MARKETING

REPORT CARD
KEEPING OUR SEAT AT THE TABLE
TABLE OF CONTENTS

3 Introduction 23 Analytics, Alignment & Orientation

5 Executive Summary 27 Marketing Infrastructure

6 Current Perception of Marketing 28 Looking Ahead

10 Marketing’s Contribution to Objectives 29 Analyst Bottom Line

15 Marketing’s Leadership & Respect 30 Acknowledgements

18 Marketing’s Revenue Impact 31 About Pardot & Demand Metric

22 Marketing Skills 33 Appendix – Survey Background

INTRODUCTION
When viewed at the organizational level, marketing can take on several personas. In some organizations, it is reactive
and operationally oriented, managed by a marketing professional that is perpetually busy – the “hair on fire” type. In other
organizations, marketing exists as a strategic asset, providing leadership not just to the marketing team but also to the entire
organization because it is has a visionary leader with a plan that aligns beautifully with corporate strategy.

At the operational end of this marketing persona spectrum, marketing at best delivers incremental value, and it constantly
struggles to justify its budget and existence. At the strategic end of this spectrum, marketing is a major driver of the
organization’s success; it can easily prove its worth and it rarely has issues justifying its existence or the investment
made in it.

The marketing community at large has aspired to become more relevant by shifting from the operational orientation to
the strategic one. Financially, this shift is about moving from existing as a tolerated expense to a valued revenue center,
becoming more relevant in the process. This shift must continue if marketing wants to keep its seat at the leadership table. The
velocity of this shift at times seems glacial.

Pushing this progress along are the improved systems, tools, methods, channels, skills and leadership that marketers
are developing or exploiting. Creating drag against progress is an increasingly complex marketing environment, the difficulty
of attributing marketing activities to business results, and sometimes simply the culture within organizations that marketers
serve.

3
INTRODUCTION
In a study sponsored by Pardot, Demand Metric conducted a survey to explore marketing’s evolution from a lead
generation service bureau to a strategic, center of influence and revenue engine. Answers to these questions were
pursued to better understand the current perception of marketing:

 How is marketing perceived internally?

 What level of influence does marketing have in the organization?

 How is marketing connecting its activities and programs to revenue results?

 How difficult is it for the marketing team to justify its budget?

 How current or “state-of-the-art” are the marketing team’s skills?

 How well equipped is the marketing team with technology infrastructure?

 How aligned are the sales and marketing teams?

These study results provide a record card of sorts, providing benchmark data useful for comparison, planning and improvement.

4
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Primary research for this study was done using a survey, and the data analysis provides these key findings:

 Over half of organizations (59%) view marketing as either a necessary or unnecessary expense. Marketers are more
likely to view their own function as an expense (65%) than non-marketers (50%).

 As company size increases, marketing is more likely viewed as an expense, and less likely viewed as contributing to
achieving business objectives.

 Marketing organizations identified as “indispensable” in helping achieve business objectives are more strategically
oriented, have better alignment with sales, and use analytics to a greater extent to guide their efforts.

 The rest of the organization (45%) gives marketing more credit for having a complete understanding of its impact on revenue
than marketing itself does (34%).

 Over one-third of study participants report that justifying the annual marketing budget is difficult or very difficult.

 Marketing skills correlate strongly to revenue growth. Measuring skills of the marketing team on a scale from one to
seven where 1 = obsolete or lagging and 7 = state-of-the-art, the average was 4.8.

This report details the results and insights from the analysis of the study data. For more detail on the survey participants, please
see the Appendix.

