Decide whether you need marketing leadership or just marketing help.
A fractional CMO is the right answer when the problem is direction rather than delivery. askBizly will help you tell the difference, then introduce someone if that is genuinely what you need.
Free to use. Ask as much as you like.
Before I suggest anything — what would a good month look like, and what can you pay for a lead?
That’s workable. Here’s how:
- Understand your business, customers and objectivesWhat you sell, who buys, and where you want to get to
- Create your growth strategyWhere the £2.5k goes, and in what order
- Fix what’s holding you backThe changes you can make yourself
- Connect you with a partnerOnly if you need a specialist
AI built on real human expertise
askBizly applies the judgement of people who have grown businesses, led marketing teams and hired agencies — more than twenty years of it. Their criteria shape what it asks and how it answers.
A growth plan built for your business
Not a template. It asks what you sell, where you want to get to and what you have to spend, then sets out what to do, in what order, and what it should cost.
Partners aligned to your objectives
If you want help executing, askBizly briefs partners against the plan you just built — and says why each one fits. It is free to you; partners pay only when an introduction becomes work.
Start here
What’s missing from your marketing leadership?
Pick the leadership or strategy problem that sounds like yours.
Fractional CMO, agency, or first marketing hire?
Three very different answers get given to the same sentence: "we need to sort out our marketing". Which one is right depends almost entirely on whether your problem is knowing what to do or getting it done.
If nobody in the business can say what marketing is supposed to achieve this year, which channels you are committed to, or what you are prepared to spend to acquire a customer, that is a direction problem. Buying more delivery will not fix it — you will simply execute the wrong plan faster. That is the case for senior part-time help.
If you know all of that and the work is not happening, you have a delivery problem, and an agency or a hire is cheaper and simpler than a fractional CMO. Paying a senior day rate for execution is one of the more expensive mistakes available.
The awkward middle case is a business with a rough plan and one overloaded generalist. Often the answer there is a few days of senior input to set direction, then delivery help against it. askBizly will talk it through and tell you which of the three fits.
How it works
Work out whether you need a fractional CMO.
Describe the gap in your marketing. askBizly says whether you need direction, delivery, or neither — then what that should cost.
Understand your business and your marketing leadership goals
Your goals for marketing leadership, what you’re doing now and what you’ve got to work with — in your own words, one question at a time.
Work out what’s holding your marketing leadership back
What you tell it — and any proposal, report or figures you share — is assessed against clear marketing leadership criteria, with what’s known kept apart from what’s assumed.
Create your marketing leadership strategy
An action plan, a budget, a review or a brief for marketing leadership — with its evidence, assumptions and limits shown.
Help you execute
Do it yourself, go back to your supplier with better questions, or look at marketing leadership partners — you decide.
Fix the problem
Four ways askBizly can help with marketing leadership
Get a plan for what to do next, a realistic leadership budget, a review of a fractional CMO proposal, or a brief for the right strategist.
Diagnosis
Direction and delivery are different marketing problems.
An agency will keep doing more of the same. A fractional CMO changes what gets done. askBizly works out which gap you actually have before you hire either.
- Whether the plan is wrong, or just the execution
- When a first hire beats a fractional CMO
- What to fix yourself this quarter
Budget
Know what a fractional CMO should cost before you hire.
UK fractional day rates and retainers vary with seniority and days on site. askBizly breaks down what you should pay, what those days should cover, and when an agency is cheaper.
- Day rate and monthly retainer ranges
- What two days a month can and cannot do
- CMO, agency and hire compared on cost
Review
Check a fractional CMO proposal before you sign.
Share the scope, days and fee. askBizly looks at whether the brief is leadership or disguised delivery, and whether the measures would tell you if it is working.
- Scope judged against a leadership job
- Days and deliverables tested for realism
- Questions to put before you commit
Partners
A clear brief, then only marketing leaders who fit.
If you do need fractional leadership, askBizly turns your stage, team and budget into a brief and looks for strategists whose records fit. Nobody is contacted until you say so.
- You see the brief before anyone does
- You approve the brief first
- No obligation to hire
Fractional CMO questions people ask first
Typical UK day rates run from £600 to £1,200, and most arrangements are one to three days a month for a small business or one to two days a week for a company actively scaling. That usually works out between £1,500 and £8,000 a month. It is worth comparing to a full-time marketing director at £80,000 to £120,000 plus employment costs, which is the hire a fractional arrangement is standing in for.
They solve different problems. An agency executes in a channel — they will run your ads or your SEO and report on it. A fractional CMO decides which channels you should be in, sets the budget, hires and manages the agencies, and answers for the overall result. If you already know your strategy and need it delivered, hire the agency. If you have several suppliers pulling in different directions, or nobody senior deciding what marketing should achieve, the fractional route will save you more than it costs.
The usual signals are revenue somewhere north of £1m, marketing spend large enough that misallocating it hurts, and at least one person or agency already doing delivery work without clear direction. Below that, a fractional CMO tends to end up doing hands-on work at a senior rate, which is poor value for both sides. askBizly will tell you honestly if you are not there yet.
They own the marketing plan, the budget split, and the people or agencies doing the work. Typical weeks include reviewing performance, briefing suppliers, hiring or firing a channel, and reporting to the founder on what changed. They should not be writing the social posts or logging into Google Ads every day — that is delivery, and it is cheaper to buy separately. If the proposal is mostly hands-on execution, you are being sold an expensive freelancer.
One or two days a month is enough when the plan is set and you need someone senior to keep agencies honest. Two to four days a month is typical when you are changing direction, hiring, or launching a new offer. A day a week is for businesses that have no other senior marketing person at all. More than that and you are usually better off hiring. askBizly will work out the days from the gap, not from a package.
A marketing manager executes a plan. A fractional CMO writes it. If you already know what to do and need someone to run campaigns, hire the manager — they will cost less and stay longer. If nobody senior is deciding the plan, a manager will keep busy without changing the result. Plenty of businesses need a short fractional engagement to set direction, then a manager to run it. That sequence is usually cheaper than either hire on its own.
Yes. The advice is free for business owners and always will be. askBizly is paid by the partners it introduces, and only when you choose to be introduced. Nothing is sent to anyone and nobody contacts you until you say so.
Stop guessing. Start growing.
Describe the gap. Free, with no fractional CMO or agency contacting you unless you ask.