A UK marketing manager costs about £58,000 a year on the published median once minimum employer’s costs are added, an SDR about £52,000 at mid-range on-target earnings, a fractional CMO £1,500 to £6,000 a month, and an agency whatever its scope says. Which one is right depends on whether the gap is direction, writing or starting conversations.
What gap are you trying to fill?
In most engineering firms of 20 to 249 staff the gap isn’t “marketing” in general. It is that nobody owns starting conversations with the accounts the firm wants to win. The sales team is busy quoting the enquiries that already arrive. Shows happen, cards come back, and the follow-up slips because the workshop is busy.
Name the gap before you compare options, because the four options below fill different parts of it. A person who would be excellent at setting direction may never send an email to a named account, and a person who sends emails all day can’t decide your positioning.
Three questions usually tell you which gap you have:
- Do enquiries arrive, but too few turn into quotes or orders? The gap may be in sales, pricing or fit, and no marketing option fixes it on its own.
- Do buyers who find you trust what they see, but too few find you? The gap is being findable and checkable: pages in the buyer’s words, independent sources, technical material. That is writing work.
- Are there accounts you want and have never spoken to? The gap is starting conversations: a list, a message and someone who writes to it every week.
If you answer yes to the last two, you need someone who writes and someone who sends, more than someone who plans. Direction matters too, but a plan with nobody to carry it out is still a gap.
What does a marketing manager cost, and what do they do?
Coburg Banks, a recruiter, publishes a median base salary of £50,000 for a UK marketing manager, with a typical range of £40,000 to £60,000. The page names REC and ONS labour market data among its sources and gives no sample size.
The salary isn’t the cost. At the median, minimum employer’s costs add up like this:
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Base salary | £50,000 | Coburg Banks median |
| Employer’s National Insurance | £6,750 | 15 percent of earnings above £5,000, 2026 to 2027 |
| Minimum employer pension | £1,313 | 3 percent of qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270 |
| Total before recruitment, equipment and software | £58,063 a year, about £4,840 a month |
Source: Coburg Banks, Marketing Manager salary UK 2026, updated 13 July 2026; GOV.UK, Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027; GOV.UK, Workplace pensions contribution rates. All checked 1 October 2026.
What one person can cover in a week: the website, the trade show logistics, the brochure, LinkedIn posts, the newsletter, the odd case study, and answering the MD’s requests. What usually goes undone is the slow, repetitive work that produces new conversations: building and refreshing an account list, writing to it, following up, and writing the technical piece that would make the approach worth answering. It isn’t a criticism of the hire. It is too much for one generalist.
What does a fractional CMO cost, and what do they do?
McCracken Marketing’s published guide puts a UK fractional CMO at between £1,500 and £6,000 a month, depending on the number of days. That is a supplier’s own price guide, not a survey, but it is the clearest published range we found.
A fractional CMO brings direction: positioning, a plan, a budget, and someone senior to hold the team and any suppliers to it. They are rarely hands-on with outreach or writing. If you have people or suppliers to direct and nobody senior to direct them, this fills the gap well. If you have nobody to direct, you get a good plan and no one to carry it out.
What does an in-house SDR cost, and what do they need?
Coburg Banks publishes a median base of £30,000 for a UK sales development representative, with on-target earnings of £40,000 to £50,000. Taking the midpoint:
| Item | Amount | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| On-target earnings | £45,000 | Midpoint of Coburg Banks’ £40,000 to £50,000 |
| Employer’s National Insurance | £6,000 | 15 percent of earnings above £5,000 |
| Minimum employer pension | £1,163 | 3 percent of qualifying earnings, if all £45,000 counts |
| Total before tools, contact data and management | £52,163 a year, about £4,350 a month |
Source: Coburg Banks, Sales Development Representative salary UK 2026, updated 13 July 2026, a recruiter’s published figures; GOV.UK employer rates. Checked 1 October 2026.
An SDR starts conversations, which is the gap most firms have. But an SDR needs four things before the first email: a list of the right accounts, a message that works for your buyers, someone to manage them, and something worth sending, usually a technical piece or a reason to talk. Without those, a capable SDR spends months building them alone, and the role gets judged before it has had a fair run.
What does an agency cost, and what should you check?
