The document presents findings from a survey focusing on 'marketing athletes' in the B2B sector, detailing their characteristics, experience, and the challenges they face. It reveals that most marketing athletes are experienced professionals over the age of 30, primarily managing small teams and contractors while using various tools for execution. Key challenges include budget constraints and time management, with a notable emphasis on social media as a primary marketing tactic.

1. Hail
to
the
B2B
Marke/ng
Athlete!
Speakers:
Uri
Bar-­‐Joseph,
Op0fy
Ariella
Robison,
Varolii
Wednesday
September
12,
1
pm
ET
(10
am
PT)

2. Marketing athlete survey results
• We’ll learn about B2B marketing’s most
dynamic persona:
– Who they are and what makes them tick
– How they spend their time
– What tools they use
– Their biggest challenges
– What makes them successful
– Key takeaways that you can apply to drive more
business
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 2

3. Uri Bar-Joseph
Uri Bar-Joseph heads up Optify's lead generation
efforts and can best be described as a marketing
decathlete.
Adept at all marketing disciplines, Uri is undaunted by
tough marketing goals and always strives to win. He
exemplifies what it is to be a marketing athlete and
pushes tools and programs to their limits to achieve
outstanding results.
Follow Uri
@uribarjoseph
www.linkedin.com/in/uribarjoseph
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 3

4. Ariella Robison
Ariella Robison is the Web and community
marketing manager at Varolii, developer of customer
interaction management software. With over 10
years of experience in online marketing, she
manages all things digital for Varolii.
From web content and social media to analytics, lead
gen email and sales enablement, Ariella wears
multiple hats in order to achieve her aggressive
marketing goals. Prior to Varolii, she worked for
companies like Intelligent Results, Attachmate
(WRQ) and Getty Images.
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 4

5. Jeanette Mifsud
Jeanette Mifsud is a B2B marketing veteran with
over 18 years experience helping technology
companies grow their business.
Jeanette specializes in lead generation and content
development, and currently helps Optify in both of
those areas. She has Fortune 500 and startup
experience gained in both in the US and Europe for
companies such as Avaya, Wall Data, Autodesk and
TeleNav.
www.linkedin.com/in/jeanettemifsud
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 5

6. WHO
ARE
THE
MARKETING
ATHLETES?
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 6

7. Most athletes are over 30, gender split is even
Key findings:
• Almost 70% are over thirty, with 11%
at each end of the age distribution
curve
• This 30+ crowd are seasoned
marketers with 83% of them reporting
5+ years in a marketing role.
• The under thirties are less confident in
offline marketing tactics and PR.
• Gender is a pretty even split
N = 230
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 7

8. Most marketing athletes have 5+ years on the job
Key findings:
• Over 65% of respondents have
over 5 years marketing
experience
• The knowledge gap between the
most experienced (5 + years)
and least experienced (< 5
years) most apparent in:
• PPC
• Email marketing
• PR
• Offline tactics
N = 230
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 8

9. Athletes are managers and individual contributors
Key findings:
• 57% of the marketing athletes
managed at least one FTE.
• The remaining 43% were
individual contributors.
• The more experienced
marketers manage more people.
N = 250
Manage FTEs Individual contributors Manage contractors
> 5 years marketing experience 69% 31% 75%
1-5 years experience 39% 61% 57%
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 9

10. Taglines from the athletes
Minister of Marketing
Gold medalist in 400m content and IT Dev hurdles
marketing expert - just do it
Inbound Marketing Gold medalist
The generator! Octomom
PhelpsChampion hat wearer
Gold medalist in synchronized marketing strategies
Chief Revenue Enabler Marketing Chief Juggling Officer
marketingchickenwithhisheadcutoff.com
Yes we can!
The man with the biz dev fistOlympiad The opposable thumb of the organization
You Know, That One Guy That Sits Next to Scot That Does the... He, Uh... What Does He Do?
Doer of all things with an acronym
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 10

11. RESOURCES
USED
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 11

12. Most athletes manage outside contractors
Key findings:
• Not surprisingly more marketing
athletes manage contractors (67%)
than FTEs (57%)
• Out of those that do manage
contractors, the majority (52%)
manage a small number - 1-5
N = 250
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 12

13. But, athletes do a lot in house
Key findings:
• Majority of athletes keep the work in
house across all lead gen. areas
• The most commonly outsourced activities
require high level of specialist knowledge:
• Web design / maintenance (45%)
• SEO (35%)
• PR (33%)
• Activities most often kept in house are:
• Social media (79%)
• Email marketing (76%)
• Lead generation (72%)
• The majority of marketers did not plan to
outsource more in the coming year.
N = 250
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 13

14. The majority work in small marketing teams
Key findings:
• The bulk of the respondents work in
small teams.
• As expected there is a strong
correlation between company and
marketing team size:
• 71% of enterprise companies
(500+ employees) have
marketing teams of > 10
FTEs.
• 71 % of small business (<25
employees) have marketing
teams with 1-5 full-time
marketing employees.
N = 250
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 14

15. Athletes use lots of tools to get the job done
Key findings:
• Social media was the category where most
athletes reported using more than one tool,
followed by web analytics and SEO
• SEO stood out as the leading category where
no tools were being used (24%)
• In contrast only 3% of athletes are not using
an email tool
N = 250
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 15

