It’s been a challenging year for most groups within the marketing realm.
But marketers who spend their efforts at the earliest parts of the customer journey have arguably had it the worst.
With an economy that looks good on paper but doesn’t seem to lead to more marketing budget, the continuing “short-termism” espoused by leaders, and AI sucking all the proverbial oxygen out of innovation, brand and demand-gen marketers feel out of sorts.
This is just one of the conclusions from CMI’s Content Marketing for Demand Generation research conducted between March and April 2024.
Here are some highlights and insights based on the answers of 117 respondents responsible for brand awareness or demand generation in their organizations.
The knights who say “meh”
We asked these marketers if they feel pressure to achieve results despite limited budgets and resources. And guess what?
More than half (56%) said, “Yes, to a great extent.” Another 39% said, “Yes, to some extent.” Only 5% answered “No.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, only 24% of these same marketers report that their organization’s demand-generation strategies are extremely or very successful. Another 63% of marketers rated their programs as just moderately successful. Ten percent said their strategies are not very successful, and 3% said not at all successful.
That same “meh” feeling applies to demand-gen marketers’ feelings about their ability to create targeted content. More than half (53%) rated their organization’s targeted content as average, fair, or poor. This percentage decreased slightly compared with last year’s 58%, but that’s hardly comforting.
Only 47% rated their targeted content abilities as very good or excellent this year.
The demand-generation round table holds
Here’s some better news: Collaboration and integration into the broader business 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.
Furthermore, demand-gen marketers said they’re extremely involved in content. Most respondents (90%) said they were very or extremely involved in their organization’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 provide the greatest impact on their results.
SEO, organic social media, email, and in-person events are the top channels used, with more than 90% reporting they use each of these four. But when it comes to effectiveness, in-person events, email, and SEO remain in the top three, while organic social media drops to the sixth most effective channel.
While partnerships and collaborations tied with video as the third most effective channel, they’re only the seventh most used channel. That’s an opportunity for demand-gen marketers to pursue in the quest for better marketing results.
Pleasing the exchequer
As usual, revenue is at the heart of what demand-gen marketers found most challenging in the last year: 62% of respondents mentioned budget constraints as a challenge, and 58% cited a lack of resources.
Half of the respondents mentioned content (as in having the right or enough content) as a top 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 challenge list.
Yet demand generation takes up a fair amount of the budget: 20% reported spending 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 have gotten the memo about what works. Email, in-person events, and video topped the areas where demand-gen marketers plan to increase spending in the coming year.
AI isn’t saving the day
While we didn’t ask marketers about their spending plans for AI this year, we did find that 57% think AI is the development that will have the biggest impact on their demand-gen strategy.
The pressure to “get good” at generative AI is primarily driven from the C-suite down to the marketing practitioner base, based on the assumption that the technology will lead to more marketing efficiency.
For example, a recent Deloitte study found that 79% of C-suite respondents expect gen AI to drive substantial organizational transformation in less than three years.
So, demand-gen marketers get pressured to use AI to do more with less.
But while I can see the correlation between those objectives, the causation isn’t there.
Today, when I see generative AI taking root in a marketing organization, it’s a cross-collaborative way to drive a more effective content strategy. It doesn’t take fewer people, and it doesn’t take any less effort, creativity, or content.
The simple truth is that gen AI amplifies people’s 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, gen AI amplifies those things.
AI is not the hero coming to save the day. It’s simply the potion that enhances what you’re already doing.
As this year’s research proves, great demand gen is still a very human-driven, challenging process. Efficiency won’t elevate the Knights of “Meh” to Prime Ministers of Prosperity or Kings of Kudos.
Only creativity, differentiation, and the application of ideas will lead to the happily ever after.
It’s your story. Tell it well.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute