You’re Hiring a Marketing Manager. But Who Sets the Strategy They’ll Execute?
I talk to founders every week who are about to make the same expensive mistake.
They've built a good product. They've closed their first customers. Now they're raising a Series A or have just finished it — and they're ready to "do marketing properly." So they open a job listing for a Marketing Manager.
Here's the thing nobody tells them: a Marketing Manager is an executor, not a strategist.
They're brilliant at running campaigns. Writing content. Managing agencies. Coordinating launches. But ask them to build a positioning framework from scratch, decide which market to enter first, or define the ICPs your sales team should be targeting — and most of them will look at you and wait.
They're waiting for strategy. And nobody has given it to them.
The gap between funding and growth
You've just raised €10M. You have 25 people, growing fast. Marketing has been done by you, the co-founder, in between everything else. You know it's not enough — so you hire someone to take over.
The Marketing Manager starts on Monday. They ask:
Who's our primary buyer persona?
What's our positioning versus competitors?
Which channels have historically converted?
What's the MRR target, and how does marketing contribute to it?
If you don't have clear answers to those questions — and most founders at this stage don't, because they were too busy building — your new Marketing Manager will spend months figuring it out. Burning budget on the wrong channels. Building brand before you've found the message that converts.
This isn't their fault. They're doing the job you hired them for. The gap is in the layer above: strategy.
What week 4 actually looks like
Here's something I've seen play out in nearly identical form across dozens of companies. The Marketing Manager has been in the seat for four weeks. They're smart, motivated, well-liked. But watch what they're actually doing.
They're creating content. A lot of it. Because content is visible progress, and visible progress feels safe when direction is unclear. They've set up a Notion calendar, drafted eight blog ideas, started a LinkedIn posting schedule. All of it reasonable on its own.
But they haven't defined which lead source they're doubling down on, because nobody told them. They haven't paused the paid campaign that's been running since before they joined and burning €3,000 per month with a 0.8% conversion rate, because that feels too bold a call for week four. They haven't decided whether the company is going upmarket or staying mid-market, because that's a strategic call that doesn't feel like theirs to make.
So they execute. Broadly. Without leverage.
By week eight, the founder senses something is off. "We're doing a lot, but I'm not sure it's moving the needle." The Marketing Manager senses it too. Both sides are frustrated, and neither is wrong. The problem isn't the person. It's the missing layer.
LinkedIn Talent Solutions data from 2024 puts the average time-to-hire for senior marketing roles in the Netherlands at 47 to 68 days. Add three months of onboarding before someone is genuinely effective, and you're looking at five months from decision to real output. During that window, most companies also have no strategy layer in place. That's five months of well-meaning, directionless execution.
Gartner's CMO Spend Survey has consistently found that first marketing hires at Series A-stage companies fail at a rate of 40 to 60 percent within 18 months when strategic direction is unclear at the time of hire. Not because the person was wrong. Because the setup was wrong.
What a Fractional CMO actually does
I've worked with 200+ B2B companies over 18 years. The pattern shows up constantly in the 20-50 employee phase.
A Fractional CMO comes in and does the work that nobody else is positioned to do:
Defines positioning — Who you're for, who you're not for, and why you win when you win.
Builds the go-to-market — Which markets, which segments, which channels, in which order.
Sets the KPIs — What does success look like in 90 days? In 12 months? How does marketing contribute to ARR?
Builds the stack — What tools do you need? What do you already have? What's redundant?
Creates the playbook — So your Marketing Manager (and the next one) can execute with clarity.
That last part matters. A Fractional CMO isn't a replacement for a Marketing Manager. They're the foundation that makes your Marketing Manager effective from day one.
What months 1 to 6 look like when you get it right
The model that works: a Fractional CMO running in parallel with a Marketing Manager from the first week, with a deliberate handoff built into the engagement.
