A fractional CMO. 2 to 4 days a month.
A fractional marketing director: senior direction and hands-on execution across everything that attracts and converts, engaged for the days your problem actually needs. Customers, candidates, or both. It's the same machinery underneath, and we run deepest in the candidate half.
- Problem
- More media spend, the same number of applications.
- Built
- The attraction operation rebuilt, with one senior owner for it.
The short answer
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who does the job of a chief marketing officer for part of the month, on a retained or project basis, instead of as a full-time employee. You get board-level marketing judgement and someone accountable for the numbers, sized to the work you actually have.
Fractional CMO and fractional marketing director describe the same role; the title usually follows the size of the business. Ours covers strategy and execution, so the person setting the plan is also the one making it work.
The maths
The CMO, without the full-time hire.
A full-time marketing director runs £80,000 to £120,000 a year before employer NI, pension and benefits, and most organisations don’t have a full-time job’s worth of the work. A fractional arrangement gives you the same strategic input and execution capability, sized to the need. Weighing a hire against an agency or tools? See how we work with in-house teams, row by row.
- EngagementRetained · 2 to 4 days/mo
- CommitmentMonthly · cancellable
- ScopeStrategy through execution
- ReportingNumbers you can take to the board
- Team capabilityTraining & handover in scope
- FeeScoped on the call · in writing first
What it covers
What your fractional CMO owns, from plan to results.
Not a narrowly scoped advisory service. Strategy through to execution, measurement and optimisation, and your team gets more capable every month it runs.
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Strategy
Roadmap & channel strategy
Mix planning, audience targeting, budget allocation and a clear roadmap for how you reach the people you need, built around your markets, your margins and your hiring volumes.
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Brand
Brand & proposition
What makes you worth buying from and worth working for, articulated so it lands with the people you’re actually trying to reach, not left in a PDF. Employer brand and EVP is the deepest version of this we do.
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Content
Campaign & advert copy
Copy that converts, from a paid search advert to a job advert, written to earn the right response rather than the biggest number. Includes tone-of-voice guidance and templates your team can run independently.
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Execution
Channel management
Management and optimisation of your active channels: paid search and social, LinkedIn, programmatic, job boards and Google for Jobs. Performance reviewed against cost-per-acquisition and cost-per-application targets.
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Measurement
Performance & analytics
Tracking and attribution that says what’s working, in numbers everyone trusts. Reviewed monthly, acted on monthly. The measure-iterate-grow loop, run for you.
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Capability
Your team, more capable
Training and handover are part of the scope, not an extra. The aim is a function that runs well without us, and an internal hire, if that’s where this ends, that we help you define.
3 ways to engage
Fractional CMO services: retained, project, or both.
01 · Retained
The standing arrangement.
An ongoing monthly engagement, typically 2 to 4 days per month. For organisations that need consistent strategic direction and hands-on support across the full mix.
02 · Project
A defined scope.
A fixed deliverable: a campaign launch, an EVP refresh, a channel strategy rebuild. Clear start, clear end, clear output. No open-ended commitment.
03 · Hybrid
Start one way, finish another.
Start with a project and move to retained as the relationship develops. Or retain for a fixed period to stabilise the function, then hand over to an internal hire we have helped you define.
Who it’s for
When to hire a fractional CMO: a real gap, not a one-off campaign.
This is for organisations where marketing is operationally critical and the internal capability isn’t keeping up with the demand. Most often that demand is candidates. Sometimes it’s customers. Often it’s both, and the same person should be holding both.
In-house TA teams
Strong on process, thin on marketing.
You need someone who can own the channel strategy and make the spend work harder, without adding headcount to do it. If the gap is the TA operating model rather than the marketing, that’s talent acquisition consultancy.
HR directors
Accountable for outcomes.
You carry the hiring numbers but don’t have the recruitment marketing depth on the team to diagnose why results are declining. This fills that gap with senior judgement, not another report.
Marketing functions
Handed recruitment as a side quest.
Your team knows marketing but not this market. We bring the recruitment-specific layer (the channels, the benchmarks, the candidate behaviour) and leave the capability behind.
Where this sits in the ladder
Fractional engagements start with your message about the pain points, then a diagnosis in the first weeks whose findings become the first quarter’s plan. If something needs building first, that’s a Workforce Engine project, and this is what keeps it improving afterwards. See all 3 steps.
The work behind it
The work behind it, measured.
Fractional CMO: common questions.
What is a fractional CMO?
A senior marketing leader who does the job of a chief marketing officer for part of the month, on a retained or project basis, instead of as a full-time employee. You get board-level judgement and one person accountable for the numbers, sized to the work you actually have.
How much does a fractional CMO cost?
Ours is scoped on a call and you get the fee in writing before anything starts, because it depends on the days and the scope. For comparison, a full-time marketing director costs £80,000 to £120,000 a year before employer NI, pension and benefits.
How many days a month does a fractional CMO work?
Our retained engagements typically run 2 to 4 days a month. Some months need more, usually around a launch or a rebuild, and we agree that in advance rather than letting it creep.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a marketing agency?
An agency is usually hired to deliver a channel or a campaign. A fractional CMO owns the plan, the budget and the results across all of them, and tells you which agencies and channels to keep. Ours does the hands-on work as well, so the person setting the plan is the one making it work.
Is a fractional marketing director the same as a fractional CMO?
Yes. The title usually follows the size of the business. The job is the same: senior marketing leadership for part of the month, accountable for the numbers.
Can a fractional CMO cover recruitment marketing too?
Ours can, and that is where we run deepest. Candidate demand and customer demand use the same machinery underneath, so one senior owner for both is usually simpler than 2 separate fixes.
How quickly does it start?
It starts with your message about what isn’t working. The first weeks are a diagnosis, and its findings become the first quarter’s plan.
Start here
Tell us what’s not working.
The easy first move
No pitch deck.
Tell us what’s in front of you. You’ll get a straight answer on whether a fractional CMO is the right shape, and what it would cost, in writing, before you commit.
Talk to usIf you’d rather write first
Write it down.
Put the pain points in writing. A senior member of the team comes back within 1 working day with our read on whether fractional support fits.
Send a messageSee the ladder
Where this fits.
Step 03 of 3: the retained loop that keeps what was built getting better, month after month.
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