#SPINNINGHATS
Marketing was never supposed to
be a ‘one person job’
Jacinta Bolsenbroek, Diector of Communication
⏱ 6min read
Sometimes you simply need your marketing person to have enough breathing room to do the job they were actually hired to do.
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At some point, someone in your business became “the marketing person”.
Nobody really remembers when.
Maybe they started in marketing. Maybe they were good at Canva. Maybe they wrote a decent newsletter once and the rest is history.
Now they are responsible for the website, social media, campaigns, events, content, internal comms, the newsletter, the presentation nobody told them about until yesterday, and apparently the company’s entire strategic direction.
Oh, and "can you just have a quick look” at the new sales deck, and “zhuzh it up”; my personal favourite.
Sure. Because the colouring in department is usually just sitting around waiting for work.
This is how marketing becomes one person’s job.
And it makes absolutely no sense.
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The marketing person is actually about six people
There is the strategist.
They are supposed to know where the business is going, who it needs to talk to, what it should say and what it should stop doing.
Then there is the copywriter.
Someone has to turn all of that thinking into words people might actually want to read.
Then the designer.
Because apparently the 47 slide PowerPoint still needs to look good.
Then the content person.
Social posts. Blogs. EDMs. Case studies. Video. Website updates. The occasional “can we get something out today?”
Then the campaign manager.
Because someone has to get all the moving parts into some kind of order before launch day arrives and everyone starts asking where everything is.
And then there is the person who has to get it approved.
This is a full-time job in itself.
Especially when the approval process involves six people, three opinions and one person who has been on annual leave since Tuesday but still needs to see it.
So when a business says, “We have someone who looks after marketing,” what they often mean is:
We have one person attempting to cover an entire department.
And we’re surprised when the strategy keeps getting pushed to next week.
The strategy always loses to the thing that is on fire
This is the part that isn't written in the job description.
Marketing is supposed to be proactive.
Then the website breaks.
Someone needs a brochure.
Sales wants a case study.
The CEO has an announcement.
The event is six weeks away.
The newsletter is due.
Someone has remembered there is an Instagram account.
The strategy can wait.
The strategy always waits.
Until six months have passed and your marketing person is wondering why they haven’t actually done any marketing.
They’ve been incredibly busy. That’s the problem. Being busy is not the same as having marketing covered.
Now enter fractional marketing
Fractional marketing may sound like a foreign concept.
But it’s not. It’s a globally recognised way of operating. And while here in Australia it may sound like one of those terms
invented in a boardroom because nobody wanted to say, “You need some extra help.”
It isn’t. It’s simple.
You bring in an experienced marketer (or in our case team) for a set number of projects or days each month.
Not five days a week. Not forever.
Not another agency to brief, manage and then explain your business to over again for the next three months.
A fractional marketing team works alongside your existing people.
They get into the plan.
They understand the business.
They look at what’s actually happening.
Then they help get the important stuff done.
Your marketer keeps their role.
You keep the knowledge in the business.
The work gets more senior thinking behind it.
And, importantly, someone has enough distance from the day-to-day to ask whether you’re doing the right thing in the first place.
Because sometimes the answer is no.
It’s not outsourcing
This distinction matters.
Fractional marketing shouldn’t feel like handing your marketing over to somebody else.
It should feel like adding another person to the room.
The person already doing your marketing still knows the business better.
They know which product is about to launch.
They know who internally will fight about the headline.
They know that the CEO hates the word “innovative” because somebody used it 14 times in the last strategy meeting.
They know where everything lives.
Keep them. Give them backup.
A good fractional marketing team doesn’t arrive to take over.
They arrive to take what’s falling off the list.
The strategy that keeps getting bumped.
The campaign nobody has time to pull together.
The content calendar that hasn’t been touched since March.
The website project that has been “nearly finished” for four months.
The reporting nobody actually reads because nobody has had time to work out what matters.
That is useful work.
The advantage of having someone senior around? They can say no.
No, you don’t need another social channel.
No, that campaign isn’t ready.
No, changing the font isn’t going to fix the proposition.
No, the problem isn’t the newsletter.
No, we shouldn’t spend another $8,000 promoting something nobody understands yet.
Yes, the website probably needs fixing.
Yes, your messaging is all over the place.
Yes, you need to align the messaging before producing a capabilties document.
Marketing needs people who can make those important calls.
Not because they’re trying to be difficult. Because their job isn’t to agree.
It’s to know what will move the business forward and what won’t.
But what about hiring someone?
Good question,
Let’s say you hire a marketing manager on $120,000p/a,
Sounds reasonable,
Then the real bill arrives,
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Super
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Leave
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Equipment
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Software
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Recruitment
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Onboarding
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Training.
The months spent getting someone across the business before they can make the big calls.
Your $120,000 salary can land closer to $155,000 once the actual cost of employing that person is counted.
And you’ve bought five days a week.
Every week.
Even when you don’t need five days.
That can be exactly the right decision.
If you have enough work to keep a senior marketer busy, hire one.
But what if you need their brain more than you need their calendar?
What if you need three days a month?
What if your existing marketer is brilliant but completely buried?
What if you’re growing quickly and need someone senior to help shape the next six months without committing
to another full-time salary?
That’s where fractional starts to make a lot more sense.
What is expanding you're own team isn't possible.
Sometimes you need another perspective.
Sometimes you need seniority.
Sometimes you need someone who has done this before and can walk into the flames without needing a six-week induction.
And sometimes you simply need your marketing person to have enough breathing room to do the job they were actually hired to do.
Fractional marketing gives you that option.
A set number of days.
A senior marketing brain.
Experts working beside your team.
Someone who can think and make.
No new full-time salary.
No recruitment campaign.
No pretending one person can simultaneously be your strategist, copywriter, designer, campaign manager, content producer
and marketing director.
Because they can’t.
Neither can you.
And frankly, they shouldn’t have to.
Did this hit a little
too close to home?
Call in
the cavalry.
On hand. $2,950/month
Planned. Produced. Published. Measured.
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One platform. Fully managed.
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8 social posts + 2 long-form pieces/month
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1 email campaign/month
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1 content shoot every 6 months
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Quarterly content planning
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Monthly performance reporting
Alongside. $6,500/mth
We’ll take the
edge-of-desk jobs.
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Up to 2 platforms.
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16 social posts + 4 long-form pieces/month
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2 email campaigns/month
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1 campaign/quarter - strategy, creative, landing page & rollout
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1 content shoot/quarter
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Monthly planning session + performance reporting
All-In. $13,500/mth
A team, without
the headcount.
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Annual marketing plan, reviewed quarterly
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Quarterly strategy session with your leadership team
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3 campaigns/year - strategy, creative, landing pages, rollout & reporting
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Up to 4 platforms, fully managed
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30 social posts + 10 long-form pieces/month
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4 email campaigns/month
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1 content shoot/month
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1 brand project/year - refresh, positioning or messaging
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Up to 2 comms projects/year - internal comms, announcements or issues
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Named lead accountable for the plan and reporting to you
Six month minimum term. Media spend billed separately at cost.