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2019 Marketing
Benchmark Report
Research and Insights on marketing challenges,
emerging trends, and effectiveness of marketing
tactics.

Created for marketers by marketers

 
 
 

​ NTENTS 
T​ABLE OF ​CO
TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 

Authors’ Note 6 

Executive Summary 7 
Chart: Marketing challenges becoming more relevant to organizations 7 
Chart: Marketers increasing investment into content and growth marketing. 8 
Chart: The effectiveness of marketing tactics 9 
Chart: The implementation of growth marketing 10 

Chapter 1: Marketing Budgets and Operations 11 

Marketing Budgets 12 
Chart: Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue by organization size 12 
Chart: Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue by industry sector 13 
Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets 14 
Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets by organization size 15 
Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets by industry sector 16 
Chart: Marketers increasing investment into content and growth marketing 17 
Chart: Increasing marketing investment by organization size 18 
Chart: Increasing marketing investment by industry sector 19 
Marketing Operations 20 
Chart: Marketers showing high level of maturity in marketing processes 20 
Chart: Marketing maturity by organization size 21 
Chart: Marketing maturity by industry sector 22 
Chart: Marketing challenges becoming more relevant to organizations 23 
Chart: Marketing challenges by organization size 24 
Chart: Marketing challenges by industry sector 25 

Chapter 2: Generating Interest and attracting prospects 26 

Content Marketing 27 
Many marketers execute content marketing in-house 27 
Chart: The execution of content marketing 27 
Chart: Outsourcing content marketing by organization size 28 
Marketers indicate content marketing is highly effective 29 
Chart: Content marketing rated as highly effective marketing tactic 29 
Chart: Very effective ratings of content marketing by organization size 30 
Chart: Very effective ratings of content marketing by industry sector 31 

 
2 
 
 

SEO 31 
Many marketers execute SEO in-house 32 
Chart: The execution of SEO 32 
Chart: Outsourcing SEO by organization size 33 
Great perception of SEO effectiveness 34 
Chart: SEO is a highly effective marketing tactic 34 
Chart: Very effective ratings of SEO by organization size 35 
Chart: Very effective ratings of SEO by industry sector 36 
Growth Marketing 36 
Few organizations outsource growth marketing 37 
Chart: The execution of growth marketing 37 
Chart: Outsourcing growth marketing by organization size 38 
The effectiveness of growth marketing 39 
Chart: Growth marketing rated as highly effective marketing tactic 39 
Chart: Very effective ratings of growth marketing by organization size 40 
Chart: Very effective ratings of growth marketing by industry sector 41 
PPC 41 
Many marketers execute PPC in-house 42 
Chart: The execution of PPC 42 
Chart: Outsourcing PPC by organization size 43 
Great perception of PPC effectiveness 44 
Chart: PPC is a highly effective marketing tactic 44 
Chart: Very effective ratings of PPC by organization size 45 
Chart: Very effective ratings of PPC by industry sector 46 
Social Media 46 
Majority of organizations execute social media in-house 47 
Chart: The execution of social media 47 
Chart: Outsourcing social media by organization size 48 
The effectiveness of social media 49 
Chart: Social media rated as highly effective marketing tactic 49 
Chart: Very effective ratings of social media by organization size 50 
Chart: Very effective ratings of social media by industry sector 51 
PR 51 
PR execution 52 
Chart: The execution of PR 52 
Chart: Outsourcing PR by organization size 53 
Few organizations find value in PR 54 
Chart: The effectiveness of PR 54 
Chart: Very effective ratings of PR by organization size 55 

 
3 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of PR by industry sector 56 