5
CURRENT PERCEPTION OF MARKETING
Figure 1: The dominant internal view of marketing is as an expense.
Most modern marketers understand the importance of
Internal Perception of Marketing having the marketing organization operate as a revenue
center, where marketing’s contribution to revenue is
60%
analytics driven and quantified. To exist as an expense
puts the marketing function in jeopardy, keeping it on
50% the short list for cutbacks when financial pressures
51%
arise.
40%
Even though they haven’t figured out how to transform their
30% organizations into revenue centers, CMOs pursue this
orientation. The first thing this study attempted to learn is
20% the financial perception of marketing inside the company.
21%
The survey sample for this study included members of the
10%
12% C-suite, marketing team, sales team and other corporate
8% 8% functions. Their aggregate perception of marketing is
0% summarized in Figure 1.
Unnecessary Necessary Breakeven center Modestly Highly profitable
expense expense profitable revenue center
revenue center
Over half of organizations perceive that marketing is an
expense, and further insights come from looking at the
responses to this survey question by role.
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

6
CURRENT PERCEPTION OF MARKETING
Figure 2: Marketing is more likely to view itself as an expense than non-marketers.
Marketers assess their perception differently than non-
Perceive Marketing as an Expense marketers. Their responses are essentially an introspective
self-assessment (as seen in Figure 2).
Unnecessary Necessary

70% The fact that there is a difference of opinion regarding this

perception is not surprise. Even the degree of difference –
60% a 15% delta – doesn’t surprise. The surprise is that
marketers are more likely to perceive their function as
50%
an expense than the full sample does.
40%
57% This perception isn’t the one the modern marketer aspires
30% to for the marketing organization.
44%
20% Do marketers have the more accurate, realistic view?
10%
It’s impossible to discern from this data. Perhaps this
6% 8% harsher self-assessment is the result of an inferiority
0%
Non-marketers Marketers complex, cynicism, a steady drumbeat of criticism or
possibly a clearer understanding of the true contribution the
function is making. Whatever the reason for this self-
assessment, the self-esteem of the marketing function
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 seems to have suffered a blow, somewhat unexpected
from a department that usually doesn’t lack for
swagger.
7
CURRENT PERCEPTION OF MARKETING
A major part to remedying this perception of marketing as an expense is analytics. Of those organizations that view
marketing as an expense, 50% don’t use analytics at all or only to a slight extent to guide their efforts and show accountability to
the rest of the organization. By contrast, for the organizations that perceive marketing as a revenue center, just 16% fall into this
same analytics use category.

Any organization with properly deployed CRM and marketing automation systems that maintain data quality should
have access to the tools and data necessary to demonstrate not just relevance, but revenue impact. The modern
marketing organization shouldn’t function any other way.

It’s important to acknowledge that analytics alone may not provide all the leverage needed for marketing to transform itself from
an expense to a revenue center – corporate culture is sometimes a significant barrier as well. In such cases, however,
analytics are still one of the best tools for breaking down cultural barriers.

8
CURRENT PERCEPTION OF MARKETING
Figure 3: The perception of marketing as an expense increases with company size.
Another relationship exists between this perception of
Expense Perception by Company Size marketing as an expense and company size, where annual
sales determines size:
80%
 Small companies: $25 million or less

66% 68%  Medium companies: between $26 million & $500 million
60%

52%  Large companies: Over $500 million

40%
This definition of company size will remain consistent
throughout this report. The results of this analysis show a
trend (as seen in Figure 3).
20%
The larger a company is, the more likely it is that
marketing is perceived internally as an expense.
Perhaps marketing is considered more vital in small
0%
Small Medium Large companies, some of which are struggling to establish
themselves or even fighting for survival. Whatever the
reasons, as sales increase, so does the perception that
marketing is an expense.
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

9
MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO OBJECTIVES
Figure 4: Almost one-third of study participants report that they would not achieve their business
objectives without marketing’s contribution.
Even if a majority of the organization perceives marketing
Marketing's Contribution to Business Objectives as an expense, there is much greater enthusiasm for
marketing’s contribution to achieving business objectives
40% (as seen in Figure 4).

37% This question, more than any other in the survey,

30% reflects marketing’s true purpose: to help the
30% organizations it serves achieve their business
objectives. With 67% of study participants reporting that
marketing makes significant or indispensable contributions
20% 22% to achieving business objectives, the data from this study
clearly shows a strong, favorable perception.

