Fractional CMO · Birmingham and UK
Fractional CMO in Birmingham: marketing judged by the sales it brings
£200K to £1M+ in revenue, and one business to four.
Matthew Weston, owner, Vantage 365 Group
Imagine a valley. One side is what you spend on marketing; the other side is what comes back. Most owners can see both sides and nothing in between: no bridge, no numbers, an agency talking about awareness. I sit in the marketing seat for owners, part-time, and judge every pound by what it pays the business and you. From someone who ACTUALLY owns marketing businesses, with the behaviours that make it stick.
5.0· 23 Google reviewsMarketing Masterminds Birmingham: £500 a month plus VAT. Fractional CMO from £5,500 a month. Every price published.
Book a virtual coffeeWhatsAppFor owners of established businesses from about £250k turnover, scaling to £1m and on to £20m, and the people who run their marketing. Not for start-ups, and not for businesses whose sales don’t convert yet.
Two ways in
Marketing Masterminds: you become one of the Masterminds. Or me in the seat.
Marketing Masterminds Birmingham: £500 a month
Owners and marketers who test, measure and know. Plural on purpose: the members are the Masterminds.
One session a month, in person in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter with a Zoom seat for the rest of the UK. Up to 12 businesses, owners and their marketing people. It’s the low way in, and it’s a test lab: twelve businesses trying the latest tech, AI and marketing between sessions, measuring what it did, and reporting the numbers back to the room. Real data from businesses like yours, not opinion from a stage. 12 founding seats; the first session runs once six are taken.
- Everyone’s 90-day numbers. Spend, traffic, enquiries, quotes sent, orders won. The bridge across the valley from what you spent to what came back, one business at a time, in money.
- One business worked in the room. One owner’s marketing problem, taken apart with twelve other businesses watching: the channel, the person running it, the offer, the price. Everyone learns from the one in the chair.
- The behaviours for the month. Marketing fails in small businesses for the reason my research found: it’s done inconsistently, by the wrong person, with nobody held to the numbers. Each business leaves with the two or three behaviours that get measured next month.
- Held to it next time. The first ten minutes of every session is last month’s commitments. Did the calls get made, did the agency get the brief, did the price go up? Red, amber, green.
Fractional CMO: from £5,500 a month
A fee for owning your marketing number, not a day rate: the days are capped, the scope and the monthly report are in writing, and it runs on a 12-month arc that ends in a handover. Quoted after a conversation, because the scope depends on the size of the team and the budget. This is me in the seat, and the point is not to need me. I grow the person who takes the seat from me, your marketing manager or the hire we make together, so your team ends up with the skills and you stop paying for them. A fractional director who leaves you a director.
- Set the strategy. Who you’re selling to, what they need to know, which channels are worth the money and which are guilt marketing.
- Own the budget and the return. What you spend, what it brings back, and what gets cut. Reported to you every 90 days in a form you can act on.
- Lead your people and agencies. Your marketing staff, freelancers and agency working to one plan, briefed on outcomes, not deliverables.
- Join marketing to sales. So the leads marketing brings in are leads sales can win, and the quote-to-order number is on the same page as the cost per lead.
How I judge marketing
Spend on one side, return on the other, and the bridge measured every 90 days.
Start with the number that says you won
You can have all the leads you want, but if you didn’t make any money, what’s the point? A quarter is long enough to know whether the marketing worked, so the first question is what number says you won the quarter. For most owners it’s sales, then the profit those sales left behind, then what the business paid you.
Work backwards to the bridge
For those sales to happen, what had to be true week on week? How many enquiries, converting at what rate, from where, and what did each one cost? Spend, traffic, enquiries, quotes, orders: that’s the bridge across the valley. If whoever runs your marketing can’t show it to you, you haven’t got a measure. You’ve got activity.
Then the behaviours
This is the part most marketing advice misses, and it’s the part my doctorate was about. Marketing in small businesses fails for behavioural reasons: the owner stops at month three, the apprentice is running it, the agency was briefed on red or blue instead of twice the leads, nobody picks up the phone. So every month ends with the two or three behaviours that get measured next month, and the first ten minutes of the next session is whether they happened.
