Eve Fitzhenry smiling, seated by a window

The marketing director your business needs, without the full-time appointment.

Senior marketing leadership, embedded in your business a few days a month. I set the direction, own the plan, brief the people who deliver it and read the numbers with you.

Book a conversation with me How an engagement works

What a fractional marketing director actually does

A fractional marketing director is the senior marketing person in your business, without being on the payroll five days a week. The job is the same as the full-time version: decide what the marketing is for, set the strategy, own the plan and the budget, direct the people doing the work, and be accountable to you for the result.

What changes is the shape of the arrangement. I work alongside you and your sales team as your most senior marketing voice, typically a few days a month, scaling up or down as the business needs. Not an agency or a generalist, but a senior marketer who becomes part of your team.

The signs a business needs senior marketing leadership

Most of the businesses I work with are strong businesses, with the marketing still to catch up. These are the situations I see most often.

01
Marketing decisions sit with the MD
You’re making the calls on agencies, spend and campaigns because there’s nobody senior enough to make them for you. It works, until it takes your week.
02
A good marketer with nobody to direct them
A capable in-house executive, or a freelancer, who needs direction, priorities and someone to learn from.
03
Agencies working in silos
A PR agency, a digital agency and a designer, each doing good work, none of it pulling in one direction.
04
Busy, but not moving
Plenty of activity and no clear line from any of it to the commercial objectives. Being busy is not the same as making progress.
05
Something big on the horizon
A rebrand, a new range, a show season, a new distributor, a new market. Moments where the marketing has to be led, not just done.
06
More than one audience
Designers, specifiers, retailers or end users, each needing a different message and a different reason to act.

What working with me changes

Marketing is a list of things being done: Marketing has a direction, a plan and a budget that everyone can see
You brief three suppliers and reconcile the results: You brief one person and approve the work
The sales team makes its own materials: The sales team gets marketing that opens doors for them
Shows are booked and hoped for: Every stand has a plan before, during and after
Results are a feeling: Results are a monthly report against objectives you set

Eve in conversation at an industry event

Why sector expertise matters more than it sounds

I started my career in contract furniture, and it’s an industry I’ve never really left. Over the past twenty years I’ve worked across brand strategy and marketing leadership for some of the best known names in UK contract furniture and flooring. I understand how this industry actually works: the dealer relationships, the specification process with architects and designers, and the long lead times that come with project-based business.

That matters because a marketing director who has to learn your market costs you a year. One who already knows how a floor gets specified, how a dealer decides what to stock, which editors matter and which shows are worth the stand can start on day one.

The sectors I know from the inside

How I embed in the business

The model is simple: I lead, a small team behind me keeps delivery moving, and specialists do what specialists do. You deal with one person.

You and your leadership team

Set the commercial objectives. Approve the direction and the plan.

Eve

Senior point of contact. Leads the strategy and the work, working alongside you and your sales team.

Your sales team

Out with the trade every day. Gets marketing that opens doors, and feeds back what the market is saying.

Your in-house marketer, if you have one

Directed, mentored and given a plan to run with.

Industry-experienced account manager

Keeps day-to-day delivery on track: content, scheduling and keeping everything moving.

Admin support

Handles the detail behind the scenes: reporting, logistics and coordination.

Trusted specialist partners

Design, web, photography, print, stand build, PR distribution. Briefed and managed by me, so you have one point of contact throughout.

Cadence. A short weekly check-in to keep the plan honest, a monthly report and review against the objectives we set, and a proper look back every six months.

Fractional, agency or a permanent appointment?

All three can be the right answer. This is how I’d describe the difference honestly.

Who sets the direction

A fractional marketing directorMe, with you, inside the business

An agencyUsually you, with the agency advising from outside.

