Fractional Communications Teams: The “Contractor-Plus” Model That Gives You More Than an FTE
Contractor-Plus Fractional Communications Teams: More Than an FTE
Why a senior-led team with in-house visual design outperforms a single hire or a patchwork of freelancers.
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Why Fractional Is Replacing Both Freelancers and Full-Time Hires
Organizations are increasingly recognizing that external partners can deliver significantly more value than individual internal hires or traditional freelancers. The fully-loaded annual cost of a mid-level Communications Manager (including salary, benefits, taxes & overhead) typically ranges from approximately $133,000 to $194,000. As a result, many communications leaders are increasingly supplementing their teams with on-demand 'pods' to address challenges associated with freelancers' strategic depth and the added junior layers often found in agency models.
By tapping into specialized fractional teams, companies gain direct access to senior-level strategic thinking and execution without incurring fixed overhead or committing to rigid, full-time positions. The result is higher quality outcomes, more agility and cost efficiency precisely aligned to business needs.
That's where Manhattan Strategies' fractional pod comes in: it's essentially “Contractor-Plus.” You still pay only for the hours you need, but you get C-suite experience and our signature visual communication layer (illustrators, motion designers and Quant specialists) built in.
What “Contractor-Plus” Means in Practice
Where “Contractor-Plus” Shines
- Message + Visual in One Pass: Our strategist and design lead sit in the same Slack channel; the deck you edit comes back designer-ready.
- Analytics on Tap: A Quant analyst pipes earned, owned and paid metrics into a real-time dashboard so every exec can see comms ROI.
- Governance Out of the Box: We supply the crisis flowchart, approval grid and creative as the first milestone so that we hit the ground running.
When Fractional Beats an In-House Hire
How We Launch a Pod in 10 Days
- Scope Call (Day 0): 60 minutes to map goals and decide block hours.
- Kickoff Sprint (Day 3): Shared Slack & Asana board, KPI baseline and file handoff.
- Visual System Workshop (Day 5): Agree on brand identity, typography and data visualization style.
- First Deliverables (Day 10): Strategy memo and designer-polished explainer graphic.
- Monthly Retro: Shift hours (strategy ↔ design ↔ analytics) as priorities change.
Ready to get Fortune 100 communications muscle (plus visual design) without the payroll line? Book a 20-minute Contractor-Plus scoping call.
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