E.ON NextSyndicatedContract
Head of Growth DeliveryMarketing Consultants · Marketing consultant · fractional, interim and permanent
Marketing Consultants · hire a marketing consultant, or find the work
marketing consultants at leadership level are senior marketing people who hold the brief: a fractional CMO or marketing director, working fractionally, on an interim mandate or permanently. Fractional Quest recruits them for companies; we do not employ them.
Reviewed by Fractional Quest · updated 23 October 2026 · 6 sources linked below
- 3–5our shortlist
Fractional seats our founder has held
Climatise
One Up Productions
CK Delta
In the press
- Financial TimesThe executives going ‘fractional’, not freelance
- International FinanceRenting the C-suite, and why the fractional executive era has arrived
The agency
What marketing consultants do
Hiring? Brief us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with rate, availability and IR35 position set out. Looking for the work? The board below shows current marketing leadership roles.
A marketing consultant at this level sets positioning and strategy, decides where the budget goes, directs agencies and coaches the team, and reports to the leadership team on pipeline contribution. The CMO owns growth from the market side: positioning, brand, demand generation and the marketing team and budget behind them.
Buyers also search for a fractional CMO consultant, a CMO consultant or a fractional marketing consultant: the same senior marketer, holding the strategy on a standing weekly commitment.
Marketing consultants are not a firm’s junior team: each is one senior person who contracts with the company directly. Fractional Quest is the recruitment agency that finds them; the service side is on marketing consultancy.
On the board · last 90 days
Current marketing leadership roles on the board
From our jobs feed. Where a posting states no rate, “est” is our estimate from the seat’s published band; ◆ marks days a week the posting states.
10 of 10 roles
Function
Engagement
- LRO Financial ConsultancySyndicatedFractionalFractional Financial Controller
- Confidential clientOur mandate · available nowFractionalFractional SDR
- Unity AdvisorySyndicatedFractionalReward Lead (Fractional- 12 month FTC)
- Reg Advantage LtdSyndicatedFractionalProduction Lead and Fractional CTO
- Confidential clientOur mandate · available nowFractionalFractional Executive Assistant
- PHIXSyndicatedFractionalPart time / Fractional Finance Director
- CivSec GroupSyndicatedFractionalAcquisition CFO / Finance Director (Fractional)
- Algorithmiq OySyndicatedFractionalFractional Chief Operating Officer (COO)
- Twenty-Nine Palms EntertainmentSyndicatedFractionalBusiness Affairs Executive (Fractional / Per-Project)
Every fractional role in the UK is on the fractional jobs board.
Three seats
What does a fractional seat look like in practice?
Three fractional seats our founder has held. Real companies, named with their permission; we state only what the seat covered.
Fractional seats our founder has held
ClimatiseFractional · go-to-marketA carbon-reporting software company that needed go-to-market leadership before a full-time hire.
- Seat
- Fractional go-to-market lead
- Days
- Two days a week
- Scope
- Go-to-market
One Up ProductionsFractional · go-to-marketA production company that needed both the go-to-market strategy and its execution.
- Seat
- Fractional go-to-market: strategy and execution
- Days
- Two days a week
- Scope
- Go-to-market
CK DeltaFractional · technologyTechnology work: tech stack implementation.
- Seat
- Fractional technology lead
These are seats our founder has held, not placements.
The scope
What a marketing consultant owns
The scope. Marketing strategy, positioning and brand; demand generation and pipeline contribution; the marketing budget and channel mix; building and leading the marketing team and agencies; customer insight and market research.
Out of scope. Sales execution belongs to the sales leader and, at board level, the CRO. Product decisions belong to the product leader, informed by marketing.
The neighbouring seats. The CMO owns the market and the message; the marketing director runs the function day to day; the CRO joins marketing, sales and customer success into one revenue number.
The process
How does a brief become a shortlist?
Six steps, one accountable person at each. We don’t promise a shortlist by a date; the weeks below are what a well-scoped brief usually takes.
