Marketing has many essential functions in a growth-focused organisation: feeding quality leads into the sales pipeline, protecting profit margins, supporting customer retention and building long-term brand value. It often has to achieve all these objectives with smaller teams and tighter budgets than ever before.
That’s why more and more business leaders are finding value in fractional marketing leadership: executive level marketing leadership delivered part-time, without the cost, constraints and long-term commitment of a permanent hire.
But is hiring a fractional chief marketing officer (CMO) actually better than hiring a full-time CMO?
This article will help you compare fractional vs. traditional recruitment, understand what’s driving the shift and find out why so many growing businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the UK are choosing to go the fractional CMO route.
What is fractional marketing leadership?
Fractional marketing leadership means bringing in a senior leader such as a fractional CMO or part-time marketing director for a set number of days per month or week, depending on the needs of the business.
The Marketing Centre defines a fractional CMO as an outsourced senior marketing leader providing strategic leadership without the full-time cost and commitment of a permanent CMO hire.
Unlike a marketing freelancer, who would be typically hired to deliver specific outputs, or a marketing agency, which typically delivers channel execution, a fractional CMO is brought in to provide executive marketing leadership in terms of strategic direction, decision-making, accountability and the alignment of marketing outcomes with overall business goals. A fractional CMO can also manage budgets, align internal teams such as sales and marketing, and ensure performance is measured against meaningful KPIs instead of vanity metrics.
Read more:
What does a fractional CMO do?
The challenges of traditional CMO recruitment
Hiring a full-time CMO can be the right move for some organisations, but for many SMEs it introduces unnecessary costs and risks. Here are some of the most common drawbacks:
1. High total cost
Salary is only part of the equation once you factor in employer costs, benefits, recruitment fees and onboarding time.
2. Slow time to impact
Executive hiring cycles can take months while marketing still needs leadership and decisions still need to be made.
3. Long-term commitment
A permanent hire can’t be scaled up or down as business conditions change.
4. Mis-hire risk
Marketing leadership is notoriously difficult to hire right the first time because of varying factors such as industry background, growth stage experience and culture fit.
5. No need for a full-time CMO
Many SMEs don’t need a CMO five days a week. They do need senior thinking and leadership at key moments, but this probably doesn’t require adding a full executive salary to your overheads.
Fractional vs. traditional recruitment: what are the differences?
Perhaps the simplest way to compare the main differences between fractional and traditional CMO recruitment is a side-by-side comparison.
|
Traditional full-time CMO recruitment |
Fractional CMO / part-time marketing director |
|
Permanent employee, full time role |
Contracted, part-time executive marketing leadership |
|
Longer hiring process and notice periods |
Faster to engage and onboard |
|
Fixed cost base (salary and benefits plus employment costs) |
Cost aligned to the time you actually need |
|
Harder to adjust resource when needs change |
Flexible, scalable commitment |
|
Marketing leadership tied to one individual’s experience |
Broader cross-industry experience and option to access multiple experts |
Are more businesses choosing fractional CMOs?
While “fractional CMO” is still an unfamiliar term for many, there has been a broader shift towards part time and interim roles for executive level resourcing. A 2024 global survey by Business Talent Group found a 23% annual increase in the need for experienced interim leaders overall, while Fortune 100 companies reported a 117% increase in the use of C-suite interim leaders since 2022.
In the UK, the Department for Business and Trade’s 2024 Small Business Survey showed that 62% of mid-sized businesses found staff recruitment and skills to be a key obstacle to business success, with more SMEs decreasing their numbers of permanent employees than increasing them due to increasing headwinds on businesses such as tax pressures, stubborn inflation and geopolitical uncertainty. This is corroborated by the Scaleup Institute’s Annual Review 2025, which indicates one of the top barriers that hold UK scaleup businesses back was difficulty accessing talent and strategic leadership (55% of respondents).
SMEs in the UK are now increasingly turning to fractional marketing leaders as an effective solution to gain access to senior marketing talent who can deliver real change, impact and growth quickly.
Put simply, as SMEs become more cost conscious and growth targets become harder to hit, more leaders are choosing to “right-size” senior roles. This means buying the right level of expertise and leadership needed for the right amount of time.
Read more: 7 signs it’s time to hire a fractional CMO
Why hire a fractional CMO?
