Should You Hire a Fractional CMO or a Marketing Director?
Startup and small business marketing usually goes like this:
The founder/CEO leads marketing decisions
Marketing is scattered and reactive rather than strategic
It’s unclear if marketing is “working” or contributing to revenue
At this point, the best move is to hire a marketing leader, but $250K for a full-time executive isn’t in the budget. There are essentially two choices: a Fractional CMO and a Fractional Marketing Director.
In this article, I’ll break down the difference to help you decide which makes the most sense for your business.
Why Marketing Fails
Startups grow fast, and hire even faster. With so many newbies on the team, they are literally trying to figure it out what to do in real time, while learning the business and industry.
I started in that exact situation when I joined a tech startup. Revenue was growing 400%+ a year, R&D tripled, and the sales team went from one person to five. “Marketing” included a handful of activities - press releases, social media, website updates. It was founder-led, taped together by agencies and contractors. Without a strategy or any tracking, these activities felt like the right thing to do, but no one knew if there were contributing to revenue. Marketing was scattered, reactive, and likely a waste of money.
Many startups find themselves in this situation, and it goes unnoticed until growth becomes stagnant. At that point, every line item on the P&L gets scrutinized, and with no one accountable for marketing ROI, it’s hard to justify investment.
Hiring a Fractional Marketing Leader
Fractional are trendy right now. Why? Because you get a seasoned marketer, CFO, COO, CHRO, etc., for a price tag you can stomach. Small businesses usually don’t need someone full-time anyways, so in most cases a fractional becomes a high-leverage hire with decades of experience.
I’m going to focus on marketing fractionals, but they exist for every function.
Once you acknowledge your marketing needs a facelift, there are two types of fractional marketing leaders you can hire, a Fractional CMO and Fractional Marketing Director. They sound similar, but they’re not.
Both roles sit at the leadership table. Both own marketing goals and direction. The real difference? Who's actually in the trenches doing the work that drives revenue.
Here’s a quick way to think about it: A Fractional CMO leads the marketing department. A Fractional Marketing Director leads the day-to-day marketing.
For most startups and small businesses, the day-to-day leader makes the most sense.
Fractional CMO VS Marketing Director
A Fractional CMO focuses on high-level leadership. They think about long-term growth, connect marketing with executive priorities, manage budgets, and communicate with investors. (Basically, they're in a lot of meetings.) This kind of leadership works great when a company has at least 5 marketers, processes in place, and enough budget to test and scale.
In early-stage companies? Yeah, none of that exists yet. The result is a lot of planning and alignment, but limited execution.
I worked with a company that hired a Fractional CMO. She was talented, but the company only had two marketing managers to execute her vision, and they got completely overwhelmed trying to set up all the systems she needed (HubSpot, KPI dashboards, email automation - you get the picture).
What this company really needed was a Fractional Marketing Director. Someone who could both create and help execute the strategy.
A Fractional Marketing Director operates way closer to the ground. They still set strategy, but they're also involved in day-to-day operations. That means deciding what to prioritize, setting up systems, launching campaigns, and adjusting quickly when something isn't working.
Instead of handing off a plan, they stay accountable for results.
The Hands-Off Problem
There's this assumption that a fancier title automatically means better outcomes, but I've worked in marketing for 20 years and can tell you that’s not always true. Anyone can call themselves a fractional these days, but few have the experience with team leadership, strategic thinking, and execution. Personally, I love the mix between strategy and execution!
As leaders move into C-level roles, they naturally step further away from the day-to-day work. They're not expected to log into tools, troubleshoot campaigns, or rewrite messaging because their role wasn’t designed that way. And that distance is a real problem when you don't have a big team or budget to do the hands-on work.
Why the Director-Level Works
For most B2B companies under $15M, a Fractional Marketing Director is the best marketing hire you can make.
Strategy and execution live in the same place. There's less translation, fewer things fall through the cracks, and faster progress. You're not paying for leadership designed to manage a large team when that team doesn't exist yet.
A Marketing Director builds the foundation first. Once marketing is working and predictable, then you can decide whether it's time for a true C-level role.
I recently met with a small business owner who told me he was investing a ton in marketing, had a small team, but had no idea what was working. Yikes. (If you can't measure it, it's not worth doing.)
He needed someone to come in, audit his tactics, set up KPIs and dashboards, and ultimately tell him how to allocate his budget for the best ROI. That's where a Fractional Marketing Director really shines.
The Question You Should Be Asking
The real question you need to ask is what you need right now, based on your stage/revenue, marketing resources, and budget. If you need someone to build, prioritize, fix, or execute - a Fractional Marketing Director is the best choice.
Look, I could keep talking about this (and I will, probably to my dog later). But if you're sitting there thinking “Wait, which one am I supposed to hire?” - let's just talk. I promise to tell you what you actually need, even if it's not me. Email me at connect@elishaabatdorf.com and let's figure this out.
Elishaa Batdorf is a seasoned fractional marketing director who helps B2B startups scale by providing leadership, strategy and execution. With 20 years of experience, she builds scalable, AI-enabled marketing operations to drive revenue and profit.
