The fractional marketing team, in one practice.

What a fractional marketing team is

A fractional marketing team is a marketing department hired part-time. The business gets the seats a department would hold without hiring anyone into them: a strategist, a designer, a web developer, a search specialist, a writer, an email marketer, and a paid media manager. Staffing those seats in-house runs roughly $490,000 to $545,000 a year fully loaded, which is why most businesses that need the work never build the department. What an in-house team costs, with sources.

Most fractional teams are assembled. A fractional CMO sets the direction, an agency or a few freelancers produce the work, and the business pays each of them and referees between them. Every seat is filled, and no one answers for whether the seats add up.

What the practice does under that name, and when

Binary Glyph fills those seats as one practice, in the order the work depends on: the engagement’s five phases, over six months, each ending on a stated result.

Ground · month 1

The analyst and the strategist

The measurement rebuilt from zero, the brand audited, and the position written down, so every later month is judged against a baseline.

Meaning · months 1–2

The strategist and the writer

The position, the mission, and the capabilities rewritten around what the customer buys, with a voice and messaging guide the business signs.

Form · months 2–3

The designer

The identity system and its application across every surface, approved against the strategy.

Home · months 2–3

The web developer and the search specialist

The website, built in two halves: the technical half first (crawl, schema, speed, capture, and email authentication), then the on-brand build and its copy. Search is part of the build from the first half.

Care · months 3–6

The writer, the email marketer, the social manager, and the paid media manager

The content engine, the email flows, and organic social start in month three. Paid media joins in month four, once there is a site and a message worth paying to send people to. Month five optimizes, and month six proves it with a documented before-and-after.

After month six

After month six the practice keeps running what it built as an ongoing program: the site, search, the content cadence, the email, the measurement, and paid media where the business runs it. A business that also wants the leadership seat held (the plan, the budget, the direction of every vendor, and a monthly leadership review) keeps the practice in it as its fractional CMO. The terms for both are posted on the practice page.

One practice

An assembled team is only as coherent as its handoffs. The strategist writes a plan the designer interprets, the developer builds what the design allows, the search specialist retrofits what the build missed, and each part sends its own invoice. Every seam is a place for the plan to thin out, and none of the parts owns the whole.

Here there are no seams. The person who sets the position also designs the identity, builds the site, writes the copy, configures the email, and reads the numbers, and that one person answers for whether all of it works. The Same Hand makes the full argument.

Fractional is not fragmented.

Questions about a fractional marketing team

What is a fractional marketing team? A fractional marketing team is a marketing department hired part-time: the strategy, brand, website, search, content, email, and paid media work a business needs, paid for monthly instead of staffed. It is also called a fractional marketing department. Most are assembled, with a fractional CMO setting the direction and an agency or freelancers doing the work. Binary Glyph delivers the whole of it as one practice, with one senior practitioner accountable for all of it.

Is a fractional marketing team the same as a fractional CMO? No. A fractional CMO holds the leadership seat: the plan, the budget, and the direction of the work. A fractional marketing team does the work: the brand, the website, search, content, email, and paid media. Many businesses end up paying for both. Binary Glyph provides both as one practice, so the plan and the work answer to the same person.

How much does a fractional marketing team cost? Priced in parts, a fractional marketing team is a fractional CMO, typically $5,000 to $15,000 a month, plus the agency or freelancers who do the work; agencies alone typically charge established businesses $1,500 to $15,000 a month. The practice posts every price. The audit is $3,500, and its fee credits in full toward the engagement if the engagement starts within 90 days. The six-month engagement is $6,000 a month, or $7,500 with managed paid media. After month six the ongoing program is $3,000 to $5,000 a month, or $15,500 with the practice in the CMO seat.

How it starts

The work starts with the marketing audit: two weeks, a senior diagnosis of the whole function, and a written plan for the next ninety days. It is $3,500, fixed, and it credits in full toward an engagement that starts within ninety days. It shows which seats the business needs filled, and in what order, before anyone commits to six months.

The seat that leads the team: the fractional CMO. How the processes integrate, in delivery: In Practice →