Sales and margin first
Why would you turn the marketing tap on if your sales are weak? Say you get 100 enquiries a quarter and convert 10%. Double the enquiries and you’ve paid for every one of the extra hundred to win ten more customers. Get conversion to 20% and you’ve got those ten for nothing. So before I take a fee, I check conversion and margin. If that’s the problem, you don’t need a CMO yet, and I’ll point you at the fix.
What I promise, and what I don’t
I don’t promise leads or sales. Nobody honest can.
The people who promise leads are the agencies you’ve already paid. What I promise is this: within 90 days you’ll know what your marketing pays, what it cost to find out, and who should be running it, and there’ll be someone in your business growing into the seat. That’s a promise I can keep in every business, and it’s the one you can’t buy from a platform or a freelancer.
Not for you if
Three reasons I’ll tell you not to hire me yet.
Your sales convert under a third of genuine enquiries
More leads into a leaky bucket is money out. Fix conversion first; this is where to start, and I’ll tell you on the call if that’s you.
Your margin is thin
More sales at a poor margin just make you busier. The profit margin calculator shows whether the growth would pay.
You want someone to post for you
That’s an agency or a freelancer. I’ll help you choose one and judge them, and I’ll manage them if I’m your CMO, but I don’t do the posting.
Why me
A fractional CMO who owns marketing businesses, not one who sells marketing.
I own a lead generation business. I built a membership platform on its own marketing, and a TikTok following of 69,000+ by testing what the algorithm wants rather than buying it. I learned marketing the long way in my own businesses: mistake, mistake, mistake, then the thing that worked. Owners I work with have paid £10,000 for a funnel where the £10,000 was certain for the agency and the return wasn’t for them, and promoted their best technician to run marketing without the skills to lead it. Those are the mistakes you’re paying to skip.
What that gives you is a marketing seat filled by someone who thinks like an owner. Call it a fractional CMO or a fractional marketing director; the title on the door changes, the job doesn’t. I don’t care which channel wins; I care what it pays. And because the research behind how owners keep going, and why they stop, is mine, the plan comes with the behaviours that make it stick, not just the strategy.
If the bigger problem is the whole business running through you, start with how working with me goes. If you want the marketing-only coaching for you and your marketing manager, that’s the marketing coach page. And what a fractional CMO does, and when one won’t help is written up in full.
What owners say
Mike FosterBusiness owner · Mike Foster FitnessLewis really helped me take my business to the next level, I was struggling to grow my business and my numbers were declining. With his help and guidance he has helped our business make an extra £5-10k a month in revenue to start with, and our social media following has helped us reach new people all over the world. If it wasn't for Lewis' help I think the business may have gone under, but since working with him the business has really flourished.
Matthew WestonOwner, Vantage 365 Group · Vantage 365 Group£200K to £1M+ in revenue, and one business to four. That’s where Vantage 365 has gone since I started working with Lewis. We’re now a group made up of Vantage 365 Group plus dedicated Consultancy, Training and Support businesses. Lewis has helped foster my entrepreneurial spirit and, just as importantly, helped me see the wood for the trees. He’s someone I can share ideas with, talk problems through with, and occasionally just vent to. And it’s not only me he’s supported; he’s worked with members of my team too, which has made a real difference across the business. If you’re an owner who knows there’s more in you and your business, I’d highly recommend him.
I worked with Lewis in a previous role and his coaching made a real difference, both professionally and personally. He helped us set clear business goals, challenge the way we operated and focus on what would genuinely move the business forward. His approach pushed us to think bigger, make better decisions and turn ideas into results rather than just talking about them. On a personal level, Lewis helped build my confidence, challenged my mindset and pushed me outside my comfort zone. He’s honest, straightforward and genuinely invested in seeing both the business and the people behind it succeed. I’d highly recommend working with him.
Questions
What is a fractional CMO?