10% If the financial perspective presented in the previous

10% section of this report is not to the liking of most marketers,
this perception of contribution is very encouraging. This
1% roller coaster of varying perceptions has characterized the
0% marketing function for years, and as further data from this
None Slight Modest Significant Indispensible
study is presented, that roller coaster ride will continue.

While subjective, this data is still an important indicator of

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 marketing’s perceived worth.

10
MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO OBJECTIVES
Figure 5: Marketing organizations identified as “indispensable” in helping achieve business
objectives are very different in their strategic orientation, alignment with sales, and analytics usage.
The important question for marketing organizations,
"Indispensable" Marketing Organization Features particularly those who aspire to greater performance, is:
Everyone "Indispensable"
What drives greater contribution?
60%

57% The data in this survey provides some answers. When

50% 53% evaluating the survey responses of just those who selected
“we would not achieve our business objectives without
40% 43% marketing’s contribution,” three characteristics separated
them from the rest of the pack: strategic orientation,
30%
36% sales and marketing alignment, and the use of
32%
analytics to guide marketing’s efforts.
20% 23%
The first differentiating characteristic in Figure 5 is strategic
10%
orientation. Participants were asked to rate the orientation
of their marketing function on a scale from very operational
to very strategic. An operational orientation was defined as
0%
Strategic orientation High/complete alignment Very/completely analytics response driven or reactive, while strategic was defined as
driven
planning and metrics driven or proactive. The percentage
of responses characterizing their marketing function as
very strategic or strategic was 20% higher in the
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 “indispensable” sample compared to the full sample.

11
MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO OBJECTIVES
The second differentiating characteristic depicted in Figure 5 has to do with sales and marketing alignment. Alignment was
defined as sharing the same goals and working effectively together to achieve them. The gap for alignment between the
indispensable and full sample was 21%.

A more detailed discussion of alignment is available in the Demand Metric report, “Sales & Marketing Alignment: Benchmarks,
Insights and Advice.” This report discusses two big factors that influence alignment: organizational structure and systems. The
study found that organizations with mature implementations of CRM and marketing automation systems have better
alignment, which favorably impacts revenue performance.

The third characteristic presented in Figure 5 describes the extent to which the marketing function relies on analytics and metrics
to guide its efforts and show accountability to the rest of the organization. The previous section presents analytics as a remedy
to the perception of marketing as an expense. Here, analytics are the distinguishing characteristic of indispensable
marketing functions, with a 21% gap between them and the full sample in this study.

Analytics are a marketing imperative for modern marketing organizations. No fewer than three Demand Metric studies
have examined various aspects of analytics: “Marketing Analytics in 2013: Benchmarks, Insights and Advice”, “Sales &
Marketing Analytics: Gauging & Optimizing Performance”, and “Social Media Analytics: Engaging & Optimizing Use Cases with
Analytics.” These are excellent resources to help marketing organizations exploit analytics to their advantage.

12
MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO OBJECTIVES
Figure 6: Marketing’s perceived contribution to achieving business objectives decreases, as
companies grow larger.
As was the case with the perception of marketing as an
Contribution to Business Objectives by Size expense, there is a relationship between perceived
contribution and company size. Using the same annual
80% sales definitions of company size provided in the previous
section, Figure 6 depicts this relationship.
74%
60% 66% As sales increase, marketing’s perceived contribution
to achieving business objectives – sales or any other –
53% decreases.
40%
Many possible causes exist for this phenomenon, none of
which were explored in this study. To speculate, smaller
companies lack many advantages in terms of resources
20% and market presence. The advantages they consistently
have, however, are cohesiveness, proximity of the
workforce and a strong sense of vision or direction.
0%
Small Medium Large In this environment where virtually everyone shares
the same understanding of mission and the same
sense of urgency, communication tends to occur better
as there are fewer barriers, and transparency about
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 everyone’s contribution is much greater. These
wonderful attributes are often inadvertent casualties of
growth.
13
MARKETING’S CONTRIBUTION TO OBJECTIVES
Another possible explanation exists for this decreasing perception of marketing’s contribution as companies grow. Greater
skills and sophistication are typically required to guide the marketing efforts of larger companies.