Email Marketing 56 
Email marketing execution 57 
Chart: The execution of email marketing 57 
Chart: Outsourcing email marketing by organization size 58 
A lot of organizations find value in email marketing 59 
Chart: The effectiveness of email marketing 59 
Chart: Very effective ratings of email marketing by organization size 60 
Chart: Very effective ratings of email marketing by industry sector 61 
Website design, management and optimization 62 
Website design, management and optimization execution 62 
Chart: The execution of website design, management and optimization 62 
Chart: Outsourcing website design, management and optimization by organization 
size 63 
Website design, management and optimization execution effectiveness 64 
Chart: The effectiveness of website design, management and optimization 64 
Chart: Very effective ratings of website design, management and optimization by 
organization size 65 
Chart: Very effective ratings of website design, management and optimization by 
industry sector 66 
Event marketing 66 
Few organizations outsource event marketing 67 
Chart: The execution of event marketing 67 
Chart: Outsourcing event marketing by organization size 68 
The effectiveness of event marketing 69 
Chart: The effectiveness of event marketing 69 
Chart: Very effective ratings of event marketing by organization size 70 
Chart: Very effective ratings of event marketing by industry sector 71 
Outbound marketing 71 
Outbound marketing execution 72 
Chart: The execution of outbound marketing 72 
Chart: Outsourcing outbound marketing by organization size 73 
The effectiveness of outbound marketing 74 
Chart: The effectiveness of outbound marketing 74 
Chart: Very effective ratings of outbound marketing by organization size 75 
Chart: Very effective ratings of outbound marketing by industry sector 76 
Virtual events / webinars 76 
Many marketers execute virtual events in-house 77 
Chart: The execution of virtual events 77 

 
4 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing virtual events by organization size 78 

The effectiveness of virtual events 79 
Chart: The effectiveness of virtual events 79 
Chart: Very effective ratings of virtual events by organization size 80 
Chart: Very effective ratings of virtual events by industry sector 81 
Print Advertising 81 
Print advertising execution 82 
Chart: The execution of print advertising 82 
Chart: Outsourcing print advertising by organization size 83 
Print advertising effectiveness 84 
Chart: The effectiveness of print advertising 84 
Chart: Very effective ratings of print advertising by organization size 85 
Chart: Very effective ratings of print advertising by industry sector 86 
TV Advertising 86 
TV advertising execution 87 
Chart: The execution of TV advertising 87 
Chart: Outsourcing TV advertising by organization size 88 
TV advertising effectiveness 88 
Chart: The effectiveness of TV advertising 89 
Chart: Very effective ratings of TV advertising by organization size 90 
Chart: Very effective ratings of TV advertising by industry sector 91 

Chapter 3: Growth Marketing 91 

Growth Marketing adoption 92 
Few organizations did not try growth marketing 92 
Chart: The execution of content marketing 92 
Many organizations find value in growth marketing 93 
Chart: Positive impact of growth marketing 93 
What’s good about growth marketing 94 
Chart: What’s good about growth marketing 94 
Marketers face the challenges when implementing growth marketing 95 
Chart: Challenges of growth marketing implementation 95 
Reasons for not trying growth marketing 96 
Chart: Reasons for not trying growth marketing 96 
Reasons of why 40% of respondents are planning to try growth marketing 97 
Chart: Why 40% of respondents are planning to try growth marketing 97 
Marketers’ willingness to recommend growth marketing to their colleagues 98 
Chart: Willingness to recommend growth marketing 98 

 
5 
 
 

Authors’ Note 
 
Welcome to 2019 Marketing Benchmark Report.  
 
While creating this report we identified a number of increasingly important challenges to 
marketing community that ranged from generating traffic and high quality leads to 
competing across multiple media. We proceeded to conduct a comprehensive research to 
learn which marketing tactics would help overcome those challenges. 
 
This study also produced different benchmark data on marketing budgets, strategies, 
tactics and operations that we collected from marketers for marketers. We have 277 
filled-out questionnaires and a lot to share with you. 
The number of filled-out surveys is considered to be statistically significant since all the 
trends were set after the first hundred of responses were collected, and no major 
qualitative changes were observed afterwards. 
 
The goal of this study is to arm marketers with actionable insights on what works, and what 
doesn’t work today. 
 
This benchmark report is packed with useful and actionable information including ​90 
charts and hundreds of insights from marketing executives employed by organizations 
varying i​n size and industry. 
 
Best regards, 
 
Yaroslav Stepanenko Pavlo Pedenko   
Co-founder, ​Growth Marketing Stage​ Co-founder, ​Growth Marketing Stage   
@Yaroslav_S @graver_ua 

 
 
 

   

 
6 
 
 

Executive Summary 
Chart: Marketing challenges becoming more relevant to 
organizations 
Q: Which of the following marketing challenges are currently most relevant to your organization? 
(check all that apply) 
 

 
The greatest marketing challenge is generating traffic and leads.  

