Questions Worth Asking.
Answered Directly.
Whether you're a business owner evaluating a consulting engagement or a hiring manager assessing fit for an in-house role — this page covers the questions that come up most. Six topic areas. Direct answers. No filler.
The short answer: journalism teaches you to think about the audience before anything else. A Magazine Journalism degree from UF — and years of writing, editing, and managing a publication — built instincts that most marketing programs don't teach. You learn to ask what the reader needs to know, not what the writer wants to say. That distinction is the backbone of every brand and messaging project I've done since.
The transition from journalism to marketing wasn't a pivot so much as a translation. Audience research, storytelling structure, message clarity, knowing when a word earns its place and when it doesn't — these aren't soft skills. They're the reason the copy I write converts and the campaigns I build perform. The journalism background shows up in the work every day.
A few things, and I'll be direct about them. First, I do the work myself. I'm not a strategist who hands off to a junior team or a subcontractor network. When you hire me, the person you talked to in the discovery call is the person building and running your program. That matters for quality and accountability.
Second, strategy genuinely comes before execution. Not as a positioning line — as an actual requirement. I don't build a campaign before the brief is written and approved. I don't launch a website before the architecture is agreed on. Most of the marketing problems I've been brought in to fix were execution problems that were actually strategy problems that nobody caught in time.
Third, the background. Cross-industry experience across pharmaceutical, e-commerce, consumer goods, B2B, and professional services means I bring pattern recognition from contexts most specialists have never worked in. I know what works in a regulated environment. I know what works at enterprise scale. Those reference points sharpen the work regardless of what I'm building.
Both — and that combination is deliberate. The gap between strategy and execution is where most marketing programs fall apart. A strategist who can't execute leaves you with a plan that never gets done right. An executor without strategy keeps doing the wrong things very efficiently.
I design the plan and run it. That means the person who decided why we're doing something is the same person making sure it actually gets done — and done the way the strategy intended. That gap stays very small. It's one of the things clients consistently point to as different about working with me.
It means no deliverable gets built before the plan behind it is written, reviewed, and approved. In practical terms: no email campaign before the segmentation strategy is documented. No website before the information architecture is agreed on. No ad budget allocated before the audience strategy is defined and the conversion tracking is verified.
It also means the strategy document is something you own — not a deck that lives on my computer. You can hand it to any team member, any agency, or any future hire, and they'll understand what we built and why. Systems that outlast the engagement are a requirement, not a bonus.
No — and intentionally so. I've worked across pharmaceutical, e-commerce, consumer goods, B2B direct marketing, technology, hospitality, and professional services. Each industry demanded something different: regulated environments require different compliance frameworks, B2B audiences consume content differently than retail consumers, and enterprise-scale programs need different infrastructure than SMB campaigns.
That range is an asset, not a lack of focus. Cross-industry experience means I bring solutions from contexts that category specialists never encounter. What worked in a pharmaceutical content program has informed B2B campaigns. What I learned managing a $56M direct mail budget at scale has informed how I approach smaller digital budgets — because the discipline of accountability is the same regardless of the number.
Six core areas: Brand Strategy & Positioning, Digital Marketing & Paid Advertising (SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads), Email & SMS Marketing, Web Design & Development (WordPress/Elementor), Event Marketing & Tradeshow Management, and Marketing Leadership & Team Management (fractional CMO and in-house). Full detail on each is on the Services page.
Both happen. Some clients come in with a specific problem — a website that isn't converting, an email program that's underperforming, an event coming up in 90 days. We solve that problem. Others need broader senior marketing support across multiple channels and engage me as a fractional CMO with visibility across the full program.
What I don't do is sell services for the sake of expanding scope. If you need one thing fixed, I'll fix that one thing and tell you honestly whether anything else needs attention. If it doesn't, I'll say so.
Digital Marketing & Paid Advertising covers SEO strategy, Google Ads, Meta Ads, retargeting, display, and analytics — the channels focused on driving traffic and visibility through organic search and paid placement.
Email & SMS Marketing covers everything that happens once someone is already in your audience — list segmentation, lifecycle automation, welcome series, win-back campaigns, deliverability, and the SMS channel specifically. These are retention and revenue channels, not acquisition channels.
In many engagements they work together — paid ads bring new contacts in, email and SMS convert and retain them — but they're different enough in strategy and execution that they're treated as separate disciplines.
I do the work myself. I write my own copy, build campaigns, manage platforms directly, and run the strategy. For specialized production work that's outside the scope of a given engagement — photography, custom development, print production — I coordinate with trusted vendors. But I remain the single point of accountability for strategy, oversight, and output quality.
This matters because it's what prevents the quality gap that appears when strategy is handed to someone who wasn't in the room when the decisions were made.
Every web project covers: site strategy and information architecture, UX planning and wireframing, design direction and brand alignment, WordPress and Elementor build-out, page copywriting, SEO foundation (on-page optimization, meta data, schema, internal linking), and post-launch performance monitoring for 90 days.
What I don't split out and charge separately: the copy, the SEO, and the strategy. They're built in — because a website without copy is a shell, and a website without SEO is invisible. The three things have to be designed together to work together.
