Fractional marketing and AI leader

What you get from a leader who builds

Most marketing leadership stops at direction: strategy, priorities, hiring, budget. That work matters and I do it — fifteen years of building teams, owning eight-figure budgets and answering for the numbers.

The difference is the second half. While the function runs, the systems get built: a lead responder covering nights and weekends, an agent that reads Google Ads search terms every 48 hours, a hub holding the whole funnel behind one login, a task manager that turns meetings into assigned work. A team of four currently runs marketing for a $2B real-estate investment firm and operates like a department several times its size, and that is why.

The machine outlives the engagement. When a fractional term ends the strategy leaves with the person, but the custom AI tools stay — running on their own, operated by the team already using them. Thirty-plus built so far, 1,745 hours of work saved.

Roles I take on

• Fractional or interim marketing leader

  Running the function, the team and the budget on a part-time or temporary basis, and answering for the numbers the same way a permanent hire would.

• Embedded AI builder for a marketing team

  Working alongside your existing leader and building the systems the team runs on, then handing them over to the people who will operate them.

• Advisor to a leadership team adopting AI

  Helping the people who own the decision work out what is worth building, what isn't, and what it takes to run afterwards.

• Full-time leadership

  For the right role, I'm open to the right leadership conversation. Fractional is not the only shape this takes.

Track record

Fifteen years growing businesses: I built the teams, owned eight-figure budgets, and answered for the results.

• 500%Leads, year over year
• 272%Of target, hit
• 20%Lower cost per lead

Cost per lead came down 20% while revenue was up 30% — the two numbers that usually move against each other. Today a team of four runs marketing for a $2B real-estate investment firm and operates like a department several times its size, on the back of thirty-plus tools built, 1,745 hours of work saved and $30M in pipeline generated.

How we'd start

1. We talk — about a day

   Where the function is today, what the numbers are, and what the leadership seat is missing.

2. I find the biggest opportunities — one day

   What has to be led, what has to be built first, and where the money is leaking in the meantime.

3. The first thing goes live, running on its own — under two weeks

   The shape of the engagement — scope, cadence, term — is agreed at the same time, before anything is committed to.

One person, start to finish. You don't leave with a report. You leave with the fix.

What is a fractional marketing leader?

A fractional marketing leader runs a company's marketing function on a part-time or temporary basis instead of as a full-time hire. It is the same job — strategy, priorities, budget, team, and answering for the numbers — with the time and the term shaped to what the business actually needs. It is the usual answer when a company has a marketing function but nobody senior running it: a founder holding it alongside their real job, a team without a leader, or a seat that has just gone vacant and cannot sit empty for three months. In my case the definition stretches a little. Alongside running the function I build the systems it runs on — a lead responder, an ad-waste agent, a marketing hub, a task manager — so the engagement leaves behind working tools as well as a direction. Thirty-plus have been built and are running today.

How is this different from hiring an agency or a full-time CMO?

An agency runs campaigns for you; a fractional leader runs the function, including the agency if you have one. That difference decides most of the others: an agency optimizes its own scope, while a leader answers for the whole number — pipeline, cost per lead, what the team ships. Against a full-time CMO the difference is time and commitment rather than seniority. You get the same fifteen years of leadership, the same eight-figure budget experience and the same accountability, without a permanent executive salary while the function is still being built. The second difference is what stays behind. A CMO leaves with their strategy and an agency leaves with its account, but the tools built during the engagement keep running, operated by the team already using them. And a fractional engagement is not the only shape this takes — I'm open to the right leadership conversation.

How many days a week?

That gets shaped per engagement, and I won't quote a fixed number before knowing the work. A function that needs a leader inside every decision is a different commitment from one that needs direction, a build and a monthly review, and pretending otherwise just produces a retainer that fits nobody. What I can describe is how it gets decided. The first conversation takes about a day and covers what the business does, where the money is leaking, and what the marketing function is missing. Then I take a day to find the biggest opportunities. By the end of those two days both sides know the shape of the work — what has to be led, what has to be built, and how much time that honestly takes — and the cadence and term are agreed then, before anything is committed to. The first thing usually goes live in under two weeks.

Do you only work with regulated industries?

No. Regulated businesses are where most of the experience sits — financial services and real estate, where every word is a compliance surface — and it shows in how the tools get built: compliance guardrails on every word the WhatsApp responder produces, a hard-coded privacy notice, a runaway-conversation cap in the code, every conversation logged to the CRM, and a human handoff. If your industry has an approval process, none of that will be new to you. The second group is much broader: any business with a process quietly costing it money. Leads going unanswered overnight, ad spend leaking into clicks that will never buy, meetings ending without the tasks existing — none of that is specific to a regulated sector. The leadership side travels the same way, because running a function, setting priorities and answering for the numbers is the same job in most industries.

How do we start?

We talk. The first conversation is free, takes about a day of back-and-forth at most, and covers what the business does, where the money is leaking, and what the marketing function is missing. Then I take a day to find the biggest opportunities and come back with what I would do first. If that lands, we agree the shape of the engagement — scope, cadence, term — and the first thing goes live in under two weeks, running on its own. One person, start to finish. To begin, email robertoerc@gmail.com, send a message on LinkedIn, or use the contact form on the home page. If it isn't a fit, I will say so on the call rather than after a proposal — an engagement that suits neither side is worse than none.