Fractional Marketing Director
Leeds & UK-wide · Senior marketing leadership without the full-time hire
A part-time marketing director, one to two days a week, from £2,500 a month. I own the strategy, manage the people doing the work, and report on results. As close to an in-house CMO as you can get without the hire.
For founders who've outgrown
freelance, but aren't ready for full-time
Where you are now
- Freelancers you've outgrown
- An agency that's never learned your business
- A full-time hire still a year and six figures away
- The marketing still has to happen this quarter
Signs it's time
- Revenue's past £500k and marketing needs a real owner
- Multiple freelancers, nobody owns the strategy
- Building a function over 12 months, shaped from day one
- Senior thinking that already works AI-natively
Senior marketing leadership,
embedded weekly
Strategy & positioning
A quarterly strategy that ladders up to business outcomes: positioning, segments, channel mix, and the operating cadence that holds it together.
Weekly delivery direction
Weekly meetings with your team, a monthly report on results, quality oversight on every piece of work shipped, and direct Slack/email access in between.
AI-native execution
A delivery stack that ships in days what agencies ship in months: content, research, customer insight, and ops workflows.
Demand generation
Paid acquisition, content engine, outbound, SEO, partnerships. The mechanics that move pipeline, built around your stage.
Agency & freelancer management
Brief specialists where you need them, hold their work to one standard, cut what isn't earning its fee. You stop being the project manager.
Marketing function build-out
If you're hiring in-house eventually, you're left with the recruitment brief, the org structure, and the systems for someone to step straight into.
Leverage AI partnership
My husband Said Lopez leads Leverage AI (opens in a new tab). On fractional engagements that pairing is part of the deal: marketing strategy and AI architecture on the same brief.
Fractional director vs the alternatives
The three usual options for marketing leadership at this stage, and where each one breaks down.
Marketing agency
£3k–£10k+/mo, multiple agencies usually needed
- Sells delivery, not ownership of the function
- Junior account managers usually run the work day-to-day
- Doesn't sit on internal calls, doesn't know your customers
- Brilliant for specific channels, wrong shape for "own the marketing"
Fractional Marketing Director
From £2.5k/mo for 1 day a week
- Owns the marketing function, not just a workstream
- Senior judgement on every brief, not a junior buffer
- Embedded: joins internal calls, knows your team
- Briefs specialists when you need them, cuts what you don't
- AI-native delivery built into how the work happens
Full-time CMO
£90k–£150k base + equity + on-costs
- Right answer when the function justifies the headcount
- Typically a year or more of recruitment + onboarding
- Full operational load, including the work a fractional could absorb
- Hard to reverse if you hire too early
Ready to talk?
The first call is free, and honest.
A senior decision-maker,
on a repeatable cadence
Free call
(30 minutes)
Where you are, what you've tried, and whether a fractional engagement is even the right move. If it isn't, I'll say so. About a third of these conversations end with "you don't need this yet."
Foundations
(optional)
Know what needs doing? We go straight to the pilot. Not sure what's working? We start with Foundations: a free data check, then an audit and strategy if you need them.
Engagement
A 3-month pilot, then month to month with one month's notice. One to two days a week as part of your team: I manage your team, agencies and freelancers, meet your team every week, and send you a monthly report on results. Direct line on Slack or email.
Review & renew
At the end of the 3-month pilot, and every six months after, we look at whether the engagement is still the right shape: fractional, full project, or time to hire in-house. The exit door stays open by design.
Questions founders actually ask
What does a fractional marketing director actually do day-to-day?
Holds the marketing function: sets the strategy, owns the roadmap, briefs and quality-checks delivery, manages agencies and freelancers, and reports to you the way an in-house CMO would. Typically one to two days of focused work a week.
How is this different from a marketing agency?
An agency sells you delivery and bills you for hours. A fractional director sells you ownership of an outcome, and stays accountable for it whether the work is done directly or by specialists I brief and manage.
When does a fractional director make more sense than a full-time CMO?
Usually past £500k revenue, when you're doing more of the marketing than you should be, the freelance/agency mix has stopped scaling, and a full-time CMO at £100k+ is still a year away.
What's the typical investment?
Engagements scale with involvement, from a senior-strategy day a week up to a full embedded director. Retainers start from £2,500 a month for one day a week, and agency fees, freelancer costs and ad spend are not included. It starts as a 3-month pilot, then runs month to month with one month's notice, so the strategy has time to work.
What is Leverage AI?
Leverage AI is the AI strategy and technical implementation company run by Said Lopez. Marketiva and Leverage AI work as a team: I lead on marketing strategy, brand, content and delivery, and Said leads on AI strategy, workflow automation and technical set-up. You work to one brief, and Said is involved where your systems or AI delivery need technical work.
Do you work outside Leeds?
Yes. Based in Leeds with a focus on founders across the North of England: Manchester, Sheffield, York, Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle. Engagements run UK-wide, mostly remote with in-person sessions at agreed intervals.