A few. I don't do PR or media relations. I don't manage influencer campaigns. I don't build custom-coded applications or anything outside the WordPress/Elementor stack on the development side. I don't do graphic design production work as a standalone service — design direction and brand guidelines, yes; production of individual assets as a design service, no.
If something comes up in an engagement that falls outside my scope, I'll say so directly and point you toward someone better suited for it.
Start with the contact form or email me directly at scott@marketingscottmurphy.com. I respond within 24 hours. From there, we'll schedule a discovery call — typically 30–45 minutes — where I learn about the business, what you're trying to accomplish, and what's standing in the way. No pitch, no presentation. Just a direct conversation.
If it sounds like a good fit after that call, I'll put together a proposal. If it doesn't, I'll tell you honestly and point you toward something that makes more sense for your situation.
I ask questions and listen. I want to understand your business from the inside — what's working, what isn't, what's been tried, who the audience is, and what success actually looks like for you. I'm not running through a slide deck or trying to sell you a package. I'm diagnosing before I prescribe.
You should expect me to ask things that might feel more direct than the typical agency conversation. What is the business actually trying to accomplish? What does the marketing need to deliver? What's the real problem? Those questions are how the engagement gets scoped correctly from the start rather than corrected mid-project.
It depends on the scope. A focused project — website rebuild, brand strategy package, or a campaign launch — typically runs 6–12 weeks from kickoff to delivery. Ongoing fractional CMO engagements run on a monthly retainer and don't have a fixed end date — they continue as long as the work is generating value for both sides.
I don't rush projects to hit an arbitrary timeline, and I don't extend them to bill more hours. The timeline is set based on what the work actually requires, agreed on in the proposal, and tracked against in the kickoff.
More at the beginning, less in the middle, and present for reviews. The strategy phase requires real input from you — your goals, your audience knowledge, your business context. That's not something I can substitute for. But once the strategy is approved and execution begins, my goal is to minimize the interruptions on your end and handle as much as possible independently.
You'll have a standing check-in cadence — typically biweekly — and you'll see everything before it goes live. Outside of those touchpoints, you should be able to stay focused on running your business.
Yes, fully. Every deliverable — the strategy documents, the content, the campaigns, the playbooks, the website — belongs to you. There's no proprietary lock-in, no platform dependency that requires you to keep working with me, and no withholding of files at the end of an engagement.
The standard I hold every engagement to: you leave better equipped than when we started. That means documented SOPs, transferred knowledge, and a team or internal contact who can sustain what we built. Dependency is not the goal. Capability is.
Reporting is built around the KPIs we defined in the strategy phase — not whatever metrics happen to look best that month. You'll get a plain-language summary of what the work delivered, what the data says, what's being optimized, and what the next phase looks like.
I don't produce reports full of impressions and reach numbers to fill slides. If the number doesn't connect to a business outcome — revenue, leads, traffic, retention — it doesn't go in the report. Honest, direct, and specific. Every time.
Six across ten-plus years: pharmaceutical and life sciences (Tri-Source Pharma, NextSource Pharma — including oncology, sedation, and veterinary markets), e-commerce and promotional products (DiscountMugs — 1M+ subscriber list, $126K SMS revenue in 90 days), consumer goods and floral (Sunshine Bouquet — $2.5M product line in year one), B2B direct marketing (Everglades Direct / ComplyRight — $56M budget, major retail partners), technology / IPTV (Newvue), and hospitality, property management, and media (freelance consulting).
Current consulting clients through Axis Creative span additional B2B and B2C verticals across South Florida and nationally.
Yes — and with real experience, not just familiarity. The Tri-Source Pharma role was nearly four years of building and managing a full marketing operation in a regulated pharmaceutical environment: multiple brands, oncology and veterinary markets, compliance review requirements on every campaign, and zero margin for error on claims.
Marketing in a regulated industry requires a different discipline — more precise language, more rigorous review processes, and a deep respect for what can and can't be said. That experience doesn't go away when I work in an unregulated industry. The standards it instilled are part of how I work across every engagement.
Fair question. Every number on the site — +62% organic traffic, $126K SMS revenue in 90 days, 22.6% email open rate, $2.5M+ product line sales — is tied to a specific company, a specific role, and a specific time period. They're not industry averages or projections. The portfolio walks through three of them in full case study format with context, methodology, and results.
If you want to verify specifics before engaging, I'm comfortable with that conversation. References are available for roles and engagements where it's appropriate to share them.
The range has been wide — from the $56M annual budget at Everglades Direct to early-stage brands being built from the ground up through Axis Creative. The common thread isn't company size; it's whether the business is serious about marketing as a growth driver rather than a cost center.
For consulting engagements, I work best with companies that have a real marketing problem, a realistic budget to solve it, and a decision-maker who's accessible. That exists across a wide range of company sizes. For in-house roles, I'm looking at growth-stage and mid-market companies where there's meaningful scope and the ability to build something rather than maintain the status quo.
Yes — and the distinction between them has been important across different roles. B2B work at Everglades Direct involved long purchase cycles, professional buyer audiences, catalog and direct mail programs, and major retail partner relationships. B2C work at DiscountMugs and Sunshine Bouquet involved mass consumer audiences, retail sell-through, promotional products, and high-volume digital programs.
