A fractional CMO who ships, not just advises.

The first marketing hire is a gamble most SMEs lose

Every growing B2B SME hits the same wall. You know you need marketing, but the first hire is a catch-22. Do you bring in someone commercial and sales-led, or someone marketing-led? It is rare to find the one person who does both strategy and execution well. So you either pay a premium for a senior strategic operator who burns through your runway, or you gamble on a cheaper generalist who is strong at one thing and has to learn the rest on the job. Get it wrong and it is a year gone with little to show for it.

A fractional CMO removes that gamble. You get a senior operator from day one, part-time, at a fraction of the cost, with none of the notice period or hiring risk.

What a fractional CMO actually does

A fractional CMO, also called a part-time CMO, an outsourced CMO or a fractional marketing director, gives you senior marketing direction and execution on a monthly retainer. That means the strategy and positioning, the go-to-market plan, the website, and the sales tools that convert, without the cost, risk or notice period of a full-time hire. You scale the time up or down month to month as the work demands.

Fractional CMO or fractional marketing director?

Both, and it matters less than the job titles suggest. CMO is the American word; marketing director is what most UK org charts actually say. A fractional marketing director and a fractional CMO are the same arrangement, a senior marketing leader on a part-time retainer instead of a full-time hire. If there is a real shade of difference, it is emphasis: people say fractional CMO when they want someone to set the commercial strategy, and fractional marketing director when they want someone to run the plan week to week. For a B2B SME those are not two jobs, they are one, and splitting them is how the strategy ends up in a drawer. So use whichever title your board is comfortable with. The work is the same.

Fractional CMO vs a full-time hire

A full-time CMO in the UK costs six figures, plus National Insurance, pension and often equity, and if the hire is wrong you lose a year and the money. Fractional marketing flips that. You pay a monthly retainer, you get a senior operator from the first week, and you can dial the commitment up or down as you grow. For a startup or an SME finding its commercial feet, that is a far better trade than betting a year of runway on a single job spec.

A fractional CMO who ships

Most marketing consultants hand you a strategy deck and leave you to find someone to build it. Disposition works the other way. The fractional CMO here sets the direction and then builds the work: website changes, pitch and sales decks, the go-to-market plan, and the sales tools that turn interest into signed deals. And it is held to numbers, website flow, demo downloads, sales-cycle length, so you can see the return rather than take it on faith. The fee is capped, so a fractional CMO never costs you more than the cheapest full-time marketing hire you could legally make. The value proposition is simple: more delivered in year one than a first hire, for less than a first hire.

Fractional CMO for startups and health-tech

This is built for B2B SMEs, and especially for UK health-tech vendors selling into the NHS, where the sale is low-volume and high-stakes, won in one room with a few people who have to say yes. Most marketing tools and generalist hires are built for B2C scale, optimising thousands of clicks. That is the opposite of what you need. A fractional CMO who understands long, high-value sales cycles will get your value through to the few people who actually sign.

What does a fractional CMO cost?

Less than a full-time hire, always, because that is the whole point. The retainer is set to the days you need, and capped so it cannot run past the cost of an entry-level marketer. You can see how it fits alongside the brand, website and Throughline work on the pricing page.