Marketing Leadership Benchmark Report
Two Years. Countless Lessons Learned.
Marketers are used to change.
But the last two years have challenged us all in more ways than one. What has the last year taught us? What trends emerged during the global uncertainty and how will they impact the future of marketing?
We wanted to know. And over 100+ marketing leaders from across 25 industries answered. Here’s what they had to say, and what you can learn from them.
Who We Surveyed
VP Level
Level
Level
Marketing Through Uncertainty
There’s no more waiting for the “new normal.” It’s here.
We asked marketers to look back on the last two years and share the impact of COVID-19 on their company, team, and the role of marketing today.
We focused on being who we are and what makes us unique – with a vengeance. It was a wake-up call for the entire team. What we loved about selling A/B testing software is being human and helping teams succeed in their optimization efforts.”
I think people (including myself) are feeling exhausted and burned out, and are looking for more meaningful interactions with brands they care about, and better ways of filtering out the noise they don't. Too many junk phone calls and texts and (often socially irresponsible) social media platforms spewing ads. It can make marketing a big turn-off, and I see a return to pre-digital relationship authenticity made easier with tracking tools and software.”
The Modern Marketing Organization
In-house or outsource?
That’s a question a lot of marketing executives face when building out and scaling their teams.
Here’s how today’s marketing teams are approaching their in-house and outsourced talent.
Current Challenges Facing Marketing
Many of the challenges we faced a year ago are still being felt today. Talent, scalability, and pipeline generation are top of mind for many teams.
That said, a lack of insight into the customer journey is a growing issue for marketers. Especially as buyers expect more and more personalization in their buying experience. How marketers gather and action customer data, especially in the face of looming privacy policy updates, will greatly impact their ability to deliver the personalization buyers crave.
Top Priorities for Marketing
55% of respondents
46% of respondents
40% of respondents
53% of respondents
41% of respondents
39% of respondents
MarTech: The Technologies Enabling Today’s Marketers
We asked respondents to choose which martech they considered critical to generating pipeline. While CRM continues to reign supreme from last year’s survey, technologies that action channels like email and SEO outranked marketing automation and analytics.
MarTech Spend & Confidence
Allocating and planning your marketing budget is vital for getting the resources, tools, and headcount you need to achieve your goals. With a growing tech stack, many marketing teams are adding additional budgets around new technologies.
- 10-20% of budget allocated on martech this year
- 10-30% of budget planned for martech next year
You’d think that given this rise in spending that confidence in martech would be high. But between 2020 and now, confidence in martech has only risen by a rating of .1.
The Future of Marketing
The future still feels uncertain. But one thing holds true: Marketing remains both an art and a science.
Marketers are relying more and more on automation and AI to solve manual, repetitive tasks. Yet, technologies that make us feel closer than ever (video and chat) are on the rise.
Future of Marketing