An experienced Marketing Director embedded in your business on a part-time basis. Owns the strategy, manages the agencies, directs the team, and drives commercial outcomes, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire at this level of experience.
If the MD is currently making all the marketing decisions, that is not a marketing problem, it is a leadership resourcing problem. Marketing run from the top by someone whose primary role is elsewhere is always reactive, always under-resourced in attention, and always the last priority when something else demands focus.
If a junior team member or external agency is making strategic calls without senior oversight, the output reflects that. Agencies without a senior client are unmanaged. Teams without a senior lead lack direction. Neither produces the commercial outcomes the business needs. A Fractional Marketing Director solves the resourcing problem without creating a full-time cost.
This is not a consulting relationship where someone reviews work and offers opinions between sessions. This is embedded senior leadership, present in your business, accountable for outcomes.
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Own or co-own the marketing strategy and ensure it stays connected to commercial objectives
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Attend leadership and commercial team meetings as the senior marketing voice
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Manage agencies and external partners: set briefs, evaluate output, hold them accountable, replace them if needed
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Coach and direct any internal marketing team members
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Identify and prioritise the highest-value marketing investments and make the case for them to leadership
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Oversee campaign planning, execution quality, and performance measurement
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Build the reporting and accountability frameworks the function needs to operate credibly at board level
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Act as a sounding board for marketing and commercial decisions across the business
Strategic direction, leadership advisory, and priority setting. Suits businesses that need a senior sounding board and clear direction without deep execution involvement.
Active strategic leadership with deeper involvement in execution, agency management, and team guidance. The most common starting point for businesses with an existing marketing function.
Near full-time senior presence. Full ownership of marketing direction, function leadership, and commercial delivery. For businesses going through a significant period of growth or change.
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Growing SMEs and scale-ups that need senior marketing thinking but are not ready to commit to a full-time hire at director level
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Businesses whose marketing team has execution capability but no strategic leadership
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Companies spending significant budget on agencies without anyone senior enough to manage them properly
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CEOs and MDs who are currently making all the marketing decisions themselves and know that is not sustainable
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Businesses where the marketing function has drifted – reactive, unfocused, and disconnected from commercial goals
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Companies with a specific 12-18 month growth ambition that requires proper marketing leadership to achieve
Cost varies depending on engagement level.
3-month minimum with a rolling 30-day exit thereafter. Onboarding takes place in month one and is included in the retainer fee.
Most fractional clients start with an audit. That is the preferred path because it means both parties arrive at the retainer relationship with a clear picture of the business, established trust, and a shared understanding of what is needed.
Direct entry to a fractional retainer is available where that picture is already clear, for example in businesses that have recently completed a strategy project elsewhere or have a clear sense of what they need from a senior marketing hire.
The pre-engagement conversation will confirm which path makes more sense.
Tell us where your business is and what the marketing function currently looks like. We will tell you honestly whether this is the right fit.