- Day 001The 15-minute callThe seat, the engagement shape, the days or hours, the start date and the budget. No account needed; a call or a written brief.You and us
- Week 102Scope agreed in writingThe outcome the seat exists for, which days, and how the engagement will run for IR35. A brief that describes a person rather than a job, we rewrite with you.Us
- Weeks 1–203Search and approachWe approach people who aren’t looking and verify prior tenure in the seat at your scale and stage.Us
- Weeks 2–304References, taken by usFrom recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.Us
- Week 305Shortlist of three to fiveEach with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out. You interview and decide.You
- Week 406Kick-offScope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.You, them and us
What it costs
CMO rates what the published benchmarks say
Every figure is the named source’s own published band. Fractional Quest publishes no fees: each candidate on a shortlist states their own rate.
| Benchmark | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Fractional CMO day rate | £750–£1,400 | Connectd 2026 |
| Interim CMO day rate | £700–£2,000 | Exec Capital 2026 |
| Permanent CMO salary (25th–75th percentile) | £110,250–£183,750 | Robert Half 2026 |
Your figures
What does part of a CMO’s week cost?
Rate × days × weeks, against a loaded full-time package. Move the sliders; the numbers redraw.
- CMO band £750–£1,400 (Connectd 2026)
Year-one cost, fractional
£101,200
Fractional costs less in year one by£67,100
Our arithmetic. £147,000 Robert Half 2026 median salary + employer NI at 15% above £5,000 (HMRC) = £168,300. Excludes pension, bonus and any search fee.
Against the alternatives
Four ways to buy marketing expertise fractional, project, interim or permanent
The same marketing problem can be bought four ways. The difference is who does the work, for how long, and who is accountable afterwards.
| Fractional marketing leader | Project consultancy firm | Interim executive | Permanent hire | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A fractional CMO or marketing director, days a week | A defined deliverable | A leader full-time for a fixed term | A full-time leader for years |
| Who does the work | One named senior person | A team, often with a partner who sold it | One named senior person | Your employee |
| Accountable after | Yes — they stay | No — the project ends | Until the hand-over | Yes |
| Best when | You need senior judgement every week, not every day | The work is a one-off with a clear output | You need full-time cover or a change led now | The seat is full-time work for years |
| Usual contract | Contract for services, often via the leader’s company | Statement of work | Day-rate contract for the mandate | Employment contract |
The decision
Which marketing consultant to hire
Match the shape to the work, not the title.
- Weekly judgementA fractional marketing consultantA fractional CMO sets strategy, directs agencies and builds the team on a standing weekly commitment, which suits a business that needs senior marketing judgement before it needs a full-time executive.
- Now, full-timeAn interim marketing leadA product launch, market entry or rebrand needs full-time senior leadership until it lands.
- For yearsA permanent hireA permanent CMO is right when marketing is a large budget and team, or brand and demand are core to the company’s value.
Vetting
How do we vet a marketing consultant?
Five stages before anyone reaches a shortlist of three to five.
- Pedigree screenTenureWe verify prior tenure in the seat, at the scale and stage you need. No consultant presenting as an executive.
- Mandate fitFitFit to your stage, sector and the problem the seat exists to solve, not a CV keyword.
- Reference deep-diveVerifyWe take references ourselves, from recent clients and boards: what they delivered, not what they titled it.
- ShortlistShortlistThree to five candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
- Kick-offStartScope, first-month outcomes and the contract agreed before day one.
The full process is on how we vet.
how to hire
How to hire a marketing consultant four steps
Write down the decisions. List the three decisions the marketing consultant will own in the first ninety days. That list decides the shape: weekly decisions point to fractional, a time-bound change to interim, a full-time load to permanent.
Brief us. Scope, days, start date and what success looks like. We search for your brief and assess through our five-stage vetting.
Compare a shortlist. 3–5 marketing consultants, each with day rate or salary, availability and IR35 position set out, so you compare like with like.
Contract directly. The marketing consultant contracts with you, usually through their own company for fractional and interim work. Write the contract to match how it will actually run.
what to check
What to check in marketing consultants before you sign
Evidence, not titles. Ask for the strategies they owned and what happened to pipeline afterwards, not the campaigns they touched. CIM membership and Chartered Marketer status are the profession’s recognised markers.
Professional bodies. the Chartered Institute of Marketing — the professional body for marketers, with recognised qualifications and chartered status.
Status. It depends on how the engagement runs in practice — control, substitution and whether the marketing consultant is part and parcel of your organisation, not on the label "consultant". For medium and large private-sector clients the client makes the status determination. Every candidate on our shortlist states their IR35 position.
Capacity. A fractional marketing consultant holds other clients. Ask how many, which days are yours, and how urgent issues are handled between them.
for consultants
Work as a fractional marketing consultant what the work looks like
Fractional marketing work suits CMOs and marketing directors who have built a function and want a portfolio of two or three clients, or one interim mandate at a time.
