From the Marketing Trends Report for 2022 from Airtable, we want to touch on the factors that inhibit marketing success:
- Limited time for creativity, collaboration, and “deep” work
- Data that’s unreliable and difficult to find regarding planned marketing tasks
- Poor collaboration with employees outside of the team, creating a disconnection
- Too many information sources and browser tabs
The report validates the fact that a lot of teams struggle in gaining a “holistic” view of marketing tasks. 0% of the marketing leaders surveyed had a single source of “truth” for receiving information that is up-to-date. The average number of sources marketing teams use to stay in the know is 9, and the number of businesses that have more than 5,000 employees is 11.
According to data collected by the survey, 36% of marketing data is replicated in multiple places, like docs, spreadsheets, and apps. This total climbs to 45% of data in companies that have over 5,000 employees. This sticky situation is mainly caused by separate teams having different points of entry for information about their activities, campaigns, and results, which means that throughout marketing, information and data is duplicated in different project management tools, like calendars.
The report also notes marketing collaboration challenges, like the “if you’re not going to be a part of the team, you may as well work for another company” mindset. Disconnected teams experience more issues, like the good ol’ finding out that someone else also did the same exact work you did due to a lack of communication.
The good thing is, 73% of marketing team members found it easy to collaborate within the work environment. 22% spend more time on solo tasks away from the team. More than half of the marketing team leaders surveyed did report that they feel their collaboration processes are disconnected.
Another issue the survey noted is the amount of time used for internal meetings and admin work. Leaders spend an average of 10 hours a week on “non-core” tasks, which is about ¼ of the work week. The amount of time they spend in internal meetings every week is 12 hours, based on the report. Only ¼ agree they have the time to collaborate creatively during the work week. Another ¼ agree they are able to work distraction-free.
An additional assessment gathered by Airtable is that CMOs are paid $47,900 a year for non-core work on average. “Non-core” work is categorized as administrative tasks and meetings that aren’t directly related to goals and deliverables.
Macie LaCau is a passionate writer, herbal educator, and dog enthusiast. She spends most of her time overthinking and watering her tiny tomatoes.
