Trend Report:Marketing Strategy 2022

Marketers Share The Strongest Predictors For Success

The global pandemic has changed marketing. From more remote working to less predictability, organization & process are more important to marketers now than ever before.

CoSchedule’s 2022 Trend Report on Marketing Strategy uncovers how successful marketers around the world work. Review the report alongside tips to help you improve your own strategy to drive better results.

Top 7 Trends For Successful Marketers In 2022

01

Organized Marketers Are 674% More Likely To Report Success

According to our survey data, organized marketers were nearly seven times more likely to report success than their peers (a jump from 3x more likely in 2018. Here's why.

Organized marketers are 674% more likely to have success than unorganized marketers.
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02

Top Marketers Document Their Strategy - A 100% Increase From 2019

Having a documented strategy directly impacts marketing success. Survey responses revealed top marketers were 414% more likely to report success when they document their strategy. View full details.

In 2019 marketers with a documented strategy were 313% more likely to report success. In 2021, this number increased to 414%.
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03

Proactive Planners Are 3x More Likely To Report Success

Highly successful marketers plan their marketing strategy in advance. The study revealed marketers that proactively plan their marketing are 331% more likely to report success than their peers. Learn more.

Marketers that proactively plan their marketing are 331% more likely to report success than marketers that don’t plan their marketing.
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04

Social Media, Email, & Blog Posts Among Top-Performing Content

Marketers surveyed reported the most success with social media ads, email marketing, & blogging. View the breakdown across all popular content types.

19% of marketers reported having the most success with email marketing, 18% with social media ads, and 17% with blog posts.
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05

Agile Marketers 469% More Likely To Report Success Than Peers

The use of agile processes, including Scrum or Kanban, are directly correlated with successful marketing. See why.

Agile marketers are 469% more likely to report success than marketers who don’t use agile processes.
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06

Goal Setters 377% More Successful Than Peers

Goal setting is key for driving desired marketing results. Survey data found that marketers who are actively setting goals are nearly 4 times more likely to have success than those who do not set goals. Learn more.

Goal setting marketers are 377% more successful than those who don’t set goals.
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07

Project Management Software Users 426% More Likely To Report Success

The survey found marketers who use project management software were more than 4x more likely to report success than those that don’t. However, 65% of marketers still don’t use project management software. View details.

Marketers who use project management software are 426% more likely to report success than those who don’t.
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01

Organized Marketers Are 674% More Likely To Report Success

Survey results found organized marketers are 674% more likely to report success than their peers.

Compared to the data from 2018, the correlation between organization & success in marketers jumped from being almost 4 times more likely to almost 7 times more likely in 2022.

This increase isn’t surprising as we look at the way the global pandemic has impacted marketing over the last few years.

Is your marketing successful?

Bar chart showing results to the question asking marketers if their marketing is successful.
Figure 1: When asked if their marketing is successful, 56% of surveyed marketers said somewhat successful, 23% said neutral, 11% said very successful, 7% said somewhat unsuccessful, and 4% said very unsuccessful.

Ready To Get More Organized As A Marketer?

The most successful marketers we surveyed regularly plan their tasks, marketing campaigns, & projects with clear, established processes.

Take a second to reflect on your own processes. Are you as organized as you hope to be?

Organizing your marketing can sound daunting, but don’t worry – we have materials to help you get started quickly!

Once you integrate consistent processes, established workflows, & better planning into your marketing, you’ll likely see more success.

It’s easier to stay focused on what and how you will execute your marketing in order to drive the success you are hoping to achieve.

Whether it’s growing your social reach, increasing leads, or driving more sales, getting organized can help you get there.

Organize All Your Marketing In One Place.

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02

Top Marketers Document Their Strategy - A 100% Increase From 2019

The correlation between successful marketers and marketers that document their strategy has strengthened significantly since 2018. Yet almost 40% of marketers report they have no documented strategy.

A documented marketing strategy keeps everyone on the same page. It creates a universal record of what you’ve done, what you’re working on, and what is up next.

This is even more important when you have remote team members collaborating together & various stakeholders interested in what the marketing team is doing.

If you’re among the 40% of marketers that do not document their strategy (or you’re looking for a better way to do it), getting started doesn’t have to be overly complicated.

Do you have a documented strategy that drives all of your marketing efforts?

Bar chart showing results to the question asking marketers if they documented their marketing strategy.
Figure 2: When asked if they have a documented strategy that drives all of their marketing efforts, 47% of surveyed marketers said portions of their strategy are documented, 22% said they don’t currently document but plan to document their strategy in 2022, 17% said they document their entire strategy, and 14% said they have no documented strategy.

Time To Document Your Marketing Strategy

Start by documenting what you already know. Audit what is already in flight or planned for the foreseeable future, including:

  • In progress projects
  • Active marketing campaigns
  • Upcoming events
  • Upcoming projects & campaigns
  • Project or campaign requests
  • Related tasks, resources, & processes to accomplish you & your team’s work

Having your marketing strategy documented is critical to success. Things inevitably come up – employee illnesses, time off, vacations, quarantines. Documenting your strategy allows your team to stay productive, easily share progress updates, & adapt as plans change.

