Why Mid-Size Marketers Still Have Big Challenges Ahead [New Report]

Sure we’re all busy professionals, but as a marketer you probably think you’re extra busy, right? Not only do you deal with the usual marketing responsibilities, but also the growing list of social media channels and mobile initiatives that need to be launched, grown, and managed. Plus there’s that tsunami of content and big data you wade through every day. Meanwhile, new technologies are popping up left and right with the promise of making your job easier…

Sound familiar?

MARKETING AT MID-SIZED COMPANIES

Now imagine if you’re a marketer working at a mid-size organization that has small business resources but enterprise-size expectations. No wonder you’re feeling extra busy!

But has marketing really gotten that much more complicated for mid-size marketers? And if so, what can senior marketers do about it?

With these questions firmly in mind, DNN commissioned a survey of 300 marketing executives at U.S. companies with 50 to 5,000 employees. The survey was conducted in February 2014 in collaboration with Lawless Research and summarized into a new report aptly called:

Marketing Got Complicated: Challenges (and Opportunities) for Marketers at Mid-Size Companies

Here are my takeaways from reviewing the report.

MARKETERS ARE TRYING TO DO IT ALL

A key finding of the report is that mid-size marketers are juggling a number of high-priority initiatives not just one or two. Specifically, three-quarters of survey respondents give five marketing priorities (out of a possible seven) a high or very high priority rating. Can marketers really succeed with this many priorities? Good question.

STILL FACING MANY CHALLENGES TO DOING THEIR JOBS EFFECTIVELY

What roadblocks or big challenges are these marketing executives facing? Especially as they look to tackle all those high priority programs? The survey data shows that getting the attention of target customers and finding the target audience online continue to be top challenges for many marketers.

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS ARE COMPLICATING THINGS

With the proliferation of new technologies hitting the market, you might think the challenges that marketers face should start being easier to wrestle with. Yet surprisingly, survey respondents say that marketing is still becoming more challenging (not less!), and that having to manage technical vendors is not helping either.

THE RISE OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES: A PLACE TO INVEST MORE?

There is a ray of light in the research that reflects the rise of online communities. It turns out that 8 in 10 survey participants say that building or managing online communities (both branded and social networks) is important to their marketing efforts. This makes sense, as online communities can help in a big way with the top challenges marketers identified earlier in the survey: finding customers, keeping customers, and building brand. Given that, online communities may be an area that senior marketers should consider as a strategic investment of time and money.

Overall, this DNN research report is a fascinating read with helpful recommendations for how mid-size marketers can more effectively move forward with their marketing initiatives.

Want to learn more about mid-size marketers? Check out: How Top Marketers at Mid-Size Companies Engage on Twitter

(Note: This post first appeared on DNNSoftware.com)