   

 
7 
 
 

Chart: Marketers increasing investment into content and growth 

marketing. 
Q: Please select the statement that best describes how you expect your organization's budget will 
change for the following categories in 2019. 
 

 
 
The majority of marketers are increasing their marketing budgets for content marketing, 
SEO, growth marketing, social media, PPC and PR. When considering outbound efforts, TV, 
and print ads, there are no huge plans on investment.  
The growing potential of utilizing inbound tactics and growth marketing is most likely a 
result of cost effectiveness of these channels. 

 
8 
 
 

Chart: The effectiveness of marketing tactics 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of the following marketing tactics for your organization. 

 
 
A huge preference of utilizing inbound marketing tactics can be seen in the above chart.  
The least effective tactics are outbound. 
 
In this report we’ve analyzed each of the marketing tactics separately to better understand 
the execution and effectiveness of each of them for different organization sizes and 
industry sectors. 
 

   

 
9 
 
 

Chart: The implementation of growth marketing 

Q: Did you try to implement growth marketing in your organization? 
 

 
  
 
The adoption of growth marketing is becoming a popular approach. 35% of respondents 
said that they tried implementing growth marketing. Another 40% of respondents indicated 
that they had plans to implement growth marketing in their organization. 
 

   

 
10 
 
 

Chapter 1: Marketing Budgets and Operations 

Before analyzing what’s working and what’s not, we have added Budget and Operations 
section to demonstrate the state of marketing in various organizations. 
 
In this chapter you will learn about marketing budgets: 
 
● Marketing budgets as a percentage of organizations’ revenue 
● Allocation of marketing budgets  
● Planned changes to marketing budget in 2019 
 
We have also analyzed the marketing maturity of organizations of different sizes and 
industry sectors. 

   

 
11 
 
 

Marketing Budgets 
In the section below you can get an understanding of marketing budgets in terms of 
percentage of revenue, allocation and expected changes. 

Chart: Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue by 

organization size 
Q: Please enter your organization's marketing budget as a percentage of revenue. 
 

 
 
The smaller the company is, the larger the percentage of revenue dedicated to the 
marketing budgets is. 

   

 
12 
 
 

Chart: Marketing budget as a percentage of revenue by industry 

sector 
Q: Please enter your organization's marketing budget as a percentage of revenue. 
 

 
Organizations in the retail sector tend to dedicate a greater percentage of their revenue to 
marketing expenses.  

   

 
13 
 
 

Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets 

Q: Approximately what percentage of your marketing budget is allocated to each of the following 
tactics. 
 

 
A lot of significant expenses are required when participating in trade shows: travel, booth 
rental, etc., making this tactic to get a significant portion of marketing budgets of the 
respondents. 

 
14 
 
 

Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets by organization size 

 

 
 

   

 
15 
 
 

Chart: The allocation of marketing budgets by industry sector 

 

 
 
 
 

   

 
16 
 
 

Chart: Marketers increasing investment into content and growth 

marketing 
Q: Please select the statement that best describes how you expect your organization's budget will 
change for the following categories in 2019. 
 

 
The majority of marketers are increasing their marketing budgets for content marketing, 
SEO, growth marketing, social media, PPC and PR. When considering outbound efforts, TV, 
and print ads, there are no huge plans on investment.  
The growing potential of utilizing inbound tactics and growth marketing is most likely a 
result of cost effectiveness of these channels. 

   

 
17 
 
 

Chart: Increasing marketing investment by organization size 

 

   

 
18 
 
 

Chart: Increasing marketing investment by industry sector 

 

   

 
19 
 
 

Marketing Operations 
In this section you will learn how mature organizations are with their processes, and which 
types of organizations have higher level of maturity. 
You will also learn the relevance of marketing challenges to organizations varying in size 
and industry. 
 

Chart: Marketers showing high level of maturity in marketing 

processes 
Q: Please select the statement that best describes the process your organization uses to execute 
your marketing activities. 
 

 
 
 
It is very impressive to see how mature organizations are with their marketing processes. 
Almost 30% of respondents indicated that they had formal process. And only 12% said they 
did not have repeatable process for performing marketing practices.  