Briefs arrive as fractional (days a week, ongoing), interim (full-time, fixed term) or permanent roles. The board on this page shows current marketing leadership roles, labelled by engagement; every fractional role is on the fractional jobs board.
Companies hire the leader, not the label: set out the decisions you have owned, the outcomes, and the days you can commit. Your IR35 position and rate go on the shortlist as you state them.
The right route
Agency, recruiter, interim or permanent?
Three taps. Say how much senior work there is, for how long, and whether it is one leader or a run of hires; the tool names the route.
The route · Fractional recruiter
An embedded fractional recruiter.
A hiring plan to work through below the leadership team is a talent-acquisition job: a recruiter inside your business for part of the week, paid for their time. We don’t supply them; the page below explains the role.
The route · Non-executive director
A non-executive director.
Independent oversight and constructive challenge, not executive direction. We recruit NEDs through the same brief process.
The route · Advisor
An advisor, not yet a seat.
Less than a day a week of senior input is advisory. Buy it as a scoped engagement; when it grows into a day or more, brief us for a fractional executive.
The route · Interim
An interim executive.
Four or five days for a fixed period is interim: cover for a departure, a turnaround or a transaction. The IIM puts the UK average at £907 a day and ten months.
The route · Permanent
A permanent search.
Four or five days of work, ongoing, is a full-time seat. We recruit permanent executives through the same brief process.
The route · Fractional executive
Brief a fractional recruitment agency.
Senior judgement for part of the week: a fractional CFO, CTO, CMO or COO on one to three days. We come back with a shortlist of three to five, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
We recruit executives. We don’t supply embedded fractional recruiters; where that is the right route, the tool says so.
Clients
What do companies say about our fractional work?
From a company where our founder has held a fractional seat. Name and logo given with the client’s permission.
“Excellent fractional support for building both our go-to-market strategy and our execution.”
Charlie AndersonDirector, One Up ProductionsWhere we are
Where is Fractional Quest?
Where we are
71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9JQ
Fractional Quest Ltd, registered in England and Wales, no. 17322105. This is our registered office; meetings are by appointment, and most briefs start on a 15-minute call.
Questions
Marketing Consultants questions, answered
A marketing consultant at this level sets positioning and strategy, decides where the budget goes, directs agencies and coaches the team, and reports to the leadership team on pipeline contribution. The seat’s scope: marketing strategy, positioning and brand; demand generation and pipeline contribution; the marketing budget and channel mix.
Brief us on the scope, the shape and the start date. We come back with a shortlist of 3–5 marketing consultants, each with rate, availability and IR35 position set out, assessed through our five-stage vetting. You contract with the marketing consultant directly.
Ask for the strategies they owned and what happened to pipeline afterwards, not the campaigns they touched. CIM membership and Chartered Marketer status are the profession’s recognised markers.
It depends on the shape and the days. Published bands for the seat: Fractional CMO day rate £750–£1,400 (Connectd 2026); Interim CMO day rate £700–£2,000 (Exec Capital 2026); Permanent CMO salary (25th–75th percentile) £110,250–£183,750 (Robert Half 2026). Fractional Quest publishes no fees; each candidate on a shortlist states their own rate, so the cost of marketing consultants is the rate times the days you agree.
It depends on how the engagement runs in practice — control, substitution and whether the marketing consultant is part and parcel of your organisation, not on the label "consultant". For medium and large private-sector clients the client makes the status determination. Every candidate on our shortlist states their IR35 position.
The board on this page lists current marketing leadership roles, labelled fractional, interim or permanent, and every fractional role is on the fractional jobs board. Your rate and IR35 position go on the shortlist as you state them.
Usually a chief marketing officer working on a consulting basis: fractional (days a week, ongoing) or interim (full-time, fixed term). The fractional CMO consultant model is the commonest; see fractional marketing consultant for that page.
At leadership level they direct it. A senior marketing consultant sets the plan and directs agencies and the team; production work is better bought from an agency or a specialist freelancer.
Sources
Where does every figure on this page come from?
The primary publisher for each number, linked. Where a figure is our own arithmetic, the page says so where it appears.
- Connectd
- Exec Capital
- HMRC
- legislation.gov.uk
- 1
- 2Salary guides UK 2026 Exec Capital
- 3Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) HMRCStatus depends on how the engagement runs; medium and large clients make the determination.
- 4Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027 HMRCEmployer National Insurance at 15% above £5,000 a year.
- 5
- 6Employment Agencies Act 1973 legislation.gov.ukThe law a recruitment agency works under; no fee to a work-seeker.
