Marketers are feeling the pressure. Often working with smaller teams and tighter resources, they’re under fire to get more done with shrinking budgets. In fact, a Gartner survey on marketing budgets found that CMOs have settled into the “era of less,” with only 24% reporting they had a sufficient budget to execute their strategy in the previous year. The good news is that martech, like marketing automation, provides teams with tools to improve their impact and stretch resources even further.
Act-On ran a survey to understand exactly how marketers are using automation in today’s environment. We heard from 114 marketers across a mix of company sizes and industries. The results showed how teams are using their tools, the size of their current tech stacks, and what they’re hoping for next as they move forward in an environment of persistent uncertainty.
Smaller Teams Are Doing Big Things
One of the more interesting findings from the Act-On survey is that 85% of respondents say their marketing team includes 10 people or fewer. Nearly two-thirds report having just one to five marketers.
This data reflects a broader trend we’re seeing across industries: marketing teams are continuing to consolidate. Sixty-eight percent of marketers say it’s harder to find a job in marketing today than it was five years ago. Team restructuring is also at a three-year high, with half of all marketing teams undergoing changes in the past 12 months, and that number jumps to nearly 70% among larger businesses.
As a result, small teams are now handling more than ever, from campaign planning and lead nurturing to sales enablement and beyond. That growing list of responsibilities leaves little room for slowdowns.
“These days, small marketing teams are managing projects that used to be handled by larger departments,” says Matt Sailor, Act-On’s creative director. “But the days of weekly marketing standups with dozens of colleagues may not come back. This puts pressure on your tech stack: If your tools aren’t super easy to use, it’s far too easy to fall behind.”
And while marketers rely on a variety of tools to get the job done, the Act-On survey shows that tech stacks remain relatively lean, even as the number of available solutions continues to grow.
Tech Stacks Are Slimmer
Marketers may be short on time, but they’re not short on martech options. The Act-On survey found that, even with roughly 15,000 tools available on the market and 3,000 new products added in 2023 and 2024 alone, teams are carefully curating their tech stacks. In fact, 92% of respondents say they’re using 20 or fewer tools.
Ease of use continues to rank high when evaluating marketing automation tools. One study found that 54% of marketers listed it as a key factor in their decision-making process. That preference came through in the Act-On survey as well. Tools like Canva, ChatGPT, Semrush, and CRMs topped the list not just for their functionality but because teams can start seeing value quickly.
“There’s a ton of value in being able to hit the ground running with fewer ‘learning curve hours’ to log,” says Jennifer Blanco, senior director of customer marketing. “That kind of quick adoption is a big deal when you’re already stretched pretty thin.”
Automation plays a major role in helping marketers move at the speed they need. The Act-On survey also uncovered some interesting insights about what marketers expect from automation in the months ahead.
Automation Is Helping Marketers Keep Up
Our survey explored exactly how marketers are thinking about AI inside their marketing automation platforms. You can check out the full breakdown of those stats here in the complete report. However, the findings echo other research showing that 83% of marketers say AI has improved their productivity, and 93% report AI features have been added to their existing tech stack during 2024.
As a result, MAPs that give busy teams faster insights, reduce manual work, and increase visibility will play an important role in the months ahead. These capabilities help marketers show leadership that their actions are delivering results.
Satisfaction Hinges on Simplicity
The Act-On survey also looked at how happy users are with their current marketing automation platforms. Our research found a clear satisfaction gap between Act-On and other platforms. The exact numbers are in the full report, but one factor behind the difference that stood out is ease of use.
Act-On outperforms competitors in user-reported time-to-live for the most important marketing automation tasks, including:*
- Email creation: 29% faster than Marketo and Pardot, 50% faster than Eloqua
- Automated journey creation: 50% faster than Marketo and Pardot, 70% faster than Eloqua
- Form creation: 50% faster than Marketo and Pardot, 67% faster than Eloqua
- Landing page building: 29% faster than Marketo and Pardot, 50% faster than Eloqua
When marketers can launch a campaign or build a landing page in minutes instead of hours, it changes what they can accomplish in a day. That matters for busy teams. If a MAP takes weeks to learn or requires a dedicated admin, the time savings get much smaller. Ease of use is what truly helps marketers stay on track and feel satisfied with their MAP as they push their goals forward.
Marketers Need Tools that Prove ROI
The Act-On survey brings to light what many marketers are experiencing in the trenches each day. More work to do, fewer hands to do it, and a limited yet important tech stack that needs to pull its weight. With leadership leaning in more than ever to see results from marketing, having tools that show exactly what is working and the impact marketers are making is more necessary than ever before.
“Leadership knows we’re working hard, but what they really care about is what’s driving results,” says Nate Meneer, Act-On’s senior product marketing manager. “We need tools that have our back when it comes to proving what’s working and what’s not. That’s the kind of support that actually moves things forward.”
Want to learn more about what 114 marketers said about how they’re using marketing automation? Join our upcoming webinar to hear from the marketers featured in this piece, along with others, as they share their insights and answer your questions live.
*Disclaimer: All stats from ChatGPT meta-analysis of user-submitted data on leading marketing automation platforms. Actual times will vary based on the specific user, brand, and circumstances.