Marketing teams are expert communicators. It’s in their job description. In roles like communications, content, public relations, product marketing, brand marketing, and more, effective communication is often the product that marketers produce. 

Marketers have a unique ability to craft compelling messages that resonate with their audience and drive business growth. Whether through emails, blogs, social media, or advertising, marketers are constantly trying to engage their target audience. Because of this, they have a high bar for quality communication. 

But this year’s State of Business Communication report revealed a particularly astounding finding for marketing teams: they are in a state of communication overload. Marketing teams report spending an average of 42 hours each week communicating. This means that for marketers, communication isn’t just synonymous with work; it’s synonymous with overwork.

Let’s dive into the latest findings about marketing communication and explore how AI might just be the solution they need to deliver high-quality content at scale.

Marketers are Communication Powerhouses

Marketers communicate more than the average knowledge worker, spending 19% more time each week communicating across channels compared to other teams. Let’s face it, developing compelling and high-quality content to capture audiences is extremely time-consuming. 

The majority of their time is spent writing. In fact, marketers spend 26 hours on writing tasks alone. This is 38% more than the average worker and the most of any team surveyed. When we look more closely at what marketers are doing with that time, we see them using a variety of channels, such as email, chat, document collaboration, and idea management tools. We also see a mix of different writing tasks, including drafting messaging, creating shared materials, responding to others’ communications, and revising or editing materials. This spread is likely because marketers are stewards of the brand, ensuring consistency across channels and all brand touchpoints. 

So marketers communicate more than the average worker, write more than the average worker, and edit more than the average worker. They also have a higher bar for quality than the average worker. That’s because when it comes to communication, marketers are not the average worker. Marketers are communication powerhouses. But what happens when it doesn’t meet their high standards?

Their High Bar For Quality Creates Anxiety And Burnout

There is a cost when communication is your product, and your product needs to be perfect. Marketers have a deep-seated commitment to crafting (and perfecting) messages that resonate. This drives high-quality work but can also manifest as anxiety. In our survey, we found that marketers tend to feel the impacts of poor communication 21% higher than other teams on average.

Marketers also report experiencing miscommunications at a higher rate than other teams, likely due to their high standards. 78% of marketers report experiencing miscommunications at least daily. What’s more, 29% experience miscommunications multiple times a day, which is 21% higher than the average worker’s rate.

These high rates of poor communication are leading to anxiety, burnout, and a desire for better tools. Nearly two-thirds of marketers wish their company provided better technology to communicate effectively (63%)—and over half (54%) are ahead of the curve, wishing their company was more open to implementing generative AI (gen AI) to help.

AI Offers A Way To Scale Great Content

In their quest for efficiency and innovation in their content creation, marketers have emerged as early adopters of generative AI. Unlike other teams, marketers view AI as a catalyst for enhanced productivity, creativity, and work quality.

Two-thirds of marketers (66%) are already using gen AI at work, 13 percentage-points higher than the average worker. This team of communication mavens is harnessing its capabilities in content creation, ideation, and editing. 

Interestingly, marketers tend to use Gen AI more for short-form content, like emails, pings, and shorter messages, than for long-form content, such as blogs, documents, and project plans. This represents the largest opportunity for marketers to leverage AI to scale their content production.

The content production process is one of the biggest pain points for marketing teams. It can often be long, slow, and difficult to scale. But with gen AI, marketers say they have experienced increased productivity (47%), reduced workload (43%), and even enhanced creativity (36%). 

Marketers report saving up to six hours weekly with gen AI. On top of that, it also helps to reduce their stress and increase their overall job satisfaction. More marketers believe in AI’s ability to enhance their overall work and content quality compared to other teams. A large majority say that AI helps them get more done (78%), believes it can help them communicate more effectively (68%), and improve the quality of their work (64%).

Finding the Right Gen AI Tool for Marketing

However, marketers do have reservations about gen AI, and not everyone is taking full advantage of the technology. 72% of marketers surveyed stated that they have concerns about quality control, worrying about outdated, inaccurate, or irrelevant content. 

We already know that marketers have high standards for the content they produce. They aren’t willing to lower it just to gain a few more hours back in their day. So what’s the solution? 

Leaders must invest in AI technology to meet their marketing teams’ high expectations. When researching tools, you’ll want to look for an AI communication assistant that:

• Can be customized to your specific brand, so you can better enforce brand guidelines and terminology and ensure more consistent communication across every brand touchpoint
• Works across every layer of communication like documents, email, chat, idea management systems, and others that marketing teams already use to create content
• Personalizes results for context, tone, clarity, fluency, and more to enhance communication across the entire company and cut back the time marketing spends editing
• Is built to enhance the quality of communication, not just the volume

It’s time for marketing teams to harness the power of AI to scale content production while meeting their high bar for quality. Get even more marketing highlights from the report in our latest infographic.

Curious to learn about trends in your team’s communication trends and AI usage? Check out our blogs that dive into the worlds of CX, IT, and HR communication.

Note: all hours referenced have been rounded to the nearest whole number