Agency prices vary with scope, so compare scope first. As one published example, KS Media’s Pipeline Engine is from £3,000 a month at the founding rate (£36,000 a year), three months then rolling, and covers two technical pieces a month, signal-based outreach to a named account list, AI-search citation work as one workstream, pipeline tracking, a monthly pipeline report and a quarterly review. It starts with the Pipeline Diagnostic, £2,500 at the founding rate, which sets the positioning, the account list and the plan.
Whichever agency you look at, check four things in the scope: whether it writes the message or only sends it, whether outreach goes from domains in your firm’s name, what the monthly report counts, and what you keep if you stop.
How do the four compare side by side?
| Marketing manager | Fractional CMO | In-house SDR | Agency (KS Media Engine as the example) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | About £58,000 a year at the published median, with minimum employer’s costs | £1,500 to £6,000 a month | About £52,000 a year at mid-range OTE, with minimum employer’s costs | From £3,000 a month, £36,000 a year at the founding rate |
| Scope | Broad: site, shows, collateral, social | Direction, plan, managing others | Outreach to accounts, one person’s capacity | Positioning (via the Diagnostic), content, outreach, reporting |
| Before the first meeting | Recruitment and settling in | Recruitment, then a plan | Recruitment, then a list, a message and content | A three-week Diagnostic that includes a live message test; sending domains warmed for two to three weeks |
| Notice | Employment notice | By contract | Employment notice | Rolling after three months |
| Who owns the list, data and domains | You | You, if the work is in your systems | You | Check the contract. With KS Media: your CRM or a shared tracker, domains set up in your name, content published under your name |
What should you ask before choosing?
- Who writes the message? Someone has to turn what your engineers know into a reason for a stranger to reply. If the answer is “the SDR, in their first month”, expect a slow start.
- Who owns the list? If the account list lives in a supplier’s tool and leaves with them, you are renting it.
- What gets reported? Ask for the leading indicators by name: accounts engaged, meetings held, opportunities opened, quote value. Opens and impressions aren’t enough.
- What happens when they leave? A hire resigns, a contract ends. Ask what stays: the list, the domains, the content, the history of every conversation.
Can you combine them?
Often that’s the best answer. Two combinations work well at this size:
- An internal marketer plus outside outreach. The marketer runs the site, shows and collateral; outside help runs the account list, the outreach and the technical writing that goes with it. The marketer becomes the person who briefs and approves rather than the person who has to do everything.
- A fractional CMO directing an agency. The CMO sets direction and holds the agency to the plan; the agency does the work. This suits firms where the MD doesn’t want to manage marketing personally.
Where to start
Compare on cost per meeting, with your own numbers. The pipeline calculator puts an SDR hire and the Pipeline Engine side by side for the same account list, and the pricing page has every KS Media price and term in one place. If you want the gap itself diagnosed first, that is the Pipeline Diagnostic.
Quick answers
One supplier’s published guide, McCracken Marketing’s, updated August 2026, puts a UK fractional CMO at between £1,500 and £6,000 a month, depending on the days worked. That is a supplier’s own price guide rather than a survey, so ask any candidate for their day rate and the number of days a month.
Coburg Banks, a recruiter, publishes a median base salary of £30,000 for a UK sales development representative, with on-target earnings of £40,000 to £50,000 (page updated 13 July 2026). Employer’s National Insurance at 15 percent above £5,000, pension, tools, contact data and management time come on top.
Sometimes, on cost alone. A marketing manager on the published UK median of £50,000 costs about £58,000 a year with minimum employer’s National Insurance and pension, before recruitment and tools. KS Media’s Pipeline Engine is £36,000 a year at the founding rate. The fairer test is cost per meeting held and what each option leaves behind if it stops.
Hire when there is enough steady work for one person and someone senior to direct them. Use outside help when the gap is a specific job, such as outreach to named accounts or technical writing, that one generalist can’t cover alongside everything else. Many firms of 20 to 249 staff end up with one internal marketer plus outside help for outreach.
Sources
- Coburg Banks, Marketing Manager salary UK 2026 (updated 13 July 2026), checked 1 Oct 2026.
- Coburg Banks, Sales Development Representative salary UK 2026 (updated 13 July 2026), checked 1 Oct 2026.
- McCracken Marketing, Fractional CMO cost UK (updated August 2026), checked 1 Oct 2026.
- GOV.UK (HMRC), Rates and thresholds for employers 2026 to 2027, checked 1 Oct 2026.
- GOV.UK, Workplace pensions: what you, your employer and the government pay, checked 1 Oct 2026.