When to Hire In-House vs. Go Fractional: An Honest Guide for B2B Leaders

Your marketing needs senior expertise. But does it need a full-time salary to match?

Growing B2B businesses face a frustrating gap: you need strategic marketing leadership, but the cost of hiring a full-time Senior Marketing Manager feels out of reach. You’ve seen what great marketing can do. You’ve watched competitors pull ahead. But the numbers don’t add up.

Here’s the reality: fractional marketing leadership delivers senior-level strategy and execution without the six-figure commitment. Let’s break down what it actually costs.

When Recruiting Directly Makes Sense

Let’s start here: recruiting talent directly is right for many businesses. If you tick these boxes, hiring in-house is probably the best next step.

You Have Consistent, Daily Workload

Marketing needs attention five days a week, every week. You've got steady content production, ongoing campaign management, daily social media, constant lead nurturing, and regular sales support. The work fills a full-time role sustainably—not just during peak periods.

You Have Budget Certainty

You can commit £60,000-£90,000 annually (all-in costs) without that investment threatening other growth priorities. You've got 12-18 months runway regardless of how quickly the hire ramps up or delivers results.

You Need Deep Product or Industry Knowledge

Your product is complex, technical, or requires months to understand properly. Your industry has specific nuances, regulations, or buyer behaviours that take time to learn. An embedded team member can build that knowledge and become genuinely expert in your market.

You're Ready for the Recruitment Process

You can invest 2-4 months finding the right person, handle the interview process, and manage onboarding. You're comfortable with the risk that it might not work out and you'll need to start again.

You're Building a Marketing Function, Not Just Getting Work Done

You're creating a marketing department with multiple people, defined processes, and long-term capability. You need someone who'll build systems, develop junior staff, and embed themselves in company culture for 2-3+ years.

When Fractional Makes More Sense

Your Marketing Needs Are Variable

Some months you're launching products and need intensive support. Other months you're optimizing existing campaigns and need light strategic oversight. Your workload fluctuates seasonally, by quarter, or based on business priorities. Fractional lets you flex resource up and down without the commitment or cost of full-time staff.

You Want Results Now, Not in Six Months

Recruitment takes 8-16 weeks. Onboarding takes another 4-8 weeks. With fractional support, you can be live in 24-48 hours with someone who's done this before and doesn't need months to contribute

You're Not Ready to Commit Long-Term

Your business is growing but unpredictable. You're testing new markets, pivoting strategy, or managing cash flow carefully. Locking into £70,000+ annual employment feels risky when your situation might change in six months

You Need Tools, Not Just People

Premium marketing tools cost £15,000-£30,000 annually. Design support costs £25,000-£40,000 for a junior designer. B2B databases cost £10,000+. With Mixx, tools are included—so you get expertise AND infrastructure without separate procurement

You Need Expertise Across Multiple Areas

Your ideal hire would be a strategist AND a content writer AND a demand gen expert AND a brand specialist. That person doesn't exist—or costs £120,000+. With fractional, you can access different specialists as needs change without hiring five people.

The Hybrid Approach (That Often Works Best)

Here’s what many smart B2B businesses do: they use fractional senior leadership to guide strategy while hiring junior or mid-level staff for execution.

Why this works:

Senior fractional marketer sets direction, optimizes performance, makes strategic decisions (2-3 days/week)
Junior in-house team handles daily execution, learns from senior guidance, builds company knowledge
You get expertise at the top without paying senior salaries for execution work

This model scales efficiently. Your junior team becomes more effective because they have clear direction. Your fractional leader focuses time on high-value work, not admin.

How to Decide: The Honest Questions to Ask

There’s no wrong answer here. Just different situations requiring different solutions.

1. Do we need deep company embedding?
2. Can we afford to wait 3-6 months?
3. Is our business situation stable or changeable?

What Happens If You Choose Wrong?

Hire full-time when you needed fractional: You’ve committed £70,000-£100,000 to someone. Changing direction means redundancy, recruitment, and another 6-month cycle.

Go fractional when you needed to hire directly: You’ll feel like you need more time, daily presence, or deeper company knowledge. You’ll hit the limits of the model quickly.

The good news? Fractional is easier to course-correct. You’ve learned exactly what you need and haven’t burned serious budget.

The real question isn't which model is best—it's which model fits where you are right now.

Hiring directly works brilliantly for established marketing functions with consistent needs and budget certainty. Fractional works brilliantly for growing businesses needing flexible expertise, variable capacity, and speed to value.

Neither is universally better. Both have their place.

Not sure which model fits your business?

Tell us where you are and what you're trying to achieve. We'll give you an honest recommendation—even if that's hiring directly instead of working with us. Because getting it right matters more than getting the sale.

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