Why a fresh perspective on your marketing can help you make better decisions about strategy, budgets and resources as your business grows.
As businesses grow, their marketing requirements become more complex. What may have started with referrals, personal relationships and activity managed by the founder or sales team often needs greater structure as the business looks to expand.
Generating a more consistent flow of enquiries, reaching new markets and building brand awareness all require investment, but knowing where to focus that investment isn't always straightforward. Without a clear marketing strategy, it's easy to commit time and budget to individual activities without fully understanding how they'll contribute to the wider business objectives.
At this stage, it's common for business owners to start thinking about recruitment. Bringing in a Marketing Manager or Marketing Director feels like a logical next step, particularly when marketing has previously been managed alongside other responsibilities.
However, before committing to a permanent hire, it's worth understanding what the business actually needs. For many SMEs, bringing in experienced marketing support on a fractional or contract basis can be an effective way to establish a strategy, identify priorities and put the right resources in place.
Understanding what your business actually needs
One of the challenges I often see with growing businesses is that decisions about marketing resources are made before there's a clear understanding of what those resources need to deliver.
A business might decide it needs a Marketing Manager because there's nobody internally taking ownership of marketing. Another might appoint an SEO agency because its website isn't generating enough enquiries. Both could be perfectly sensible decisions, but without a broader strategy, it's difficult to know if they'll address the underlying challenges.
Before making those investments, there are some important questions to consider:
What are the business's commercial objectives over the next 12 to 24 months?
Which customers and markets offer the greatest opportunities for growth?
How effectively is current marketing activity supporting sales?
What marketing budget is realistic for the business?
Which skills and resources are needed to deliver the plan?
Answering these questions provides a much stronger foundation for deciding how marketing should be structured.
It also helps avoid a common situation where businesses recruit someone into a broad marketing role, only to discover that the expectations are unrealistic or the skills required are quite different from those originally anticipated.
What is fractional marketing support?
Fractional marketing support gives businesses access to experienced senior marketing expertise without employing someone in a full-time permanent role.
Typically, this involves working with a marketing consultant or fractional Marketing Director for an agreed number of days each month or over a defined period. The scope can be tailored to the needs of the business and may evolve as priorities change.
For some businesses, the immediate requirement is to develop a marketing strategy and establish a realistic plan for delivering it. Others may already have marketing activity underway but need experienced leadership to bring greater focus, improve performance or manage a growing team and external suppliers.
The value lies in having someone with the experience to look at marketing in the context of the wider business, make informed recommendations and help turn those recommendations into a practical plan.
Five reasons fractional marketing support can work well for growing SMEs
01. Establishing a clear marketing strategy
As businesses grow, marketing activity often develops organically without someone stopping to ask whether the direction meets the needs of the business or its target market. A website is created, social media channels are established, campaigns are introduced and different suppliers become involved as new requirements emerge.
Over time, this can result in a considerable amount of activity without a clearly defined strategy connecting everything to the business's commercial objectives.
An experienced marketing consultant can review what's already happening, identify opportunities for improvement and establish a more focused approach. This might involve reviewing the customer proposition, assessing current channels, understanding how leads are generated and converted, or identifying areas where marketing investment could deliver greater value.
The objective is to make sure future activity is informed by a clear understanding of the business, its customers and its growth ambitions.
02. Defining the right marketing team and resources
Recruitment is often one of the first things businesses consider when they want to develop their marketing capability, but the right team structure isn't always immediately obvious.
For example, a growing SME might benefit from having a Marketing Manager internally to coordinate activity and work closely with sales, supported by external specialists for more technical or creative requirements.
Another business might have a capable Marketing Executive who is managing day-to-day activity but needs senior guidance to develop the strategy, establish priorities and make decisions about investment.
In some cases, the business may not need a permanent marketing hire immediately.
Part of my work with SMEs involves helping them understand which skills they need, how much capacity is required and where those resources should sit. This includes considering existing team members, potential new roles and opportunities to work with external partners.
Getting this right can make a significant difference to both marketing performance and the overall cost of delivery.
03. Making better use of specialist agencies
Marketing now covers a broad range of disciplines, many of which require specialist knowledge and experience. SEO, paid media, website development, video production, design and marketing automation are all areas where external expertise can be valuable. For most SMEs, employing dedicated specialists across every discipline wouldn't be commercially practical.
Outsourcing can provide access to the right skills when they're needed, but it's important that agency activity is guided by a clear strategy and managed effectively.
I've worked both within businesses and on the agency side, so I understand the importance of having well-defined objectives, clear briefs and realistic expectations. A fractional marketing lead can help identify where specialist support will add value, select appropriate partners and manage their work as part of the wider marketing plan.
This gives businesses greater control over their investment and helps ensure that different suppliers are contributing to shared objectives.
04. Building a realistic marketing budget
Marketing budgets can be difficult to define, particularly for businesses that haven't previously had a dedicated marketing function.
Some businesses work with a fixed amount based on what they've spent historically, while others approve expenditure as individual requirements arise. This can make it difficult to prioritise activity or assess whether the overall investment is appropriate.
