What is a Fractional Marketing Director?
A lot of founder-led businesses hit this point where they need marketing support but have no idea who to hire. Should you bring a marketing specialist? Pay for an agency?
Before you decide, consider this scenario. I was the only marketer at a small company that was growing fast. I was drowning in pitch decks, one-pagers, social posts, and about seventeen other things that needed to be done ASAP.
So I asked for a marketing specialist, and my boss said yes. Finally, someone to take stuff off my plate.
But, instead of getting my time back, I spent hours every week explaining what needed to be done, why it needed to be done that way, and reviewing work than made me say “meh”. It took over six months before my workload actually eased up. I was burning out, and I realized I should have hired someone who already knew what to do.
If you're nodding along right now, this article is for you. There’s another option that actually works for startups and small businesses: a Fractional Marketing Director.
A senior marketing leader with eons of experience, who can help execute the plan
A Fractional Marketing Director is a senior marketing leader who works with your company part-time to develop and execute your marketing strategy. Not a consultant who drops advice and disappears. Not an agency that only does what you tell them to. Someone who builds the plan, runs the campaigns, manages your team, and costs about a third of a full-time executive.
They think strategically about where your revenue comes from, then embed themselves in your business to help you hit your goals.
They audit, prioritize, execute, and cut what doesn't drive revenue
I can’t speak for all Fractional Marketing Directors, but here’s what the first few months should look like after you ink the agreement:
Weeks 1-2: Audit your marketing
Your fractional leader will look at your goals, numbers, and what marketing is doing today. So many businesses spend money on the wrong things. They think they have to be everywhere at once: LinkedIn, google ads, cold emails, trade shows etc. I could go on and on (but I won’t because your time is valuable). If you’re not clear on what’s contributing to revenue, it’s usually because no one is tracking results. An audit uncovers the 2-3 channels that contribute 80% of marketing-generated revenue.
Weeks 3-4: Set strategy and priorities tied to revenue goals
Following an audit, a Fractional Marketing Director will develop your marketing strategy. Think of this as your foundation, the long-term plan to reach potential customers, promote products/services, and achieve business goals. This usually means defining your target audience, value proposition, and marketing channels.
Then, and only then, can quarterly objectives and deliverables be established. Hint: Keep it to 5 or less so your team can stay focused on the biggest revenue opportunities.
Months 2-3: They build and run campaigns
From the strategy and priorities comes the campaigns. A campaign is like a big project, filled with lots of smaller projects. The goal is to promote your brand, product, or service to achieve specific business goals like increasing sales or acquiring new customers.
A good Fractional Marketing Director is there to help your team execute. No marketing team? They do the work themselves. They also build dashboards, processes and KPIs to support efficiency and analytics.
Month 4+: Analyze and measure results
During a campaign, your Fractional Marketing Director will monitor results. They may adjust the campaign strategy, update underperforming ads, or kill the campaign all together if it’s a dud. Not everything works; you need a test-and-learn mentality to get better results.
When the campaign wraps, they’ll dig into the results, identify what worked best, and put that into the vault so they can optimize the next initiative.
Story time. I was working with a company that shall remain nameless. The founder really wanted to do a a campaign that I coined “buy now, try for 30 days, and return if you don’t love it”. Rolls off the tongue. NO ONE EXCEPT HIM THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA. It was ridiculously difficult to set up, complex to execute, and required a lot of manual touches. The results: One person signed up. One.
Lessons learned:
Founders have a lot of ideas that they are excited about
They are not always good
Learn to say no
If you have to do it anyway, at least you can say “I told you so” (just kidding)
When You're Growing But Don't Know How to Scale Marketing
You need fractional leadership if any of this is true:
You’re the founder and the person responsible for marketing
People are buying from you, but you don't know how to find more of them
Your revenue is between $2M and $15M, and you need someone who understands growth without a million dollar budget
You keep trying new things, but you’re not sure if they’re increasing sales
A Fractional Marketing Director Costs $8K-$12K Per Month
The cost of a Fractional Marketing Director can vary significantly. It’s based on experience and scope, but you're typically looking at a monthly retainer between $8,000 and $12,000. That's roughly a third of what a full-time hire costs when you factor in salary, benefits, and equity.
For that, you usually get 10-12 hours a week of focused work from someone who's done this before at companies bigger than yours.
Word of warning: if you find a cheap Fractional Marketing Director, buyer beware. Lots of people are calling themselves fractional these days, and many have <5 years of experience. You’d be better off hiring a marketing manager than wasting time and money with someone that’s never done strategy work.
Most Engagements Last 6-18 Months, Then You Hire Full-Time
The goal isn't to create dependency. A good fractional leader establishes your marketing foundation, builds systems that work, and then helps you hire a full-time manager who can run it without you.
Think of it as a relationship - you enjoy each others company, you care about how your partner is doing, but you’re not ready for marriage. It’s a mutually beneficial arrangement that makes sense for you now, but as you grow, your needs will as well.
You Need Someone Who Knows What to Do and Will Actually Do It
Ok, I’ll tell you what your business needs in a minute, but I’m going to start with what you don’t need. Someone fresh out of school that charges $25 an hour. They’re awesome at Twitter and Instagram, but don’t have much business experience. Do you have 5-10 hours a week to tell them what to do? Unlikely. You need someone who knows what needs to happen, can explain why it matters for your revenue, and will actually do it.
That's what a Fractional Marketing Director does. Senior-level thinking plus hands-on mentality to make sure things get done. Does this resonate with you? If so, we should talk. I’ll help you figure out the best hire for where you’re at today, even if it’s not me. You can schedule time on my calendar here.
Elishaa Batdorf is a seasoned fractional marketing director who helps B2B startups and small businesses scale by providing leadership, strategy and execution. With 20 years of experience, she builds scalable, AI-enabled marketing operations to drive revenue and profit.