A senior marketing leader who works in your business part-time: setting the strategy, owning the budget and the numbers, and leading your team or agencies, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time marketing director. You pay a fraction of the cost for a fraction of their time. The question is whether their time goes on the right problem, which is why I check sales and margin first.
Is a fractional marketing director the same as a fractional CMO?
Yes. Fractional CMO, fractional marketing director, part-time marketing director, fractional head of marketing: the same seat with different names on the door. In the UK, smaller businesses tend to say marketing director and larger ones say CMO. Whatever you call it, the job is to own the strategy, the budget and the people, and to be judged on what the marketing pays the business. The title I care about is the one on the person who takes the seat from me.
How much does a fractional CMO cost in the UK?
It’s usually a day rate or a monthly fee for an agreed number of days, and the range is wide. Mine is from £5,500 a month with the days, the responsibilities and the monthly report agreed in writing before we start. The group is £500 a month plus VAT. For comparison, a full-time marketing director in the Midlands costs £70,000 to £100,000 a year before employer costs.
What’s the difference between the group and the fractional CMO?
The group is one session a month with up to 12 businesses: your numbers reviewed, one business worked in the room, and your behaviours for the month agreed and checked. The fractional CMO is me in your business for agreed days a month, owning the strategy, the budget and your marketing people. They’re different products: the Masterminds is a room you sit in with eleven other businesses; the fractional CMO is a seat I fill in yours. Start in the room, and if you want more of me, the seat is the next step.
Who should come to the group?
The owner, and the person who runs the marketing if there is one. It’s built for owners, so the language is money: what it cost, what it made, where the next pound goes. A marketing manager who learns to report that way becomes worth a lot more to the owner, which is why I ask owners to bring them.
Do you do the marketing for me?
No. In the group I show you what works, we test it on your numbers, and I hold you to it. As your fractional CMO I set the strategy, manage the budget and lead the people doing the work, including your agency. If you want someone to run your ads or write your content, that’s an agency or a freelancer, and I’ll help you pick one.
Is a fractional CMO worth it for a small business?
When your sales already convert well, your margins are healthy, you’re spending real money on marketing and nobody can say what it returns, yes. If sales or margin are the problem, no, and I’ll tell you that on the first call rather than take the fee. A lot of owners who think they need more marketing are short of profit, and that’s an operational fix.
Will I need a fractional CMO forever?
No, and that’s the design. A fractional CMO who does the senior marketing for you leaves a gap when they go. I grow the person who takes the seat, your marketing manager or the hire we make together, and hand it over in stages: they recommend and I decide, they decide and tell me, they decide. When the business can carry a full-time marketing director, you’ve got one, and the skills stayed in your team.
Do you only work with businesses in Birmingham?
No. The group meets in person in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, with a Zoom seat for owners elsewhere in the UK, and fractional CMO work runs in person across the West Midlands and on Zoom anywhere.
Do you guarantee results?
No. Nobody honest can guarantee leads or sales, and the ones who do are the reason owners come to me burnt. What I commit to in writing is the measurement and the person: within 90 days you know what your marketing pays and who should run it, and there is someone in your team growing into the seat. Month to month, 30 days’ notice, so the risk stays with me.
How does it start?
A 30-minute virtual coffee on Zoom, no charge. Bring your enquiry and conversion numbers and what you spend. I’ll tell you whether marketing is the problem, and if it is, whether it’s a group seat or a CMO you need. Marketing Masterminds Birmingham has 12 founding seats; the first session runs once six are taken.
How I compare
See how I compare to coaches, coaching franchise companies, and consultants.
Sixteen things owners care about, scored green, amber or red, with the reason for every score, including where someone else is the better choice.
See the full comparisonNext step
Ready for a business that pays off for you, and grows without you?
Bring your biggest question about scaling the business to a 30-minute virtual coffee, and leave with a straight answer.
Not sure I’m the right fit? Compare me with other coaches and mentors, honestly, including where others are the better choice. Want something built around your business? Request a tailored quote and I’ll call you to go through it.