The Rise of Fractional Teams: Why Smart Workspace Operators Are Rethinking Marketing

Work is becoming modular. Is your marketing keeping up?

The Fractional Revolution

Something fundamental is shifting in how businesses build their teams.

The traditional model of hiring full-time employees for every function is giving way to something more dynamic. More agile. More attuned to the realities of modern business.

Call it the fractional workforce. The modular team. The gig-ification of expertise. Whatever the label, the numbers tell a compelling story: over a third of the UK workforce now engages in some form of flexible or independent work. Globally, gig workers number approximately 435 million, with that figure expected to rise significantly by 2030.

And this isn’t just delivery drivers and rideshare workers. The most dramatic growth is happening at the executive and specialist level. Fractional CFOs, fractional CTOs, and yes, fractional marketing teams. According to research from Exec Capital, economic pressures are driving organisations to seek cost-effective solutions to access high-level expertise without the overhead of full-time executive salaries and benefits.

Meanwhile, SD Worx reports that companies are increasingly applying the gig model internally, with strong growth in digital freelance work across IT, marketing, design, consultancy and finance.

Why the shift? Because businesses have realised something important: having the right expertise at the right time matters more than having someone in a permanent seat.

Why This Matters for Workspace Operators

If anyone should understand the value of flexible, scalable resources, it’s the flexible workspace sector.

You’ve built entire businesses on the premise that companies don’t need to commit to 10-year leases and permanent overheads. That agility and adaptability beat rigidity. That paying only for what you need, when you need it, makes smart business sense.

So why would your approach to marketing be any different?

Here’s the reality many operators face:

The Marketing Paradox

You know you need consistent, professional marketing to reduce broker dependency and drive direct enquiries. But you’re caught between two imperfect options:

Hire a full-time marketing manager: You’re looking at £45,000 to £65,000+ in salary alone, before benefits, training, management time, and the inevitable gaps when that one person doesn’t have expertise in PPC, or SEO, or design, or PR.

Piece it together with freelancers: You spend half your time briefing different suppliers, chasing deadlines, and trying to create some strategic coherence from disconnected activities.

Neither option quite fits. And in the meantime, your competitors with deeper pockets are building brand presence while you remain dependent on brokers taking 10% of your revenue.

What Fractional Marketing Actually Means

A fractional marketing team isn’t about getting less. It’s about getting more. More expertise, more flexibility, more strategic thinking, for a predictable monthly investment.

Here’s how it works in practice:

An Always-On Project Manager. A dedicated project manager who knows your brand, understands the flexible workspace sector, and coordinates everything. They’re your single point of contact. No more juggling multiple freelancers or explaining your business from scratch every time.

Specialists On Tap. Need a PPC campaign optimised? There’s someone for that. Website refresh? Design update? PR push? Social media strategy? Instead of expecting one person to do everything (badly), you get specialists who actually know their craft, brought in precisely when needed.

Scalable and Adaptive. Launching a new location? Ramp up marketing support. Quiet month? Focus resources elsewhere. Your marketing flexes with your business, not against it.

Strategic Direction. This isn’t just execution. It’s about having marketing professionals who understand the sector deeply. Who know what’s working for other operators, where the market is heading, and how to position your brand effectively.

The Results Speak for Themselves

Theory is one thing. Results are another.

Consider what’s possible when fractional marketing is done right:

From Broker-Dependent to Direct Sales

One flexible workspace operator came to us with 99% of their deals flowing through brokers. That’s a significant chunk of revenue walking out the door on every transaction.

Within two years of fractional marketing support, encompassing SEO, PPC, email marketing, social media, PR, and strategic direction, the picture transformed:

• 30% of completed sales now come from direct client leads
• 389 office-qualified leads in Year 1, growing to 491 in Year 2 (a 26% increase)
• 25% increase in desk rates
• 144% increase in new website users
• 70+ pieces of press coverage

That’s not just marketing activity. That’s commercial transformation. You can read more of our case studies here.

Is Fractional Marketing Right for You?

Fractional marketing makes particular sense if you recognise yourself in any of these scenarios:

You’re a growing operator without a large internal marketing team. You need strategic direction and execution, but you can’t justify (or afford) building a full in-house department.

You have some marketing capability but gaps in specialist areas. Perhaps you have someone handling social media, but SEO remains a mystery and PPC campaigns aren’t delivering.

You’re opening new locations and need to ramp up quickly. Hiring takes months. A fractional team can mobilise in weeks.

You’re frustrated with broker dependency. You know there must be a better way to generate direct enquiries, but you’re not sure where to start.

You want marketing that actually understands your sector. Generic marketing agencies don’t grasp the nuances of flexible workspace. The competition from brokers, the importance of local search, the way occupier decisions actually get made.

Why Sector Expertise Matters

Here’s something important: not all fractional marketing is created equal.

A generalist agency, however talented, will spend months learning your sector. They won’t know that broker platforms dominate certain Google searches. They won’t understand the relationship between virtual office packages and workspace visibility. They won’t have the contacts in trade media or the benchmarking data from working with operators across the UK.

Sector expertise isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between marketing activity and marketing results.

At Spaces to Places, we’ve been immersed in the flexible workspace sector since its emergence in the UK. We’ve published market research that’s been downloaded over 1,800 times. We’ve supported operators from single-site independents to premium multi-location brands. We know what works, and importantly, what doesn’t.

Ready to Explore Fractional Marketing?

If you’re a workspace operator tired of broker dependency, uncertain about marketing ROI, or simply wondering whether there’s a smarter way to build your brand and generate leads, we should talk.

No hard sell. No obligation. Just a conversation about your business and whether a fractional approach might fit. Book a call with Spaces to Places → Or explore our fractional marketing services to learn more.

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Spaces to Places is a specialist marketing agency working exclusively with flexible workspace operators across the UK. From coworking spaces to managed offices, serviced offices to hybrid hubs, we help workspace brands reduce broker dependency and build sustainable direct lead generation.