How is this different from hiring a marketing agency?

Traditional agencies tend to focus on execution — running campaigns, creating content, managing ads. Bearhat Marketing provides leadership first. I help you decide what to do, why it matters, and how it fits together. I can also manage your existing suppliers or recommend new ones, but I'm not here to simply take orders. If you need someone to own the strategy and make sure marketing actually supports your business goals, that's where I come in.

Do I need to commit to ongoing work?

Not at all. You can start with a Marketing Audit or a Marketing Power Hour to get clarity without any long-term commitment. If you want more support after that, we can discuss a Marketing Direction Sprint or a Leadership Retainer — but there's no obligation. The goal is to help you take the next right step, not lock you into something that doesn't fit.

I'm based outside Warwickshire — can you still help?

Absolutely. Whilst I'm based near Coventry, I work with businesses across the UK. Most of my work is done remotely, with occasional in-person meetings where it makes sense. As long as you're looking for strategic marketing leadership (not daily hands-on support), location isn't a barrier.

What kind of businesses do you work with?

I work with owner-led businesses who've reached a point where marketing feels reactive, disconnected, or stuck. You might be doing £500k–£5m in revenue, don't have in-house marketing, and aren't ready to hire someone senior full-time. You want direction, not just more activity. If that sounds like you, we're probably a good fit.

Senior marketing.
Without the senior hire.

Bearhat is the outsourced marketing director for ambitious owner-led businesses.
Senior, embedded, and accountable.

Sound familiar?

Most businesses Bearhat works with are already doing marketing – posting on LinkedIn, running some ads, sending the occasional email. But nothing feels joined up. Activity is happening. It just isn’t building anything.

If any of these are you:

Marketing feels busy but isn’t producing results
There’s no in-house marketing person, and a new hire doesn’t feel like the right answer yet
Agencies have been tried – but they execute tasks without understanding the business
Money is going into marketing and nobody can tell if it’s working

These are the problems Bearhat was built to solve.

Is your marketing working for you right now?

We built a 2 minute quiz to tell you if it is. By the end of it, you’ll know where you need to focus your marketing efforts. Oh, and it’s free. Take the Bearhat Benchmark now!

What an outsourced marketing director does

Not a consultant who delivers a deck and disappears. Not an agency briefed to run campaigns without context. An outsourced marketing director owns the marketing function – strategy, execution, and accountability – without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire.

That means:

Setting a clear strategy aligned to commercial goals
Deciding what to do, what to stop, and where to focus
Managing existing suppliers, or replacing them with better ones
Getting involved in the work: campaigns, content, website, paid media
Reviewing performance and adjusting – so marketing keeps improving

Bearhat is not a traditional agency. There are no account managers, no layers, no work handed off to someone junior. You work directly with Victoria – on strategy, on execution, or both.

How we work together

Marketing
Leadership

The flagship. Victoria becomes the outsourced marketing director on an ongoing basis – owning strategy, managing suppliers, driving execution month to month. This is where clients see the biggest results.

Marketing
Execution Hub

Hands-on delivery across the top marketing channels – PPC, Meta Ads, social media, SEO, content and website management. Fixed scope with a fixed price, managed by a data-driven senior marketer.

Marketing
Blueprint

A one off marketing strategy project to set priorities, align marketing to business goals, develop your audience and build a plan to move your business forward. A literal blueprint to achieving your business goals.

Not ready to
commit yet?

Start smaller. A Marketing Audit gives a senior-level diagnosis of everything your marketing is and isn’t doing, with a prioritised action plan. A Power Hour is one session to get unstuck on a specific challenge or decision.

What our clients say

"I have been lucky enough to work with Victoria for a few months now. Her understanding or how close Sales needs to work with marketing ensures we have quality opportunities come through ultimately allowing us faster conversation rates. Victoria's skill of also deciphering my terrible brief's on assets I need and turning them into magic is amazing!"

