go to the tracking fix. If they still want it in six months, an in-house writer is cheaper than we are.
- AgreedLeave the Google Search campaigns running unchanged through the repair, so the comparison month stays clean.
| Deposit or full value | Nobody in the room knew whether the deposit or the full trip value should be passed as the conversion value. Owner to check with the bookkeeper. It changes the cost-per-booking figure a lot. |
|---|---|
| The paper diary | Desk bookings are written on paper and are invisible to every system. Until that changes, any channel comparison understates walk-in and phone demand by an unknown amount. |
| Next session | Not booked, and nothing renews. They’ll call if the November review needs a second read. |
- Every decision carries an owner and a date. Including the ones that are ours. A note without an owner is a pleasant conversation nobody will remember in March.
- The ruled-out list explains itself. What was considered and rejected, and why, is worth more six months later than the list of what was chosen.
- One line tells them not to buy from us. The content recommendation goes to an in-house writer, because that’s the cheaper answer. We sell execution, which is exactly why that line has to be in here.
- The open questions stay open. Ninety minutes doesn’t settle everything. Writing down what it didn’t settle is more useful than pretending it did.
When an hour won’t help, and when it’s the cheapest thing you can buy
We’d rather lose the booking than take it under a misunderstanding. If you’re mostly on the left, say so when you write and we’ll point you at where to spend instead.
An hour won’t help if…
- Nobody on your side can put anything into practice and there’s no budget to have it done. You need hands before you need a head
- The problem is the product, the pricing, or that nobody answers the phone. Marketing advice fixes none of those, and we’ll tell you so
- You want the final say on every decision. That’s a legitimate way to run a business, but then you’re buying execution, not judgment
- You need it fixed inside thirty days. Most of what we’d recommend takes a quarter to show up
- You mainly want someone to confirm a decision you’ve already made. We won’t be much fun
An hour is the cheapest thing you can buy if…
- You’re about to spend real money and want a second read before it goes out the door
- You have a capable team or agency and want a sounding board who isn’t inside the account every day
- You’re choosing between platforms (CRM, booking, email, hosting) and want the decision made on fit, not on somebody’s commission
- Somebody has handed you an audit, ours or anyone else’s, and you want it turned into an order of operations
- You suspect your current agency isn’t doing much, and you want to know what to ask them
Where it starts
$150/hourThe consulting rateSenior time with no delivery work attached. It’s the one rate above our standard $95/hour production rate, on purpose.
How pricing worksWhy the same job is quoted at $1,000 and at $20,000 a month
Six of the fifteen pages we reviewed published a monthly retainer for senior marketing help. The lowest was $1,000 and the highest $20,000, for work described in almost identical language. Five of the fifteen contradicted their own figures on their own site. In one case a service page and a pricing page gave different ranges for the same thing.
The clearest explanation we found came from a solo operator, not an enterprise firm. Roughly $3,000–$6,000 a month buys someone who owns the strategy and does the work. Roughly $6,000–$15,000 buys strategy only: someone who builds the plan and directs a team or an agency to carry it out. Above $15,000 is enterprise, for businesses with a marketing department to run.
Published consulting rates run about $50–$100 an hour for execution-level help, $100–$175 for a specialist, $175–$300 for senior strategic work, and $250–$500 or more for executive time. Our $150 sits in the senior band. We’re not going to claim everyone above it is overcharging; they’re generally selling more of someone’s week.
An hour is cheap almost everywhere. What varies is whether anything gets written down, whether the advice survives the call, and whether you’re then obliged to buy something. Ours is $150, the notes above are what arrives, and there’s nothing to cancel afterward.
Every figure above is what a provider published about their own pricing, gathered in a review of fifteen marketing-strategy and fractional-CMO pages in August 2026. We haven’t adjusted any of them. Where the category’s numbers had no source, full-time salary comparisons especially, we left them out rather than repeat them.
How pricing works
One number, published, with nothing hiding behind it.
Senior time with no delivery work attached. It’s the one rate above our standard $95/hour production rate, on purpose.
