Fractional CMO or a marketing director?
The short answer: a fractional CMO brings the judgement for part of a week; a marketing director brings something different that is often confused with it. Here is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, and when to pick the other one.
What a marketing director actually is
A full-time hire running marketing five days a week, usually building and managing the team as they go.
What each one owns
| A fractional CMO | A marketing director |
|---|---|
| Positioning, and whether the market understands what you sell | Everything above, plus running it daily |
| Where the budget goes, and what it is expected to return | Managing a marketing team, including the difficult conversations |
| The channel strategy, and killing the channels that do not work | Campaign delivery week in, week out |
| Hiring the marketing team, and knowing what good looks like | Continuity across a long brand or demand programme |
What neither of them does
Neither is a content team or a media buyer. A senior marketing seat decides the strategy and hires the execution, and a company with no execution capacity gets a strategy nobody runs.
How each one fails
The fractional CMO: Being asked to execute campaigns personally, which is a senior day rate spent on work a specialist would do better and cheaper.
A marketing director: Hiring five days of senior marketing when the company has one product, one channel and no team, which buys availability rather than output.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional CMO charges £700 to £1,300 a day, and most engagements run one to three days a week. Salary plus employer National Insurance, pension and a recruitment fee, which in year one is meaningfully more than the salary alone. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick a marketing director when
- There is already a marketing team that needs managing every day
- Marketing is the main commercial engine and genuinely fills a week
- You need one person accountable for delivery, not just direction
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
Rarely at the same time. The usual path is a fractional CMO who sets the strategy and hires the director who then runs it.
Common questions
Is a fractional CMO cheaper than a marketing director?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional CMO runs £700 to £1,300 a day, most often one to three days a week. Salary plus employer National Insurance, pension and a recruitment fee, which in year one is meaningfully more than the salary alone. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When should I pick a marketing director instead?
There is already a marketing team that needs managing every day Marketing is the main commercial engine and genuinely fills a week You need one person accountable for delivery, not just direction
Can I have both?
Rarely at the same time. The usual path is a fractional CMO who sets the strategy and hires the director who then runs it.