2018

Technology Marketing
Benchmarks and Trends Report
INDUSTRY MARKETING Insights
INSIGHTS JUST FOR MARKETING OPERATIONS

TECHNOLOGY COMPANIES LEAD GENERATION

Software and technology marketers simply don’t have many options INBOUND/OUTBOUND MARKETING
for relevant, meaningful industry benchmarks and intelligence.
The Partner Marketing Group, a technology marketing agency, has MARKETING CONTENT
changed that. Our annual survey and report provides analytics and
insight exclusively from—and for—technology companies just like CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
yours.
NURTURE MARKETING
This report will help you learn how other marketers in your industry
are approaching everything from budgets and lead generation to SOCIAL MEDIA
content and social media. Our goal is to help you better understand
what is working, and not working, so you can build competitive RESOURCES
marketing plans.
MARKETING AUTOMATION
Nearly 150 marketers participated in the survey and all responses were
validated to ensure only software and technology resellers, service RESPONDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
providers and ISVs were included in the report. A big thank you to all
who took the time to contribute. We hope you find the report valuable ABOUT THE PARTNER MARKETING GROUP
and invite you to email us at info@thepartnermarketinggroup.com
with your feedback. Please sign up to participate in next year’s survey!
Marketing Operations Most B2B marketing experts suggest
a marketing budget of 6-7% of
revenue.
Annual marketing budget
With 40% spending less than
$25,000, it’s likely these companies
23% 22% are not spending an adequate
amount on marketing and are likely
struggling to deliver the expected
$0-$10,000
$10,001-$25,000
$25,001-$50,000 volume of quality leads.
$50,001-$100,000
18%
Fortunately, 46% expect an increase
16% $100,001+

in marketing budget for 2018.

21%

Expected change in budget over next 12 months

46% expect increase

48% expect the same
3% expect decrease

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 3

11% Marketing Operations (cont.)
feel their marketing efforts Effectiveness of marketing efforts
are very successful
5%
11%

Nearly 20% 14%

Very successful - we have in-depth analytics
across all marketing channels

are struggling with Somewhat successful - we track and analyze most

of our marketing

marketing and their ability

26%
Moderately successful - we have some analytics,
but can do much better
to track or measure their Not very successful - we track very little of our

effectiveness.
marketing
Unsuccessful - we have no way to measure our
45% effectiveness

Tools used to measure effectiveness

Website
WebsiteAnalytics
AnalyticsTools/Reports
Tools/Reports 82%

Tip Prospect/Customer
Prospect/CustomerFeedback

Campaign
CampaignAnalytics
Feedback

AnalyticsTools/Reports

Employee
Tools/Reports 61%
69%

Most website, email and EmployeeFeedback

Feedback 40%
social platforms include Social
SocialListening/Analytics
Listening/Analytics 37%
some kind of analytics at
A/B
A/BTesting
no cost. Take advantage Testing 21%
of them, even if you start We have no way to measure or analyze
No way to measure 8%
measuring just one area. our marketing effectiveness.
Other
Other 3%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 4

Marketing Operations (cont.)
Biggest challenges marketers face

Finding new prospects 2.42

Getting adequate response rates 2.49

Creating/executing an effective nurture program 2.61

Converting leads to opportunities 2.64

Creating/executing demand generation campaigns 2.73

Creating original, consistent content 2.82

Customer advocacy/Telling customer stories 2.85

Getting traffic to the website 2.87

Customer engagement 2.88

Capturing leads 2.95

1 3 5
Extremely challenging Moderately challenging Not challenging

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 5

It’s no surprise that Lead Marketing Operations (cont.)
Generation tops the list of
priorities for most software
and technology companies. Which marketing objective is your
primary priority over the next year
It’s also good to see that
Customer Engagement
is the #2 priority which, Lead Generation 55%

ultimately, will result in more Lead Nurturing 7%

leads.
Brand Awareness 8%

Customer Engagement 12%

Customer Loyalty/Retention 5%

Website Traffic 6%

Customer Advocacy/Referrals 5%

Other 3%

There are many tactics and tools to help

Tip capture, score and automate responses to

leads. Consider predictive analytics, marketing
automation or perhaps live chat for your
website to engage with prospects in real time.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 6