When small, a spreadsheet might do as a makeshift CRM solution. Smaller companies with fewer resources often use fewer
marketing channels, have less staff and less funding. The result is that there are lower expectations for marketing in
smaller companies than there are in larger ones, and therefore they are easier to meet. As companies grow, these things
change; what worked in the past no longer is effective.

The message Demand Metric sees in this data is that marketing should always lead, not follow. As companies grow,
marketers must constantly reposition the marketing function to blaze the revenue trail using increasing levels of
leadership, skill and analytics.

14
MARKETING’S LEADERSHIP & RESPECT
Figure 7: Over half of the study’s participants report that marketing is significantly or entirely
responsible for providing leadership and developing strategy for the company.
The modern marketer understands that marketing cannot
Marketing's Involvement in Leadership & Strategy exist in a silo. Marketing enjoys the greatest effectiveness
when it’s viewed not as a box on the organization chart, but
50% as something that everyone does. Marketing should
serve as the cultural ambassador for the entire
organization, helping it become customer-driven. This
40%
41% cultural orientation is a product of leadership and strategy.
To measure how well marketing is providing this leadership,
30% the study asked participants how involved their marketing
organization is in providing leadership and developing
29%
strategy for the company.
20%
When looking at this data, there is no existing standard to
17% describe how much leadership marketing should provide
10% the companies it serves, and the same is true for
11%
2% developing strategy. The modern marketing leader
definitely wants a seat at the leadership table for the
0%
None Little Modest Significant Leads entirely company. This leadership extends to setting the strategic
direction for the company. The proper degree of
leadership, then, is probably “significant” because any
less indicates that marketing is abdicating a leadership
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 role it should fill, and any more may indicate a
leadership vacuum that marketing is trying to fill, a
vacuum that probably has consequences elsewhere in
15 the company.
MARKETING’S LEADERSHIP & RESPECT
Figure 8: The perception of marketing’s leadership is greatest in small companies.
The leadership perceptions depicted in Figure 7 do not
Leadership Perception by Company Size significantly differ when comparing the non-marketing
respondents in this survey – primarily members of the C-
70% suite and the sales team – to marketers. Differences are
apparent when viewing this leadership perception data
60%
61% by company size in Figure 8.
50%
The height of the bars in Figure 8 represents the
47% percentage of “significant involvement” or “marketing leads
40%
these efforts for our company” response options.
40%
30%
The inversely proportional relationship represented
here is consistent with the financial perception and
20%
contribution to achieving business objectives: as
company size increases, marketing’s perception
10%
decreases, becoming less favorable.
0%
Small Medium Large Whatever the reasons behind these perception trends, as
companies grow, marketing has to increasingly work harder
just to maintain how it is perceived. Doing nothing results
in erosion of marketing’s perception.
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

16
MARKETING’S LEADERSHIP & RESPECT
Figure 9: Study participants from within marketing feel their function is less respected than those
outside of marketing.
Leadership and respect go arm-in-arm, so the study sought
Respect Given to Marketing vs. Other Functions to determine how much respect the marketing function
Non-marketers Marketers enjoys, compared to other functions in the organization,
such as Finance, Sales, IT and HR. The most useful way
60%
to look at this data is by comparing the responses from
those outside the marketing function to those within. The
50% results are presented in Figure 9.
52% 52%

40% Despite the credit given the marketing function for

40% helping achieve business objectives and providing
30% leadership to the organization, it views itself more
29% negatively when it comes to respect. This response
20% seems to signal a level of built-in paranoia that marketers
19% have, perhaps the same paranoia that drove responses to
the financial perception question explored in the first
10%
section of this report. A certain amount of concern about
8% respect is healthy, because it can motivate. It should not,
0%
however, become an obsession of the marketing team.
Less Same More
While respect is an indicator of influence, it flows from
results.

