Senior Marketing Leadership for SMEs That Need Growth to Work
When growth stalls, CAC rises, and marketing feels busy but ineffective, the problem isn’t effort.
It’s leadership, ownership, and systems.
Communications Edge provides senior marketing leadership to SMEs where growth needs to work — not just look active.
Not an agency. Not junior capacity. Leadership that restores commercial clarity and momentum.
Most SMEs Don’t Have a Marketing Problem
At around £1–5m revenue, founder-led growth reaches its natural ceiling.
What once worked no longer does:
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Marketing activity increases
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Spend goes up
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Results flatten
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Confidence drops
Everyone is busy.
No one can clearly explain why growth isn’t happening.
This isn’t a tactical failure.
It’s what happens when a business outgrows ad‑hoc marketing and still doesn’t have senior marketing leadership in place.
Who This Is For?
You are likely in the right place if:
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Revenue is roughly £1–5m and growth has slowed or stalled
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Marketing feels busy but ineffective
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The founder is still the default growth owner
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Agencies are active but not accountable
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Junior teams are working hard without clear direction
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The board wants answers, not explanations
If growth feels harder than it should, this page is for you.
Senior Marketing Leadership — Not More Marketing
Communications Edge provides fractional and interim senior marketing leadership for SMEs that are too complex for guesswork, but not yet ready for a full‑time CMO.
We step in to:
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Own marketing outcomes end‑to‑end
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Define what matters now — and stop what doesn’t
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Build a growth operating system that scales
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Align teams, agencies, and spend to commercial goals
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Remove the founder as the bottleneck
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Give boards confidence that growth is being led
In short: we make marketing work as a system, not a collection of activities.
The Problems We Are Brought In to Solve
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Momentum carried the business here. It won’t carry it further.
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Activity has replaced effectiveness.
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Spend increases. Confidence doesn’t.
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Decisions, approvals, and direction all route through one person.
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Good people. Poor leverage.
How We Work?
Phase 1: Diagnose the Real Constraint
We don’t start with tactics.
We identify:
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Where growth is actually breaking
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What is misaligned or missing
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Who owns what (and who doesn’t)
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What needs to stop immediately
Output: one clear growth constraint and a focused plan to address it.
Phase 2: Install Leadership and Ownership
Before scaling activity, we reset the system:
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A single point of marketing leadership
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One clear growth objective
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Defined decision authority
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Commercial success metrics
This is where momentum returns.
Phase 3: Build a Repeatable Growth System
Only now do we scale execution.
We align channels, teams, and agencies to commercial goals, install reporting boards can trust, and reduce noise in favour of signal.
Growth becomes manageable again.
Engagement Models
Fractional CMO (Most Common)
Best when growth has stalled and ownership is unclear.
Interim Marketing Leadership
Best when performance has deteriorated quickly and needs stabilising.
Advisory (Limited Use)
Best when leadership exists and direction needs sharpening.
What Changes When We’re In Place
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Fewer initiatives, better results
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Clear ownership of spend and outcomes
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Improved CAC and pipeline quality
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Reduced founder pressure
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Teams that know what “good” looks like
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Agencies that perform — or are replaced
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Boards that regain confidence
Marketing stops being noisy. Growth becomes deliberate.
What This Is Not
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Not an execution agency
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Not a content factory
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Not a rebrand exercise
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Not a junior team replacement
We don’t add activity.
We add leadership.
The Right Next Step
If you’re questioning whether marketing is actually driving growth — not just consuming time and budget — the next step is clarity, not more effort.
The tools over offer a data led, informed approach.
Let’s identify what’s really holding growth back and whether senior marketing leadership is the missing piece.
Identify the real growth constraint
Communications Edge works with SME founders and boards who are ready to stop guessing and start leading growth properly.
Senior Marketing Leadership for SMEs – FAQs
What do you mean by senior marketing leadership?
Senior marketing leadership means one experienced leader owns marketing outcomes end-to-end — strategy, priorities, spend, and results.
Not managing tasks. Not coordinating agencies.
Actually being accountable for growth performance and commercial impact.
How is this different from using a marketing agency?
Agencies execute activity. They don’t own growth.
We set direction, decide what matters, stop what doesn’t, and hold agencies accountable to commercial outcomes.
If agencies are involved, they work to the leadership — not instead of it.
How is this different from hiring a fractional CMO?
Fractional CMO is one engagement model we offer — not the whole solution.
This page explains when senior leadership is required.
Fractional, interim, or advisory is chosen only after the real constraint is clear.
When is senior marketing leadership the right move for an SME?
Typically when:
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Revenue is around £1–5m
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Growth has slowed or stalled
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CAC is rising or pipeline quality is falling
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Marketing is busy but impact is unclear
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The founder is still the default growth owner
At this stage, more activity increases noise — not results.
Do we need this if we already have a marketing manager?
Often, yes.
Marketing managers execute plans — they don’t set growth direction or own commercial trade-offs.
Without senior leadership, managers and agencies drift, even when they’re capable and hardworking.
Is this instead of hiring a full-time CMO?
Sometimes — often temporarily.
Senior marketing leadership is the lowest-risk way to restore clarity before committing to a £150k+ hire.
Many SMEs use this to stabilise growth, build the system, then decide whether a full-time CMO is needed at all.
What problems do you usually uncover first?
Common early findings include:
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No single owner of marketing ROI
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Too many initiatives and no clear priority
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Spend misaligned to the real growth constraint
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Founder approval slowing decisions
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Agencies optimising activity, not outcomes
Fixing these restores momentum fast.
How quickly do businesses see change?
Clarity comes first — often within weeks.
Performance follows once leadership, ownership, and focus are reset.
This isn’t about quick wins. It’s about removing what’s blocking growth.
What does “identify the real growth constraint” mean?
It means finding the one thing currently limiting growth — not a list of symptoms.
Until that’s clear, scaling marketing usually makes performance worse, not better.
Is this suitable for early-stage startups?
No.
This is for SMEs that have outgrown founder-led, ad-hoc marketing — not for businesses still finding product-market fit.
What happens if you conclude we don’t need you?
That happens — and it’s a good outcome.
Sometimes the issue is tactical or temporary.
Clarity still saves time, money, and mis-hires.