Document Your Entire Strategy In A Free Marketing Calendar.

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03

Proactive Planners Are 3x More Likely To Report Success

Marketers that reported they proactively plan their marketing are 331% more successful than their peers. However, there are still 15% that cited that they rarely or never plan their projects ahead of time.

The pandemic has resulted in a less predictable marketing roadmap for many teams, yet survey results show that proactive planning is still crucial for success.

Do you proactively plan marketing campaigns ahead of time?

Bar chart showing results to the question asking marketers if they proactively plan marketing campaigns.
Figure 3: When asked if they proactively plan marketing campaigns ahead of time, 46% of surveyed marketers said usually, 28% said sometimes, 17% said always, 7% said rarely, and 3% said never.

Plan Your Work Then Work Your Plan

Do you have a backlog of marketing ideas? Are you planning ahead for upcoming events or busy seasons?

Now is the perfect time to start looking ahead to plan tasks, campaigns, and projects in advance.

When you plan ahead, you can make sure your entire team has enough work, enough time, and enough flexibility to successfully execute project requests & campaigns.

Proactively Plan Your Social Messages, Blog Posts, Emails, & Projects With Your Forever-Free Marketing Calendar.

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04

Social Media, Email, & Blog Posts Among Top-Performing Content

Our survey found the highest performing content types include social media ads, emails, and blog posts.

Key Results:

  • 20% of marketers reported that social media ads performed the best compared to all the content types their company publishes.
  • 17% noted that email marketing was their top-performing content type.
  • 16% reported that blogs were their highest-performing published content.
  • Lowest performing content types include billboards, podcast, TV, & radio advertisements
Pie chart showing results to the question asking marketers about their top-performing content type.
Figure 4: When asked what their top-performing content type was, 19% of surveyed marketers said email marketing, 18% said social media ads, 17% said blog posts, 12% said organic social media posts, 10% said other, 9% said website content, 4% said landing pages, 4% said case studies, 4% said PPC ads, and 3% said videos.

Publish High-Performing Content To Connect With Your Audience

It’s clear that blogs, social media ads, & emails drive the best results for the marketers we surveyed.

To double down on successes, focus your time creating content that performs well & publish that content through the channels your target audience is most active.

We know that although these are the top performing content types for the marketers surveyed, this may vary based on your target audience, industry, company size, etc.

In order to help you pinpoint your own top-performing content, check out the resources below.

Create Your Blog Posts, Emails, Social Messages, & More In Your Forever-Free Marketing Calendar.

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05

Agile Marketers 469% More Likely To Report Success Than Peers

Compared to 2019, top marketers are two times more likely to report success when using agile processes like scrum or kanban.

This isn’t surprising. Agile processes are designed to help marketing teams handle the pace of digital marketing, respond to new opportunities, and stay aligned with business objectives.

According to the State of Agile Marketing Report presented by Agile Sherpas, 84% of those surveyed already using agile found it important or very important in handling the volatility of 2020.

When you can easily adjust your strategy, the easier it is to handle unexpected changes to timelines, priorities, or resources. Beyond making your team more successful, agile processes make it less stressful to shift responsibilities & adjust as needed.

Do you implement agile marketing processes?

Bar chart showing results to the question asking marketers if they implement agile marketing processes.
Figure 5: When asked if they implement agile marketing processes, 34% of surveyed marketers said usually, 32% said sometimes, 13% said always, 11% said rarely, and 11% said never.

If you haven’t adopted any agile processes, it’s simple to start integrating them into your workflows. Not sure where to start? Checkout these key resources to start adopting agile marketing.

Interested In Trying Agile Marketing? CoSchedule Marketing Calendar Supports Agile Processes To Help You Pivot Quickly & Stay Productive.

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06

Goal Setters 377% More Successful Than Peers

Without defining what success looks like, it’s impossible to measure success. If you aren’t setting goals, it’s time to start.

Of the marketers surveyed, 70% reported setting marketing goals for their marketing initiatives, projects, & campaigns; almost 47% of marketers who set goals noted achieving success most of the time or always.

Do you set marketing goals?

Pie chart showing results to the question asking marketers if they set marketing goals.
Figure 6: When asked if they set marketing goals, 74% of surveyed marketers said yes and 26% said sometimes. When asked if they were successful in achieving their marketing goals, 49% of surveyed marketers said most of the time, 39% said sometimes, 8% said rarely, 3% said never, and 1% said always.

A study by psychology Professor Dr. Gail Matthews at the Dominican University of California confirms the importance of setting goals: The results of her study showed that 76% of participants who wrote down their goals & provided weekly progress updates successfully achieved their goals – over 33% higher than their peers.

