The Hidden Risk in Every Business: Marketing Handover Gaps and How to Protect Your Momentum
For many years, I worked in sales and marketing on cooperative campaigns for tourism operators under the Tourism and Events Queensland brand umbrella. As a senior account manager with a local advertising agency, my job was to contact hundreds of hotels, tour operators, and marketing teams to bring them into statewide tourism partnerships.
And every single year, as soon as the first Christmas decorations appeared in the shops, the same pattern would begin. Out-of-office replies that read “I no longer work with…”, disconnected phone lines, and marketing managers I had close relationships with quietly letting me know they were preparing to transition into new opportunities in the new year.
It was a natural rhythm in such a fast-moving, creative profession. It didn’t matter whether it was a five-star hotel in Brisbane or a boutique charter yacht in the Whitsundays, there was always change in the air right when the industry was gearing up for its busiest season.
Fast forward to today, working across construction, professional services, not-for-profit, tourism, and digital health, and guess what? The pattern hasn’t changed. Marketing teams move quickly and marketing professionals change roles often. Christmas might be the most obvious time for handovers, but the truth is that transitions can happen at any point throughout the year. People resign in March, take new opportunities in June, begin career shifts in September, or accept promotions in the middle of a major campaign cycle. Internal change rarely lands at a convenient moment and for many businesses, it arrives right when momentum matters most.
Why It Matters
Whether your marketing manager leaves in December, April or August, the operational reality is the same. Campaigns stall or lose direction, lead flow slows down, budgets sit untouched, content pipelines run dry, deadlines slip, and brand consistency starts to unravel. By the time you recruit, hire, and onboard a new person, you might have already lost a critical sales window or the most important season in your industry. After seeing this pattern repeat itself for more than a decade, I realised there was a smarter way for businesses to stay stable when their marketing team shifts or shrinks unexpectedly.
The Smarter Solution
This is why Crave Marketing Partners specialise in Fractional CMO services and senior freelance marketing leadership. A Fractional CMO brings high-level strategy, structure, and accountability into your business on a flexible basis. This is also why I co-founded Crave Marketing Partners with Kay Ridge, a LinkedIn and digital marketing specialist with more than 20 years’ experience. Together, we bring two complementary strengths to our clients. I lead the brand clarity, campaign strategy, messaging and creative direction, while Kay leads B2B visibility, LinkedIn optimisation, thought leadership, and content systems that scale. Our shared mission is simple – to help businesses stay consistent, confident, and connected through periods of change, growth, or restructuring.
In practice, it means I or Kay step in as your acting head of marketing or marketing director, keeping the ship steady while maintaining campaign momentum, protecting budgets, and ensuring your brand continues moving forward even during internal change. One of the greatest benefits is continuity. Instead of scrambling to cover gaps, a Fractional CMO captures institutional knowledge, maintains strategic oversight, supports the onboarding of your new hire, and ensures the transition is smooth instead of stressful.
Many businesses initially bring in a Fractional CMO to manage the handover period, then continue long-term once they experience the clarity, systems, and consistency that come with senior marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time executive.
Across industries, the results speak for themselves. As acting head of marketing for DV Safe Phone, I helped strengthen national campaigns, corporate partnerships, digital performance, and PR, contributing to significant uplift in website traffic, social engagement, donor activity, and national media visibility.
For EVO Sportswear, stepping in as acting marketing director led to performance gains across Meta ads, email marketing, social engagement and full-funnel conversion tracking, including a 4x increase in enquiry conversions and CTRs well above industry benchmarks.
With Sonoa Health, I provided strategic direction across brand, product, competitor research, pitch design, B2B campaigns, and multi-channel marketing for more than two years, supporting growth, funding submissions, and nationwide exposure.
And in my work with Stride, Australia’s longest-serving mental health organisation, I oversaw a consolidated, cost-effective strategy across SEO, content, PR, digital ads and UX that delivered a 70 percent increase in organic website traffic year on year.
These projects all had one thing in common – internal change was happening, and the organisations needed stable, senior direction to stay on track and keep growing. The end of the year may still be the most noticeable moment for marketing departures, but the real lesson is this: handovers can happen at any time. Careers evolve, teams restructure, opportunities appear, and people move.
But your brand, your campaigns, and your growth goals don’t pause just because someone leaves. With the right support, they don’t have to. If you sense change coming or you are already navigating a transition, now is the time to protect your momentum. A Fractional CMO or senior freelance marketing partner can stabilise your strategy, keep your campaigns moving, and ensure your business enters its next chapter with clarity and confidence. Marketing seasons shift all year round, but with the right leadership in place, your growth can stay steady no matter when the changes happen.
Let’s Talk
If your marketing manager has just handed in their notice (or you suspect they’re about to), let’s chat.
We offer a complimentary 30-minute Marketing Stability Audit where we identify your immediate risks, quick wins, and how to maintain momentum through the holiday season and beyond.
