FAQ
How engagements work, what they cost, and what to expect, in plain language. If your question isn't here, we're glad to answer it.
Getting Started
Businesses of every size: owner-led and small businesses, franchise owners, in-house marketing teams, and established brands working with agencies. If you make marketing decisions and want senior counsel without agency overhead, it's built for you.
Start with how involved you want us to be. Essentials gives you clear, written direction to carry out. Advisor adds regular strategy conversations and direct access. Executive provides fractional CMO leadership or oversight of your team or agency. Not sure yet? Start with the Business Questionnaire and we'll recommend a fit.
Complete the short form, which takes about three minutes. We reply to confirm fit, then send the Business Questionnaire. Your agreement follows, and nothing is committed until it's accepted or signed.
Because context is what makes the work useful. The questionnaire captures your business, brand, and goals so your scope is built on real information. Discovery is then the first work of every engagement. Strategy without that context is generic. That is not the standard here.
Discovery. Every engagement begins here. For Advisor and Executive, it's the Marketing Diagnostic, month one of the engagement. For Essentials, the Diagnostic is recommended, or you can begin with a one-time onboarding. You share your brand and marketing materials, we review everything, and we follow up with questions until nothing is unclear before strategic work begins.
The Marketing Diagnostic is $3,500. It is month one of every Advisor and Executive engagement and the recommended start for Essentials. Essentials clients can begin with a $1,000 one-time onboarding instead.
Pricing & Agreements
On what your business and brand need, not on the size of your company. Your rate and scope are confirmed in writing before any work begins, in a Service Agreement for Essentials or a signed Statement of Work for Advisor and Executive. They never change without 30 days' written notice.
Each request is priced in your Service Agreement, based on what your business and brand actually need, not on the size of your company. You pay for the work that serves you, and nothing you don't need. No call required.
No. Every fee is disclosed before work begins. There are no media commissions, production markups, or technology pass-throughs, and we earn nothing from the channels, partners, or vendors we recommend.
No. Essentials is requested as you need it. Advisor and Executive run for a term set in your Statement of Work and are billed monthly. Either way, it's an ongoing professional relationship: the longer we work together, the more specific the guidance becomes to your business.
It is quoted at the rate disclosed in your agreement, and work begins only with your written approval.
Yes. Essentials clients can move to Advisor at any time, and Advisor engagements can expand to Executive as your needs grow. Changes to an Advisor or Executive engagement are agreed in an updated Statement of Work.
Working Together
That depends on the tier. Essentials is delivered in writing by email, with no calls required. Advisor is built around regular strategy conversations. Executive cadence is set in your Statement of Work. All work is remote.
The senior executive who scopes your engagement does the work, and reviews and approves every piece before it reaches you. There are no junior hand-offs.
Through a secure portal during Discovery. We review what you share and follow up with questions until nothing is unclear. We don't collect data or build dashboards; we read the reports you share and advise on what they mean.
It depends on the item and what your business needs. Everything is customized, so timelines are agreed as the work is requested.
No. Executive engagements are remote. Expectations, scheduling, and time commitment are defined in your Statement of Work.
You need someone to execute: you, your team, a freelancer, or an agency. Strategy Butler sets the direction and helps you brief and evaluate the people doing the work.
Scope & Independence
No — and it is not designed to be. Strategy Butler is the senior strategic counsel layer that most businesses have never had. For businesses that have execution covered, it complements your agency by sharpening the strategic direction they work from. For businesses without an agency, it provides the strategic foundation that makes internal execution more purposeful. The two roles are different by design.
Strategic guidance — not media planning or buying. That means recommending channels to consider and explore, identifying a consideration set of potential partners, reviewing an existing media plan and providing strategic feedback, assessing a current partnership or platform offer, and advising on how brand and performance media work together. What falls outside scope: developing detailed media plans with partner specifics, placements, or flowcharts; vendor negotiations; campaign trafficking or setup; and any form of media buying.
No. We provide strategic direction and help you brief and evaluate the people who execute it. We don't buy media, build websites, produce creative, or resell software.
No financial partnerships with media, technology, or data vendors, no stake in what you spend or where, and no commissions on anything we recommend.
Yes. What You Get includes sample pages from a Marketing Diagnostic and other strategy outputs, written for a fictional business to the same standard as client work.
The approach applies across industries. Our experience includes automotive, financial services, travel and hospitality, healthcare, entertainment and media, sports, beverage alcohol and CPG, and subscription services.
Compare the three engagements side by side, with what each includes and its estimated range.
Senior marketing counsel, without the agency overhead.