Why We Created the 2026 Marketing Pulse Survey
In conversations with clients, prospects, and marketing leaders across the Midwest, we kept hearing variations of the same challenges.
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Teams are being asked to drive growth while managing more channels, more technology, and more data. Resources are stretched across competing priorities. Sales and marketing aren’t always working from the same information. And even with more ways to measure performance, knowing what’s actually working can still be difficult.
We wanted to understand how widespread those experiences were.
That’s why Element created the 2026 Marketing Pulse. We surveyed marketing leaders across the Midwest about their priorities, investments, challenges, and opportunities. As a Wisconsin marketing agency working with organizations across industries, we wanted to better understand whether the challenges we were hearing firsthand reflected the broader state of marketing in 2026.
Our goal is to keep a pulse on the marketing landscape in our region and provide insights that can help Midwest marketers make more informed decisions.
What We’re Hearing from Marketing Teams
The survey findings reinforced many of the conversations we’re already having with organizations.
We hear from teams with ambitious growth goals but marketing strategies that aren’t always clearly aligned with sales or broader business priorities. Limited resources are often spread across too many priorities, and some organizations lack the internal expertise or capacity to execute across every area. As a result, marketing can become driven by what a team can do rather than what the organization needs most.
We also continue to see opportunities to better use the information sales teams gather every day to inform messaging, content, and marketing decisions. And one of the most common questions we hear remains deceptively simple: Do we actually know what’s working?
“Clients are navigating more pressure, emerging trends, and new opportunities than ever, and they don’t need to come to us with all the ideas or answers. Our role is to understand what they’re trying to accomplish, help identify the right opportunities and bring the right ideas, strategies and expertise together across our integrated services to support both their marketing objectives and broader business goals.”
— Liv Upstone, Client Services Manager
What the 2026 Marketing Data Tells Us
The report puts data behind many of those conversations. Rather than recap every finding here, a few statistics help show the environment marketing teams are navigating.
- 74% vs. 3% — Revenue growth is the #1 marketing priority (74%), but only 3% of marketers feel "extremely confident" in their strategy to get there.
- 98% vs. 13% — 98% of marketers are using AI in some form, but only 13% call it core to how they operate.
- 59% vs. 45% — Marketers say revenue is the metric that matters most to them personally, but only 45% actually report it to leadership.
- 31% to 84% — Strategic confidence more than doubles when sales and marketing are "strongly aligned" vs. only "sometimes aligned."
The gap between AI adoption and meaningful integration is one example of why simply adding more technology isn’t necessarily the answer.
“AI is making it easier to move from an idea to execution, but faster doesn’t automatically mean better. The real opportunity is using the technology intentionally, with people still defining the problem, determining what’s worth pursuing and making sure it supports the larger business strategy.”
— Kevin Hamilton, Director of Technology
Technology is only one piece of the equation. Across the findings, a broader theme emerged around the importance of focus, alignment and making decisions based on what the organization is ultimately trying to accomplish.
“The strongest strategies don’t start with tactics. They start by getting clear on what the business is trying to achieve and making sure sales and marketing are working toward that same outcome. When those teams share goals and insights, marketing can make much smarter decisions about where to focus.”
— Katie Bramschreiber, Director of Integrated Strategy
What’s Next for Midwest Marketers?
What we’re seeing firsthand is only part of the picture. The 2026 Element Marketing Pulse puts data behind conversations happening across our region and explores where marketers are focusing, where investment is shifting, what continues to get in the way, and what stronger-performing organizations are doing differently.
For us, the findings reinforce much of what we’re helping clients navigate every day: connecting marketing strategy more closely to business goals, understanding what’s actually driving results, and filling the gaps where internal teams may not have the time, expertise or resources to do it all.
We’ll continue listening, learning, and tracking how the Midwest marketing landscape evolves. We hope the research gives marketers a useful benchmark as they evaluate where they are today and make smarter decisions about where to go next.
Explore the full report to see how your organization’s priorities compare.