   

 
20 
 
 

Chart: Marketing maturity by organization size 

 

 
 
Large organizations tend to be more mature with marketing practices, as 59% of these 
organizations indicated they had formal processes.  
 
 

 
21 
 
 

Chart: Marketing maturity by industry sector 

 

 
 

   

 
22 
 
 

Chart: Marketing challenges becoming more relevant to 

organizations 
Q: Which of the following marketing challenges are most relevant to your organization? (check all 
that apply) 
 

 
 
The greatest marketing challenge that marketers face is generating traffic and leads.  

   

 
23 
 
 

Chart: Marketing challenges by organization size 

 

   

 
24 
 
 

Chart: Marketing challenges by industry sector 

 

 
 

   

 
25 
 
 

Chapter 2: Generating Interest and attracting 

prospects 
This section of the report includes data and insights on both inbound and outbound tactics. 
Since it is essential for marketers to find the right mix of marketing activities to generate 
interest and attract prospects, we have dedicated sections of this part of the report to 
various marketing tactics to analyzed their execution and effectiveness. 

We analyzed marketing tactics such as SEO, PPC, growth and content marketing, social 
media, and we also analyzed more traditional outbound tactics such as print and TV 
advertising, and trade show marketing. 

   

 
26 
 
 

Content Marketing 
Content is King. And as the previous section of this report showed us - the majority of 
marketers are increasing their marketing budgets for content marketing. In this section 
you’ll learn how marketers execute this tactic, and how effective they find it to be. 

Many marketers execute content marketing in-house 

Chart: The execution of content marketing 

Q: Do you execute content marketing activities in-house, outsource to an agency or use a 
combination of both? 
 

 
 
The majority of marketers indicated that they execute content marketing in-house. 

   

 
27 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing content marketing by organization size 

 

 
Large organizations are nearly twice as likely to outsource their content marketing to an 
agency as small-or medium-sized organizations. 

   

 
28 
 
 

Marketers indicate content marketing is highly effective 

How effective in content marketing? In this section we’ll analyze the perception various 
types of organizations have on effectiveness of this inbound marketing tactic. 

Chart: Content marketing rated as highly effective marketing tactic 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of content marketing for your organization. 
 
 

The vast majority of organizations find content marketing to be either very effective or 
somewhat effective for their organizations. 

   

 
29 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of content marketing by organization 

size 
 

   

 
30 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of content marketing by industry 

sector 
 

 
 
Organizations in Retail and IT are most likely to find content marketing very effective. This 
may be an indication that organizations in these sectors are also most efficient in their 
execution of this tactic. 

   

 
31 
 
 

SEO 
Search engine optimization has been an integral component to many successful marketing 
plans, and in this section we’ll take a closer look at the execution, effectiveness of this 
practice. 

Many marketers execute SEO in-house 

In this section we’ll analyze the execution of SEO overall and by organization size to learn 
what percentage of organizations are practising SEO in-house, outsourcing to an agency or 
using a combination of in-house and agency time. 

Chart: The execution of SEO 

Q: Do you execute SEO in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of both? 

The majority of organizations practice SEO in-house. The fact that 31% either use an agency 
or use a combination of in-house and agency time indicates the value of efficient execution 
of this tactic and the specialized skill set effective execution requires 

 
32 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing SEO by organization size 

 

The smallest and the largest organizations are more likely to outsource SEO tactics to an 
agency. 

   

 
33 
 
 

Great perception of SEO effectiveness 

Chart: SEO is a highly effective marketing tactic 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of SEO for your organization. 
 

The above chart demonstrates the positive reputation that SEO has as a marketing tactic 
for our respondents, 92% of participation organizations indicated that SEO was either very 
effective or somewhat effective in achieving results for their organizations. 

SEO is an extremely effective tactic when executed correctly. Large amounts of relevant 
search engine traffic can be driven to websites at no cost per click. Leads generated from 
organic search are commonly high in quality.   

   

 
34 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of SEO by organization size 

 

 
 
Small- and medium-sized organizations are more likely to perceive SEO as an effective 
tactic for their organization than large-sized organizations.  

