Marketingshouldn’t beanother jobon your list.
I work as a Fractional Head of Marketing for growing businesses, taking ownership of everything from strategy to execution. Launching something new, fixing what’s already there, or simply making marketing happen. I build the plan, execute it, and keep it moving.
What I do
One person. One plan.
Phil Hayton · Founder · Manchester
One person. Not an agency.
I’m Phil, a Freelance/Fractional Head of Marketing based in Manchester. I lead content, digital and CRM end-to-end for a small number of businesses at a time. Mostly B2B and regulated sectors, and more recently a charity, a pub and even a church.
Social Ladder is deliberately one person. No account managers, no handoffs, no losing the plot between the brief and the work. You get me on strategy, and you get me on the follow-through.
I’m based in Manchester and work remotely as standard. My clients are usually in London, Dubai or across the North West, and I’m happy to be in the room when it genuinely helps.
Month to month. No lock-ins.
You have
the ideas.
Most businesses don’t have a shortage of ideas. They have a shortage of time, ownership and execution.
“We should probably rebuild the website.”
“We need to generate more enquiries.”
“We’ve never really done email properly.”
“Our CRM is a mess.”
“We should probably be posting on LinkedIn.”
“We’ve talked about that for months.”
Sound familiar?
That’s where I come in.
The missing middle
Marketing ownership without the overhead.
One person responsible.
The proposition
MARKETING OWNERSHIP WITHOUT THE OVERHEAD.
Most businesses don’t need another supplier.
They need someone to own marketing.
Some businesses need specialist agencies.When you need deep expertise in one discipline.
Some businesses need an in-house team.When there’s enough work to justify full-time resource.
Most growing businesses need something in between.Someone who understands the strategy, owns the execution and keeps everything moving.
That’s where I come in.
Fewer moving parts. More work shipped.
HowI help.
Marketing Leadership
Someone responsible for the bigger picture.
Websites & Landing Pages
Designed around action, not just appearance.
Campaigns
Launches, promotions, events and everything in between.
CRM & Automation
Less admin. Better follow-up. Clearer customer journeys.
Copywriting
Websites, email, LinkedIn, campaigns, brochures, presentations.
Events & Experiences
The moments people remember. Planned, run, followed up.
AI & Marketing Systems
Practical tools that remove friction. No AI theatre.
Not every project needs every discipline. Every business is different.
The role is understanding what will make the biggest difference, then building around that.
How I do it
Marketing works best when someone owns it.
Lighter.
What it feels like without one owner
- 01Five people asking for decisions
- 02Three suppliers working separately
- 03Copy waiting on design
- 04Design waiting on the website
- 05Ads pointing at the wrong journey
- 06A CRM nobody trusts
- 07Social content with no purpose
- 08A founder holding the whole thing together
The alternative
One plan, owned from decision to delivery.
Not smaller marketing. Not slower marketing. Just less noise around the work, because one person is responsible for keeping the whole thing moving.
Less chasing
Less translating
Less dropped detail
Less marketing admin for the founder
Marketing should feel lighter.
End to end ownership
Start with the objective.
Build the system. Pick the channels last.
Most marketing starts with a channel. “We need a website. We need LinkedIn. We need ads.” Then everyone wonders why none of it adds up.
I work the other way round. Objectives at the top. One connected system in the middle. Channels chosen last, because they finally have a job to do.
Objective → System → Channel.
01 · Objectives
02 · The system
03 · Channels chosen last
How I
actually
work.
- 01
Understand the objective.
Too much marketing starts with ‘we need a website’ or ‘we need SEO’. Maybe. Maybe not. The first question is always: what are we actually trying to achieve?
- 02
Build around the business.
Not trends. Every recommendation has a reason. Because it moves your business forward, not because another marketer said you should.
- 03
Execute.
Ideas don’t grow businesses. Execution does. That’s where most businesses get stuck.
- 04
Keep improving.
Marketing isn’t something you finish. It evolves alongside your business.
What I
don’t do.
I’m one person. Not an agency, not a studio, not a team hiding behind a logo. That’s the whole point.
I don’t post to post. Every piece of content earns its place in the system, or it doesn’t go out.
No long lock-ins. We work month to month. I stay because the work is working.
- ✕Post-for-the-sake-of-it social content
- ✕12-month lock-in retainers
- ✕Pretend to be a creative agency
- ✕50-page strategy decks nobody opens
- ✕Technical SEO specialism
- ✕Professional Videography
If your project genuinely needs a specialist, I’ll tell you. I’ll help brief them, manage the work and make sure it fits into the wider marketing strategy.
The goal is making sure everything works together.
Proof
Work that runs after I have built it.
Not a portfolio.
Problems I’ve solved.
Four businesses that started with messy marketing and ended with something that runs.
I’m not the only one saying it.
Phil came into the company to support social media and as the company grew he was tasked with more and more responsibility, and he responded brilliantly by navigating the challenges and expectations of a fast-growth environment and always being willing to learn and progress.
He added event management and then digital marketing and content marketing to his skillset, becoming an all-round digital marketing manager and events project manager, integrating and delivering quality content at an incredible pace.
Phil is so amenable and willing to collaborate, and patient and calm in key periods of delivery, all crucial assets in an SME or scale up culture. Phil has expanded his skills and taken on key responsibilities such as managing our digital agency, project managing international events, allowing me to focus on big picture strategy.
Phil and I work together very closely however and he is always open to development, progression and balancing his delivery responsibilities with supporting the company's wider business objectives. It's been a pleasure to work with Phil and he has been a great member of the entire marketing team, it would be difficult to imagine him not being here.
Colin Smith
CMO
I worked with Phil during his 10-month maternity cover contract, where he slotted into the team seamlessly, despite working mostly remotely with just one day a week in the office.
From the outset, Phil was proactive, enthusiastic and full of ideas. He fed into a wide range of marketing briefs and never shied away from rolling up his sleeves and getting involved. He was also always happy to take on more, a real team player with a great attitude.
Phil's strengths really shone through in the areas of personal branding and social media, where his creative thinking and curiosity helped drive momentum across several initiatives. He was a positive presence in the team and made a strong contribution during his time with us.
Bec Peel
Marketing Director, Continuous Brand Agency
Phil responded to our opening for a professional to support Cartmel Racecourse with our event days in 2024. I cannot speak highly enough of Phil, not only did he deliver exceptional operational support looking after our race day entertainment (everything from the wonderful Vernon Kay to a group of giant dinosaurs racing down our track) he created and distributed meaningful and valuable communications to our customers.
The results of which we will now use to define our product and ticketing strategy for 2025.
Geraldine McKay
Director of Racing, Cartmel Racecourse
Advice, not a sales pitch.
Marketing worksbest whensomeone owns it.
If you’ve got ideas waiting to happen, marketing that’s become reactive, or you simply need someone to take ownership, let’s have a conversation.
No presentations. No sales process. Just an honest conversation about where your business is today and where you’d like it to go.
Book an intro call
Thirty minutes, in the diary.
pick a time that suits you →