Lead Generation
Tactics used for lead generation 84%
of respondents use blogging for
Tactics 2017 2016 lead generation.
Blogging 84% 71%
Email Marketing 82% 95%
Tradeshow activity has
Social Media 72% 86%
Webinars 71% 78%
increased by 10% since 2014,
Trade Shows 68% 64% while Live Events/Seminars
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 66% 76% decreased by the same amount.
Live Events / Seminars 53% 56%
Search Engine Marketing (Including Re-Targeting and PPC) 48% 41%
Social Media Advertising (i.e, LinkedIn or Facebook ads or 40% 25%
sponsored updates)
Telemarketing / Telesales 27% 27%
Third-party Lead Services (pay-per-lead) 21% 27%
Advertising (print, billboards, radio) 19% 17%
Direct Mail 17% 19%
Other 6% 7%
 

Blogging jumped to the #1 spot for lead generation tactics in 2017,

overtaking Email Marketing for the first time.
Email Marketing, Social Media and SEO saw a decline in investment.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 7

Lead Generation (cont.) Most lead generation
tactics have only been
moderately effective
Effectiveness of lead generation tactics for respondents.

BrightTALK reports that

80% of marketers say
Live  Events / Seminars 2.49 their lead generation
Trade Shows 2.57 efforts are only slightly
Search Engine Optimization 2.69 or somewhat effective,
Content Marketing 2.73 proving it’s a global
Webinars 2.86
challenge.
Blogging 2.94
Search Engine Marketing 3.03
Email Marketing 3.08
Social Media Advertising 3.18
Third-Party Lead Services (pay-per-lead) 3.22
Telemarketing / Telesales 3.28
Social Media 3.29
Direct Mail 3.51
Advertising (print ads, billboards, radio) 3.78

1 3 5
Very effective Moderately effective Not effective

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 8

 The majority of
Inbound/Outbound Marketing respondents are using
an equal mix of
inbound/outbound.
Breakdown of inbound vs.
outbound marketing tactics This shows a 10%
increase from 2014.

9%
15%
9%

All outbound (direct mail, email, telemarketing,

networking)
All inbound (SEO, SEM, PPC, social media, etc.)
Half inbound/half outbound
Other

68%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 9

 Marketing Content
80%
of marketers say content is 51% Importance of content in
medium to high priority.
overall marketing strategy
A content marketing strategy is
a separate component of your
29%

overall marketing strategy.

10%
5% 4%

High priority Medium priority Somewhat a Not a priority Not sure

priority

No, but
planning to
No, but planning to launch
launch
one in next one in
six months
next six
months

Tip
21% 21%

Firms with a content Yes

Yes
marketing strategy in place
No
Need help finding No
20%
20%
58%
58%

which content is
working in your
industry? Which
influencers to follow?
Check out BuzzSumo.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 10

Marketing Content (cont.) While blogs are the most
actively used content,
technology marketers are
adopting a diverse content
Types of content actively used strategy.

Remember to consistently
Blogs 87%
test and track content
Webinars 69% performance to understand
eBooks / Whitepapers 63% which types of content you
need for each audience and
stage of the buyer’s journey.
Video 60%

Articles 60%

Newsletters 59%

Use Cases 53%

Infographics 47%

Digital Ads 28%

Print Ads 15%

Other 7%

Other types of content being utilized include Case Studies, Fact Sheets
and Online Tools/Checklists.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 11

 Marketing Content (cont.)
Consider the results you
want before deciding on Types of content producing the best results
your best investments.

For example, investing Webinars 49%

in consistent blogs will Blogs 48%

typically improve web eBooks / Whitepapers 29%

traffic, while investing in an Video 27%
eBook you can put behind Use Cases 21%
a form will help build your Newsletters 17%
marketing list.
Articles 18%

Infographics 11%

Other (please specify) 5%

Digital Ads 2%

Print Ads 2%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 12

Marketing Content (cont.)
28%
of companies are creating
Pieces of original more than 11 original
content created annually pieces of content annually.
35%

28%

15%
18%

72%
are creating thought
leadership content, which
5%

None 1-3 4-7 8-10 11+

is up 15% from 2014.

