Marketing without the wait: Why CMOs are subscribing instead of hiring 

CMOs are expected to deliver impact—fast. But today, they’re doing it with fewer resources and tighter budgets.

At the same time, marketing budgets have declined from 9.1% of company revenue in 2023 to 7.7% in 2024, tightening the margin for operational efficiency. This decline means CMOs must maximize efficiency while maintaining marketing’s role as a growth driver.

Yet, market opportunities don’t wait. Pipeline targets, campaign deadlines, and shifting customer demands require immediate action. Traditional resourcing models—whether hiring in-house or relying on agencies—create delays marketing leaders can’t afford. It’s time for a faster, more agile approach.

The operational drag of hiring and agencies

Hiring full-time employees requires extensive budget approvals, months-long recruitment cycles, and additional onboarding periods before new hires become fully productive. Even after onboarding, specialized skills in areas like demand generation, analytics, and marketing automation are challenging to source and retain at scale. When marketing priorities shift rapidly, internal hiring simply can’t keep up.

While agencies offer an alternative to hiring, they come with their own set of challenges. Onboarding is time-consuming, requiring extensive intake meetings and contract negotiations before execution begins. Many agencies operate in silos rather than as integrated extensions of the marketing team, making seamless collaboration difficult.

Both models introduce operational friction when CMOs need execution at scale.

A smarter model: Subscription-based marketing execution

Enterprise CMOs are shifting away from traditional resourcing models. Instead of waiting months to build teams, they’re subscribing to on-demand execution. This model provides a specialized, embedded marketing team that integrates directly into existing workflows—without hiring delays or agency inefficiencies. Here’s why leading CMOs are choosing subscription-based execution:

1. Faster ramp-up, faster results
Traditional hiring can take more than six months before new employees are fully operational. With a subscription-based model, marketing execution ramps up in as little as 60 days.

For example, Sandler, a global sales training firm, partnered with 2X to build and launch a complete ABM campaign in just 30 days. The impact after 6 months:

• 30% increase in marketing-influenced pipeline
• Over 80 deals accelerated
• 300% increase in website engagement

Results like these aren’t possible with traditional hiring cycles or slow-moving agencies.

2. Cost-efficient scaling without the overhead
Subscription-based execution eliminates the fixed costs of permanent hires and reduces reliance on expensive agency retainers. Organizations using offshore delivery centers within this model have realized 30-50% cost efficiencies compared to U.S.-based teams, freeing up budget for strategic growth initiatives and technology investments.

3. Prioritizing strategic work
Internal teams should focus on differentiation and brand-building—not getting stuck in executional tasks.

The subscription-based execution team handles specialized tasks like content production, SEO, campaign execution, data analytics, and marketing automation management. This division of labor maximizes efficiency while ensuring strategic priorities remain in focus.

4. Built for adaptability
Unlike traditional agencies, which often specialize in narrow areas, subscription-based execution provides cross-functional expertise tailored to evolving business needs. This includes:

• MarTech management and automation
• ABX campaign build and execution
• Content and creative production

Because the model is built for flexibility, marketing leaders can scale resources up or down as needed, ensuring agility without being locked into rigid agreements.

The next evolution of marketing operations

The choice is no longer between slow, costly hiring and rigid, inefficient agencies. Subscription-based marketing offers a modern operating model that aligns with the agility, efficiency, and impact today’s CMOs demand.

Now is the time to rethink marketing execution. Schedule a conversation to explore how 2X can help your enterprise drive results—without the wait.

Transform your marketing execution

Author

Lisa Cole

Lisa Cole serves as the CMO at 2X, where she helps marketing leaders deliver greater impact with fewer resources. Former CMO for Huron, FARO Technologies, and Cellebrite, and author of The Revenue RAMP, Lisa has a proven track record of transforming marketing organizations into high-performing, scalable growth engines. She specializes in leveraging AI, strategic outsourcing and growth marketing strategies to scale marketing, driving operational excellence, and accelerating revenue growth.