2014 Inbound Marketing Benchmark Survey: Trends by Company Size

Inbound Marketing  
Benchmark Survey:  
Trends by Company Size"

The most challenging obstacles facing inbound marketing success
and how SMB and enterprise marketers plan to overcome them in
the year ahead."

Client Connection Research™ conducted by Ascend2 in partnership with Marketing Advocate"

Inbound Marketing Benchmark Survey: Trends by Company Size 

Client Connection Research™ conducted by Ascend2 in partnership with Marketing Advocate.!

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. !
You may adapt, copy, distribute and transmit this work. However, you must attribute the work as produced by Ascend2 and its
Research Partners but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work. You may not use this work for
commercial purposes.!

2

Table of Contents!
What is driving the success of inbound marketing?

Most important objectives for inbound marketing strategy

Rating the success of inbound to achieve important objectives

Most challenging obstacles to achieving inbound marketing success
Measuring the performance of inbound marketing campaigns

Extent of marketing automation use to manage inbound marketing

Most effective tactics used to achieve inbound marketing objectives
Most difficult inbound marketing tactics to execute

Integrating SEO, social media, PR and content for inbound marketing
Research methodologies and survey demographics

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5
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8
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14
12
14

About Marketing Advocate 16
About Ascend2 17

3!

What is driving the success of  
inbound marketing?"
Long gone are the days when the marketing landscape encompassed only traditional, interruptive methods for engaging
with prospects. Today, leaders are shifting the marketing mix faster as inbound and digital continue to represent a huge
opportunity for driving demand. A recent B2B study showed that global organizations—regardless of size—are integrating
more omni-channel and modern marketing techniques to help drive business forward. 
Which led us to this question . . . 
As a marketer, what are the most challenging obstacles to your inbound marketing success in the coming year, and how
do your SMB and enterprise peers plan to overcome them? To ﬁnd out, Marketing Advocate (in partnership with Ascend2),
commissioned the Inbound Marketing Benchmark Survey, completing interviews with 519 business leaders and marketing
practitioners from around the globe. This insightful report is full of graphs, charts, and comparison statistics that contrasts
the strategies, practices, and trends of large enterprise organizations to their SMB counterparts to determine which
marketing mix is used to develop the highest quality demand generation. 
"
Please know that this exclusive Client Connection Research™ has been produced for your use. Put it to work in your own
marketing strategy planning and presentation materials. Clip the charts and blog about them online, or socialize the
ﬁndings via your social media channels. Please use and share this research credited as published."
Lastly, we thank the 500+ marketing professionals who shared their opinions and insights. We appreciate your time."
Enjoy!"

Paying it forward, 
Courtney Wiley 
Vice President, Marketing"

4"

Increasing the quantity of leads generated is the goal of
most enterprise marketers, while their SMB counterparts
are more likely to target improving the quality of leads. !

5!

Inadequate budgets and headcount are critical obstacles
for inbound marketing tactics. Proving ROI will gain
conﬁdence and yield new resources.!

6!

An inadequate budget or headcount is a critical obstacle
for inherently time-intensive inbound marketing tactics.
Proving ROI will gain conﬁdence and yield new resources. !

7!

Measuring performance is the ﬁrst step to attributing ROI
to inbound marketing. Twice as many donʼt measure
performance as those who do it “very effectively.”"

8"

Surprisingly, SMBs are more than twice as likely than
enterprises to use marketing automation extensively,
leveling the playing ﬁeld for smaller companies.!

9!

“Lead nurturing and scoring is more likely to be effective for
SMBs – the extensive users of marketing automation.”
Creating content to nurture leads is most effective for all.!

10!

Creating content is not only the most effective tactic, it is
also the most difﬁcult to execute.!

11!

Omni-channel marketing is yet to be optimized by both
SMBs and enterprise orgs.!

12!

Research methodologies!
Client Connection Research™ surveys are conducted online from Ascend2ʼs panel of
more than 50,000 US and international business leaders, marketing decision-makers
and practitioners representing a range of contact roles, company types, sizes and
geographic regions. 
The questionnaire used is standardized to incorporate these methodologies across all
studies while maintaining our proven 3-Minute Survey format. Survey ﬁndings are
examined in a quantitative context by experienced analysts and reported objectively.!

14!

Survey respondent and company demographics!

15!

About Marketing Advocate!
Marketing Advocate accelerates revenue growth through the channel with its Through-Partner
Marketing Automation (TPMA) software. The companyʼs industry-leading TPMA solution drives
effective B2B channel marketing for many of the worldʼs largest brands, including HP, IBM,
Microsoft, and NetApp. By maximizing lead efﬁciency, generating sales-ready leads, and building
pipeline, Marketing Advocate helps global organizations turn channel marketing into a revenue
driver. The company was recently recognized as a 2013 Gartner “Cool Vendor” and showcased as
a corporation that is innovating sales and marketing techniques to help global IT providers go to
market more effectively. For more information, visit MarketingAdvocate.com.Learn more at
MarketingAdvocate.com"

16"

About Ascend2!
Connecting Marketing Firms to Clients with the Power of Research!
Marketing agencies and marketing technology providers partner with Ascend2 to create new
business opportunities. Our integrated research, content creation and demand generation
process delivers richly qualiﬁed leads while positioning your ﬁrm as a thought-leader for solving
marketing challenges. !
Learn more at Ascend2.com!

17!

Corporate Headquarters 
Centerville, MA 02632 
(508) 775.9064 +1 (855) 623.1356
www.MarketingAdvocate.com "

2014 Inbound Marketing Benchmark Survey: Trends by Company Size

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