Companies creating Amount of industry-specific pieces created

thought leadership pieces

10%
22%

72% Yes
All our content is industry-specific
More than half is industry-specific
Less than half is industry-specific

28% No
29%
We create no industry-specific content

39%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 13

An overwhelming number of Marketing Content (cont.)
technology companies lack
the internal resources to Biggest challenges to creating original content
create original content, with
several additional comments Don’t
Don’t have internal have internal
resources resources
(people or expertise) (people
to create or
it 61%
about lack of TIME! expertise) to create it

Don’t have
Don’t buy-in
have buy-in from company
from our companyto
to create
create itit 8%

However, with less than

Don’t have
Don’tbudget to create original
originalcontent
20% citing lack of budget,
have budget to create content 18%

outsourcing would be an Not important to us toNot

haveimportant (we (we
original content use use
publisher’s
publisher'scontent)
content) 6%
ideal solution for the 55% still
Other
creating all content in-house, Other 28%

eliminating the challenge of

resources and time. Percentage of marketing content/collateral
created in-house vs. outsourced

13%

We create 100% of our

We create
marketing all marketing
content content in-house
in-house
WeWedon’t create
don’t createany
anyoriginal
original marketing content in-house
marketing content in-house
About half in-house/half oursourced
28% About 50% in-house/50%
55% Other percentage combination
outsourced
Custom percentage

5%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 14

Marketing Content (cont.)
13%
Companies with a blog of respondents still don’t
have a blog.
87% Yes
13% No Most with blogs are posting
a few times a month,
with a surprising 21% only
posting occasionally.

Blogs must be consistent

How often new blogs are posted to be effective, so if
you’re posting less than
Daily
Daily 0%
a few times a month,
outsourcing your blog
AAfew
fewtimes
timesaaweek
week 23%
writing might be well
Multiple times
Multiple timesaaweek
week 7% worth the investment.
AAfew
fewtimes
timesaamonth
month 36%

Occasionally,no
Occasionally, noregular
regularschedule
schedule 21%

Haven’t updatedHaven’t
the blogupdated
in the last
the6 blog
months
in
or more
2%
the last 6 months or more

Not applicable,
Not applicable,we
wedon’t
don’thave
haveaablog
blog 11%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 15

Marketing Content (cont.)
Effectiveness of current content marketing
42%
report more success
approach compared with one year ago with content marketing
in 2017 vs. 2016.
Somewhat more successful 44%
A better content strategy
24%
is the biggest contributor,
About the same

Much more successful 20% followed equally by more

Not applicable 8% staff, more focus on quality
Somewhat less successful 4%
over quantity and simply
just having more content.
Much less successful 0%

Reasons for more content marketing success

Better content strategy 23%

More focus on quality over quantity 15%

More staff to create content 14%

More content 12%

More budget for content 5%

Outsourcing content development 3%

Other 2%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 16

 Customer Engagement
75% Formal customer advocacy program in place
have no formal customer
advocacy program in place.

Once again, TIME is the

biggest barrier, for both
75% Yes
the organization and the 25% No
customer.

How respondents are engaging with customers

Case studies 89%

Customer stories in marketing campaigns 57%

Customer speakers at events/webinars 43%

Testimonial videos 38%

Customers engaged in social media 17%

Other 4%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 17

 Customer Engagement (cont.)
14%
37%
of companies are not using
Number of customer stories
any customer stories in their
27% actively used in marketing
marketing.

14% 13% It’s not surprising the website

9% is the top channel used to
share customer stories, but it
None 1-3 4-6 7-10 11+
is important to share them
across as many channels as
Primary channel used for customer stories possible.

Website 53%

Email 13%

We do not have/share any customer stories 8%

Tip
Blog 7%

Presentations 5%

Sales Calls 5%
Don’t just focus on sharing the story
in its entirety. Pull out quotes and key
Other 4%

Video Channel (YouTube) 3% points to highlight on web pages,

Social Media 2%
social posts and presentations.