A more structured approach starts with understanding the business's objectives and the marketing activity required to support them. From there, it's possible to consider the cost of internal resources, external agencies, technology, content production and campaigns, alongside any one-off projects that may be needed.
An important part of this process is recognising that not everything needs to happen immediately. A phased plan allows businesses to prioritise the activity most likely to have an impact, while building their marketing capability over time.
Having an experienced marketing professional involved in these decisions can help ensure budgets are realistic and resources are allocated effectively.
05. Accessing senior experience with greater flexibility
Recruiting a senior marketing leader is a significant investment, particularly for an SME that is still developing its marketing function. Alongside salary and employment costs, there's the time involved in recruitment and the commitment associated with creating a permanent senior role.
For some businesses, there simply isn't enough ongoing strategic work to justify a full-time Marketing Director. They may need intensive support initially to establish a strategy and put the right structure in place, followed by a lower level of involvement once the team is operating effectively.
A fractional or contract arrangement allows the level of support to reflect the needs of the business at that particular stage. It can also be useful during periods of change, such as entering a new market, preparing for expansion, restructuring a team or recruiting into a new marketing role.
How to decide what marketing support your business needs
Before making a recruitment decision or appointing an agency, it helps to separate your marketing requirements into three areas.
01. Strategic leadership
This involves setting the overall marketing direction, identifying priorities, establishing budgets and making sure marketing supports the commercial objectives of the business.
If you don't have a clear marketing strategy, aren't confident about where to invest or need someone to help shape the marketing function, senior strategic support is likely to be valuable.
Depending on the size and complexity of your business, this could be provided by a fractional Marketing Director or a permanent senior appointment.
02. Day-to-day marketing management
Once the strategy is established, someone needs to take responsibility for coordinating activity and keeping the plan moving. This might include managing campaigns, creating content, coordinating agencies, maintaining the website and working with sales teams.
If the direction is clear but marketing activity isn't being delivered consistently, a Marketing Manager or Marketing Executive may be the most useful addition to your team.
03. Specialist marketing delivery
Some activities require specific technical or creative expertise that may not be needed on a full-time basis.
SEO, paid advertising, video production, website development and design are common examples.
Specialist agencies or freelancers can provide these skills, particularly when they have a clear brief and someone within the business who can oversee their work.
For many SMEs, the most effective marketing structure combines these three areas, with the level of internal and external support determined by the available budget and business priorities.
When does a full-time marketing hire make more sense?
There are situations where a permanent marketing appointment is the right decision. A business with a substantial marketing operation, multiple internal teams and a consistent requirement for senior leadership may benefit from having a full-time Marketing Director who is closely involved in the organisation.
Similarly, a business with an established strategy and clear priorities may need additional capacity to manage and deliver marketing activity. In that situation, recruiting a Marketing Manager or Executive could be more appropriate than bringing in further strategic support.
It's worth being realistic about the level of experience required and what can reasonably be expected from one person. Marketing leadership, management and specialist delivery involve different responsibilities, even though there will inevitably be some overlap in smaller organisations.
The aim should be to develop a structure that supports the business's ambitions and can evolve as its requirements change.
Why it can make sense to start with a strategy
If you're considering investing more heavily in marketing, I would always recommend assessing your current position before making significant commitments. A strategic review can help establish what's working, where the opportunities lie and what needs to change to support the next stage of growth.
It also provides an opportunity to look objectively at the resources already available within the business. You may have team members who could take on greater responsibility with the right support. There may be opportunities to improve the way existing agencies are managed, or gaps in specialist skills that need addressing.
Once the strategy and priorities are clear, it becomes much easier to define the budget, identify the resources required and establish a realistic plan for implementation.
This is particularly valuable for businesses making their first significant investment in marketing, as the decisions made at this stage can influence how the function develops over the coming years.
How I support growing businesses
Having worked in senior marketing roles within businesses and on the agency side, I've seen how important it is to connect marketing strategy with the practical realities of delivery.
I work with SMEs to help them develop a clear direction for their marketing and understand what will be needed to put their plans into action.
This often starts with reviewing the current position, understanding the commercial objectives and identifying where marketing can make the greatest contribution. From there, I help businesses develop their strategy, establish budgets and make informed decisions about the people, skills and external support they'll need.
That might involve defining new marketing roles, supporting recruitment, identifying specialist agencies or providing ongoing senior marketing guidance as the business grows.
I also recognise that SMEs need practical, achievable plans that take account of the time, budget and resources available. There's little value in developing an ambitious marketing strategy if the business doesn't have the means to deliver it.
My focus is on helping businesses see the bigger picture, make confident marketing decisions and establish an approach that can develop alongside their ambitions.
Getting the right marketing support for your next stage of growth
If your business has reached the point where marketing needs more structure, getting an experienced, independent perspective can be a valuable first step.
Taking the time to understand your priorities, budget and resource requirements will help you make better decisions about how to develop your marketing capability.
If you'd like to discuss how to develop your marketing strategy and put the right support in place, get in touch and let's have a conversation.