A full-time marketing directorThem, inside the business

Sector knowledge on day one

A fractional marketing directorTwenty years in interiors, furniture and flooring

An agencyDepends on the agency’s client list

A full-time marketing directorDepends on who you can hire

Scope

A fractional marketing directorStrategy through to directing delivery

An agencyThe discipline they sell: PR, digital, design

A full-time marketing directorEverything, if the budget allows a team

Commitment

A fractional marketing directorA few days a month, rolling, scaling up or down

An agencyA retainer per discipline

A full-time marketing directorA senior salary, benefits and a recruitment process

Best when

A fractional marketing directorYou need leadership and sector judgment more than headcount

An agencyYou already have a leader and need hands

A full-time marketing directorMarketing is big enough to need someone every day

Dimension	A fractional marketing director	An agency	A full-time marketing director
Who sets the direction	Me, with you, inside the business	Usually you, with the agency advising from outside.	Them, inside the business
Sector knowledge on day one	Twenty years in interiors, furniture and flooring	Depends on the agency’s client list	Depends on who you can hire
Scope	Strategy through to directing delivery	The discipline they sell: PR, digital, design	Everything, if the budget allows a team
Commitment	A few days a month, rolling, scaling up or down	A retainer per discipline	A senior salary, benefits and a recruitment process
Best when	You need leadership and sector judgment more than headcount	You already have a leader and need hands	Marketing is big enough to need someone every day

Leadership in practice

Bjelin UK · Embedded marketing leadership

Alongside the UK team. Connected to Sweden.

Eve leads UK marketing alongside Bjelin’s UK team: positioning the brand, building the content and opening the market. Her role connects strategy and communications with the sales team’s CRM, materials and distributor support.

With the Swedish marketing team, she supports briefing documents and approval workflows, and advises on UK objectives and audience alignment for paid digital.

Explore Eve’s role in the Bjelin UK project →

Triangle

Retained marketing leadership for a software business moving from bespoke projects to a product-led model.

The Triangle case study →

“Eve works exceptionally well with the team and is a partner to the leaders and a guiding hand for the wider team.”
Simon Darbyshire, Managing Director, Bjelin UK

Questions I’m usually asked

How many days a month is a fractional marketing director?

It varies with the business. A typical arrangement is one to two days a month of my time, with the account manager and admin support behind that, scaling up around a launch or a show season and down when the plan is running smoothly.

Do you replace our agency?

Not usually. If your agencies are good, I direct them. If a gap needs filling, I bring in trusted specialist partners and manage them. Either way, you brief one person.

Is this only for interiors businesses?

My sector depth is in interiors, flooring, contract furniture, lighting and design-led manufacturing, and that is where I’m most useful. The method also travels beyond interiors. At Triangle, a software business, I work as the retained marketing lead: setting content strategy and coordinating the brand, website and specialist partners around a changing business.

How do we start?

With discovery: a two- to four-week look at where you are, which produces the strategy and a six-month plan. Then we choose the level of ongoing support, if any.

Where to go from here

Before you decide

Is this the right support?

Who it suits: For owners and leadership teams who need senior marketing direction and ongoing accountability, without a full-time director appointment.
What the engagement covers: Direction, priorities, budgets, briefing and coordination of delivery, working alongside the leadership and sales teams. Specialist execution is scoped separately within the plan.
When another route may fit: If a clear plan already exists and the gap is delivery capacity, implementation support may be more appropriate. A full-time role may suit a business needing continuous internal leadership.
Scope and fees: Fees are quoted after a first conversation, based on the time commitment, what’s being delivered and any specialist support needed.

Useful preparation

Book a conversation with me

05 · Behind the Thinking

From the journal

Eve’s own writing on the thinking behind this work.

4 May 2026
The One Marketing Non-Negotiable Every Growing Business Needs to Get Right
Ask ten marketers what their non-negotiable is and you will get ten different answers. Mine is always the same: branding. Here is why it underpins everything else you do.

06 · Start a conversation

Talk to me about leading your marketing

Thirty minutes, no slides. Tell me where the business is and where you want it to go, and I’ll tell you honestly whether a fractional arrangement is the right answer.

Book a conversation with me Tell me about your business