Skip to content
MCG Growth Marketing logoMCG Growth MarketingFractional CMO & Consultancy
About

Senior marketing judgement, without the senior overhead

I'm Samuel McGarrigle. I founded MCG Growth Marketing because too many capable SMEs are running marketing without anyone senior owning the strategy — and paying for activity that was never tied to a commercial target.

Book a call
How I work
Samuel McGarrigle MSc MCIM, marketing consultant and Fractional CMO at MCG Growth Marketing

Samuel McGarrigle

Founder & Fractional CMO, MCIM

Based in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire and the wider North West, working with SMEs across manufacturing, engineering, construction and professional services.

Who is Samuel McGarrigle?

Samuel McGarrigle is the founder of MCG Growth Marketing and a Chartered Marketer (MCIM) with an MSc in Digital Marketing Management from the University of Staffordshire and 13 years in B2B, industrial and retail growth. Samuel McGarrigle works as a Fractional CMO for UK SMEs that need marketing leadership rather than another agency.

At a glance

Role
Founder and Fractional CMO, MCG Growth Marketing
Credentials
MSc Digital Marketing Management (University of Staffordshire); MCIM, Chartered Institute of Marketing
Experience
13+ years across B2B, industrial, manufacturing and retail growth
Specialisms
Marketing strategy, SEO, Google Ads, HubSpot CRM, AI-enabled marketing
Based in
Cheshire, working across Staffordshire and the North West
Contact
sam@mcg-marketing.co.uk
Background

Industrial products, technical buyers

I'm currently Digital Marketing Manager for an industrial packaging manufacturer, marketing engineered machinery and consumables to engineers, operations managers and procurement teams. That means long sales cycles, several people in every decision and products that have to be explained before they can be sold.

Before that I helped scale a retail brand, where the feedback loop was brutal and immediate: if the messaging or the media buying was wrong, you knew within a day. The combination is useful. Industrial marketing teaches patience and pipeline thinking; consumer marketing teaches discipline about numbers.

Across both, the work that moved the needle was rarely a clever campaign. It was deciding who we were actually for, saying it clearly, and making sure the CRM told the truth about what was working.

Qualifications

Chartered, qualified and hands-on

Marketing has no shortage of confident opinions. I'd rather bring evidence, professional standards and a working knowledge of the tools.

  • Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM) — bound by its professional code of conduct.
  • MSc Digital Marketing Management, University of Staffordshire.
  • Commercially trained: every recommendation is judged on pipeline and revenue, not activity.
  • HubSpot CRM implementation, workflow automation and revenue reporting.
  • Google Ads and GA4: paid search managed to cost per qualified enquiry, not clicks.
Technical and local SEO for commercial intent search terms.
Principles

How I'd rather work

Four commitments that shape every engagement — and that you should hold me to.

  • Strategy before tactics. No channel recommendation until the commercial picture is clear.
  • One number per channel. Cost per qualified enquiry beats a dashboard nobody reads.
  • Honest reporting, including what didn't work. You are paying for judgement, not reassurance.
  • Build capability, not dependency. The goal is a marketing function that runs without me.
Engagement

What the first ninety days usually look like

  1. 01

    Discovery

    I start with your commercial numbers: average order value, sales cycle, win rate and growth target. Then I audit what marketing is actually producing today.

  2. 02

    Strategy

    A written strategy with named priorities, target segments, proposition, channel plan, budget allocation and the measurement framework behind it.

  3. 03

    Execution

    Delivery through your team, your agencies or my network, with clear ownership and deadlines rather than open-ended retainers.

  4. 04

    Optimisation

    Monthly review of cost per qualified enquiry by channel, conversion rates and pipeline contribution, then reallocation of budget to what works.

  5. 05

    Growth

    Once the fundamentals compound, we widen: new segments, new channels and the internal capability to run it without me.

Watch

Short-form marketing thinking

The same thinking, in two minutes, on Instagram and TikTok.

Keep reading

Where to go next

A few things worth reading — and the pages most people move to from here.

