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It has been a challenging year for most marketing groups.
But marketers who focused their efforts on the earliest stages of the customer journey fared the worst.
An economy that looks good on paper but doesn't seem to be leading to higher marketing budgets, a “short-term thinking” advocated by executives, and artificial intelligence that literally sucks the oxygen out of innovation are leading to a sense of uncertainty among brand and demand gen marketers.
This is just one of the conclusions from CMI’s “Content Marketing for Demand Generation” study conducted between March and April 2024.
Here are some highlights and insights based on responses from 117 respondents who are responsible for brand awareness or demand generation in their organizations.
The knights who say “meh”
We asked these marketers if they feel pressure to get results despite limited budgets and resources. And guess what?
More than half (56%) answered, “Yes, mostly.” Another 39% said, “Yes, partly.” Only 5% answered, “No.”
Not surprisingly, only 24% of these marketers report that their organization's demand generation strategies are extremely or very successful. Another 63% of marketers rated their programs as only moderately successful. Ten percent said their strategies were not very successful, and 3% said they were not successful at all.
The same “so-so” sentiment applies to demand gen marketers' assessments of their ability to create targeted content. More than half (53%) rated their company's targeted content as average, passable, or poor. This percentage is down slightly from last year's 58%, but that's hardly reassuring.
Only 47% rated their skills in dealing with targeted content as very good or excellent this year.
The round table on demand generation
Here's some better news: Collaboration and integration into the overall company seem to be working better than in years past.
More than three-quarters of marketers (77%) somewhat or strongly agreed that their company's demand generation efforts are integrated with other internal marketing initiatives or departments. Only 10% said they neither agree nor disagree, and 13% said they somewhat or strongly disagree.
Additionally, demand gen marketers reported being very involved with content. Most respondents (90%) said they were very or extremely involved in their company's content strategy, marketing or creation. Ten percent said they were moderately involved, and none said they were not involved.
Events, email and SEO are the sharpest tactics
We asked these marketers which channels they use and which have the biggest impact on their results.
SEO, organic social media, email and in-person events are the most commonly used channels. More than 90% say they use all four channels. But in terms of effectiveness, in-person events, email and SEO remain in the top three, while organic social media falls to the sixth most effective channel.
While partnerships and collaborations are tied with video for third place as the most effective channel, they are only the seventh most used. This presents an opportunity for demand-gen marketers looking for better marketing results.
Please the tax authorities
As usual, revenue was at the heart of the challenges demand gen marketers faced last year, with 62% of respondents citing budget constraints as a challenge and 58% citing a lack of resources.
Half of respondents cited content (i.e. having the right or enough content) as their biggest challenge. Audience segmentation (44%), personalization (35%), understanding audiences (31%), identifying audiences (24%), creating buyer personas (20%), competition (18%) and lack of executive support (17%) round out the list of challenges.
Yet demand generation still takes up a significant portion of budgets: 20% said they spend more than half of their marketing budget on demand generation, and another 21% said it takes up more than a third of their budget.
When asked about future budget allocation, these respondents seem to understand what works. Email, in-person events and video are the areas where demand gen marketers plan to spend more in the coming year.
AI is not a rescue
Although we didn't ask marketers about their spending plans on AI this year, we found that 57% believe AI is the development that will have the biggest impact on their demand generation strategy.
The pressure to “get good” at generative AI is primarily exerted from the executive level down to marketers, based on the assumption that the technology will lead to greater marketing efficiency.
For example, according to a recent Deloitte study, 79% of executives surveyed expect that artificial intelligence will lead to significant organizational change in less than three years.
Therefore, demand gen marketers are under pressure to use AI to do more with less.
Although I recognize the connection between these goals, there is no causal connection.
Today, when I see generative AI taking hold in a marketing organization, it's a cross-cutting, collaborative way to drive a more effective content strategy without requiring fewer people, effort, creativity, or content.
The simple truth is that generational AI amplifies human efforts – end of sentence. If you have bad ideas, too few ideas, or an inefficient measurement process, AI can only amplify those things.
If you have diverse ideas, a solid, collaborative content strategy, and a good measurement process, AI amplifies those things.
AI is not the hero that comes to the rescue. It is simply the potion that improves what you are already doing.
As this year's study proves, generating high demand is still a very human and demanding process. Efficiency will not turn the knights of “meh” into prime ministers of prosperity or kings of praise.
Only creativity, differentiation and the implementation of ideas lead to a happy ending.
It's your story. Tell it well.
Looking for new ways to boost your lead generation? Join us for our FREE Masterclass on September 18-19, 2024. We've invited experts to share their insights on maximizing ROI and generating higher quality leads, using AI to outreach more efficiently, future-proofing your demand strategies, and much more. Register now to watch live or on-demand.
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Cover photo by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
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