Below are some of the core benefits businesses look for when choosing fractional marketing support, and why it is a compelling alternative to hiring a full-time CMO.
1. Time and cost savings
Fractional CMOs can deliver significant savings because you’re not paying for full-time capacity when you don’t need it. This way, you avoid many of the costs associated with permanent recruitment and employment overheads. It also reduces the risk of hiring someone who’s not the right fit for the job by bringing in an experienced leader who has solved similar growth challenges before.
2. No long contracts or employment commitments
One of the biggest advantages of a fractional CMO for SMEs is the flexibility aspect. With a provider like The Marketing Centre, you’ll have no long-term commitment and the ability to choose from a range of different experts. That makes it easier to manage risk – especially if your business is facing an unpredictable growth phase.
3. Immediate start, rapid impact
Fractional leaders are typically used to stepping into new environments quickly, diagnosing what’s not working effectively and setting strategic priorities. This is why interim and flexible leadership markets are growing: businesses often can’t wait months for a permanent hire before making important decisions.
4. A fresh, objective perspective
A fractional CMO brings in an outsider’s view that’s less attached to legacy assumptions and more able to challenge those “this is the way we’ve always done it” cultural views. This objectivity allows them to guide the leadership and their teams to make more informed decisions and focus on what really drives return on investment.
5. Lower risk, higher agility
Because engaging a fractional CMO is flexible and usually on a part time or interim basis, the model reduces the risk of an expensive mis-hire and makes it easier for businesses to pivot as priorities and needs change. It’s a practical response to a more cautious business outlook among SMEs around recruitment and growth planning.
6. Experience that’s hard to find in a full-time hire
Many SMEs struggle to attract senior talent that has the experience they need to transition them through the next growth stage. At the CMO level, many professionals prefer to work more flexibly than in full-time roles. Fractional CMOs can bring that breadth of experience, plus pattern recognition and wider sector knowledge from previous contracts, which can be invaluable when businesses are entering a new phase of growth or experiencing challenges that require a step up from marketing results.
Read more: Benefits of a fractional CMO
What’s the best way to look for a fractional CMO?
If you’re considering hiring a fractional CMO, the “how” really matters. There are probably countless individuals and recruiters out there claiming to offer fractional CMO services, but not all will provide true executive-level leadership, and not all will be properly vetted for an SME or specific sector fit.
This is why many businesses choose to work with The Marketing Centre:
We are the UK’s leading provider of fractional CMOs
Since 2011, we’ve helped over 1,400 SMEs drive measurable growth through our network of 100+ proven marketing leaders across the UK. We think that speaks for itself.
A tried and tested, results-driven approach
We use proven frameworks and over 1,800 years of collective experience to translate business goals into marketing outcomes linked to ROI, lead generation, sales and business growth, rather than performing directionless activities merely for the sake of activity.
The right match for you
One common risk with hiring an independent fractional CMO is finding the right fit for your business. The Marketing Centre removes the guesswork through its rigorous selection process and matching fractional marketing leaders with businesses based on skills, experience and finding the right chemistry with SME leaders.
Embedded, not outsourced
With our approach, your fractional CMO becomes an integral part of your leadership team, not just contributing valuable perspectives but also guiding you towards industry best practices. By collaborating with existing in-house marketers, mentoring internal teams and leaders, they bring leadership and accountability that freelancers and agencies simply can’t offer as external suppliers.
A catalyst for strategic leadership
A strong fractional leader isn’t a replacement for anyone in your existing marketing team; they help raise the standards and can even mentor and train promising individuals to achieve better results and ways of working.
The Marketing Centre – your trusted partner for fractional marketing leadership
So, is fractional marketing leadership better than hiring a full time CMO?
For many UK SMEs, the answer is a clear yes. Fractional models combine executive marketing leadership with the flexibility, affordability and speed that modern, agile businesses need to grow at scale. If you’ve wondered how to access senior fractional marketing expertise that drives impact without the fuss and uncertainty of a full-time hire, The Marketing Centre is your partner with a proven track record of getting measurable results, trusted by hundreds of business leaders like you.
If you’re exploring alternatives to hiring a full-time CMO, speak to us today. We’ll help you understand what “good” looks like and match you with the right fractional CMO that fits your needs and growth goals.
