If you’re struggling to hire in-house marketing talent, you’re not alone. But before you keep bumping up against that wall, consider this: You might be trying to solve the wrong problem. 

Yes, the marketing talent scarcity issue IS real. Yet, sea-level changes have transformed how middle market businesses approach this challenge. By adopting a more agile and cost-effective model, they’re filling marketing talent gaps and driving predictable growth. 

From Solo Generalist to Team of Specialists   

Thirty years ago, one or two in-house generalists could do an adequate job of marketing a mid-sized business.  

That was before digital marketing replaced traditional channels. Before the buyer took control of the buying journey. And before marketing evolved from tactical to strategic, from reactive to proactive, from cost center to growth driver.  

As marketing became more complex, it also grew more specialized. And the staffing pendulum swung 180 degrees. Now marketing requires a team of hyperspecialized professionals—experts in areas like SEO, PR, content development, social media, marketing automation, and analytics. And it demands a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) to develop and oversee the execution of a go-to-market strategy and full-funnel marketing plan that generates predictable revenue.  

Most middle market companies don’t have the budget or the need to hire all that talent full-time. So they often outsource these roles, gaining the slice of expertise they need without the futile attempt of competing for in-demand specialists. 

Today, the ground is shifting again. 

Welcome to the Age of the AI-Forward Marketing Professional  

Thanks to the exploding use cases for generative AI, the sought-after marketing professional of the future is less likely to be a narrowly-focused specialist. AI is empowering a new breed of marketer: one who is both strategic and creative, with the acumen to understand businesses and markets deeply and the analytical skills to derive powerful insights from data.   

These unique marketing professionals will be in great demand and incredibly hard to find. (Call them the new unicorns.) They’ll be equipped with AI-powered tools and the expertise to use them effectively. And it will take fewer of these talented marketers to develop and execute a strategic plan that achieves aggressive growth goals.  

What it Means for Your Marketing Team 

Middle market businesses have long struggled to fill marketing talent gaps, and the evolving landscape has only complicated matters. With marketing salaries on the rise, and very high employment for most marketing roles (per Robert Half), mid-sized companies can’t attract and retain all the specialists it takes to power up a revenue-generating marketing program.  

And that’s just the challenge today. What happens when the tide shifts to much leaner teams of strategic, AI-forward marketing professionals, with the unique knowledge and expertise to use emerging technology to achieve a higher ROI?  

Businesses that choose to build an internal staff of marketing specialists—despite the impending transformation—will find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to downsize. Yet no company wants to staff up today, knowing they’re unlikely to need those roles tomorrow. 

Staffing the Marketing Function Through Transition 

Building up an in-house team also doesn’t position the business to adapt through the inevitable marketing talent transition. A fixed internal team can’t easily adjust as technology changes traditional marketing roles and as AI rewrites the marketing rules. The more you staff up, the less agility you have in the face of wholesale change. There isn’t a non-disruptive way to pivot. 

Even if the tech-driven marketing transformation happens more slowly than predicted, tying up a large portion of the marketing budget on overhead leaves too little for execution that drives measurable growth. And it doesn’t allow the flexibility to scale up or down as market conditions evolve and business needs change, especially in a volatile and uncertain environment. 

Human + Machine: Your Marketing Team of Tomorrow 

Of course, AI won’t eliminate the need for human marketers. But it will dramatically shape the marketing department of the future. Specifically, it will change the type of marketers your business needs and the size of the marketing team it takes to generate exceptional results. 

You’ll still need a highly skilled CMO to develop a go-to-market strategy and plan that aligns with your business goals. But now they’ll work in concert with a few highly skilled professionals who know how to operationalize AI within the marketing function: choosing and prompting AI tools, training and collaborating with AI agents, and developing policies for ethical and effective AI use. 

How can a middle market business attract and afford this tech-savvy, AI-forward marketing team of tomorrow? 

The only way forward is the fractional marketing model. 

Fractional Services Solve Your Marketing Talent Dilemma 

Fractional marketing is tailor-made for today’s rapidly changing marketing landscape and the most practical way to fill talent gaps now, while future-proofing your marketing investment for the future. 

By tapping a fractional marketing team, you gain the flexibility to access only the slice of marketing skillsets and capabilities you need to drive predictable growth, without the long-term overhead of an internal team. This agile, scalable model eliminates the risk of overstaffing with in-house professionals whose roles will soon be obsolete. And it gives you the agility to adapt the make-up of your marketing team in lockstep with your evolving needs and in sync with the transformative change that’s already underway. 

There’s no need to tie up lots of budget with marketing FTEs whose salaries keep rising. No headaches trying to recruit and retain these in-demand professionals. And no worries about how to transition to a whole new type of marketing team eventually. 

Fractional Drives Stronger Results, Too  

The fractional model is also a much more effective way to achieve ambitious growth goals. That’s why growth-minded middle market businesses are moving away from in-house staffing and adopting the fractional approach. 

Instead of allocating a high percentage of the marketing budget to FTEs, the fractional model frees more of your budget for marketing execution. With more of your spend focused on attracting the ideal buyers to your revenue funnel and nurturing them through their buying journey, you’ll drive more growth, faster. And you’ll gain a much higher marketing ROI. 

Partnering with a fractional agency also improves accountability for results—another reason you’ll get further faster than with an in-house team.  

Marketri is the Go-To Fractional Partner for B2B Companies   

For middle market B2B companies that are serious about generating more revenue, Marketri is the ideal strategic partner. Our fractional services turn your marketing into a growth engine—driving predictable growth today while we position you to leverage all the power of the marketing team of the future. 

The Marketri fractional marketing model brings together everything you need to achieve  better marketing results, without the overhead and challenges of staffing an internal team: 

• Strategy: A Marketri Fractional CMO develops your research-driven go-to-market strategy and plan.  

• Execution: Our team executes your marketing plan flawlessly, with precision and urgency, using AI-enabled tools that make your marketing effective and efficient.  

• Analytics: We continually measure your marketing against the key performance indicators (KPIs) most relevant to your business.   

• Optimization: We make data-driven decisions to refine your marketing to achieve the best possible outcomes. 

We can even evaluate your current marketing team and infrastructure and recommend a practical path forward. So you’re positioned to meet all your marketing needs today while you transition to a future that is sure to look very different.  

Don’t struggle to hire marketing talent that’s expensive, hard to find, and doesn’t fit your long-term needs. 

Schedule a free consultation to learn how Marketri’s AI-powered fractional marketing services can fill your talent gaps and drive more predictable growth.