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 Marketing teams that are worried about how well they
are respected by their peers should focus on providing
leadership, building skills, executing to get results and
17 measuring them with analytics. The respect will follow.
MARKETING’S REVENUE IMPACT
Figure 10: The rest of the organization gives more credit to marketing for understanding its impact
on revenue than marketing itself does.
The opening of this report presented data on the financial
Marketing's Understanding of its Revenue Impact perception of marketing. Most marketers desire to
Marketers Non-marketers Everyone understand how their work impacts revenue. Connecting
marketing actions to results has historically been
34% challenging, and that challenge is only increasing as
Complete 45% communications channels and customer touch-points
38% continue to increase. Yet it is imperative for marketers to
pursue an understanding of how their work drives revenue.
41%
Partial 33%
Ideally, all marketing organizations would have a complete
39%
understanding of how their activities drive revenue. When
19% the data is analyzed for just those study participants
Vague 16% who claimed to have a complete understanding of this
17% revenue impact, they are characterized by higher
6% average marketing skill levels and a more strategic
None 6% orientation – topics this report will explore in greater
6% detail.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
These higher performers also enjoy much greater
alignment between sales and marketing, and they are using
analytics to guide their efforts at a higher rate.
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

18
MARKETING’S REVENUE IMPACT
As was the case with the financial perception of marketing, where revenue impact is concerned, marketing once again
holds the more pessimistic view.

Whose view is correct? Marketers are in the best position to know this, whether or not they try to. A deeper look at marketing’s
relationship to revenue generation comes from a survey question that asked participants to identify where they are with respect
to revenue generation maturity.

The Revenue Marketing Journey is a model popularized by Pedowitz Group that was introduced in 2011. It identifies four stages
in increasing maturity that help marketers identify where they are and where they should go. The Demand Metric study asked
participants to select which stage of the journey best describes their current situation:

 Traditional: marketing’s work is organized around the classic four “Ps” of the marketing mix: Price, Product, Promotion &
Placement.

 Lead Generating: marketing generates leads for the sales team using various campaigns.

 Demand Generating: marketing performs lead generation as described above, plus marketing & sales work together to
define lead quality and pull leads through the funnel faster, tracking the results with key metrics.

 Revenue Generating: marketing performs Demand Generation as described above, plus consistent generation of revenue
that is attributable to marketing.

Figure 11 (on next page) details the responses of study participants to this inquiry.

19
MARKETING’S REVENUE IMPACT
Figure 11: Few marketing organizations have achieved the goal of consistently generating revenue
attributable to their efforts.

The Revenue Marketing Journey

Revenue
Generating 10%

A critical enabler of the revenue generating marketing

Demand
31% organization is marketing automation software. This study
Generating
confirms the connection between marketing automation and
revenue generation.
Lead
Generating 34% Those marketing organizations that identify
themselves as revenue generating have adopted
marketing automation software at twice the rate (65%)
Traditional 25% compared to those who identified themselves as
traditional, lead generating or demand generating
(31%).
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

20
MARKETING’S REVENUE IMPACT
Figure 12: Over one-third of study participants said justifying the annual marketing budget was
difficult or very difficult.
Very much related to revenue are budgets.
Difficulty Justifying the Marketing Budget
How much effort is required for marketing to justify its
60% annual budget?

