We recently ran a couple of surveys to understand how marketing managers view their situations at work. One survey asked marketers to choose from five options relating to roles they see themselves playing. Options included “Creative Magician,” “Brand Champion,” “Control Freak,” “Swiss Army Knife,” and “Process Powerhouse.” The other survey asked marketers to choose from a list of “marketing pains” relating to managing their brand assets.
Most respondents saw their role as “Swiss Army Knife of Marketing.” They do it all: marketing project management, trade shows, vendor relationships, data management, and more. These marketers said they often felt overwhelmed with requests for content from sales, and regularly dealt with friction between sales and marketing. They indicated a desire for a better way to keep the two groups on the same page and enable sales reps to get the marketing assets they need — without constantly hitting up the marketing team.
In the marketing pain survey, the options selected most often were:
• You’ve outgrown your ability to manage thousands of marketing assets.
• Sales reps create marketing materials on their own – and they’re off-brand.
• You have poor visibility into which marketing materials are actually being used by sales reps.
• Sales reps want faster and easier access to up-to-date selling materials.
• You need to provide access to marketing materials for users on mobile devices.
• You’re interrupted by sales reps who can’t find the right marketing materials.
Does this sound familiar? How would you describe your role as a marketing manager? If you’re looking for a better way to manage and share your brand assets, let’s talk.
We have more surveys planned. We’ll share results as they become available.