Tactics without strategy
Activity gets measured. Pipeline doesn’t move.
Fractional Marketing Bolton
Fractional Marketing Leadership Without the Full-Time Hire
Stop guessing. Know where your marketing stands, then fix what matters.
I find what's holding your marketing back, identify what to fix first, and help you put it into practice. For life sciences, complex B2B, professional services and local businesses.
Chartered Marketer (CIM) · 10+ years in marketing.
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Prioritise
Work out what to fix first.
What is fractional marketing?
Experienced marketing leadership, on a part-time basis.
Fractional marketing gives your business access to experienced marketing leadership on a part-time basis, whether that looks like a fractional Marketing Director stepping in to set direction, or a fractional marketing consultant working alongside your existing team. Instead of hiring a full-time Marketing Director or relying entirely on an external agency, you get experienced marketing support for an agreed amount of time each month.
- Defining or refining your marketing strategy
- Improving positioning and messaging
- Building a demand-generation plan
- Connecting marketing activity to commercial objectives
- Improving lead generation and conversion
- Working with sales to improve alignment
- Planning and executing campaigns
- Managing agencies and specialist suppliers
The aim isn't to create more marketing activity. It's to make your marketing work harder.
Who it's for
Who is fractional marketing for?
Fractional marketing works well for businesses that need experienced marketing leadership but aren't ready for, or don't need, a full-time Head of Marketing or Marketing Director yet.
It tends to be the right fit when:
- marketing activity isn't turning into enough qualified pipeline
- sales and marketing aren't working to the same priorities
- positioning has gone generic, or was never properly defined
- the buying journey is complex and hard to explain simply
- you've got people executing marketing tasks but no one setting the direction
- you need senior marketing input during a period of growth or change
The idea is you get senior marketing expertise when you actually need it, without taking on the cost and commitment of a full-time hire.
Where it breaks
The same six problems show up every time.
The same six problems show up again and again, regardless of sector, size, or how good the product actually is.
No commercial objectives
Nobody can answer what success looks like in numbers that matter.
Generic positioning
No differentiation, no reason to choose you over anyone else.
Wrong channels, wrong stage
Tactics chosen because they’re familiar, not because they fit.
Sales and marketing disconnected
Nobody’s measuring the same thing. That’s where pipeline dies.
No measurement that matters
Nothing that tells you if marketing is actually working.
Fractional leadership exists to fix these at the source, not to patch each one with another isolated tactic.
How this is different
Not a generic discovery call. A structured intake process.
Most fractional marketing engagements start with a generic discovery call and a generic strategy document. This one starts differently.
Before any work begins, I run a structured intake process called The Voice Brief. It captures how your buyers actually think and talk, not how you want to describe yourself: the language your best clients use, the committee dynamics behind a real buying decision, the objections your sales team actually hears, and the phrases that would never survive a real buying conversation.
The practical benefit: your website, campaigns and sales materials use the words your buyers already use, so you spend less time rewriting copy that sounds like nobody in particular.
AI helps with research, analysis and first drafts. Experienced judgement decides what matters and what to do.
In the free diagnostic, AI does the first pass and you can go through the findings with me on a call. In fractional work, I review everything before it reaches you.
Agency vs fractional
Sometimes the problem isn't a lack of tactics.
An agency can be useful when you need specialist execution. But sometimes the problem isn't a lack of tactics. It's knowing which tactics actually matter.
Fractional marketing works with the business at a strategic level: business objectives → positioning → audience → demand generation → campaigns → conversion → pipeline, rather than simply producing another campaign, blog post or social media schedule. Where specialist execution is required, I can also work with your existing agencies, freelancers and internal teams rather than automatically replacing them.
What I can help with
Where a fractional marketer actually gets involved.
Marketing Strategy
A practical marketing strategy connected to your commercial objectives, not a document that gets filed away and forgotten.
Demand Generation
Building a joined-up approach to generating and nurturing demand across your buying journey.
Positioning and Messaging
Making complex products and services easier to understand, and giving buyers a reason to choose you.
Campaign Strategy
Planning integrated campaigns across the channels that matter to your audience.
Website and Conversion
Identifying where your website and customer journeys are losing potential opportunities.
Sales Alignment
Helping marketing and sales work towards the same commercial outcomes.
AI-Assisted Marketing
Using AI where it improves speed, research and execution, while keeping strategy and judgement at the centre.
