An Outsourced Marketing Department for an Economic Growth Partnership
Who is the client? A public/private economic growth partnership
Where are they based? UK
Project type: Embedded Fractional CMO
About the Client
The client is the delivery body for a major, government-backed regional growth programme, working to accelerate investment and job creation across a defined geography in the UK. Its role spans several innovation-led sectors, including marine technology, clean tech, space and advanced manufacturing.
As a public/private partnership, the organisation sits at the intersection of government policy, landowner relationships and private-sector investment meaning its marketing has to speak credibly to very different audiences at once, from government to the businesses and communities it exists to serve.
The Challenge
The client needed a fully functioning marketing department but didn’t have the time or budget to build one in-house from scratch. The organisation required senior-level marketing thinking that understood the complexity of a public/private delivery vehicle, combined with the week-to-week execution needed to keep a growing, multi-audience programme visible and credible.
With no permanent marketing resource in place, activity risked being reactive rather than strategic, and inconsistent in its cadence and quality a particular risk for an organisation whose credibility with government, landowners and investors depends on clear, professional communication.
Scope of Engagement
1. An Outsourced Marketing Department, for 12 Months
We acted as the client's marketing department for a full year providing the strategic direction, planning and hands-on delivery of an in-house team, without the overhead or lead time of hiring one.
2. Development of Strategy
Built a marketing strategy aligned to the organisation's core objectives: attracting investment, engaging landowners and businesses across its sites, and communicating the impact of the programme to government and sector stakeholders.
3. Weekly Implementation
Delivered marketing activity on a weekly cadence comprising of content, social media, email communications and campaign delivery, so the strategy translated into consistent, visible output rather than a document on a shelf.
4. Development of Systems and Process
Put in place the content calendars, workflows and reporting structures needed to run a marketing function efficiently creating a repeatable operating rhythm that could scale with the organisation and transfer cleanly to a successor.
5. Event and Content Management
Planned and delivered content and events across the year, including a recurring webinar series, exhibition presence at major sector trade shows, a real world open day event, AGM communications, and a regular “spotlight series” profiling partners and businesses supported by the programme.
6. Communication with the Internal Team
Worked closely with the organisation's leadership and delivery team to ensure all external communications were accurate, up to date, and aligned across the partner organisations involved in delivering the programme.
7. Handover to a Full-Time Hire
Built the strategy, systems and processes to a point where marketing activity was proven, repeatable and ready to scale — enabling a smooth, well-documented handover to a permanent, full-time marketing hire at the end of the engagement.
Outcomes
LinkedIn growth: grew the client's LinkedIn following by 620 net new followers over 12 months, with 124 posts published generating over 138,000 impressions and 9,500+ clicks.
Strong engagement: achieved an average engagement rate of 7.4% across all posts well above typical LinkedIn company page benchmarks with milestone announcements and spotlight content as the standout formats, including one post reaching over 11,000 impressions and several exceeding 35–50% engagement.
Email audience growth: grew the newsletter list by roughly a third over the year (from around 220 to nearly 300 subscribers), sustaining average open rates above 40%, consistently ahead of typical B2B and public sector benchmarks.
Event-led campaigns: used dedicated landing pages and email campaigns to drive registrations for a recurring webinar series and major sector exhibitions, supporting the organisation's stakeholder engagement programme.
A clean handover: left the client with a proven strategy, a full year of content and channel data, and documented systems and processes enabling a smooth transition to a permanent, full-time marketing hire.
How we Work: The Outsourced Marketing Department Approach
Strategic, not just executional: senior-level marketing thinking for organisations not yet ready to build a full in-house team, without the overhead.
Embedded in your work: worked closely with the leadership and delivery team, getting under the skin of a complex, multi-stakeholder organisation to give advice grounded in real context.
Public/private fluency: comfortable working across government stakeholders, private landowners, investors and delivery partners — understanding the different languages each audience needs.
Built to hand over: systems and processes designed from day one for a clean, well-documented transition to an in-house hire when the organisation is ready to scale.