A marketing lead. Without the headcount.

Fifteen years of marketing — tourism boards, global spirits brands, a few campaigns that won things and a few that quietly didn’t. Available by the day. No salary, no recruiter, no onboarding week where I work out where the coffee is.

The maths

The bit nobody puts in the job ad.

$105k–$125k

what the average Australian marketing manager earns, before anyone has done any marketing

+12%

super on top. Then payroll tax, leave, a laptop, software, and a seat at the Christmas lunch

~$9,800

the monthly damage of a $105k hire once super is in — and that is the cheap end

SEEK marketing manager salary data, September 2026 · Super guarantee rate, ATO 2025–26

Fractional works out cheaper because you are buying days, not a chair. And when it stops being worth it, you stop. Try that with an employment contract.

↘ Who it’s for

You are probably one of these two.

Nobody is doing the marketing

Marketing is what happens once everything else is done, which is to say: rarely. It goes in bursts when things are quiet and stops the moment they are not. Nothing ever compounds, because nobody owns it.

You know you should be doing more. You don’t know what to do first.
You tried an agency once. You paid for activity and received a report.
Big calls get made on gut feel, because there is nobody to argue with.

Someone is doing it, on their own

You have a coordinator, an all-rounder, or a founder who picked it up because somebody had to. They are fine. What is missing is someone above them who has seen this before and knows which bits matter.

Your person is capable, and completely stretched.
You want someone to brief them, review the work and raise the bar — not replace them.
You would like a second opinion before you spend real money.

Not for you if you want someone in the building five days a week, or if the deciding factor is cheapest. I am neither of those.

↘ Why ongoing support

It is not that you don’t want a marketer.

35%

of Australian businesses are short of skills somewhere in the building

57%

of them need specialist skills, not general ones

48%

say the wages are simply more than the business can carry

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Characteristics of Australian Business, 2024–25

That last number is the whole thing. Most businesses without marketing help are not being lazy about it — they just cannot justify a $120,000 line item for something they are not certain will work. Renting the senior part by the month gets you the thinking without putting anyone on payroll.

↘ What it looks like