Most businesses at £5-50m have a marketing function that's active but not effective.
Content goes out. Campaigns run. The website gets updated. But the pipeline doesn't reflect the effort, the positioning isn't sharp enough to win on anything other than relationships and price, and nobody at board level can say with confidence what marketing is actually doing for the business.
That's not a resource problem. It's what happens when marketing grows without direction.
I'm Clare Watson. Fractional Marketing Director for B2B organisations and the built environment - architecture, engineering, construction, testing and the B2B SaaS ecosystem that serves them.
Senior marketing leadership, without the full-time hire.
Retained engagements - monthly, ongoing, embedded in the business. Three tiers depending on what the role needs to be.
Strategic Advisor
Two days a month. You have a capable marketing manager but no one senior above them. I provide the strategic direction they can't give themselves, freeing you up.
Strategic Oversight
One day a week. Strategic ownership of the marketing function - not delivery, direction. Your team does the work. I make sure it's the right work for your business.
Embedded Director
Two days a week. Full marketing leadership, strategic and operational. For businesses that need someone to own the function, not just advise on it.
Fixed-fee work with clear deliverables.
Defined scope, defined output. Right for businesses that need a specific piece of work done rather than ongoing leadership.
Marketing Diagnostic
Six weeks. A thorough assessment of what's working, what isn't, and what to do next. Board-ready output including a scored six-pillar review and a 12-month roadmap.
Strategy Sprint
Six to eight weeks. One specific strategic question answered properly - positioning, go-to-market, rebrand scoping, service or segment entry.
Marketing Foundations
Ten to twelve weeks. A full marketing strategy built from first principles - positioning, messaging, channel strategy, 12-month plan and budget model. For businesses without one.
Why work with me?
A selection of results from 25 years working in B2B - developing strategy, guiding teams, and accountable for outcomes.
172%
increase in qualified inbound lead value at Element Materials Technology in 12 months, during the launch of the world's largest fire resistance test laboratory.
75
countries engaged in year one of World Ventil8 Day, launched from a standing start. 21 partners. 25m social reach. Still runs annually.
£3.5m
annual equivalent value in press and media at BESA. 378m annual reach. Repositioned from obscure trade body to sector's go-to voice on building safety.
25+
years in built environment B2B. Director-level roles at Element, BESA, RIBA/NBS, RPS/Tetra Tech and 4 Projects. Deep sector credibility.
Who I work with
B2B businesses and built environment firms at £5-50m revenue that need senior marketing leadership but aren't ready for a full-time hire. Typically founder-led or PE-backed. Often between a marketing manager and a CMO, or covering an interim gap.
How it starts
A conversation. No deck, no discovery questionnaire, no sales process.
Thirty minutes to work out whether there's a fit, what the right starting point is, and what that would look like in practice.
FAQs
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A fractional marketing director is a senior marketing leader who works with a business on a part-time retained basis - typically one or two days a week - rather than as a full-time employee. The business gets director-level marketing leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. The engagement is ongoing and embedded, not project-based.
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A consultant comes in, produces a piece of work and leaves. A fractional marketing director stays - attending leadership meetings, owning the marketing function strategically, and being accountable for outcomes over time. The relationship looks more like a senior employee than an external adviser.
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Typically businesses at £5-50m revenue that have outgrown reactive marketing but aren't ready to justify a full-time CMO salary. Often founder-led businesses where marketing has grown organically without strategic direction, or PE-backed businesses where investors want marketing discipline in place.
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No, but the built environment is where the majority of my work sits and where my sector knowledge runs deepest. I've also worked with professional services, technology and hospitality clients. If your business sits outside AEC but the challenge sounds familiar, it's worth a conversation.
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With a 30-minute conversation to establish whether there's a fit and what the right starting point looks like. For most businesses that means either a Marketing Diagnostic to assess the current function, or moving straight into a retained engagement if the brief is already clear.
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Retained engagements start at £2,500 per month for the Strategic Advisor tier and run to £9,500 per month for a full Embedded Director engagement at two days per week. Fixed-fee programmes start at £4,000 for a Marketing Diagnostic.