Month 1 is pure strategy. The Fractional CMO runs a full marketing audit — which channels are actually driving pipeline, which campaigns can be killed, what the ICP looks like based on actual closed deals, not wishful thinking. The Marketing Manager is hired during this month or joins at the same time. Their brief is clear from day one: execute the strategy being built, flag what breaks.
Months 2 and 3 are about building the playbook together. The Fractional CMO defines the positioning, the messaging, the prioritized channel mix. The Marketing Manager starts executing against it with weekly check-ins. The Fractional CMO is still making the calls on what to build and what to cut.
Months 4 and 5 shift ownership. The Marketing Manager is running the day-to-day. The Fractional CMO is in a review and escalation role — available for strategic decisions but not in every meeting. This is when you find out if the setup works.
Month 6 is the evaluation. Does the Marketing Manager have what they need? Is the strategy documented well enough that it survives personnel changes? If yes: the Fractional CMO steps back to a lighter advisory role or exits cleanly. If not: you extend for another quarter and address the gaps.
The honest economics
A full-time senior Marketing Manager in the Netherlands costs €50,000-€70,000 per year in salary, plus employer costs. Add agency fees for the work they can't do themselves. You're looking at €90,000-€120,000 per year before any meaningful marketing budget.
And that assumes you hired the right person. The real cost of a mis-hire isn't just the salary. It's the five months of directionless execution, the campaigns that ran too long, the channels that were prioritized for the wrong reasons, the pipeline that didn't build. A 40 to 60 percent failure rate within 18 months means most companies are effectively paying twice for their first marketing hire: once for the person who didn't work out, and again for the replacement. That's a total cost in the €150,000-€200,000 range before you have a functioning marketing function.
True cost comparison: the three common choices
Marketing Manager (solo hire): €90,000-€120,000/year | Strategic depth: Low (executor) | Time to first real output: 3-4 months | Risk: High — strategy gap
Marketing agency retainer: €60,000-€180,000/year | Strategic depth: Low-medium | Time to first output: 4-6 weeks | Risk: Medium — generic output
Fractional CMO (6 mo.) + Marketing Manager: €21,000-€39,000 + hire cost | Strategic depth: High + execution | Time to output: Week 1 for strategy | Risk: Low
The third option is consistently how it actually plays out in practice. The Fractional CMO builds the strategy and playbook in months 1 through 6. The Marketing Manager executes on it from day one and owns it from month six onward. Total investment: lower than option 1 or 2. Output: meaningfully higher.
A Fractional CMO engagement runs €3,500-€6,500 per month. You get C-level strategic input, 18 years of pattern recognition across 200+ companies, and a playbook that survives when the person executing it changes.
The question before the hire
Before you write the Marketing Manager job description, ask yourself one question:
Do I have a clear enough strategy for this person to execute?
If the answer is yes — great. Hire the best executor you can find.
If the answer is no, or "mostly" — you need the strategy layer first. Otherwise you're handing someone a hammer without telling them what to build.
That's the gap a Fractional CMO fills. Not permanently. Not expensively. But at exactly the moment you need it.
Bart Knijnenberg is a Fractional CMO with 18 years of experience across 200+ B2B companies. He runs the Autonomous Growth System — a 13-agent AI marketing team that works while you sleep.
Want to know if your marketing is ready for your first hire? Get your free AI Marketing Audit — 30 minutes, real output, no pitch.
Sources & References
Robert Half Salary Guide Netherlands 2024 — Marketing Manager salary benchmarks (NL): €50,000-€70,000 gross per year. roberthalf.nl
LinkedIn Talent Solutions, "Time to Hire" Report 2024 — Average time-to-hire for senior marketing roles in the Netherlands: 47-68 days. business.linkedin.com
Gartner CMO Spend Survey 2024 — First marketing hires at Series A companies have a 40-60% failure rate within 18 months when strategic direction is unclear at time of hire. gartner.com
Harvard Business Review, "Why First Hires Fail" (2023) — Role clarity and upfront strategy investment are the strongest predictors of first-hire success in scaling organizations. hbr.org
