Fractional Marketing Support for B2B Startups

Get senior marketing leadership, without the full-time hire.

Your business is growing, you've got a product that works, and customers who want it. But marketing is being held together by a founder who's already stretched thin, or a small team producing activity without a clear strategy behind it.

When you’re spending budget - and a lot of time and effort - on creating and launching campaigns, you need the commercial thinking that ties it all together. Publishing good content is one thing, but you need strategic marketing direction to get leads, pipeline and growth moving the way they should.

Let's talk
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What does a fractional Marketing Director or CMO actually do?

A Fractional Marketing Director or CMO works inside your business for the days you need, at the level you need. When you reach the point where you need someone to take responsibility for marketing, but you’re not yet ready for a full-time senior hire, that’s where fractional marketing support can help.

This isn’t a case of just dropping in to write a strategy document and disappear, but rather bringing someone on board to understand your business, own the strategic direction, and make sure everything you're doing in marketing is working towards the same commercial goal.

For early-stage and small B2B businesses, it's often the most effective way to get senior marketing leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

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Ring a bell?

  • Marketing is happening, but it's not generating the leads or pipeline you need

  • There's no clear strategy connecting your activity to your growth goals

  • Sales and marketing aren't seeing eye to eye, and everyone has a different view of the problem

  • Agencies or team members are doing things, but nobody's really driving the direction

  • You know you need senior marketing leadership, but a full-time hire feels too soon

If you’re going round in circles and wondering how things are going to come together, a fractional marketing lead could be the answer.

Let's Talk
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Recent clients

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What changes when you bring me in.

Everything I do follows the same process: Diagnosis, Strategy, Tactics - understanding what's actually happening and where we want to get to, before mapping out how we’ll get there. It's the same, structured approach behind Foundations Build, and it applies with ongoing support too.

Starting from scratch? We typically begin with Foundations Build - a focused six weeks getting your audience, positioning and messaging right - before moving into ongoing support.

Already have a strategy in place? I can pick up wherever needs the most senior attention and support with execution, whether that’s briefing and managing others, advising on specific projects, or rolling up my sleeves with content creation.

Either way, on an ongoing basis I work as part of your team: bringing strategic direction to your marketing, making sure your agencies and team have clear briefs to work from, and keeping everything pointed at growth rather than just activity.

Ongoing support typically runs at one or two days per week, depending on what your business needs. It's flexible by design; as your business grows and your needs change, we adapt accordingly.

Let's Talk

Before becoming a B2B marketing consultant, I spent 10 years leading marketing at a tech startup. Not just observing from an agency, but actually in the business - the same tight budgets and the same small team wearing many, many hats.

I know what it's like to be the entire marketing function. To go up against competitors with reputations and budgets you can't match, and have to win on being better, not bigger. To need marketing that translates a complex product into something a customer actually understands.

I helped grow that startup from its earliest days into a multimillion-pound business, building the brand, winning blue-chip clients, and leading marketing strategy through big periods of change. Not through big budgets, but through getting the fundamentals right and knowing where the real leverage was.

That's the experience behind the direction I bring as your fractional lead; what actually works, learned the hard way, in the same seat you're in now.

As a fractional marketing lead, I work with a small number of clients at a time. This means you and your team get proper attention, not just a name on a roster.

Why me?

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"Mel is highly organised, insightful, and a strong critical thinker, with a real ability to collaborate on strategy and turn it into clear, effective marketing. She’s dependable, thoughtful, and a pleasure to work with, and I would not hesitate to recommend her."

- Adam Castleton, CEO at Startle

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Have questions?

If you’re a start-up or scale-up that needs strategic direction and senior-level thinking without the cost of a full-time hire, you’re in the right place!

Bringing someone new in can feel like a big risk. If you think you could benefit from my support, whether through a Foundations Build or ongoing support, let’s book in a call to talk it through.

mel@mf-marketing.co.uk