Building a Modern Fractional CMO Website: Behind the Scenes at In Cahoots Co

How we combined cutting-edge tech with smart UX to create a lead-generating sister site to In Cahoots Co Director Ben Hayward.

The Tech Stack: Modern, Fast, and Powerful

We built this on Next.js 14 with React 19, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS 4. Why this stack? Because it gives us the best of everything, blazing fast performance, type safety that catches bugs before they happen, and a styling system that makes creating beautiful, responsive designs actually enjoyable. All this thanks to the guiding hand of Manus AI.

The backend runs on Express with tRPC, which means we get end-to-end type safety from the database all the way to the frontend. No more "oops, I typo'd that API endpoint" moments. If something's wrong, TypeScript tells you immediately.

For the database, we're using Drizzle ORM with a MySQL backend. It's lightweight, performant, and the schema-first approach means your database structure is always clear and documented in code.

The Features: Where Things Get Interesting

We integrated an AI-powered chat widget that sits in the bottom-right corner of every page. It's not just a chatbot ... it's actually intelligent. It understands Ben's services, can answer questions about fractional CMO work, and even qualifies leads through natural conversation.

The AI also shares Ben's Google Calendar booking link when appropriate, making it frictionless to schedule a discovery call. It's like having a 24/7 sales assistant who never gets tired or forgets to follow up.

2026-Style Interactions and Animations

Here's where we really had some fun. Modern websites need to feel alive, not static. We implemented several cutting-edge interaction patterns:

3D Tilt Effects: When you hover over the service cards, they tilt in 3D space following your cursor. It's subtle but creates this sense of depth and responsiveness that makes the site feel premium.

Cursor-Following Shine: A spotlight effect follows your mouse across the cards, creating a holographic, Apple-like quality. It's GPU-accelerated, so it runs at a smooth 60fps without any jank.

Particle Trails: Small teal particles spawn at your cursor position as you move across the service cards, fading out smoothly. It's the kind of detail that makes people go "wait, that's cool" without being distracting.

SEO and AEO Optimisation

We didn't just build a pretty website, we built one that will get found. The entire site is optimised for "fractional CMO Brisbane" and related keywords. Every page has proper meta tags, Open Graph tags for social sharing, and structured data markup.

The FAQ page has JSON-LD schema markup, which means Google can show it as rich snippets in search results. We also optimised for Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO)—the new frontier where AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity pull answers from websites. The content is structured to be easily understood and cited by these systems.

Mobile-First Responsive Design



This one's non-negotiable in 2025. The site looks gorgeous on desktop, but it's equally polished on mobile. We tested every interaction, every animation, every form on actual mobile devices. The AI chat widget, the service timeline, the testimonials—everything adapts beautifully to smaller screens.

What we ended up with is a website that does three things exceptionally well:

Establishes credibility immediately. The professional design, real testimonials, and clear value proposition tell visitors they're in the right place within seconds.

Engages visitors actively. The AI chat, smooth animations, and interactive elements keep people on the site longer and encourage exploration.

Captures leads effortlessly. Between the AI chat lead capture, contact form, and direct calendar booking links, there are multiple low-friction ways for interested prospects to take the next step.