16. Sorting out the star performers
Star performers
47%
Less successful
53%
N = 252
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 16

17. HOW
MARKETING
ATHLETES
SPEND
THEIR
TIME
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 17

18. Marketing athletes are busy executing
Key findings:
• It was great to see that the more
athletes spent the bulk of their time
(15+ hours) in marketing execution.
• The next area were they spent the
most time was marketing operations
– 14% reported spending 15+ hours
N = 267
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 18

19. Star performers plan and execute more
Key findings:
• A higher percentage of star
performers spend significantly
more time in:
• Marketing planning
• Marketing execution
• Much less time is spent in non-
productive activities like admin.
N = 267
%age respondents that spend 15+ hours spent / week on
the activities below
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 19

20. Athletes spend more time on content than lead gen
Key findings:
• Areas taking up more than 15 hours / week
are:
• Content (30%)
• Lead generation (17%)
• Website management (16%)
• Almost one third are spending no time on lead
nurturing
• 57% are spending a little time each week on
brand monitoring
N = 267
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 20

21. Star performers are more focused
Key findings:
• More star performers focus larger
blocks of time on all compared to their
less successful peers.
• This difference in focus is especially
apparent in lead generation and
content – two key success factors for
today’s B2B marketers.
N = 267
%age respondents that spend 15+ hours
spent / week on these activities
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 21

22. LEAD
GENERATION
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 22

23. Social media is in, PPC is out
Key findings:
• Social media is the most popular tactic:
• More marketers spend 15+ hours on social
media than on any other tactic (13%)
• The lowest percentage of respondents (16%)
reporting that they spend no time on social
media.
• PPC is the least popular tactic:
• The lowest number of marketers spend 15+
hours (4%) on PPC
• The highest percentage of respondents (57%)
are spending no time on PPC.
N = 267
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 23

24. Star performers focus more on
all lead generation tactics except PPC
Key findings:
• As was the case for the broader
marketing activities, the star
performers focused more of their
time on all specific lead generation
activities with one exception -
PPC, which as previously stated
seems out of favor with these B2B
marketers.
• The biggest gap in focus between
the two groups was in offline
tactics.
%age respondents that spend 15+ hours spent / week on
these activities
N = 267
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 24

25. Athletes know a lot about multiple lead gen tactics
Key findings:
• The vast majority of athletes felt they had sufficient
or expert knowledge about the lead gen tactics they
were engaged with.
• The areas where most athletes have the greatest
expertize are:
• Social media (42%)
• Offline tactics (34%)
• Email marketing & SEO (28%)
• Weak areas most cited were:
• PPC (25%)
• Online advertising (18%)
• SEO (17%)
N = 264
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 25

26. The expertize gap between star performers
and less successful athletes
Key findings:
• Star performers have greater
expertize than their less successful
peers across the board
• The biggest expertize gaps showed
up in:
• PPC (37%)
• Email marketing (25%)
• Offline tactics (23%)
N = 264
%age of respondents who rated themselves with expert knowledge of
these lead gen tactics
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 26

27. Athletes feel productive and like to juggle
multiple channels
Key findings:
• 82% of athletes feel like they are
spending their time on important
activities.
• Admin was the only area where the
majority felt they spent too much time.
• Athletes like working with multiple
channel (62%)
N = 252
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 27

28. Budget and time are the biggest lead gen challenges
Key findings:
• Budget (54%) and time (47%) were the
most common lead gen challenges
cited by the athletes
• 71% felt that their goals are realistic
• 27% felt that they had too many lead
gen channels and tools to manage
N = 252
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 28

29. Star performers have a positive outlook
Key findings:
• Star performers felt like they had
less challenges across the board
• The most noticeable gap between
the groups was for the statement:
• My goals are unrealistic
N = 252
percentage of respondents who agreed with the statements above
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 29

30. Star performers biggest challenges
Keeping all the plates spinning!
Not enough hours in the day!
Tying marketing programs to business results Balancing time.
Being a one-stop shop for all things marketing and communications.
ROI!! Pitching big ideas to execs and
getting a lukewarm response
Staying focused. generating organic, inbound leads at a much larger scale
Evaluating resource tradeoffs
Getting sales to pay attention to the information we provide and following up on leads
Time to create quality content. Massive amounts of data to monitor.
Keeping up with new online marketing tactics
Juggling changing priorities and managing the reactive nature of the sales force.
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 30

31. What we’ve learned about the marketing athlete
• 30+
in
age,
even
gender
split,
5+
years
in
marke0ng
• They
are
confident
in
their
skills
and
use
lots
of
tool
to
get
the
job
done
• They
are
‘doers’
and
feel
good
about
their
produc0vity
• They
are
great
at
mul0
tasking
and
like
juggling
lots
of
lead
gen
channels
• Time
and
budget
are
their
biggest
challenges
• Social
media
is
a
big
area
of
focus
– Time
spent
– Exper0ze
level
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 31

32. What sets the star performers apart?
APtude
Exper/ze
Planning
Focus
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 32

33. About Optify
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 33

34. www.op/fy.net
1
(206)
388-­‐4234
(phone)
1
(877)
2-­‐OPTIFY
(toll-­‐free)
Marketing Athlete Study – #mktgathlete Slide 34