The audiences consume content differently, make decisions differently, and respond to different channel mixes. Understanding those differences — and knowing which playbook applies in which context — is part of what cross-industry experience produces.
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing executive who works with a company on a part-time basis — typically 10–20 hours per week — providing the strategy, leadership, and decision-making of a full-time CMO without the full-time cost or commitment. The arrangement works because many businesses need senior marketing judgment consistently but not full-time.
In practice, it means I'm in your leadership conversations, owning the marketing strategy, managing whatever team or vendor relationships exist, reporting to the CEO or leadership team, and accountable for results — just not sitting at a desk in your office five days a week. The output is the same; the structure is different.
Several key differences. Accountability: agencies report to you; I'm accountable for outcomes. Continuity: agencies rotate account teams; I'm the same person throughout the engagement. Objectivity: agencies have an incentive to grow scope; I have an incentive to solve the actual problem efficiently, because referrals and retention are what sustain the consulting practice.
Strategy ownership: most agencies execute what they're briefed on; I build the brief, validate the strategy, and then run the execution. Speed: no layers of account management, no approval chains, no waiting for the strategist to become available after a handoff. Direct access to the person doing the thinking and the work.
Yes. Project-based work is available for defined-scope engagements — a website rebuild, a brand strategy package, a campaign launch, a tradeshow program. These are scoped, priced, and delivered with a clear start and end point.
Ongoing fractional CMO work runs on a monthly retainer with a minimum commitment discussed during the proposal phase — typically three months minimum to allow enough time to build strategy, execute, and generate measurable results worth evaluating.
I keep the client load intentionally limited. The quality of engagement matters more than the volume of clients. The specific number varies based on what each active engagement requires — a fractional CMO role at 15+ hours per week is a different commitment than a focused project running over six weeks.
What I can say: every client gets a primary point of contact who is actually doing the work, not managing the work. If I can't give an engagement the attention it requires, I don't take it on. The 98% retention rate since launching Axis Creative is a direct result of that standard.
I work with businesses at various stages — from early-stage companies building their marketing foundation to established organizations optimizing a program that's already running. What matters more than size is seriousness: a clear business problem, realistic expectations about what marketing can and can't do, and a decision-maker who's willing to be honest about what's working and what isn't.
Budget is a real constraint and I won't pretend otherwise. Some engagements require more resources than others. If the scope you need exceeds what makes sense for your budget, I'll tell you directly — and I'll tell you what you can do with what you have.
Yes — Axis Creative serves clients locally in South Florida and nationally. Most of the consulting work is remote-first by design. Digital marketing, brand strategy, email and SMS, paid advertising, and web design are all deliverable remotely without any loss of quality.
For event marketing engagements that involve on-site management, travel is part of the scope and covered in the project budget. For in-house role inquiries, see the next section on location and availability.
Yes. The consulting work at Axis Creative is active and delivering results, but I'm actively looking for the right in-house opportunity. There's a kind of impact that only comes from being fully embedded — owning a brand over time, building a team, and seeing a multi-year strategy through from inside the organization. That's the work I want to do next.
I'm selective about it, which means I'm looking for the right fit rather than the first offer. If you're evaluating candidates for a senior marketing leadership role, I'd rather have a direct conversation about fit than go through a lengthy process and discover the alignment isn't there at the end.
Senior marketing leadership — VP of Marketing, Director of Marketing, Head of Marketing, or CMO depending on the organization's size and structure. The title matters less than the scope: ownership of the marketing function, accountability for results, ability to build and lead a team, and access to the leadership conversations where marketing decisions get made.
I'm not looking for a role where marketing is a cost center or a support function. I'm looking for an organization where marketing is understood as a growth driver and resourced accordingly.
Fort Lauderdale-based, open to hybrid or remote roles nationally, and open to relocation for the right opportunity. I'm not geographically rigid about the in-house search — I'm looking for the right role at the right company, and location is a factor to be discussed rather than a hard constraint.
If a role requires full-time on-site in a specific market, that's worth a conversation. If it's hybrid or remote-first, there's no friction. If you're not sure, reach out and we can discuss it.
Growth-stage or mid-market companies where the marketing function needs to be built, scaled, or significantly improved — not maintained. Industries where I have direct experience (pharmaceutical, e-commerce, consumer goods, B2B) are natural fits, but the discipline I bring transfers across sectors.
The ideal situation: a leadership team that values marketing as a strategic function, gives me ownership and accountability, and wants to build something lasting. A team to lead or build. Real budget to work with. And leadership that will push back honestly if the results aren't where they need to be — because that accountability is how the best work happens.
The same way as any other inquiry — the contact form or directly at scott@marketingscottmurphy.com. Include a brief description of the role and the company, and I'll respond within 24 hours to confirm whether it's worth a conversation. If it is, we'll schedule a call.
I prefer direct outreach over going through a recruiter as the first step, when possible. It gets to the relevant conversation faster for both sides. The portfolio, the experience page, and this FAQ should give you a solid picture of the background before we talk.