Fractional CMO vs Outsourced Marketing: What’s Included

Most owners looking at fractional CMOs start in the same place. Marketing has become too important to squeeze into evenings, and hiring a full-time marketing director feels like a big leap. Paying for senior help a few days a month sounds like the sensible middle ground. It can be. But it depends on one thing most guides skip: who does the work once the plan is written?

What’s the difference between a fractional CMO and outsourced marketing?

A fractional CMO is a senior marketing director who works for your business part time, often one or two days a week. They set the strategy, manage the budget and lead whoever does the work. They don’t usually do the work themselves.

Outsourced marketing, sometimes called outsourced marketing management, means an external team owns your marketing plan and delivers it, in place of an in-house hire. Strategy, content, email, ads, website updates and reporting all sit with one team.

Fractional marketing is the umbrella term people use for both: senior marketing help you buy by the day or the month instead of hiring full time.

What does a fractional CMO do?

A fractional CMO leads your marketing at board level for a set number of days each month. That usually means setting strategy, deciding where the budget goes, building reporting, shaping brand positioning and managing your marketing team or agencies.

Here’s what that typically costs in the UK, according to recruiter Practicus.

• Day rate£700 to £1,400
• Monthly retainer£3,000 to £10,000
• Time in your business1 to 3 days a week
• Hands-on deliveryNot usually included

That last line matters. Practicus is clear that a fractional CMO isn’t writing every social post or managing your email platform. If you already have a marketing team that needs direction, that’s exactly what you want. If you don’t, you end up paying senior day rates for a plan that nobody has time to carry out.

What’s included in outsourced marketing each month?

Outsourced marketing includes a monthly plan, delivery of that plan across your agreed channels, and a report on what it achieved. A good provider runs to a fixed rhythm, so you always know what’s happening and when. Here’s ours.

Alongside that you get a live dashboard showing enquiries, sales, website visits and how each channel is performing, updated automatically. Every quarter there’s a growth session to step back and set the next quarter’s priorities.

What happens in the first month?

The first month is about plugging in, not turning things up. Before any campaign starts, the whole setup gets checked and fixed, so the money you spend later actually counts.

Across the first 90 days we also dig into who your customers are and nail the message behind your offer. On SEO-focused plans, that includes deeper technical work on crawling, indexing and site structure.

“Once the plan is written, who has the time to carry it out?”

Fractional CMO, part-time marketing manager or outsourced marketing?

The right choice depends on who is going to do the work. Here’s how the three options compare for a UK business with 5 to 50 staff.

A part-time marketing manager can work well, but one person can’t be a strategist, copywriter, designer, ads specialist and analyst all at once. Our guide to what a marketing manager really costs in the UK breaks down the full employment cost.

How much does outsourced marketing cost in the UK?

Outsourced marketing is usually priced as a monthly retainer, sized by the channels you need and the time involved. At PlugIt Studio, every plan covers strategy, delivery and reporting.

Compare that with £3,000 to £10,000 a month for a fractional CMO’s strategy alone. For a business that needs the work done as well as planned, outsourced marketing usually goes further. For a wider look, read what marketing outsourcing actually costs, or see our plans and pricing.

Do you need a fractional CMO or outsourced marketing?

Choose a fractional CMO if people in your business already do the marketing and they need senior direction. Choose outsourced marketing if nobody owns marketing and you need both the plan and the delivery.

• You have an in-house marketer or team who need leadingFractional CMO
• You’re building a marketing department or preparing for investmentFractional CMO
• You have 5 to 50 staff and nobody whose job is marketingOutsourced
• Marketing happens in bursts, then stalls when you get busyOutsourced

If the last two sound familiar, that’s who we built outsourced marketing management for.

Questions people ask

Written by RalphFounder of PlugIt. Learned marketing on the floor of the family salon, and has run outsourced marketing for UK independents since 2021.