   

 
35 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of SEO by industry sector 

 

 
 

   

 
36 
 
 

Growth Marketing 
Utilizing growth marketing to boost the organizations' growth is a rapidly growing trend 
among marketers. 

Few organizations outsource growth marketing 

In this section, we’ll analyze the execution of growth marketing and you will learn what 
percentages of organizations execute this tactic in-house, outsource to an agency, or use a 
combination of in-house and agency time.  

Chart: The execution of growth marketing 

Q: Do you execute growth marketing in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

 
 
The vast majority of organizations are currently executing growth marketing in-house.  

 
37 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing growth marketing by organization size 

 

 
 

   

 
38 
 
 

The effectiveness of growth marketing 

Chart: Growth marketing rated as highly effective marketing tactic 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of growth marketing for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
Only 14% of respondents indicated that growth marketing in not effective for their 
organizations.  

   

 
39 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of growth marketing by organization 

size 
 

   

 
40 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of growth marketing by industry 

sector 
 

 
Organizations in the IT sector are most likely to find growth marketing as a highly effective 
tactic. Retail and FMCG are yet to find and understand the value of this marketing tactic.  

   

 
41 
 
 

PPC 
PPC is a popular inbound marketing tactic that allows to test many campaign and product 
components, making its potential for effectiveness very high. In this section, we’ll analyze 
the execution of PPC and its effectiveness. 

Many marketers execute PPC in-house 

Chart: The execution of PPC 

Q: Do you execute PPC in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of both? 
 

 
 
The execution of PPC is very close to execution of SEO. Almost the same number of 
organizations are practising this tactic in-house, outsourcing to an agency and using a 
combination of in-house and agency time. 

   

 
42 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing PPC by organization size 

 

 
 
We can see that financial resources of large companies let the activities like PPC be 
outsourced. Throughout this report this fact will continue to be demonstrated. 

   

 
43 
 
 

Great perception of PPC effectiveness 

In this section, the effectiveness of PPC as a marketing tactic for organizations varying in 
size and industry sector will be revealed.  

Chart: PPC is a highly effective marketing tactic 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of PPC for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
The majority of organizations find PPC as either somewhat effective or very effective. It is 
because of its ability to drive traffic and test various components for optimal performance. 
 

   

 
44 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of PPC by organization size 

Medium- and large-size organizations are the most likely to perceive PPC as a very effective 
tactic.    

 
45 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of PPC by industry sector 

 

   

 
46 
 
 

Social Media 
Today, many organizations are finding target audiences on social sites and effectively 
marketing to them through social media.  

Majority of organizations execute social media in-house 

In this section, we’ll analyze the execution of social media and you will learn what 
percentages of organizations execute this tactic in-house, outsource to an agency, or use a 
combination of in-house and agency time. 

Chart: The execution of social media 

Q: Do you execute social media marketing in-house, outsource to an agency or use a 
combination of both? 
 

The vast majority of organizations are currently executing social media in-house.  

 
47 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing social media by organization size 

 

   

 
48 
 
 

The effectiveness of social media 

In this section, we’ll learn the perceptions organizations of varying sizes and industry 
sectors have on the effectiveness of social media as a marketing tactic. 

Chart: Social media rated as highly effective marketing tactic 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of social media for your organization. 
 

 
 
 
The majority of organizations perceive this as either very effective or somewhat effective 
tactic. 

   

 
49 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of social media by organization size 

 

   

 
50 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of social media by industry sector 

 

Organizations in Retail sector are the least likely to perceive social media as an effective 
marketing tactic.     

 
51 
 
 

PR 
In this section, we review the execution and effectiveness of PR. 

PR execution 
In this section, we’ll analyze the execution of PR. 

Chart: The execution of PR 

Q: Do you execute PR in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of both? 
 

 
21% of respondents said that they either use an agency or use a combination of in-house 
and agency time to execute PR. And two thirds of organizations prefer to execute PR 
in-house.  

   

 
52 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing PR by organization size 

 

 
Large organizations are more likely to outsource PR activities.  
 

   

 
53 
 
 

Few organizations find value in PR 

Chart: The effectiveness of PR 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of PR for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
PR is not considered as effective as tactics like growth marketing, SEO, PPC, and content 
marketing. But still, a large number of organizations (77%) find it either very effective or 
somewhat effective. 