50% Study participants were asked to rate the difficulty. The

48% results are presented in Figure 12.
40%
Some analysis of budget justification difficulty was
30%
conducted to see if organizations that perceive marketing
as a revenue center instead of as an expense have an
27% easier time getting budget approval. Likewise, the data for
20%
those participants reporting a complete understanding of
marketing’s impact on revenue was analyzed. In neither
10% case was there a noticeably easier path to budget
10% 11% 4%
justification.
0%
Very difficult Difficult Neither difficult
nor easy
Easy Very easy
While it’s convenient for the budgeting process to flow
smoothly with easy approvals at the end, the entire
organization – including marketing – is better served
when departments have to justify their spend.
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

21
MARKETING SKILLS
Figure 13: The average of the skills rating for marketing in this study was 4.8.
Skills obsolescence is a concern for any professional, and
Marketing Skills marketers are no exception. To fully exploit the ever-
widening array of marketing channels, strategies and
tactics requires continuing education. Furthermore, the
State-of-the-art 7%
practice of marketing is growing more technical and data-
oriented. The study provided participants with a scale from
6 19%
one (obsolete or lagging) to seven (state-of-the-art) to rate
the skills of the marketing team.
5 38%
Skills currency poses a particular problem in that while
4 22%
most marketers agree that developing and maintaining
skills is important, it just isn’t urgent. For this reason, skills
3 10%
currency often falls to the bottom of the priority list. It’s a
mistake to let that happen. Of the many things in this
2 3%
study that can correlate to revenue growth, skills were
at the top of the list. The average skills assessment using
Obsolete, lagging 1%
this study’s scale is 4.8, but for just those participants who
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% said that marketing has a complete understanding of its
impact on revenue, the average skill rating is 5.3.

The message here is clear: Organizations need to

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 encourage marketing to gain mastery of leading-edge
skills, and marketers need to recognize the importance
of skills currency and not fall behind. It seems that
22 everyone wins when marketing has state-of-the-art skills.
ANALYTICS, ALIGNMENT & ORIENTATION
Figure 14: Most marketers rely on analytics to some extent to guide their efforts.
Having established the strong correlation between
Analytics Use by Marketing to Guide Efforts marketing skills and revenue growth, this report now
explores three other correlations to revenue growth
40%
uncovered during analysis: analytics, alignment and
orientation.

30% 32% This report has already discussed the importance of

29% analytics. The data in Figure 14 allows readers to compare
28% their maturity for this factor critical to marketing’s success.
20%
There is a critical distinction to make about analytics:

Marketers that are having the greatest success are

10% using analytics with an open mind. They define and
track meaningful measurements, and let them guide
7% marketing’s efforts.
4%
0%
None Slight Moderate Great Total Analytics is a hollow exercise when done simply in an
attempt to justify what marketing is already doing.

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

23
ANALYTICS, ALIGNMENT & ORIENTATION
The data for analytics is, for the most part, there. It’s housed in the CRM, marketing automation and web analytics systems that
many marketers already use. If it’s not being exploited, it’s a matter of skills, priority or will.

This study should convince marketers that making analytics a priority is imperative. Skills are becoming less of an issue
as vendors populate their systems with better analytics tools. For most marketers, it simply boils down to a matter of will.

This study report could present a number of charts and graphs based on the data collected that show the strong relationship
between analytics and greater understanding of revenue impact, perception of marketing as a revenue center, leadership,
respect or most other measurements.

For marketers who want to earn a seat at the leadership table, or keep the one they already have, analytics is the ticket.

24
ANALYTICS, ALIGNMENT & ORIENTATION
Figure 15: Over three-fourths of study participants report modest to complete alignment.
Alignment also correlated to revenue growth in this study.
Sales & Marketing Alignment Participants were asked to indicate how well their sales and
marketing teams are aligned, where “alignment” means
50%
sharing the same goals and effectively working together to
achieve them. Figure 15 presents the benchmark data for
40%
alignment.
39%
Alignment is one way to measure if sales and
30% marketing exist in organizational silos – the greater the
alignment, the less likely these functions are “silo-ed.”
28% Leadership, organizational form and culture have much do
20% with alignment and the existence of silos. Systems do as
20% well.