"We have been working with Bearhat Marketing for over three months now, and as a company that's never really "done" marketing in the past, it's been an eye-opener. The first step was to thoroughly reviewed the state of our (admittedly somewhat haphazard) approach to marketing in the past, along with a deep dive into the content and structure of our website. That, in turn, lead to actionable changes, clearly set out, well justified, and comprehensively explained, many of which have already been implemented, and the remainder of which are in the pipeline. It's been a boon to have someone come in with not just experience and expertise, but a completely fresh set of eyes. It's helped us look at our marketing efforts - whether through our own website, LinkedIn, email or otherwise - from a completely different, and much more objective, perspective."

"Vic has done far more than we expected and has made huge improvements to our website as well as our social media. The knowledge Vic has is amazing & that shows in her work. Vic has provided monthly reports on work she has completed as well as the stats from to show us the changes have been effective. We are so pleased we were recommended to use Vic."

"Victoria is just incredible at what she does. The work she produced and recommendations she offered were invaluable. No false promises or fluff, just really thorough workflows and strategy to help us nurture leads. Couldn't recommend more!"

I can't recommend Vic enough. She has always gone above and beyond to get our projects over the line and completed to the highest standard. She has an excellent attention to detail and endless patience when it come to understanding our vision. She is a joy to work with, thanks for all your support!

Clients

About Victoria

Victoria Steele is the founder of Bearhat Marketing and an outsourced marketing director for owner-led businesses across the UK.

With 12 years of agency-side experience – and time spent embedded inside businesses as their Director of Marketing – Victoria understands both sides. She knows how agencies think, because she managed them. She knows what a business actually needs, because she’s been accountable for delivering it.

That combination, without the full-time price tag, is what Bearhat offers.

Not sure where to start?

Lots of business owners haven’t worked with an outsourced marketing director before. That’s fine. Here’s how to approach it:

Start with a Marketing Audit If you want an honest view of where your marketing stands right now
Book a Markting Blueprint If you’re ready to set a clear direction and create a plan
Book a Power Hour. If you have one specific question or challenge you need to work through
Let’s talk about the retainer. If you’re ready to have the right person take ownership of your marketing

If marketing feels harder than it should…it probably is. Let’s find out why.

FAQs

What's the difference between an outsourced marketing director and a marketing agency?

A marketing agency typically focuses on executing specific tasks – running ads, creating content, managing social media. They do what they’re briefed to do. An outsourced marketing director does something different: they take responsibility for the whole picture. I decide what should be done, why, and how – then make sure it happens. That means setting strategy, managing any suppliers you use, and being accountable for performance. It’s the thinking and the doing, not just the doing.

What does a part-time marketing director cost compared to hiring in-house?

A full-time, experienced Marketing Director in the UK typically costs £60,000–£90,000 per year in salary alone – before employer NI, pension, benefits, recruitment fees, and onboarding time. Working with Bearhat gives you senior-level expertise at a fraction of that cost, with no employment risk and no lengthy hiring process. You can start with a one-off audit or power hour, and scale up from there.

Do I need to be based in Coventry or Warwickshire to work with you?

Not at all. I’m based near Coventry and work regularly with businesses across Warwickshire and the West Midlands – but most of my clients are spread across the UK. The majority of my work is done remotely, and it works just as well. If you’re local and prefer some face-to-face time, I’m happy to arrange that too.

What size of business do you typically work with?

I work with owner-led businesses who are past the early startup stage and are growing – typically £500k to £5m in annual revenue. They don’t have an in-house marketing team, and they’re not ready (or not willing) to hire a full-time senior marketer. They want direction, accountability, and results – not just more activity.

How quickly can we get started?

For one-off work like a Marketing Audit or Power Hour, usually within a week of enquiring. For retainer arrangements, I take on a limited number of clients at a time to ensure quality – so it’s worth getting in touch sooner rather than later to check availability. Alternatively you can add your name to the waitlist and I’ll contact you when a slot opens up.

Senior marketing. Without the senior hire.

Bearhat is the outsourced marketing director for ambitious owner-led businesses. Senior, embedded, and accountable.