Sean Makin | Fractional Marketing Director & Strategist

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Sean Makin | Fractional Marketing…

Strategic Marketing Leadership. Commercial Thinking. Practical Delivery.

I’m Sean Makin, a senior marketing strategist, Fractional CMO and brand specialist with more than 25 years of experience helping businesses strengthen their brands, sharpen their marketing and create the foundations for sustainable growth.

I work with managing directors, founders, business owners and senior leadership teams who recognise that marketing needs to improve, but don’t necessarily need, or want, another full-time senior executive.

Sometimes the challenge is strategic: the business has grown, but the marketing hasn’t kept pace. There may be plenty of activity but little connecting it, or simply a need for an experienced perspective to challenge assumptions and establish a clearer direction. That’s where I come in.

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Marketing That Starts With the Business

I don’t believe marketing strategy should begin with social media, advertising campaigns or whichever new platform everyone happens to be talking about this month.

It should begin with the business.

Where are you trying to go?

What is preventing you from getting there?

How are you positioned in the market? Why should customers choose you?

Does your brand reflect the company you have become?

Are marketing and sales working towards the same commercial objectives?

Only then should we start talking about channels, campaigns and tactics.

My role is to bring that bigger picture together, connecting brand, marketing, customer experience, sales and commercial strategy so that marketing becomes a more useful part of the business rather than simply another collection of activities.

From Strategy to Execution

One of the advantages I bring is the ability to move comfortably between boardroom strategy and practical delivery.

I’ve spent my career developing brands, building marketing functions, repositioning businesses, supporting international expansion, introducing CRM and marketing automation, improving digital marketing and helping leadership teams turn ambitious growth plans into something marketing can actually support.

My experience spans brand strategy, market positioning, go-to-market planning, lead generation, customer acquisition, CRM, digital marketing, SEO, PPC, content, PR, thought leadership, customer experience, marketing analytics and increasingly the practical application of AI within marketing.

I’m not interested in introducing technology simply because it exists.

The question is always the same: does it make the marketing or the business better?

Experience Built in the Real World

My background combines more than 25 years in brand and marketing, including senior in-house leadership, consultancy and over 15 years running my own award-winning creative business.

I’ve led global marketing and brand development for businesses including Scotmas Group and Astrak Group, working across B2B, engineering, technical, industrial and environmental markets. My experience spans brand repositioning, international expansion, CRM transformation, digital marketing and customer engagement, including supporting Astrak during a period of growth from approximately £11.5 million to £60 million turnover.

Earlier in my career, I founded and ran twohundredby200, working on brand, communications and creative projects involving organisations including the BBC, BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, Scottish Government, Royal Navy, London 2012 and TAG Heuer.

That combination of creative, technical and commercial experience shapes how I approach marketing today. I’m particularly at home with businesses that have something valuable, and often complex, to offer but struggle to communicate it clearly.

Complex products don’t need complex marketing. They need someone who can understand the detail, identify what matters to the customer and turn it into a proposition people can understand, remember and buy into.

Connect With Me On LinkenIn

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Fractional Marketing Leadership & Strategic Support

Through Makin Marketing, I provide senior-level marketing support to ambitious SMEs, growing businesses and founder-led organisations.

I can work as a Fractional Marketing Director, strategic marketing consultant or as an experienced extension of an existing leadership team, providing senior expertise without the commitment of another full-time executive.

For existing CMOs and Marketing Directors, I can also provide additional senior capacity for specific challenges such as brand transformation, market expansion, customer experience or strategic projects.

My work covers marketing and growth strategy, brand positioning, customer acquisition, digital and CRM, HubSpot and automation, AI-enabled marketing, content and communications, customer experience, analytics, and sales and marketing alignment.

I’m equally comfortable developing the strategy, challenging the thinking or rolling up my sleeves to help make it happen. The goal is simple: focus marketing resources where they can make the greatest commercial difference.

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Connect With Me On LinkedIn

Read Case Studies

An Independent Perspective

Being outside the day-to-day business can be useful. I can ask the questions internal teams may no longer think to ask, challenge assumptions and bring a fresh perspective to how your marketing supports your commercial goals.

I’m not there to add another layer of management or arrive with a predetermined collection of tactics to sell. I’m there to provide experience, clarity and momentum, whether that means shaping strategy, supporting your marketing team, coordinating agencies, improving sales and marketing alignment or leading a specific transformation project.

Sometimes the answer is a new approach. Sometimes it’s fixing the fundamentals. And occasionally, it’s simply stopping something that isn’t working.

My approach is straightforward: strategic thinking, practical execution and marketing that serves the business without the unnecessary theatre.

Read Case Studies

Looking for Senior Marketing Support?

If your business has reached the point where marketing needs greater direction, stronger leadership or simply a fresh perspective, I’d be happy to have a conversation.

You may be preparing for your next stage of growth.

You may need to reposition the business.

You may have a marketing team that needs senior guidance.

Or you may simply have reached the uncomfortable conclusion that you are spending quite a lot of money on marketing without being entirely sure what it is achieving.

Whatever the starting point, we can begin with a conversation about the business, where you want to take it and whether I can help you get there.

No hard sell. No enormous agency presentation. Just a useful conversation about your marketing and your business.

Please fill and submit the form or email me at
sean@makin-marketing.com