Strategy and planning
Annual marketing strategy, quarterly planning, 90-day action plans, positioning, go-to-market strategy. This is the work that makes sure everything else connects to a commercial goal rather than just being activity for activity's sake.
A typical week might include reviewing the current quarter's plan against results, adjusting the next quarter's priorities, and making sure the 90-day action plan still reflects what the business is trying to achieve.
Leadership participation
Board and leadership team meetings, commercial reporting, strategic input on business decisions. A Fractional Marketing Director sits with your leadership team and brings a marketing perspective to business decisions, which is usually where marketing goes wrong when it is absent.
This is not just attending meetings. It is making sure marketing is represented when commercial decisions are made, and that those decisions take account of what marketing can and cannot deliver.
Agency management
Briefing, managing and holding accountable all marketing agencies across all channels. If you have an SEO agency, a Google Ads agency, a content agency and a web developer, somebody needs to join their work together and make sure it all connects to the same strategy.
A typical week might include reviewing agency reports, giving feedback on campaign performance, approving or rejecting proposed work, and making sure each agency knows what the others are doing.
Commercial measurement
Pipeline KPIs, cost per lead, marketing-attributed revenue, reporting that connects to business outcomes. This is the work that makes marketing accountable for commercial results rather than just activity.
A typical week might include reviewing the previous week's lead numbers, calculating cost per lead by channel, reporting to the leadership team on marketing's contribution to pipeline, and identifying where the funnel is leaking.
Team development
Managing, developing and mentoring in-house marketing team members and supporting recruitment decisions. If you have a marketing executive, somebody needs to develop them so they can take on more over time.
A typical week might include one-to-one meetings with marketing team members, reviewing their work, giving feedback, identifying training needs, and helping them grow into more senior roles.
Sales alignment
Connecting marketing and sales under shared pipeline targets and agreed lead qualification criteria. If marketing is producing leads that sales does not follow up on, or sales is complaining about lead quality but marketing does not know what sales actually needs, somebody needs to fix that.
A typical week might include reviewing the lead handover process, agreeing what counts as a qualified lead, making sure sales and marketing are working to the same pipeline targets, and identifying where leads are being lost between the two functions.
What a Fractional Marketing Director does not do
A Fractional Marketing Director sets the direction and manages the people doing the work. If you need someone to write the copy, run the campaigns and post to LinkedIn, that is a marketing manager or agency, not a fractional director.
The distinction matters. A fractional director's value is in steering, judging, joining up and holding accountable. The doing is delegated to the team, the agencies, or the tools. If the person you are talking to spends their week writing copy and posting to social media, they are not acting as a fractional marketing director, they are acting as a marketing manager with a bigger title.
How the week flexes
Days can flex as things change. A rebrand or a new service launch might need more time for a period, then settle back down. The first 90 days typically need more time for audit and strategy. Once the function is running, the week settles into a rhythm of leadership meetings, agency reviews, team one-to-ones and commercial reporting.
Book a free discovery call to discuss what a fractional marketing director could do for your business week to week.