Fractional CMO
I join your leadership team part-time to set marketing direction, prioritise investment, lead or coach the team and connect marketing with sales, product and management, without the commitment of a full-time executive hire.
Fractional CMO Digital CX MarTech AI transformation
Senior marketing leadership for companies turning technology into growth.
I’m Margarita Colombo, a Swiss-based marketing and digital transformation leader with 20+ years across digital marketing, customer experience and MarTech, with deep experience in medtech, life sciences and other regulated industries. I help leadership teams decide where marketing, data and AI should create value, and make that change work for the people who deliver it.
- 20+ years in digital marketing, UX & CX
- 22 countries in one digital ecosystem
- Medtech & life sciences regulated, trust-critical markets
- Polyglot fluent in English, German, Spanish & Italian
Tech fluent. Business minded. Human centered.
Technology only creates growth when people move with it.
AI has made production faster. The hard part is still deciding what matters and getting people on board. That’s where I work: clear strategy, thoughtful workflows and the trust that turns new technology into meaningful progress.
What I do
Four disciplines, one connected view.
I work across marketing, customer experience, technology and AI at leadership level, with a focus on medtech, life sciences and other regulated industries, where buyers are cautious, claims need evidence and change has to be well governed.
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Marketing leadership
Strategy, positioning and prioritisation: where to invest, what to stop, how to measure progress and how to align marketing with management, sales and product.
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Digital customer experience
Journeys, websites and content shaped around how buyers really decide, especially in considered, regulated markets where clarity and trust matter.
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Digital product & MarTech
From business need to working solution: product discovery, roadmaps and requirements, a connected stack from CMS and DAM to analytics, and delivery alongside IT and development teams.
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AI transformation
From AI ambition to everyday practice: opportunity mapping, workflow design and enablement, with governance that holds up in regulated environments and brings people along.
Ways to work together
Senior perspective, shaped to the need.
Every engagement starts with a conversation. Scope, timing and investment follow from what you’re trying to move forward.
Digital, MarTech & AI assessment
An independent evaluation of customer needs, digital experience, MarTech stack and AI readiness, ending in clear priorities and a practical roadmap.
Interim digital product leadership
Business-side product ownership for platforms, websites and digital products: defining roadmaps and requirements, aligning stakeholders with IT and development teams, and steering delivery through testing and release to measurable results.
MarTech & AI transformation
Platform migrations, integrations, workflow redesign, governance and enablement that respect regulatory and quality requirements, so new technology becomes part of how work gets done rather than another tool nobody uses.
Advisory, workshops & talks
Sessions for leadership teams and events on marketing strategy, digital customer experience and human-centred AI adoption.
For technology partners
A senior strategy partner for your client projects
MarTech and AI vendors, agencies and consultancies working with medtech, life sciences and other regulated clients: I help frame the business case, align stakeholders and make adoption stick, so the technology delivers what it promised.
Discuss a partnershipSelected impact
Progress you can point to.
Two decades across digital marketing and UX, including global roles in medtech and life sciences, where clarity and trust matter.
22+
countries, one digital ecosystem
Led global digital marketing through a business spin-off, bringing fragmented MarTech together and establishing governance for content, DAM and analytics.
420%
growth in website impressions
At Medela, website impressions grew 420% and unique visitors grew 400%.
CHF2M+
in underperforming content investment
Identified more than CHF 2 million in content investment that wasn’t delivering, and redirected the focus.
2020
European Search Award
Recognised with a European Search Award in 2020.
Experience includes Tecan, Medela, DeinDeal, mylife Diabetes Care and The Nuance Group.
Selected work
From opportunity to outcome.
Three examples from Medela, a global medtech company, of how I turn business needs into digital solutions and lead them through to results.
Case 01 · Medela
Turning product pages into commercial journeys
Many European product pages only pointed to a store locator. I led a Buy Now solution across 15 countries that connects each product page to the right e-retailers, pharmacies and marketplaces, from requirements and rollout to tracking and sales enablement.
- +488%
- unique click-outs to retailers, June to September 2021 vs. the previous period
- 115,550
- users directed to e-retailers and marketplaces in four months
Case 02 · Medela
One website. Three audiences.
Medela’s new global website had to serve mothers and families, lactation professionals and hospitals, most of them on mobile and arriving from search. Starting from usage data, competitor analysis and stakeholder workshops, we defined audience-specific journeys, product principles and a phased rollout.
- 20+
- country websites in a batched rollout
- 90%
- of users on mobile, so every journey was designed mobile first
Case 03 · Medela
From fragmented initiatives to a connected roadmap
A multi-year European digital roadmap that connected digital marketing and commerce with the capabilities behind them: technology, data and analytics, and digital culture, moving from fixing the basics to expanding and accelerating.
- 3
- phases, from fixing the basics to acceleration
- 5
- pillars across business and enabling capabilities
About
Buenos Aires → San Francisco → Switzerland
I’ve been translating technology into possibility since the early web.
I started as a designer who coded HTML, then trained in San Francisco during the early years of the web. Over the next two decades, I worked across digital marketing, UX and customer experience, often at the point where technology, business priorities and human behaviour meet.
One of my earliest lessons came in Buenos Aires in 2000, helping a sceptical commercial director set up online banking. When he saw digital not as a threat but as a way to grow, I understood what still drives my work: progress happens when people can see themselves in what comes next.
In 2001, as Europe prepared for the euro, I won a joint competition run by the Dante Alighieri, Goethe-Institut and Alliance Française in Buenos Aires. My website used an interactive map to explain each country’s currency and what the change would mean. For Europe it was historic. For me, an Argentine who had lived through australes and pesos, it was personal: a currency change is never just technical.
Today I bring that same instinct to marketing, MarTech and AI. The tools change quickly. What makes them work is still a clear direction, and people who understand why it matters to them.
San Francisco, early web years
When the future felt close enough to walk into.
I was in San Francisco as the web took shape and dot-com optimism made the city feel electric. Years later, at Macworld in Moscone Center, seeing Steve Jobs present made that sense of possibility tangible: one idea, a room full of people, a glimpse of what could come next.
What stayed with me was never just the technology, but what people could do once someone made it meaningful.
Questions
Good to know.
What does a fractional CMO do?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works with a company part-time. I set marketing direction, prioritise investment, lead or coach the team and align marketing with management, sales and product, without the cost and commitment of a full-time executive hire.
Who do you work with?
Mainly medtech, life sciences and other regulated industries, as well as technology companies. Typically leadership teams that need senior guidance on marketing, digital customer experience, MarTech or AI adoption in markets where buyers are cautious, claims need evidence and trust matters.
How does working together start?
With a conversation about what you’re trying to move forward. Many clients then begin with a focused assessment, which gives us shared priorities and a roadmap before any longer engagement.
Do you take on interim product roles?
Yes. Alongside strategic work, I take on interim, business-side product leadership for platforms, websites and digital products: owning the roadmap and requirements, aligning stakeholders with IT and development teams, and steering delivery to measurable results.
How is pricing set?
Every engagement is shaped around what you need, so pricing depends on scope. After a first conversation I propose the format, timeline and investment that fit.
Where are you based and which languages do you work in?
I’m based in Switzerland and work in English, German, Spanish and Italian.
A good place to start
Building with AI and need the human who connects it all?
Tell me what you’re trying to move forward. Whether you’re exploring a fractional engagement, an assessment, a partnership or a leadership role, we can start with a conversation.