   

 
54 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of PR by organization size 

 

We can see that smallest and largest organizations find a value in PR.    

 
55 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of PR by industry sector 

 

 
 

In the previous chapter we saw that IT sector is increasing marketing investments ito PR 
more than other sectors. And now it is pretty logical to see that this fact correlates with IT 
sector finding PR tactics as very effective ones. 

   

 
56 
 
 

Email Marketing 
In this section, we’ll review the execution and effectiveness of email marketing.   

Email marketing execution 

In this section, you will learn what percentage of organizations execute email marketing 
in-house, outsource this tactic to an agency, or use a combination of in-house and agency 
time.   

Chart: The execution of email marketing 

Q: Do you execute ​em
​ ail marketing in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

 
Very few organizations outsource email marketing. There are a lot of email marketing tools 
to execute and automate email communication, which enables organizations to facilitate 
email tactics in-house.  

 
57 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing email marketing by organization size 

 

 
 

   

 
58 
 
 

A lot of organizations find value in email marketing 

In this section you will learn the effectiveness of email marketing for all organizations on 
average, and its effectiveness for organizations of various sizes and industry sectors. 

Chart: The effectiveness of email marketing 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of email marketing for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
Email marketing is perceived as pretty effective marketing tactic.   

   

 
59 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of email marketing by organization 

size 
 

   

 
60 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of email marketing by industry sector 

 
Organizations in FMCG sector are the least likely to perceive email marketing as a very 
effective marketing tactic. IT (outsourcing companies) do not see huge value in email 
marketing. Only 14% of these organizations said that they found email marketing very 
effective.   

   

 
61 
 
 

Website design, management and optimization 

This section is aimed to analyze the execution of website design, management and 
optimization by organizations of different size and industry sector.  

Website design, management and optimization execution 

Learn what percentages of organizations execute these tactics in-house, outsourcing to an 
agency, or using a combination of in-house and agency time. 

Chart: The execution of website design, management and 

optimization 
Q: Do you execute ​website design and optimization​ in-house, outsource to an agency or use a 
combination of both? 
 

 
 
Even though these tactics require specialized skills, 77% of organizations prefer to execute 
those in-house.  

 
62 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing website design, management and 

optimization by organization size 
 

 
 
Large organizations are more like to outsource website design, management and 
optimization that medium- and small-size organizations. 

   

 
63 
 
 

Website design, management and optimization execution 

effectiveness 

Chart: The effectiveness of website design, management and 

optimization 
Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of website design, management and optimization for your 
organization. 

 
 

 
 
Today, a business cannot exist without a website. And for a lot of organizations a website is 
a key destination for their leads and users. So, it is not surprising that 95% of respondents 
rate website design, management and optimization either as very effective or somewhat 
effective tactic. 

   

 
64 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of website design, management and 

optimization by organization size 
 

   

 
65 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of website design, management and 

optimization by industry sector 
 

 
 
Retail and IT are more likely to rate website design, management and optimization as a 
highly effective marketing tactic than FMCG organizations (only 2%). 
 

   

 
66 
 
 

Event marketing 
This section reviews the execution and effectiveness of event marketing tactics. Here, 
we’ve analyzed offline event marketing tactics. For the virtual events and webinars there is 
a separate section in this report. 

Few organizations outsource event marketing 

Learn how offline event marketing tactics are executed in various organizations. 

Chart: The execution of event marketing 

Q: Do you execute ​event​ marketing in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

 
 
It is not common to use an agency to execute event marketing. 

 
67 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing event marketing by organization size 

 

 
 
Those organizations who prefer to outsource offline event marketing tactics mainly 
represent large organizations.  

   

 
68 
 
 

The effectiveness of event marketing 

This section analyzes the effectiveness of offline event marketing for various types of 
organizations. 

Chart: The effectiveness of event marketing 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of event marketing for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
Event marketing is one of the oldest marketing tactics, and marketers still find value in it: 
83% of organizations said that event were either very effective or somewhat effective for 
them. 