Related insights

All insights

Related services

All services

Related case studies

All case studies
Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do you use AI in your marketing consultancy work?
Yes — deliberately, and I help clients do the same. AI is used for research and synthesis, keyword and intent clustering, first drafts that a specialist then corrects, campaign variants and reporting commentary, all under human review with a written data and brand policy behind it. It is never used for the parts that carry commercial risk: positioning, pricing narrative, segment priorities or any claim that has to be defensible. I also work on the other half of the AI shift — making sure your business is the source ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity cite when a buyer asks who the credible options are, because a growing share of shortlists are now formed inside an assistant rather than on a search results page.
Why should I use you as my marketing consultant rather than an agency?
An agency sells you delivery. I sell you judgement. Before anyone writes an ad or a blog post, someone has to decide which segments you are targeting, what your proposition is, which channels deserve budget and what a qualified enquiry is actually worth. That is the work that decides whether the delivery pays for itself. I do that work first, in writing, then either brief your existing agency properly or build the plan in-house — and because I have no media to sell you, there is no incentive for me to recommend spend you do not need.
What makes you different from other Fractional CMOs and marketing consultants?
Three things. First, a client-side operating background rather than a pure agency one: I have run marketing inside an industrial B2B manufacturer, dealing with technical buyers, distributor networks, long sales cycles and a board that wants commercial numbers rather than impressions. Second, formal grounding — Member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (MCIM) and an MSc in Digital Marketing Management, so recommendations are based on tested frameworks rather than whatever is trending on LinkedIn. Third, I work across B2B, retail and SaaS, which means the retail pricing and merchandising discipline informs the B2B work and the SaaS retention thinking informs both.
How much does a marketing consultant cost compared with hiring a Marketing Director?
A full-time Marketing Director in the UK typically costs £70,000-£110,000 plus employer's NI, pension, recruitment fees, holiday and the risk of a bad hire — realistically £100,000+ a year all-in before they have spent a penny on marketing. Consultancy and Fractional CMO retainers give you the same seniority for one or two days a week, at a fraction of that cost, with no notice period and no recruitment risk. For most SMEs turning over £1m-£20m that is the difference between having senior marketing judgement and having none.
Do you work with B2B, retail and SaaS businesses?
Yes — all three, and the differences matter. B2B work centres on pipeline: proposition clarity, technical content, sales and marketing alignment, cost per qualified enquiry. Retail and ecommerce work centres on unit economics: contribution margin after ad spend, repeat purchase rate, lifetime value and the seasonality of demand. SaaS work centres on efficient acquisition and retention: activation, trial-to-paid conversion, churn and payback period. The strategic method is the same; the metrics I hold the plan to are different.
How quickly will I see results from working with a marketing consultancy?
You get clarity in the first two to three weeks: a written diagnosis of where marketing is losing money, what to stop and a prioritised plan. Quick operational wins — tracking that actually works, tightened paid search, fixed conversion paths, a CRM that reports honestly — typically land inside 30 to 60 days. Compounding channels such as SEO and content usually show meaningful movement in three to six months, and that is exactly why the plan sequences fast wins first: they fund the patience the slower channels require.
Will you replace my team or agency?
No. The aim is to make what you already have work harder. In most engagements your team and your agencies keep delivering; what changes is that they receive clear priorities, a proper brief and a measurement framework, and someone senior holds the whole thing to commercial outcomes. Where a supplier genuinely is not performing, I will tell you plainly and help you replace them — but replacement is a conclusion, not a starting assumption.
How do you measure success, and how am I kept accountable to it?
Every engagement is tied to commercial metrics agreed up front: qualified enquiries, cost per qualified enquiry by channel, pipeline value, conversion rate and, where the data allows, revenue and contribution. You get a monthly review pack you can put in front of a board, showing what was done, what it produced and where the next pound of budget should go. If a channel is not paying for itself, you will hear it from me before you have to ask.
What does the first conversation involve, and is there any commitment?
It is a one-hour call, free, with no pitch deck. We cover your growth target, how you sell today, what marketing is currently producing and where the obvious gaps are. You leave with an honest view on whether consultancy, a Fractional CMO retainer, a defined project or nothing at all is the right next step. There is no obligation, and I will say so directly if I do not think I am the right partner for your situation.
Get in touch

Let's find out if I'm the right partner

A short, direct conversation about your growth target and what's currently in the way. If I'm not the right fit, I'll tell you who is.

Book a call
See the case studies