Hire Marketing. Run by your AI CMO.
A whole marketing department, not a tool: content, SEO + GEO, paid ads, web pages, lead capture, affiliate programs, and eCommerce copy — every motion that creates demand, run as one. The tools are the cheapest part. Forge operates them, so you replace the headcount too.
Your CMO: aggressive, opportunistic. Ships first, measures second.
Who runs the Marketing department.
Your CMO doesn't work alone. Hiring the Marketing department brings the full bench — one cockpit, one data layer, no separate SaaS subscriptions to chase. Forge runs every specialist, so you replace the headcount that would operate the tools.
- Beacon · SEO Engineer — ships SEO + GEO fixes as PRs to your code repo
- Quillsly · Content Writer — drafts in your voice for the AI-search era
- Nitrous · Performance Marketer — paid ad copy, bidding, competitor map
- Webster · Web Developer — pages, CMS, deploys via Git
- Affiliation · Affiliate Manager — codes, tracking, payouts via Stripe Connect
- Manifest · eCommerce Copywriter — bulk SKU copy, channel-specific feed
- Freeform · Lead-Gen Specialist — forms, intake flows, webhooks into Prospector
The tools are the cheapest part.
Here's the tooling floor a Marketing department clears — starter-tier list prices for small teams, about ~$879/mo. That's the cheapest thing it replaces. The real value is the labor: Forge runs every one of these tools, so you retire the headcount that would operate them — and it's one cockpit on a shared data layer instead of 7 silos that don't talk. The Marketing department is $249/mo.
| Function | Typical SaaS | GROWTH bundles |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Surfer + Ahrefs Lite ≈ $200/mo | Beacon |
| Content | Jasper + Buffer ≈ $90/mo | Quillsly |
| Paid ads | Smartly + Madgicx ≈ $250/mo | Nitrous |
| Web pages | Webflow CMS Pro ≈ $39/mo | Webster |
| Lead capture | Typeform + ConvertKit ≈ $50/mo | Freeform |
| Affiliate | PartnerStack / Impact ≈ $200/mo | Affiliation |
| eCom copy | Copy.ai / Hypotenuse ≈ $50/mo | Manifest |
What happens in the first week.
No "set up your dashboard." No 14-step onboarding. Within hours of hiring, GROWTH starts shipping.
- Beacon audits the homepage. Top 3 SEO + GEO gaps surfaced and ranked by revenue impact.
- Beacon opens 1-2 PRs against your repo (or a patch file if no GitHub access yet).
- Quillsly drafts 1 article on the highest-leverage content gap. Publishes via Webster on approval.
- Nitrous drafts ad variants if you're running paid (idle if not).
- Weekly cadence locks in: Beacon re-audits, Quillsly publishes, Affiliation tracks any referral signal.
What GROWTH actually shipped.
Real artifacts from the public log, pull requests, draft articles, stack memos. Each card links to the artifact itself. If a card is empty here, the playbook has not produced an artifact-shaped output in the current 14-day window.
What GROWTH shipped recently.
Pulled live from Merkava-HQ/merkava-exec-log at page-load. The same GROWTH you'd hire ran these for Merkava itself in the last 7 days.
What buyers actually ask before hiring Marketing.
What does the Marketing department actually do day-to-day?
It's a full marketing function run by your AI CMO: Beacon audits your site for SEO + GEO daily and ships fixes as PRs; Quillsly drafts content from your pillar plan; Nitrous tunes paid-ad campaigns against your conversion data; Webster ships landing pages; Affiliation runs your referral program; Freeform captures leads; Manifest generates eCom copy at SKU scale (when it ships). The CMO orchestrates these specialists and writes you a weekly Thursday brief on what worked, what didn't, what to double down on.
How is this different from a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO costs $20–40K/mo and gives you 8–16 hours/week of strategic oversight. The Marketing department costs $249/mo and runs the daily marketing ops a fractional CMO would delegate to a 5-person team — content drafting, ad-copy iteration, SEO fixes, conversion experiments, lead-gen. You're hiring the CMO and the team that does the work, on one cockpit, with you as the strategic owner.
What's the trial like?
7-day free trial. Credit card required at hire (so you don't get the friction of re-signing up if you continue). Auto-bills $249 on day 8 unless you cancel. Cancel from Settings → Subscription anytime; access continues to end of period. No clawback for the trial week.
What can I expect in the first 7 days?
Day 1: Beacon connects your domain + GitHub repo, runs the first audit, surfaces the top 5 fixes. Day 2: Quillsly proposes 3-7 content pillars from your existing content. Day 3-4: First Quillsly briefs ready for review; first Beacon PR for an SEO fix. Day 5-7: Nitrous reviews ad accounts, drafts variants for testing; Webster prepares landing-page experiments. By end of week 1 you have 3 articles in Quillsly, 1-3 SEO PRs in Beacon, 2 ad variants in Nitrous, all reviewable in your Merkava workspace.
Can the Marketing department run for multiple ventures?
Yes. Each venture gets its own Marketing scope: own SEO audit, own content pillars, own ad accounts, own affiliate program. The cockpit's Portfolio view shows cross-venture marketing performance. Hire Marketing once, scope it across as many ventures as you run.
How does Marketing work with the other departments?
Marketing hands warm leads to the Sales department (Prospector pipeline). Operations coordinates any marketing hiring (when you need a real human marketing hire). Engineering reviews stack changes Marketing proposes (e.g., new analytics tools). Finance approves marketing budget against MRR targets. The departments share one data layer — coordinated, not siloed.
What does the Marketing department cost?
$249/mo — your CMO + 7 specialists (Beacon, Quillsly, Nitrous, Webster, Affiliation, Freeform, Manifest), all on one cockpit. Bring your own model key drops it 15%. Annual billing 20% off. Or hire the Full C-Suite — all five departments — at $699/mo, with Finance included free. The tools this replaces are the cheapest part: Forge runs them, so you also retire the headcount that would operate them.
Hire the Marketing department.
Onboarding is a domain, a code repo (optional), and a Slack workspace (optional). Within 5 minutes the first action ships in your activity feed. Cancel anytime, no contract.