10% The previously published “Sales & Marketing Alignment:

4% 9% Benchmarks, Insights & Advice” shared that the use of both
CRM and marketing automation with a high degree of
0%
None Slight Modest High Complete integration between them helps keep marketing and sales
aligned.

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

25
ANALYTICS, ALIGNMENT & ORIENTATION
Figure 16: More marketing functions describe themselves as “operational” than “strategic.”
A third notable correlation to revenue growth was
Orientation of the Marketing Function orientation. The study provided participants with a scale
from operational to strategic to rate their orientation.
50%
Operational was defined as response driven or reactive and
strategic was defined as planning and metrics driven or
40%
proactive. The benchmark data for strategic orientation is
provided in Figure 16.
39%

30% Marketing teams need a strategic orientation. The reason

is simple: Operationally oriented marketing teams can’t
28% lead well; only strategically oriented ones can. No
20% marketing leader deliberately chooses an operational
orientation for the team, but it happens. It’s usually the
18%
result of the marketing function lacking clarity about its own
10% marketing strategy.
11% 4%
In the absence of a plan, it becomes difficult to say “no” to
0% the many requests that come to marketing from all over the
Very operational Operational Balanced Strategic Very strategic
organization. Without realizing it, the team becomes totally
response driven, even realizing that some of the things it is
doing don’t make a lot of sense, but it’s hard to turn away
Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 people asking for support. When there’s no plan to guide
marketing’s efforts, it can quickly become operationally
oriented. It takes strong leadership to orient the team
26 strategically, set a course and stay on it.
MARKETING INFRASTRUCTURE
Figure 17: Email marketing solutions are the most commonly used technology by the marketing
organization.
To do the job of marketing, the modern marketer must
Marketing Technology Landscape master the use of technology and systems, as the work of
marketing becomes increasingly technical. The study took
Email marketing 83% inventory of the current technology solutions in use by
marketing organizations.
CRM 63%
Content management/marketing 60% As marketing organizations strive for a more strategic
Marketing analytics 55% orientation and towards revenue attributable to its activities,
expect to see these changes:
Social media analytics 53%
Sales Enablement 34%  Continued adoption of marketing automation
solutions that are highly integrated with CRM.
Marketing Automation 34%
Data cleaning/validation 28%  Accelerated adoption of data cleaning and validation
Marketing attribution 18% services to maintain the quality of customer data stored
in CRM and marketing automation systems.
Other 1%
0% 50% 100%  For most organizations, initial use of advanced
attribution systems to understand how all activities –
online, mobile and offline – are influencing conversion.

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207

27
LOOKING AHEAD
Figure 18: The top three choices for boosting marketing’s performance are all related to increased
resources.
What changes would most help the marketing team
Changes to Boost Marketing's Performance improve its performance? Study participants were asked to
choose from a list of options provided, producing these
Additional technology/systems 48% results in Figure 18.
Additional funding 48%
Add staff 48% No strong consensus emerged in terms of what would
More marketing oriented company culture 45% help boost marketing’s performance, as no response
Training 42% option garnered more than 48%. When looking at the
Freedom to take creative risks 39% responses to this question from the non-marketing
Greater leadership role for marketing 34% participants, the order of the top five responses don’t
More empowerment 33% change or vary significantly by percentage. While
More agile marketing team 32% consensus may not exist in terms of a clear leader among
Improve marketing's reputation 31% these options, agreement does exist in terms of priority
Stronger executive support 29% order.
Stronger marketing leadership 24%
More accountable marketing team 19% The top three options presented in Figure 18 represent
Other 4% perennial requests from the marketing team: more staff,
more funding, more systems or infrastructure. In the
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
analysis of this study’s data, however, additional funding
and additional staff did not correlate to revenue growth.

