Solution
Senior marketing leadership and delivery, without building the department
A strategist, specialists and delivery capacity working to your priorities — for less than the cost of one senior in-house hire, with knowledge that stays documented.
Why this exists
The business problem
Between 'the owner does the marketing' and 'we have a marketing department' sits an awkward gap. A single generalist hire is asked to be strategist, writer, designer, media buyer and analyst at once, and is inevitably strong at one or two of those.
Meanwhile agencies are engaged channel by channel, each optimising its own metric, with nobody responsible for whether the whole thing adds up.
The result is activity without direction: campaigns that contradict each other, a plan that changes with whoever spoke last, and no institutional memory when someone leaves.
Fit
Who this is for
A good fit if
- Businesses too large for ad-hoc marketing and too small for a full department
- Companies that have cycled through generalist hires without traction
- Owners spending time on marketing decisions they do not want to be making
- Teams needing senior thinking alongside actual execution capacity
Probably not a fit if
- Businesses wanting a single channel executed and nothing else
- Organisations that cannot give a decision-maker's time each month
- Companies looking for the cheapest possible arrangement rather than a considered one
Scope
What is included — and what is not
Scope written plainly, so there is no argument later about what was assumed.
Fractional marketing lead
A senior strategist owning the plan, the priorities and the numbers, with a standing monthly session with your leadership.
Specialist access
SEO, paid media, design, content and automation specialists drawn in as the plan requires rather than retained permanently.
Quarterly planning
A written plan with priorities, budget allocation and explicit trade-offs — including what we are deliberately not doing.
Execution capacity
Actual delivery, not just advice. The agreed monthly output is defined in scope.
Measurement and reporting
One dashboard and one definition set, reported monthly with interpretation rather than raw exports.
Vendor management
Coordination of your other suppliers so channels stop working against each other.
Team enablement
Documentation, process and training so your internal people grow rather than depend on us indefinitely.
Handover readiness
Everything documented so an eventual in-house hire inherits a working system, not a mystery.
Explicitly not included
- Full-time availability or same-day turnaround as standard
- Guaranteed revenue or lead outcomes
- Ad spend, software licences and third-party costs
- Acting as employer of record for your staff
- Unlimited scope — monthly capacity is defined and agreed
How it works
The working process
Assessment
Week 1–3Current state, historic performance, team capability and the commercial goals the marketing has to serve.
Plan
Week 3–5A written quarterly plan with priorities, budget, owners and the explicit list of things we are not doing yet.
Establish
Week 4–8Measurement, reporting and working rhythms set up, plus the first delivery priorities in motion.
Deliver
Ongoing monthlyExecution against the plan with a monthly leadership review and a rolling priority list.
Review and reset
QuarterlyHonest assessment of what worked, what did not, and what changes for the next quarter.
Measurement
KPIs we monitor
A fractional team should be judged on the whole system, not on any single channel's vanity metric.
Qualified enquiries by source
Total qualified enquiries and their distribution across channels, so dependence on any one is visible.
Blended cost per qualified enquiry
All marketing cost including fees, divided by qualified enquiries.
Plan delivery rate
Percentage of committed quarterly priorities actually shipped.
Pipeline contribution
Opportunities and revenue influenced by marketing, where CRM data supports the link.
Channel concentration
Share of enquiries from the largest single channel — a risk measure, not a performance one.
Capability transfer
Processes documented and internal capabilities established, reviewed each quarter.
Expectations
Realistic timeline
The first quarter is diagnosis and foundations. Anyone promising transformation in month one has not looked closely enough.
Assessment, measurement setup and the first written plan. Some quick fixes usually ship alongside.
Delivery rhythm established, reporting stabilised, early priorities executed.
Compounding channels begin contributing. Plan delivery rate becomes the honest measure of progress.
A functioning marketing system with documented process — including the option of transitioning it in-house.
Where it applies
Relevant industries
Commercials
Relevant packages
Productised starting points. Every one is confirmed in writing before anything begins.
Fractional Marketing Team
Strategy, design, content and channel execution without hiring in-house.
View packageGrowth Essentials
A steady monthly programme across website, search and follow-up.
View packageScale Engine
Multi-channel acquisition with CRO, automation and growth leadership.
View packageGTM Strategy Sprint
The GTM Foundation Sprint delivered as a standalone strategic project.
View package- Media spend (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, or any other paid platform) is billed separately by the platform and is not included unless a package explicitly says otherwise.
- Software, hosting, domains, call tracking, review platforms, backlink or placement purchases and other third-party costs are separate unless explicitly included.
- Results are not guaranteed. We do not publish or promise lead volumes, rankings, revenue or ROAS.
- Final scope depends on your market, geography, competition and current baseline. Scope is confirmed after a discovery call.
- “Starting at” pricing represents the minimum typical engagement for that package, not a fixed quote.
Evidence
Related work
Where the reporting has not been verified and approved for publication, we present the engagement as a project showcase and publish no figures.
No published entries for this solution yet. See all work.
Reading
Related insights
Full-Funnel Marketing Strategy: From Awareness to Revenue
Stop thinking in channels. Build a full-funnel system where every activity contributes to revenue.
Pillar GuideThe Startup Marketing Playbook: Pre-Seed to Series B
Stage-appropriate marketing strategies for startups. What to do at each funding stage to build pipeline.
Pillar GuideMarketing Dashboard Design: KPIs That Matter
Build dashboards that drive decisions, not just display data. The metrics framework for marketing leadership.
Questions
Frequently asked
Talk about fractional support
A short conversation about where your marketing currently is, what capacity you have internally and whether a fractional team is genuinely the right structure.