£42k a year isn't much for a decent marketer in the UK. My solution was to hire someone in Kosovo.
Their English can be absolutely perfect and a good marketer can be hired for £15k per year. For that, I'd expect 5 - 10 years experience, motivated, dynamic and smart and experience of working for companies in Europe. On top of that, you'd need to pay £6k in outsourcing fees. i.e. Hire them through a third party. The reason is to set up an entity in Kosovo, you'd need to pay £10k setup fees plus office fees etc... but a third party can handle all of that for £6k p.a. So £21k all-in.
That would leave £20k in marketing fees and you'd have to spend £1k on flying over there and / or flying them over to the UK.
I hired someone with significantly less experience just to do a few things on a contract basis for a few months and she did a good job. This is her:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paul...S5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
If you want to talk to the outsourcing firm who sorted it all out for me, I can get you in touch. They're not an outsourcing agency per se, rather they're an MSP which happens to have an office in Kosovo and are happy to do a deal.
That would be my personal choice.
Otherwise, my second choice would be a part-timer. A friend hired someone from Mumsnet. She wanted to spend time with her family but at the same time work a few days each week. That again can reduce the price so you get the benefit of someone working for you, invested in your business while simultaneously having another £20k left over for marketing budget.
Personally, my third choice would be an agency. Agencies can be great but again, my personal preference is generally an employee first because I like them to get to know my business, can take them to customers etc...
