Services
Fractional Marketing Director Services
Senior, hands-on marketing department leadership that gets execution moving — without the full-time marketing director cost.
Services
Senior, hands-on marketing department leadership that gets execution moving — without the full-time marketing director cost.
A fractional marketing director is a part-time marketing leader who sets strategy and directly manages execution — your team, agencies, freelancers, campaigns, and reporting — for a set number of hours each month. SumoLab's version gives $5M–$50M companies an experienced marketing department leader without the cost, delay, or risk of a full-time hire.
The situation
You have marketing activity — an agency, a coordinator, maybe both — but no one running the function. Campaigns launch late, vendors wait on decisions, and every priority call still lands on the founder's desk. The work is happening; the management of the work is the bottleneck.
Common symptoms
What's included
Someone who joins your operating rhythm — weekly standups, campaign calendars, budget reviews — and runs the marketing department the way an employee would, on part-time hours.
Agencies, freelancers, and in-house staff pulling in one direction, with deadlines enforced, quality checked before anything ships, and no more work stalling while it waits on a decision.
Documented processes, campaign templates, and reporting dashboards your team keeps using — the machinery of a real marketing department, built to run without me.
How it works
Start with an audit of the marketing function: team, vendors, tools, calendar, and pipeline.
Rebuild the operating rhythm — priorities, owners, and deadlines — in the first 30 days.
Run the department week to week: campaigns, budgets, reviews, and course corrections.
Hand off a documented system, or scale hours to match the season.
Outcomes
Who hires a fractional marketing director
Who it's not for
FAQ
A full-time marketing director often costs $120,000–$200,000 per year once salary, benefits, bonuses, and overhead are included. The fractional model gives you the same senior leadership part-time, at a fraction of that cost, with no long-term contract and the flexibility to scale hours as needs change.
An agency executes campaigns. A fractional marketing director sets the strategy, coordinates everyone executing it, including your agencies, and is accountable for the outcome.
Both operate under the same fractional model. A fractional marketing director typically works closer to the operational side of marketing, guiding strategy but also overseeing execution, systems, and day-to-day marketing. A fractional CMO usually works at a higher strategic level involved with board discussions and long-term brand strategy.
Yes. Many companies use an outsourced marketing director engagement to build the function and clarify what a full-time hire should own before making that investment.
Established businesses generating $5M–$50M in annual revenue that already have marketing in motion — a team, an agency, or both — and need someone senior running it day to day.
Service areas