Marketing Team Morale
Understanding and nurturing marketing team morale is important for marketing leaders. By addressing employee concerns and priorities, marketing leaders can uplift their teams, provide a deeper sense of purpose and motivate organizational success.
How are marketing team members feeling about their position within their organization in 2023?
One minute insights:
Most marketers are feeling optimistic about their position within their organization, and most feel marketing’s priority will increase
Fears about budget cuts, company downsizing and frustrations surrounding inflation are the most common concerns marketing leaders hear during one on ones
Marketing leaders feel they have the tools needed to advocate for their teams
Over half of marketing teams have been impacted by layo s or furloughs, but most marketing leaders feel their organization has done a good job informing impacted employees
Overall, marketers are feeling optimistic about their position within their organization, and most believe marketing’s priority will increase in 2023
Overall, most marketing leaders (81%) would describe the morale of their marketing team as very (39%) or somewhat (42%) optimistic.
How would you describe the morale of the marketing team overall?
n = 67
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
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Question: Do you have any final thoughts to share about marketing team morale in Q4 2022?
Our team is in a good place overall, but 2023 holds a lot of uncertainty due to retirements, sta ing (in general), and inflation/supply questions.
Environment is looking better and marketing teams are upbeat in their morale.
Marketers say their direct reports are concerned about budget cuts, downsizing and inflation, but marketing leaders are optimistic about their ability to advocate for their teams
The top three concerns brought up most often in one-on-one meetings between marketing managers and their direct reports are fears of budget cuts, fears of company downsizing and frustrations surrounding inflation.
Please rank the three concerns that come up most often in one-on-one meetings with your direct reports.
Concerns about loss of or changes to benefits | Concerns about changes to company leadership | General burnout | Resistance to change initiatives | Concerns about new management | Concerns about overall company growth | Concerns about overall career growth | Marketing bandwidth | Wage concerns | Unable to create sync between management and marketing team for goals | Benefits concerns | PTO or other leave concerns | None of these
n = 67
When asked what marketers have implemented/will be implementing to help improve team morale, over half say an increase of communication frequency (69%), employee recognition programs (52%) and surveying employee feedback (51%).
Have you implemented/will you be implementing any of the following to help improve team morale? Select all that apply.
Open forums with leadership 27% | Shadowing/training opportunities 19% | Employee incentive programs 19% | Emotional intelligence training from managers 19% | Encouraging rest and breaks 18% | DEI training for leadership 7% | Implementing new rest periods or holidays (e.g. Summer Fridays o ) 3%
n = 67
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
84% of marketers agree that their marketing department has the resources necessary to fulfill their team objectives throughout 2023.
To what extent do you agree with the following: “The marketing department has the resources necessary to fulfill our team objectives throughout 2023.”
Strongly disagree 0%
n = 67
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
85% of marketing leaders say they strongly (25%) or somewhat (60%) agree that they have the tools as a manager to advocate for their team and improve their employees’ work experience. Just 2% disagree.
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following: “I have the tools I need as a manager to advocate for my team and improve my employees work experience.”
n = 67
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Question: Do you have any final thoughts to share about marketing team morale in Q4 2022?
There are a lot of concerns due to the economy and its impact on our customers and the market overall.
It is going to be a hard year, our budgets were cut more than 50% and we cut functions in marketing. So we will need to be really good at setting priorities and be smart on what we can do to bring in qualified leads to grow revenue.
Marketing teams have been a ected by furloughs, but leadership feels they’ve done an e ective job communicating about layo s to affected employees
Over half (55%) of respondents say their team has been impacted by layoffs or furloughs. An additional 13% say their team hasn’t been impacted yet, but there are plans for layo s or furloughs.
Has your team been impacted by layoffs or furloughs?
n = 67
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Among marketing respondents whose team has been impacted by layo s, or there are plans to layo employees (n=46), 65% of marketers report a ected employees were told about layo s face-to-face.
How was the messaging about layoffs/furloughs communicated to a ected employees?
Question shown only to respondents who answered “yes” or “no, but there are plans to layo or furlough employees” to the question, “Has your team been impacted by layo s or furloughs.”
n = 46
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Among the same group (n=46), 78% agree that their organization did an excellent job communicating layo s/furloughs to affected employees
To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following: “My organization did an excellent job communicating layoffs/furloughs to a ected employees.”
Question shown only to respondents who answered “yes” or “no, but there are plans to layo or furlough employees” to the question, “Has your team been impacted by layo s or furloughs.”
n = 46
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding
Question: Do you have any final thoughts to share about marketing team morale in Q4 2022?
Marketing team morale has been severely impacted as more than 80% employees from marketing team were let go, this was majorly because we have slashed our marketing spends and people who were handling marketing campaign execution were let go and the work was divided among the remaining employees. Now with the news of a funding winter and recession, all the existing employees are worried and their morale is continuously degrading.
Marketing team is the first who is let go when budget cuts happen. Currently my firm is exploring all the options to reduce costs therefore the marketing team morale is at its lowest.
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Respondent Breakdown
Note: May not add up to 100% due to rounding.
Respondents: 67 marketing managers, directors and VPs