What is Fractional Marketing? It is the hiring of an outside individual or organisation on an ‘as-needed’ basis for marketing related projects or strategy work. Hiring and onboarding can be time consuming and costly and additionally it may be hard to find the necessary specialist skillset. A Fractional Marketing Officer will be able to hit the ground running – especially for a specific pre-defined project. This is why many companies are making the transition.
All size and types of companies will utilise fractional marketing support. This includes larger companies looking for project specific niche work or to help with the strategy around a product launch or a campaign. Likewise start-ups who need specialist marketing skills to scale will often utilise regular fractional marketing support to advise on growth marketing or help build the marketing strategy to fundraise.
The use of fractional marketing support has grown in the UK, particularly in leadership roles.
Here are the Top 10 benefits of Fractional Marketing:
1. Flexibility and Scalability to match business needs
Appointing fractional marketing support means that there is no long term commitment. And thus your company is able to scale the resource or drop it down accordingly depending on the evolving business requirements and business needs.
2. Access to specialised expertise and strategic insights
Hiring fractional marketing support means that you can hire in short term niche and specialist skills for a particular project or in-house requirement. Rather than hiring a generic full time marketing resource, the flexibility means you can hire a specialist skillset. For example, if a company is launching a new e-commerce platform, they could bring in a fractional e-commerce specialist to provide pre-launch direction and insights.
3.Faster Implementation and agility in a rapidly changing market
The marketing industry is fragmented and ever-changing. Timing can mean everything. Through the use of fractional marketing support, companies are able to launch campaigns faster or react quicker when they can bring in specialist expertise and especially when internal resources are limited.
4.Focus on core business activities
Fractional marketing allows for ad-hoc and specialist skills for ad-hoc projects without distracting from the day to day business. Many company executives get distracted on to new and exciting marketing projects – however taking their eye off the ball when it comes to the daily revenue streams and daily marketing requirements.
5.Cost-effectiveness and planning
Fractional marketing can prove very cost effective for all types of businesses. Hiring a full time employee costs to recruit and onboard – whereas drawing in temporary fractional skills can be very cost effective in comparison. Additionally, you as a company, are in control over the length of contract and time requirement and so therefore you are very in control over the costs with are fixed in advance.
6.Navigate the market with senior-level strategic guidance
Get personalised and senior-level insights and guidance. This is invaluable and often overlooked. Why not utilise the skillset of those that have been there, done that and got the t-shirt! The result is advice based on experience and expertise rather than trial and error.
7.Injection of fresh perspectives, innovation and outside thinking
Fractional marketeers frequently work with numerous organisations at the same time, allowing them to bring in a diverse set of insights and perspectives that you just can not replicate in-house. Why not utilise the expertise from across the market? rather than your employee’s that completely understand your company and processes – but maybe can not inject that broader outside thinking and ideas?
8.Seamless collaboration with broader resources
Fractional Marketing officers will often have a network of professionals that they can tap into at anytime. Whether that is other fractional marketeers with specialist skillsets (e.g. Creative, Social, SEO) and subject matter experts who they can co-ordinate and utilise based on the client requirements. Allowing for greater access to a broad set of specialist skills.
9.Go-to-market strategies or projects crafted to meet your business goals
Fractional marketers are hired to help with specific needs. You are not downloading a generic report or reading a case study from another company. You are getting bespoke support and insights and advice bespoke exactly to your company requirements and objectives.
10.Reduced HR costs
As a final benefit, companies can reduce the time-consuming and costly process of hiring new staff associated with onboarding and managing full-time staff. The cost of extra staff includes National Insurance and pension costs and expenses. This reduction in HR overhead allows your organisation to save money and focus resources on key operations while having access to top-tier marketing talent to deliver results!
The PHA Group provides fractional marketing services to our clients. We have worked with start-ups, global brands, charities and much more. Please do contact us at info@thephagroup.com to enquire about a free consultation.