Book an hour, or a standing monthly session. No notice period, nothing to cancel, nothing that renews itself.
When a session turns into something you’d like us to build, that work is quoted in writing at the standard production rate first.
Bundling is cheaper than buying the pieces.
See plans & pricingHow long it takes
What to expect
Consulting runs at the speed of a calendar invite. The only sequence is making the time count.
A paragraph is usually enough for us to know whether we can help, and to say so either way.
We review whatever’s relevant beforehand, so the sixty or ninety minutes goes to decisions, not background.
Written up so it survives past the call. Recorded if you want it.
Who we help
Advice is worth more when the advisor has run your category. These are the ones we know from the inside.
Hospitality & Resort
A decade of resort and rental marketing on this coast.
Explore →E-commerce & DTC
Marketplace, product feed and direct-to-consumer economics from live accounts.
Explore →Medical & Med Spa
Growth inside the ad rules, learned in the category.
Explore →In-house teams
Our most common consulting client: a capable team that wants a sparring partner.
Don’t take our word for it
“The Southern Tide Media team has smartly positioned itself as partners, versus “vendors.” Each step along the strategic path, I feel as if they are “all in” and have our best interests at heart.”
“Southern Tide Media increased our conversion rates on our SEO campaigns by 60% in short time… Brandon takes the worry out of all the technical jargon and translates that into workable applications you can understand as a business owner.”
“In every dealing I have ever had with Brandon Evans, he has been knowledgeable, fair, and has responded quickly. I would highly recommend using him for any of your business’s marketing or advertising needs!”
Questions, answered
Is there a minimum commitment?
None. Book an hour, or a standing monthly session. There’s no retainer and no notice period. Worth knowing how unusual that is: of fifteen provider pages we reviewed in this category, twelve said nothing about term or exit, and exactly one published how the arrangement ends.
Will you just pitch me a retainer?
No. If a retainer is the cheaper answer we’ll say so once, then get back to the thing you booked.
Do I need strategy, or just someone to do the work?
Usually the work, and we’ll say so. The blunt version: if your total marketing spend is smaller than a strategy engagement would cost, buy execution and one hour of thinking on top. That’s the right order. Strategy earns its money when there’s enough going on for the sequence to matter, or when you’re about to commit real budget to a direction you can’t easily reverse.
What actually arrives afterward?
A written record of the session: the question as you asked it, what was decided, what we ruled out and why, who owns each next step and by when, and what we couldn’t settle. Recorded too, if you want it. There’s a full sample on the site, which is unusual for this category: all fifteen provider pages we reviewed name a deliverable and thirteen never show one.
When is this a waste of money?
When nobody on your side can put anything into practice and there’s no budget to have it done; you need hands before you need a head. When the real problem is the product, the pricing, or that nobody answers the phone, because marketing advice won’t fix any of those. When you want the final say on every decision anyway. And when you need it fixed in thirty days, because most of what we’d recommend takes a quarter to show. If any of those fit, tell us in the first email and we’ll say where to spend instead.
How is this different from hiring a fractional CMO?
Mostly scope and commitment. That role is typically a monthly retainer for someone accountable for the whole marketing function, and in most published versions it’s strategy only, so you still need people to do the work. This is an hour at a time on a specific decision, with nothing that renews. If what you need is a permanent owner of the function, say so and we’ll tell you this isn’t it.
You sell the execution too. How is the advice honest?
It’s a conflict and we’d rather name it than pretend it away: we make more money when the answer is to hire us. What we do about it is put the options we make nothing from on the page at their published prices, and write into the notes what we told you not to buy from us. If the answer is that you don’t need an agency right now, that’s what you’ll hear in the hour you paid for. It has happened often enough that it’s a policy, not a promise.
Can you work alongside our existing team or agency?
Yes, and it’s the most common version of this. Sometimes that means reviewing someone else’s plan before you sign it. Sometimes it means giving your marketing person a sounding board who isn’t in the account daily. We don’t need to be introduced as anything, we don’t need access to their systems, and we’re not auditioning to replace them.