Events 0%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 18

89% Customer Engagement (cont.)
are using Case Studies to
engage with customers.
Barriers to customer advocacy

For 84% of B2B buyers,

word of mouth is the Our customers don’t have time to participate 39%

biggest influence on We don’t have the time/resources to manage 39%

purchasing decisions.
Our customers do not want to go public 37%

A study by the American We don’t know where to start or how to build a plan 15%
Marketing Association
found that peer
Other 11%

recommended leads are We do not want to put our customers in our materials 9%

2.5X more responsive

than leads generated by any
other marketing channel.
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2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report

We have ! They introduce content; importan
t
Partner on the
in this area Pinpoint (now p our s we feel
Microsoft helped us setu and thing of our content.
and many are a part
Center) received
We have this. Getting
profile. ,
leads from LinkedIn
qualified with
NG
us to do
more started
etc. has
Google+, pay dividends
. BLOGGI for
they do It
ter, writing us.
Twit to The blog tremendo and has
us has been
ents our
team
more.
MAR KETING complem to accomplish that
ONLINE
us
team on allowed spending
with our we are better off customers
closely re We are ing with
They work nsions to ensu time work
results of s.
ClickDime tracking the ting. d prospect
 Nurture marketing continues
Nurture Marketing to challenge software and
No, but planning to launch technology marketers. In
No, but
one in next six months
fact, almost half of survey
respondents just skipped
planning to
launch one in

most of the questions related

next six
months.

Nurture marketing 19% 19%

to nurture marketing.
program in place Yes
Yes
44%
44%
Why is nurturing so
No
No important?
37%
37% It allows you to build
relationships with buyers
at every stage of the sales
Top reasons for not nurturing funnel so you are top of mind
when they are ready to buy.

Don’t have content to nurture 23%

Other 21%

Don’t know the reasons 21%

Don’t know how to track and report on it 19%

No budget allocated for it 19%

Too difficult to set-up and execute 19%

Unimportant at this time 11%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 20

Prospects are getting most Nurture Marketing (cont.)
of the love from 95% of
respondents. Target audiences for nurture marketing

If you don’t continuously

nurture existing customers, 96%

you are missing out on

one of the best revenue
opportunities you have.
40%

Companies that excel at lead

26%
17%

nurturing generate 50% 2%

more sales ready leads at Prospects Customers Influencers Channel partners Other

33% lower cost.

and/or ISVs

Nurture frequency
Source Forrester Research

Monthly
Monthly 40%

Based on prospects’ interaction with our

Based on prospects’ interaction
offers with our offers
27%

We don’t havehave
We don’t a regular nurture
a regular rhythm
nurture rhythmororit itis
15%
infrequent(more
is infrequent (morethan
thana month
a month apart)
apart)

Weekly
Weekly 10%

Other
Other 8%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 21

Social Media LinkedIn continues to be
the most active and effective
social platform for software
and technology marketers.
LinkedIn 97%

Active Twitter 82%

social Facebook 66%

It is interesting only 5% are
networks YouTube 61%
using SlideShare. As part of
LinkedIn, it helps organic
Yammer Groups 19%

search results and is a good

Google+ 17%

addition to your social

Instagram 15%

strategy.
Slideshare 6%

Pinterest 4%

None 3%

Other 1%

LinkedIn 63%
Social networks most Twitter 25%
effective for lead generation YouTube 19%

None 18%

Facebook 8%

Yammer Groups 3%

Google+ 1%

Other 0%

Slideshare 0%

Pinterest 0%

Instagram 0%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 22

Social Media (cont.)
27%
Frequency of posts or shares on active social networks of respondents are only
posting on social networks a
few times a month.
27% 27%

According to Buffer, posting

on LinkedIn once daily (not
14%
on weekends) will enable
you to reach up to 60% of
your followers.

Sprout Social reports 7 in 10

4%
3%

Gen Xers are more likely

to purchase from brands
A few times per A few times a month Monthly Rarely Never
week

they follow on social.