   

 
69 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of event marketing by organization 

size 
 

   

 
70 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of event marketing by industry sector 

 

 
 
In the previous sections of this report we have seen that FMCG organizations rarely see 
value in such marketing activities as PPC, SEO, and growth marketing. Here we can see that 
events are more effective for them. 
 

   

 
71 
 
 

Outbound marketing 
Although inbound marketing tactics are becoming more popular, outbound efforts are still 
instrumental to a lot of organizations. 

Outbound marketing execution 

This section illustrates how organizations execute outbound marketing tactics and who 
finds those more and less effective. 

Chart: The execution of outbound marketing 

Q: Do you execute ​outbound​ marketing in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination 
of both? 
 

   

 
72 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing outbound marketing by organization size 

 

   

 
73 
 
 

The effectiveness of outbound marketing   

How effective is outbound marketing? This section demonstrates what various types of 
organizations think of outbound as a marketing tactic and whether they still find value in it.   

Chart: The effectiveness of outbound marketing 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of outbound marketing for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
Majority of organizations said that outbound marketing was either very effective or 
somewhat effective for them.  

   

 
74 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of outbound marketing by 

organization size 
 

   

 
75 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of outbound marketing by industry 

sector 
 

 
 
Organizations in the IT sector are most likely to find outbound marketing very effective. 
Only 1% of organizations in the Retail sector and 2% of organizations in FMCG sector find 
outbound marketing to be a very effective tactic.  

   

 
76 
 
 

Virtual events / webinars 

In this section, we’ll review the execution and effectiveness of online events. 

Many marketers execute virtual events in-house 

In this section, we’ll analyze the execution of virtual events and you will learn what 
percentages of organizations execute this tactic in-house, outsource to an agency, or use a 
combination of in-house and agency time.  

Chart: The execution of virtual events 

Q: Do you execute ​virtual events​ in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

 
 
Many organizations choose to execute virtual events in-house. 

 
77 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing virtual events by organization size 

 

 
 

   

 
78 
 
 

The effectiveness of virtual events 

In this section, we’ll analyze the effectiveness of virtual events for various types of 
organizations. 

Chart: The effectiveness of virtual events 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of virtual events for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
Virtual events are a pretty effective tactic for our respondents. At the same time, almost a 
third of the organizations said they did not find a lot of value in this marketing tactic. 

   

 
79 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of virtual events by organization size 

 

   

 
80 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of virtual events by industry sector 

 

In some of the previous sections we’ve seen that organizations from Retail and FMCG 
sectors are less likely to adopt the new and trending tactics like growth marketing, for 
example, and are more loyal to older approaches like events. This graphs shows the same 
trend: Retail and FMCG do not find value in online events at all, while they were the most 
active adopters of offline event tactics.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
81 
 
 

Print Advertising 
Internet era could have destroyed print advertising by now, but it still can be an important 
marketing tactic for a lot of different organizations.  

Print advertising execution 

This section demonstrates what percentage of organizations practice this tactic in-house 
and how many of them are outsourcing it to an agency or are using a combination of 
in-house and agency time. 

Chart: The execution of print advertising 

Q: Do you execute ​print advertising​ in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

 
39% of organizations use an agency or a combination of in-house and agency time to 
execute print advertising. 

 
82 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing print advertising by organization size 

 

 
 
Smaller organizations tend to execute print advertising in-house. 

   

 
83 
 
 

Print advertising effectiveness 

Chart: The effectiveness of print advertising 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of print advertising for your organization. 

 
 

 
 
The vast majority of organizations do not perceive print advertising as an effective tactic.  

   

 
84 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of print advertising by organization 

size 
 

 
 
Only large organizations can really benefit from executing print advertising activities. 

   

 
85 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of print advertising by industry sector 

 

 
 
Again and again, this is the trend we’ve seen a lot is this report - FMCG are classic and 
“old-school” tactics believers. 
 

   

 
86 
 
 

TV Advertising 
How are organizations executing TV advertising and how effective is this marketing tactic? 
Learn the answers to these questions in this section. 

TV advertising execution 
In this section, we’ll analyze the execution of TV advertising by different organizations and 
learn what percentages execute this tactic in-house, outsource to an agency or use a 
combination of in-house and agency time.  