Marketing Report Card Benchmark Report, Demand Metric, March 2014, n=207 Funding and staff are certainly important, but the
investment to make is in the areas in this study that did
correlate to revenue growth: skills, analytics, alignment
28 and strategic orientation as previously discussed.
ANALYST BOTTOM LINE
Most marketing leaders understand the need to transform marketing from a cost center to a revenue generator, but that
doesn’t mean it’s easy to do. Half the organizations in this study view marketing as an expense. This perception is not what
marketing leaders want, because it puts the marketing team at risk when companies go into cost cutting mode.

Organizations that have this perception of marketing have it primarily for one reason: because marketing has been
unable to show how it generates revenue. The 39% of participants in this study who indicated no or only slight use of analytics
to guide their efforts are the farthest from proving their revenue impact.

Conventional wisdom is that with enough staff, funding and resources, the marketing team can boost its performance. In fact, the
majority view of both the marketers and non-marketers in this study is that marketing is understaffed and underfunded.

However, the story in the data is that the places to invest if marketing really wants to drive revenue growth are:

1. Skills: Equip the marketing team with state-of-the-art skills

2. Analytics: Implement an analytics process that guides the marketing team’s efforts

3. Alignment: Achieve a high degree of sales & marketing team alignment.

4. Orientation: Keep the marketing team strategically focused.

These four areas of recommended investment – and the systems that enable them – are the cornerstones for the
foundation of a revenue generating marketing team. They will get marketing a seat at the leadership table, and keep it there.
The organization that gets these right will have adequate staffing and funding for marketing, because the business case is easy to
make when its based on measurable results.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Demand Metric is grateful to Pardot, a salesforce.com company, for sponsoring this benchmarking study, and for those members
of the Demand Metric community that took the time to provide their input to it.

Demand Metric acknowledges the advice and assistance of Dr. Tom Brown, Noble Foundation Chair in Marketing Strategy and
Professor of Marketing in the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University, in facilitating and providing counsel and
assistance on the analysis of these survey results.

30
ABOUT PARDOT
Pardot offers a software-as-a-service marketing automation application that allows marketing and sales departments to create,
deploy, and manage online marketing campaigns that increase revenue and maximize efficiency.

Pardot features certified CRM integrations with salesforce.com, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and SugarCRM, empowering
marketers with lead nurturing, lead scoring, and ROI reporting to generate and qualify sales leads, shorten sales cycles, and
demonstrate marketing accountability.

To learn more, visit www.pardot.com.

31
ABOUT DEMAND METRIC
Demand Metric is a global marketing research & advisory firm serving a membership community of over 38,000 marketing
professionals, CEOs, and business owners with advisory services, custom research & benchmarking reports, vendor studies,
consulting methodologies, training, and a library of 500+ practical tools and templates.

Using Demand Metric resources, members complete projects faster and with greater confidence, boosting respect for the
marketing team and making it easier to justify needed resources. Our 1,000+ corporate clients range from start-ups to consulting
firms to members of the Global 1000.

To learn more about Demand Metric, please visit: www.demandmetric.com.

32
APPENDIX – SURVEY BACKGROUND
The Demand Metric 2014 study, “Keeping our Seat at the Table: A Marketing Report Card” was administered online during the
period of January 17, 2014 through February 10, 2014. During this period, 259 responses were collected, 207 of which were
qualified and complete enough for inclusion in the analysis.

Summarized below is the basic categorization data collected about respondents to enable filtering and analysis of the data:

Annual Revenues: Primary Role of Respondent:

 $10 million or less (29%)  President, CEO or Owner (15%)

 $11 to $25 million (16%)  Marketing (69%)
 $26 to $100 million (19%)  Sales (7%)
 $101 to $500 million (15%)  Finance, IT, HR (3%)
 $501 million to $1 billion (7%)  Other (6%)
 Over $1 billion (14%)

Type of Organization:

 Mostly or entirely B2B (76%)

 Mostly or entirely B2C (14%)
 Blend of B2B/B2C (10%)

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 Benchmark Report

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© 2014 Demand Metric Research Corporation. Metric Reserved.
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