The owner often covers sales, operations, finance and customer service, leaving marketing for whatever time remains. The result is often activity without clear ownership of the commercial outcome.

How do small business leaders rate marketing against other business functions?

In a Chartered Institute of Marketing survey published in February 2025, 18% of responding small business leaders ranked marketing as the lowest business function for professionalism, while 15% of respondents from medium-sized firms with 50 to 249 employees did so.

YouGov conducted the online survey for the Chartered Institute of Marketing among 524 adults working in business between 20 and 27 January 2025, with results weighted to represent British business size and region. The issue has a broad economic reach: Department for Business and Trade business population estimates found that SMEs accounted for 60% of private sector employment at the start of 2025.

Why does marketing become harder as an SME grows?

Marketing becomes harder as an SME grows because channels, customers and competitors increase while the founder’s available hours do not. More activity creates more decisions on positioning, budgets, priorities and who owns the next step.

Without a plan, spending can follow last month’s results rather than the next quarter’s needs. Messages become mixed, campaigns start and then stall, and instinct-led decisions leave nothing solid to show a board or investor.

The Department for Business and Trade’s Longitudinal Small Business Survey 2025 found that 28% of SME employers sought external information or advice of any kind in the preceding 12 months. In the same 2025 survey, this applied to 26% of micro SME employers, 34% of small SME employers and 44% of medium-sized SME employers.

Of the SME employers that sought external advice, 11% sought it on marketing, according to the Department for Business and Trade’s 2025 survey table 109. Advice does not substitute for internal accountability, but it can expose where the leadership gap sits.

When does a full-time marketing director make sense for an SME?

A full-time marketing director makes sense when an SME can define the role’s outcomes, authority and day-to-day remit. The business should know what the director owns, who reports to them and how results will be judged.

The Office for National Statistics Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2025 provisional data recorded median gross annual pay of £94,135 for full-time marketing, sales and advertising directors, a combined occupation category. HM Revenue and Customs rates for 2026 to 2027 set employer National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year. GOV.UK guidance states that under automatic enrolment the employer pays at least 3%, and in most schemes contributions are based on earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 a year.

National Insurance and pension contributions sit on top of pay, so employing a director costs more than salary alone. Office for National Statistics pay data cover employee jobs rather than self-employed work, so there is no equivalent official figure for fractional fees. Both options need to be compared against the same required outcomes and scope.

What is a fractional marketing director?

A fractional marketing director, also called a fractional CMO, is a senior marketing leader working part-time inside the business. The role participates in leadership decisions and owns measurable outcomes in the way a full-time hire would.

Time and scope follow the business need as the strategy takes shape. This gives the business access to senior judgement early, while deferring a full-time hiring decision until there is a strategy and defined role to hire for.

Businesses can find such leaders through specialist firms, including Mateerz, which describes itself as a European fractional marketing leadership firm working across France, the UK, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

When is a fractional marketing director the wrong choice for an SME?

A fractional marketing director is the wrong choice when a business needs constant day-to-day presence and immediate availability. Their attention may be divided across several clients, while internal staff or agencies still carry out the marketing work.

The model also relies on people who can turn direction into delivery. If nobody can execute campaigns, manage the website or follow up leads, that operational gap comes first.

Chris Daly, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, said of marketing in February 2025 that “enhancing its professionalism should be a priority for organisations of all sizes”.

Where does a fractional marketing director fit alongside existing marketing staff?

A fractional marketing director can become the senior line manager for an existing marketing executive while that executive retains responsibility for social media, the website and other delivery work. The director supplies direction, performance review and accountability for results.

Where marketing has been handled by whoever is free, the missing element may be senior direction rather than another junior hire. The decision rests on whether the business can define what marketing leadership must achieve.

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