Chart: The execution of TV advertising 

Q: Do you execute ​TV advertising​ in-house, outsource to an agency or use a combination of 
both? 
 

   

 
87 
 
 

Chart: Outsourcing TV advertising by organization size 

 

 
 
Large organizations are more likely to outsource TV advertising than smallerones. 
 

   

 
88 
 
 

TV advertising effectiveness 
Majority of organizations do not find value in TV advertising. Only 15% said it was a very 
effective marketing tactic. 

Chart: The effectiveness of TV advertising 

Q: Please indicate the effectiveness of social media for your organization. 

 
 

   

 
89 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of TV advertising by organization size 

   

 
90 
 
 

Chart: Very effective ratings of TV advertising by industry sector 

 

Again and again, this is the trend we’ve seen a lot is this report - FMCG and Retail are classic 
and “old-school” tactics believers. 

 
 

   

 
91 
 
 

Chapter 3: Growth Marketing 

Growth marketing is a relatively new marketing tactics that is actively adopted by different 
organizations nowadays. We decided to dive deep into this topic to get a better 
understanding on why it is being actively adopted, what kind of challenges organizations 
face when implementing growth marketing tactics, and whether they would recommend it 
to others. 

Growth Marketing adoption 

In this section you will get a complete understanding of growth marketing execution. 

Few organizations did not try growth marketing 

Chart: The execution of content marketing 

 
Q: Did you try to implement growth marketing in your organization? 
 
 

 
 
92 
 
 

Many organizations find value in growth marketing 

Chart: Positive impact of growth marketing 

Q: Do you think growth marketing had a positive impact on your business? 
 

 
 
The above chart demonstrates the positive reputation that growth marketing has as a 
marketing tactic. 87% of respondents said it had a positive impact of their business, 13% 
were not sure about it, an 0% thought there was no positive impact.   

 
93 
 
 

What’s good about growth marketing 

What are the benefits of growth marketing? This question is addressed in this section on 
positive aspects of growth marketing. 

Chart: What’s good about growth marketing 

Q: Please specify what's good about growth marketing. 
 

As we can see, organizations who tried growth marketing are enjoying higher conversion, 
growing user base, and increased retention. Changes are happening faster in their 
organizations, teams are more effective. The respondents also mention that their products 
became better with growth marketing being implemented.   

 
94 
 
 

Marketers face the challenges when implementing growth marketing 

Any implementation process takes time and resources, and there are always challenges to 
overcome when dealing with new tactics. In this section our respondents defined and rated 
the challenges they face when implementing growth marketing in their organizations.  

Chart: Challenges of growth marketing implementation 

Q: What kind of challenges did you face when implementing growth marketing? 
 

 
 

Building a process, run analytics and find good hypotheses top the list.Running tests and 
communicating the value of growth marketing to the team have also been strong 
challenges for our audience. 

6% of organizations said there were no challenges at all. WOW! 

 
95 
 
 

Reasons for not trying growth marketing 

In one of the sections above we’ve seen that 25% of organizations did not try growth 
marketing yet. We’ve analyzed why. 

Chart: Reasons for not trying growth marketing 

Q: Why did you not try to implement growth marketing in your organization? 
 

 
 
The vast majority of those 25% who did not try growth marketing said that they were not 
sure how to do growth marketing right, and they did not have enough resources to start. 
Being afraid of risks and a necessity to redesign the processes also stops organizations’ 
moving into growth direction.  

   

 
96 
 
 

Reasons of why 40% of respondents are planning to try growth 

marketing 
In one of the sections above we’ve seen that 40% of organizations are planning to try 
growth marketing. We’ve analyzed what are the reasons for those plans. 

Chart: Why 40% of respondents are planning to try growth 

marketing 
Q: Why are you willing to implement growth marketing? What are your goals? 
 

   

 
97 
 
 

Marketers’ willingness to recommend growth marketing to their 

colleagues 
We have also asked whether marketers are willing to recommend growth marketing tactics 
to their colleagues. The results are phenomenal - almost every organization would 
recommend growth marketing to other organizations.  

Chart: Willingness to recommend growth marketing  

Q: Would you recommend growth marketing approach to other marketing executives? 
 

 
 

 
98