Fractional & Embedded Marketing Leadership

Marketing leadership for products that are hard to explain.

For twenty years, I've built and led marketing functions for B2B companies from early-stage through mid-market. I turn technical products into positioning buyers understand and marketing systems that create pipeline.

Tell me where marketing is stuck See selected results

About

I'm Mike Yost. Through Yost Creative Solutions, I step in as the senior marketing lead for growing B2B companies that need the function led before a full-time director makes sense.

I lead the whole function: how the company is positioned, how the story gets told, how demand gets built, and the systems that turn attention into pipeline. I'm not an agency dropping off a strategy deck or a freelancer clearing tickets. I work inside the business and stay accountable for the outcome.

Most of my work has been in industrial and infrastructure supply, B2B software, healthcare-adjacent businesses, professional services, trade associations, and enterprise IT. These are markets where what you sell is complex and the buyer needs a clear reason to care.

Michael Yost — Mike Yost/Houston, TX LinkedIn

When the model fits

Companies usually call me when marketing has become too important to keep improvising, but a full-time director is not yet the right move.

The founder or sales leader is still directing marketing.
The product is technically strong but difficult for buyers to understand.
Marketing work is shipping, but no one owns the complete system.
An internal team or collection of vendors is executing without senior direction.
A launch, growth stage, or leadership gap requires the function to come together quickly.

How an engagement works

The Model

Embedded, not advisory. I work as your marketing director inside your tools, meetings, and planning cadence. You get senior leadership integrated with the team, not a vendor delivering disconnected artifacts.

The Scope

Positioning and messaging, brand and creative direction, demand generation, content, and the measurement and technical systems underneath them. The scope is broad on purpose because the function has to hold together.

The Rhythm

Engagements run at a fixed weekly cadence, typically one to two days a week across several months. That creates enough presence to lead the function, learn the business, and build momentum without forcing a full-time hire before the company is ready.

Selected results

0 → 1 Built marketing departments from the ground up for multiple companies, covering brand and creative direction, full collateral systems, the martech stack, and the hiring and training of the teams that run them.

2× / 3× Roughly doubled site traffic and tripled online membership sign-ups for a global trade association. The sign-up increase came from replacing phone-and-paper enrollment with self-service registration and an events calendar for quarterly conferences.

~$10K/mo Cut about $10K a month in wasted ad spend while roughly doubling click-through for a global B2B services company by rebuilding its targeting, creative, and keyword strategy.

2× speed Rebuilt a B2B site around technical SEO and Core Web Vitals, roughly doubling page speed and earning first-page Google rankings across most product categories, with many reaching #1. Those rankings fed a gated funnel of white papers and case studies.

Client names withheld. Every number here has a story and the receipts behind it. Ask me about any of them.

The range

Companies from early-stage through mid-market, with teams from two people to a couple hundred. Marketing budgets up to $500K a year.

Industrial & Infrastructure Supply/B2B SaaS/Healthcare-Adjacent/Professional Services/Trade Associations/Enterprise IT & Services

Get in touch

If marketing has outgrown the founder but the company is not ready for a full-time director, let's talk.

Tell me what you're building and where marketing is stuck. I'll tell you honestly whether this model fits and whether I'm the right person to lead it. Most of my work comes through referrals, but you do not need an introduction to reach out.

Prefer email? contact@michaelyost.com