A fractional CMO who fixes the commercial engine, not the marketing plan
A fractional CMO is an experienced marketing director who works for you a few days a month on a retainer, rather than as a full-time hire. You get board-level commercial leadership for a fraction of the cost of a permanent CMO, and you can start in weeks rather than months.
I work with UK consumer, retail and private-equity-backed businesses turning over £30m to £500m. In most cases marketing has stopped delivering, and nobody round the board table can say why.
The problem you are trying to fix
Most people who call me open with one of three lines.
"Marketing is a black box." Money goes in every month. Nobody shows you what comes out. You do not have the specialist knowledge to challenge the answer.
"My team are doers, not thinkers." They run campaigns competently. They cannot set the direction, so you end up doing it yourself at the weekend.
"We want to sell in three to five years." You suspect the commercial data would not survive a buyer's due diligence. You would rather find that out now than in the data room.
None of these is a marketing problem. Each one is a commercial problem that happens to show up in the marketing budget.
What you get
You get a clear split between the spend that contributes to profit and the spend that does not. I call the second one lazy capital. Once you can see it, you can redeploy it.
At Majestic Wine that discipline helped take profit from £6m to £24m. At Wickes it quadrupled the engaged trade customer base and doubled the profit contribution per B2B customer. At Hamleys it supported a £70m sale to Reliance. The method is the same each time. Find the money you are losing, build the engine you are missing, then govern it so it keeps working without you.
Three ways to work with me
You do not need the same thing at £40m as you do at £300m. Pick the level of intensity that matches where you are.
| The Builder | The Co-pilot | The Advisor | |
| Best for | £30m to £80m turnover | £80m to £200m turnover | £200m turnover and above |
| My role | Fractional CMO | Strategic advisor | Board advisor or NED |
| What you get | A professional marketing function where you had a founder's instinct and a junior team | Unit economics you can defend to your CFO and your investors | Independent challenge and assurance on the numbers that reach your board |
| Time | 2 to 4 days a month | 1 to 2 days a month | 2 to 5 days a quarter |
| You talk to me as | Founder or CEO | CEO, CMO or PE operating partner | Chair or main board |
How it works
You get a defined objective and a shortlist of quick wins inside a month. Nothing here runs for a year before you see anything.
Roadmap - 2 to 4 weeks. We agree where you are and where you want to be. I get to know your numbers properly. I review your market and your competition. Then I meet the people who matter, to find where the alignment is and where it is not.
Playback - 4 to 6 weeks. You get a clear read on what makes you distinctive, how well you actually know your customer, and where the quick wins sit. We set the strategic priorities together in a working session, not in a slide deck I email over.
Support - 4 to 6 weeks. We turn the strategy into operational reality, working with your teams to make the change and to govern it.
Embed - 2 to 5 days a month. Ongoing leadership, governance and control. The things that matter keep reaching the top of the agenda, long after I have stopped being in the building every week.
Why not hire someone full time, or use an agency?
A full-time CMO in the UK averages around £116,000 in base salary, before bonus, pension and a recruiter's fee (Experteer, 2026). Recruitment takes four to six months. You commit before you know whether the strategy is right. You can have me in the business in weeks, and stop when the job is done.
An agency wants your media budget. That is a reasonable commercial position, but it means the advice is never neutral. I do not want your media spend, so I have no reason to tell you to increase it.
A large consultancy brings analysts and a methodology. It is slow, expensive, and the people who wrote the report leave before anything changes. I have carried the P&L and the operational responsibility myself, at Majestic, Wickes and Hamleys. I stay to make it work.
Talk to me first, decide later
The first conversation costs you nothing and commits you to nothing. Bring one problem you cannot get to the bottom of. If I am not the right person, I will tell you, and I will usually know someone who is.
Common questions
What is a fractional CMO?
A fractional CMO is a senior marketing leader who works for your business part time, on an ongoing retainer, instead of as a permanent employee. Typically it is two to four days a month. You get the experience of a chief marketing officer without the salary, the notice period, or the recruitment lead time.
What does a fractional CMO actually do?
A fractional CMO sets the commercial direction for marketing and holds the function to account. That means agreeing the objective, separating the spend that pays from the spend that does not, fixing the team and the systems, and reporting to the board in language the board understands. It is leadership, not campaign delivery.
How much does a fractional CMO cost in the UK?
UK fractional CMO fees usually run between £1,000 and £2,000 a day, charged as a monthly retainer for an agreed number of days. Most engagements land between two and four days a month. I will give you a fixed monthly fee after the first conversation, so you know the full cost before you commit.
When should you hire a fractional CMO?
Hire one when marketing has outgrown the founder but cannot yet justify a full-time CMO. The usual triggers are a growth ceiling around £30m to £40m, new private equity investment that raises the reporting bar, a flat year nobody can explain, or a planned sale in three to five years.
How is a fractional CMO different from a consultant?
A consultant diagnoses and hands you a report. A fractional CMO takes the decision, owns the outcome and sits in your management meetings. You get accountability rather than advice. The practical test is simple. A consultant leaves once the report lands. A fractional CMO leaves once the engine runs.
What is the difference between a fractional CMO and a non-executive director?
A fractional CMO is executive. They run something and are accountable for the result. A non-executive director is not executive. They govern, challenge and protect the shareholders' interest from the board table. I do both, but never for the same business at the same time, because the two roles need different independence.
Is a fractional CMO inside or outside IR35?
Under the off-payroll working rules, IR35 status is determined by the client. Medium and large private-sector clients are responsible for assessing each engagement and recording the determination. I confirm IR35 status with every client at the start of an engagement, so the position is agreed before any work begins.