Sound familiar?
- Marketing decisions fall to the owner or MD, who has no time for them.
- You have a junior marketer or assistant who needs direction and someone to check their work.
- Several agencies and freelancers report separately and nobody joins it up.
- The board asks what marketing is delivering and nobody can answer clearly.
- You need senior marketing input but cannot justify a full-time director's salary.
- Budgets are set by habit rather than by what is working.
Key facts
- Fractional marketing director time is £45 an hour + VAT, usually booked as a monthly block.
- Typical commitments range from a few hours a month to a couple of days a week.
- Covers strategy, budget control, supplier management, team coaching and board reporting.
- No long contract: monthly, cancel with notice.
- Works alongside your existing team and agencies rather than replacing them.
- We will not invent results or promise growth figures; we report what the data shows.
What a fractional marketing director does
A fractional marketing director is a senior marketer who works for you part-time. You get the judgement and planning of a director without the cost of a full-time hire. dijitul marketing provides this at £45 an hour + VAT, usually as a fixed number of hours or days each month that we agree in advance.
The role is about decisions and direction, not doing every task. We set the plan, decide where money goes, brief the people doing the work, check it, and tell the owners or board honestly what is working. Where it makes sense, the same team can also handle hands-on work such as Google Ads or email marketing, but that is your choice, not a condition.
Who it suits
- Owner-led businesses where marketing decisions keep landing on the MD's desk.
- Businesses with a junior marketer who is capable but needs a senior person to set priorities and review work.
- Companies using several suppliers (a web agency, a PPC freelancer, a social media manager) with nobody joining them up.
- Firms preparing for growth or investment who need marketing numbers that stand up in a board meeting.
- Businesses between hires who need cover while recruiting a permanent head of marketing.
If you only need a one-off plan rather than ongoing leadership, a digital marketing strategy is the better fit.
A typical month
Most clients book a set block of time each month. In a typical month that time covers:
- A planning session with the owner or leadership team to agree priorities.
- Weekly or fortnightly check-ins with in-house staff and suppliers.
- Reviewing and signing off campaigns, ads, emails and content before they go live.
- Checking spend against budget and moving money between channels based on results.
- A monthly report: spend, leads, sales, cost per result and what changes next month.
We keep a shared action log so everyone knows who is doing what, and so the work stays visible even when we are not in the room.
Managing agencies and freelancers
A lot of value comes from managing the suppliers you already have. We write clear briefs, agree what success looks like, check that they have the access and tracking they need, and review their reports with a critical eye. When an agency reports clicks and impressions but not enquiries, we ask why. When two suppliers are both claiming credit for the same sale, we look at the attribution and settle it with data.
Everything is set up in accounts you own: ad accounts, analytics, email platforms and social profiles. If a supplier changes, nothing is lost. That alone often saves businesses from losing years of data when an agency relationship ends.
The first 30 days
The first month is mostly listening and fixing the foundations. We meet the owners and the team, get access to every account and supplier, and read what has been done before. We check that tracking is reliable, because decisions made on bad numbers are worse than no decisions at all. We then write a short plan for the next quarter: three or four priorities, the budget for each and how we will measure them.
By the end of the first month you should know what marketing is costing, what it is producing as far as the data allows, and where the obvious waste is. Bigger changes, such as moving budget between channels or replacing a supplier, come after that, once everyone has seen the evidence. It is a steady approach on purpose. Fractional roles work best when the business trusts the numbers.
Reporting to owners and boards
Boards want simple answers: what did we spend, what did we get, and what are we changing. We build a one-page report, often as a reporting dashboard, that pulls spend from the ad platforms and leads or sales from GA4 and your CRM.
We explain the numbers honestly, including where tracking has gaps because of consent or offline sales. We will not promise growth figures in advance. We will show you clearly whether the money is working and what we recommend next.
What you get
- A marketing strategy and annual plan, reviewed quarterly
- Budget allocation across channels and suppliers
- Briefing, managing and reviewing agencies and freelancers
- Coaching and regular one-to-ones for in-house marketing staff
- Campaign sign-off and brand consistency checks
- Monthly board or owner report on spend, leads, sales and cost per result
- Recruitment support when you are ready to hire marketing staff
How it works and what it costs
Google Ads management from £150 a month, social media management from £125 a month and email marketing from £95 a month, all + VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid to the platform. No long contracts.
Free review
We look at your current ads, social, email and analytics, or your plans if you are starting out, and tell you plainly what we would change.
Plan and price
You get a written plan with targets, budgets and a fixed monthly fee before anything starts.
Set up properly
Tracking and consent first, then campaigns, audiences, content calendars or email flows, all in accounts you own.
Run and improve
We manage it every week: search terms, bids, creative, posts and tests, cutting what does not pay and doing more of what does.
Report in plain English
A monthly report on leads, sales and cost per result, not vanity numbers, with what we will do next.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a fractional marketing director cost?
dijitul marketing charges £45 an hour + VAT. Most clients book a fixed block of hours or days each month, agreed in advance, so the monthly cost is predictable. There is no long contract.
How many days a month do we need?
It depends on the size of your team and how many suppliers we are managing. Some businesses need a few hours a month of oversight; others need a couple of days a week during a busy period. We suggest a starting level after the first conversation.
Will you replace our current agency?
Not unless it makes sense. Usually we manage your existing suppliers and help them do better work. If a supplier is clearly not delivering, we will show you the evidence and help you decide.
Can you manage our in-house marketing assistant?
Yes. We set priorities, review their work and hold regular one-to-ones. Coaching a capable junior is often the best value for money a small business can get from a senior marketer.
Do you work on site?
We work remotely from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, using video calls, shared documents and your own tools. Site visits can be arranged where they genuinely help, such as an annual planning day or a team workshop.
Can we stop at any time?
Yes. It is billed monthly and you can cancel with notice. Because everything is set up in accounts you own, with a shared action log, handing over to a permanent hire or another supplier is straightforward.
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