Fractional Leaders feat. Michelle Stark

Here’s our chat with Michelle Stark as part of our Fractional Leaders series. Michelle is a globally experienced, data-driven marketer with a strong track record of transforming declining brands into high-growth success stories.

In this article she shares her journey to becoming a Fractional Leader, her approach to using data and creativity to drive measurable growth, and the lessons she’s learned helping start-ups and scale-ups turn insight into impact.

Can you please introduce yourself and your journey to becoming a Fractional Leader?

I’m an accomplished, data-driven marketer with a track record in online marketing, brand building and driving customer growth across 13 countries spanning the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. My passion for technology and deep understanding of digital landscapes are complemented by global experience, including travels to places like India, Colombia, Chile, and Australia. I have hands-on experience in transforming underperforming brands into market leaders, leveraging a deeply data-driven approach combined with creative problem-solving. I specialise in helping organisations that have data but lack the tools or expertise to manage it effectively. I build data stories and models to unlock actionable insights while collaborating seamlessly with other business units, including bridging product teams and revenue generation, to craft clear, marketing-led strategies that achieve buy-in across organisations.

With technology and platform expertise, I translate investor requirements across development, product and technical leads to meet customer needs, all while working to maintain brand integrity and values to create an environment for customer retention.

I am a self-reflective and adaptive leader that can bring cultural changes by repositioning marketing as a critical revenue-generation function. I thrive on using analytics, innovation, and cross-functional collaboration to build brands that resonate, grow customer bases, and deliver measurable ROI.

I have the ability to manage using a portfolio approach as well as taking care of a single P&L. I can work with virtual walls between revenue centres ensuring discretion between clients and portfolios while handling time-slicing and multi-conflicting priorities without crossing wires across multiple roles and accounts.

Let’s talk impact, what achievements are you proud of the most?

I’m most proud of turning around a declining brand, reversing a net customer loss of 2,000 per month into a net growth of 1,800 per month. Overseeing a £6m annual customer acquisition budget, I targeted a blend of high-value and low-churn-rate client profiles, delivering high ROI in a competitive UK market.

I exceeded global board revenue and customer acquisition targets with a +121% increase in customer inflow, a +129% increase in revenue with a concurrent 20% reduction in spend.

Based on your work with start-ups and scale-ups, do you have any pieces of wisdom you could share with businesses in scale-up mode?

A data-driven, customer-centric approach paired with creative problem-solving is critical for businesses in scale-up mode.

First, harness data to understand your audience deeply—whether through advanced analytics, A/B testing, or customer behaviour tracking—and use those insights, combined with innovative thinking, to refine online marketing strategies that build resonant brands and drive customer acquisition.

Second, for start-ups with untapped data potential, invest in building data stories and models to extract the insights you need.

Third, be focused and allow yourself the space to make mistakes, spot them quickly and then be fast enough to change and be better—use data to achieve this and be brave by maintaining agility in your marketing efforts.

Finally, foster a culture of experimentation and innovation, drawing inspiration externally from diverse global perspectives to stay ahead in competitive markets.