Fractional vs full-time
Flexible enough to match what you actually need.
A full-time senior marketing hire isn't always the right answer. Fractional support can give you access to experienced marketing leadership with a three-month minimum, then ongoing.
A few days a month
For strategic direction and oversight.
A weekly commitment
For ongoing leadership and execution.
A defined project
To solve a specific marketing problem.
The starting point is understanding what your business actually needs.
Who this is for
Built for businesses where marketing isn't straightforward.
Life Sciences
Technology
Professional Services
Local businesses
Specialist B2B services
Technical businesses
Complex products or longer buying journeys
Businesses selling to multiple stakeholders
If your customers need to understand, evaluate and justify a purchase before they buy, generic marketing rarely does enough.
Why Zero6 Marketing
Why work with Zero6 Marketing?
You don't need another supplier adding to the pile of disconnected marketing activity. You need someone who understands the commercial problem first, works out what marketing actually needs to do about it, and then helps make it happen.
That's what I bring to Zero6 Marketing:
- 10+ years in marketing
- CIM Chartered Marketer status
- Demand generation and pipeline experience, built running programmes across EMEA and global markets
- Experience across complex B2B and Life Sciences
- Positioning and messaging work that doesn't default to generic language
- Strategy that's built to actually get executed, not just presented
- Flexible fractional support rather than a traditional agency retainer
The result is senior marketing capability, without committing to a full-time senior hire.
Location
Based in Bolton, working across the UK.
Zero6 Marketing is based in Bolton and works with businesses across Greater Manchester, the North West and remotely across the UK. You don't need to be based in Bolton to work together.
Bolton
Fractional marketing consultancy in Bolton
I'm based in Bolton, and I work with businesses across Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK.
Being Bolton-based doesn't limit the work to Bolton businesses. The focus is on helping businesses improve marketing strategy, positioning and demand generation, wherever they happen to be based.
If you're looking for a fractional marketing consultant in Bolton who can combine strategic direction with practical execution, that's what I do: senior marketing support without the overhead of a permanent Head of Marketing.
Questions answered
FAQ
A fractional marketing consultant provides experienced marketing leadership and strategic support on a part-time or flexible basis, rather than as a full-time employee. This can cover strategy, positioning, demand generation, campaign planning, performance analysis, and working alongside internal teams or existing suppliers.
Not necessarily. A fractional marketer can provide senior-level strategic support without the cost and commitment of a permanent full-time role.
Yes. I'm based in Bolton, but I work with businesses across Greater Manchester and the rest of the UK.
Yes. Life Sciences is an area of particular experience, alongside wider complex B2B marketing.
Yes. Fractional support can complement existing internal marketers, agencies and specialists rather than replacing them.
No. The focus is on turning strategy into action, including campaign planning, positioning, content, digital activity, demand generation and performance analysis.
It depends on the level of involvement, priorities, and time required. Fractional marketing support is usually structured around an agreed number of days or sessions each month, rather than the salary and overhead of a full-time Head of Marketing. My Fractional Demand Generation Lead service starts from £2,500 a month with a three-month minimum term; details are on the Work With Me page.
Start with a conversation about what you're trying to achieve and where marketing is currently falling short. You can also see your score with the free diagnostic first.
A fractional consultant gets properly embedded in the business and provides senior strategic leadership, rather than just delivering individual marketing services. I can work alongside your existing team, suppliers and technology, providing the strategic direction and demand generation expertise that might be missing.
In practice the work overlaps. "CMO" is more common in venture-backed and US-influenced companies, "marketing director" and "head of marketing" in UK businesses. I'd focus less on the title and more on whether the person owns strategy, positioning and pipeline, or just a channel. My work is closest to a head of marketing with a demand generation focus.
At about one day a week, usually yes. At two days a week it comes out close to a head of marketing's salary and employer costs. What changes is what you get for the money: senior judgement on the days you need it, no recruitment, and no five-day commitment. My service starts from £2,500 a month with a three-month minimum, as set out on work with me. The arithmetic is in what a fractional head of marketing costs in the UK.
Published UK guides typically put it at one to three days a week. The right amount depends on whether you need direction and oversight, or someone doing the work as well.
Questions people ask before hiring fractional marketing leadership
Need senior marketing support without taking on a full-time hire?
If your marketing isn't generating the pipeline, positioning or commercial clarity you need, let's have a conversation about what's actually getting in the way.