Tip
If you have multiple networks and are not posting
regularly, consider deactivating some of those
networks and focus on one. LinkedIn is the most likely
choice for software and technology companies.
NOTE: We suggest only temporarily deactivating your
account, not deleting it, so you can reactivate it when
you are ready.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 23

 Resources
47% Companies that outsource
of companies outsource
at least some of their any marketing functions
marketing. 47% Yes
Content and Blogs top 53% No
the list of outsourced
elements in 2017, with
27% more outsourcing
blog writing as
compared to 2016. Marketing functions outsourced

Content Development 56%

Writing Blog Articles 56%

Web Design/Management 49%

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) 47%

PPC Advertising 31%

Strategy & Planning 20%

Branding 18%

Campaign Execution 18%

Social Media Management 16%

Public Relations 11%

Other 4%

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 24

Resources (cont.)
42%
outsourced more marketing
Outsourced more or 42%
38% in 2017.
less over the last year

20%

28%
plan to outsource even more
in 2018.
Outsourced more Outsourced less About the same

Unless you have a

Plan to outsource more or less of the next year dedicated in-house team
for highly skilled (and
constantly changing)
39% areas like marketing and
SEO, it’s extremely difficult
28%
to be successful without
20% outsourcing.
13%

Outsource more Outsource less About the same We will not

outsource any
marketing

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 25

 Marketing Automation
63%
of companies are using
a marketing automation
system. Respondents
63% Yes
using a marketing
Marketing automation automation system 37% No
not only helps simplify
campaigns and
communications, it can
provide the data and
analytics you need to get
executive buy-in. Marketing automation platforms being used

ClickDimensions 49%

Marketo 15%

Other 15%

HubSpot 12%

Tip
Oracle Eloqua 3%

Not sure which marketing SharpSpring 1%

automation platform is right for Pardot 1%
you? Check out Capterra to read
real-world reviews from users. CoreMotives 1%

While you’re there, be sure to read what

people are saying about your own products!

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 26

Additonal Survey Comments
Survey participants were given the opportunity to provide additional general in
comments and here is what they shared. e ’re b ig b e lievers in opt- ently
W
g , w h ic h h e lps us consist
marketin
fied leads.
drive in quali

To date it has been

throwing darts without
a well thought out, One of our limitations is the number
planned and executed of marketing resources we have Great survey.
marketing strategy. available. We have a robust strategy Made me think!
and pipeline but the time it takes to
properly set up and execute delays
the launch as new priorities are
added to the to-do list.

Current marketing challenges

for our team revolve around the
Bandwidth has been an
need to wear many hats and a
issue, but we hope to
limited budget, much of which
fix that with an increase
in budget and partner We need goes to sponsoring events.
outsourcing next year. more
leads.

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 27

Respondent Demographics

Number of
32%
17% of marketers are supporting a
employees 32%
company with more than 100
worldwide 1 to 10 employees.
11 to 25
26 to 50
20%
51 to 100 The majority of respondents
Over 100 have a marketing team of 1
13% to 4 employees.
19%

Number of people on the marketing team worldwide

7%
Roles of respondents
10% (may be more than one)
48%
1 to 4 37%
15% 28% 31%
5 to 10
11 to 25
26 to 100
11%
68%

Other Technical Sales Leadership Marketing

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 28

Respondent Demographics (cont.) Headquarters
country
Mid-market ERP products represented
70% US
(may be more than one)

Microsoft Dynamics ERP 80%

11% Canada
19% Other
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 51%
Microsoft Cloud Solutions 44%
Sage Intacct 17%
Acumatica 10%
NetSuite 9%
SAP 8%
Sage ERP 8% Type of firm
Sage CRM 5%
(may be more than one)
Epicor 3%
Infor 3% 68%

Salesforce 3%
41%
Other 16%

6% 8%

Reseller or ISV Influencer Other

services
partner

2018 Technology Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Report Page 29

 Click to learn more
about marketing
solutions, programs
and services designed
ABOUT THE PARTNER MARKETING GROUP
to elevate results and
strengthen engagement.
Marketing Solutions for
Software and Technology Vendors, Multi-channel
Resellers and Providers Campaigns
At The Partner Marketing Group, we love technology marketing. It’s our passion and, for
our entire leadership team, it’s pretty much all we’ve ever done. Every single one of us has Content
20 to 30 years experience working for and with the industry’s top software and technology
publishers, partners and vendors. Development
Experienced marketing support on your terms. Planning
While you’d be hard pressed to find another marketing team with the level of technology
marketing expertise as ours, we know you also need a lot of flexibility. Whether you are the & Strategy
world’s leading software publisher, a partner ready to grow, or a vendor just getting started—
our scalable services and creative team can accommodate projects of any size. Social Media
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