Fractional CMO
Senior marketing leadership for education companies, without the full-time hire.
Many education companies reach a point where they need marketing leadership but aren't ready for a full-time Marketing Director or CMO. The work is getting done, but nobody owns the direction. We take on that senior role part-time. We set the strategy, lead the plan, coach your team and report to the board. We build the foundations a permanent Marketing Director or CMO would want to inherit. When you’re ready to hire one, we help you find them.
When it works best
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You have a marketing manager or small team, but nobody senior above them.
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You’ve raised investment or been acquired, and marketing now needs to prove its value.
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Your Head of Marketing has left, and you need cover while you recruit.
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You’re launching, rebranding or entering a new market, and want senior judgement on hand throughout.
What we take on
Strategy and planning.
Marketing priorities, budget and measures, tied to the commercial plan.
Foundations first.
We check that your messaging and brand are strong enough to build on. If they aren’t, we fix them before spending more on campaigns.
Leading the team.
Regular direction, coaching and sign-off, so your team spends its time on the work that matters.
Board and investor reporting.
What marketing is delivering, in terms the board cares about.
Hiring.
Designing the function, writing the roles and interviewing alongside you. That includes your next Head of Marketing, Marketing Director or CMO.
How it works
Most engagements run at one to two days a week, with a three-month minimum. That’s enough to set direction, lead the plan and keep your team moving. Your team handles day-to-day delivery, with us alongside.
Need more support for a launch or a busy quarter? We can step up for a set period and step back down after.
At three months, we review together. You choose what happens next: continue, change the level, or hand over to your team or a new hire.
Why education experience matters
Selling into schools is different. Decisions involve many people, take months and rest on trust. A fractional CMO from outside the sector spends their first months learning that. We bring a decade of experience scaling education companies, plus ten years as a school governor on the buying side.
In practice: Bedrock Learning
Suzanna led marketing three days a week, including relaunching their Reading Test. As a result, the Reading Test moved from a low-interest product to a core part of a school's literacy strategy, delivering stronger commercial performance with a 12× revenue increase and a 4× customer increase.
“Suzanna combines a focused mindset with creativity and has delivered some of our biggest marketing projects from inception to lead generation.”
Ben Triggs, Marketing Director, Bedrock Learning
Read the full Bedrock case study
Not sure what you need?
It might be a fractional CMO, a project or a permanent hire. That’s a good first conversation.