Time and time again, the data has shown that people who deliberately set goals have much higher success rates. Yet 30% of marketers surveyed do not set specific goals.

Luckily this is easy to fix. All you need to do is identify goals & start building your strategy around those objectives. We’ve included resources above to help set your goals.

Keep Your Goals On Track With A Forever-Free Marketing Calendar.

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07

Project Management Software Users 426% More Likely To Report Success

Our data found that Marketers who use project management tools in their tech stack are more successful than marketers that don’t.

But according to the survey results, 62% of marketers surveyed do not use any kind of project management software to manage their marketing.

What kind of tools do marketing teams use?

Bar chart showing results to the question asking marketers what tools they use.
Figure 7: When asked what kind of tools their team uses, 72% of surveyed marketers said email service provider, 63% said analytics platform, 62% said graphic creation tools, 51% said social media platforms, 43% said CRM, 36% said social media scheduling tool, 34% said SEO software/ platform, 30% said project management software, 23% said marketing automation platform, 23% said task management software, 20% said landing page software, 18% said marketing management platform, and 10% said digital asset management platform.

What Is project Management Software?

According to G2Crowd, project management software assists teams with managing team goals and long-term projects, as well as coordinating individual tasks.

Despite project management tools being readily available for marketers, there are still many who do not have the right tools in place to achieve success.

With more teams working remotely, adopting a project management software has never been more valuable.

With a project management software, you can stay connected with your team, see exactly where projects and tasks are, and achieve full visibility into your marketing strategy.

Set Yourself Up For Success. Manage Your Marketing Projects, Campaigns, & Tasks With CoSchedule Marketing Calendar.

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Set Yourself Up For More Marketing Success In 2022

Marketers have the opportunity to make adjustments to their approach, strategy & the tools they use in order to achieve maximum success.

Our survey found marketers who are organized, plan ahead, document their strategy, and set goals are more likely to be successful.

Follow these steps to level up your marketing & set yourself up for success in 2022 - 2023:

  • icon
    Step 1: Set Goals
  • icon
    Step 2: Document Your Strategy
  • icon
    Step 3: Plan Ahead & Be Proactive
  • icon
    Step 4: Get Organized
  • icon
    Step 5: Adopt Marketing Project Management Software

You Still Have Time To Make This Your Best Year Yet

Try CoSchedule’s Free Marketing Calendar to organize your projects, plan your marketing campaigns, manage your tasks, and stay on top of your marketing strategy.

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Forbes
Yamaha
Unicef
Vericast
Walgreens
P&G
Schwans
It's hard for any marketer to be 100% organized, but using CoSchedule has been the #1 way we've been able to really increase organization across our team.
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Sarah Donnell President at Amp My Brand
CoSchedule brings a ton of efficiency, transparency, and excitement to our content strategy AND is absolutely necessary to do my job well.
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Cara Harshmann  Optimizely
CoSchedule allows us to plan ahead. We like to plan out 8-12 weeks in advance. That's been the best thing we've ever done - getting ahead of ourselves. Because we have so many last minute projects that pop up.
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Lee Hersh Fit Foodie Finds

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Methodology & Demographics

The 2022 Trend Report: Marketing Strategy was produced by CoSchedule. The online survey, from which the results of this report were generated, was emailed to a sample of marketers subscribed to the CoSchedule Marketing Blog and shared via social media.

A total of 515 recipients from around the globe – representing a large range of industries, businesses, and company sizes – completed the survey through December 31, 2021.

A Total Of 515 Respondents From 75 Countries Completed The Survey

A total of 515 respondents from 75 different countries completed the survey. The top eight countries with the most respondents are the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, India, Nigeria, Australia, Philippines, and the Republic of South Africa.
  • United States
  • Canada
  • United Kingdom
  • India
  • Nigeria
  • Australia
  • Philippines
  • Republic of South Africa

Marketing Team Size

42% of surveyed marketers reported having a marketing team size of 1, 40% reported 2-5, 9% reported 6-10, 5% reported 11-25, and 5% reported 25+.

Marketers' Roles

Surveyed marketers’ identified their marketing role. 34% reported being on a SMB marketing team, 27% as solopreneurs, 20% on an enterprise marketing team, 11% at a marketing agency, and 8% as bloggers.

Industry Classification

Surveyed marketers worked in various industries. 23% marketing agency/consulting; 19% IT, software, and technology; 10% business consulting; 8% media and entertainment; 7% healthcare; 6% manufacturing; 5% financial services; 4% food services, 4% travel, tourism, and hospitality; 3% real estate; 2% agriculture; 1% government; and 1% pharmaceuticals.

Company Types

Of the surveyed marketers, 44% work at a B2B company, 32% at a both B2B and B2C company, 16% at a B2C company, and 8% at a nonprofit company.

Note: This report contains comparisons with findings from The 2019 survey results—reported on in The Marketing Management + Strategy Statistics You Need to Know in 2019—in instances where we observed notable differences. Find all our past research here.

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