Services · Tempe, AZ
Fractional Marketing Director in Tempe, AZ
Home to Arizona State University, with a young workforce, an active startup scene, and established employers built around that talent pipeline.
Services · Tempe, AZ
Home to Arizona State University, with a young workforce, an active startup scene, and established employers built around that talent pipeline.
The Tempe landscape
Tempe's economy is shaped by Arizona State University: a young, high-turnover workforce, an active startup and small-business scene, and established employers that draw on that talent pipeline. Companies here often move fast and experiment constantly, which produces a lot of activity but rarely a coherent strategy behind it. The gap is usually leadership, not effort: someone senior enough to turn constant experimentation into a plan that compounds instead of resetting every quarter.
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 it's for
Who it's not for
FAQ
Established Tempe businesses, usually $5M to $50M in revenue, that already run significant activity but need senior leadership to turn that activity into a consistent, accountable strategy.
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.
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