2024 Solution Provider Marketing Survey: Standing Out in a Crowded Market

Where should the marketing team person spend their time? Which channels, tools, and events should we invest in?

The role marketing should play within an organization may be the least agreed upon thing in the business world.

In our survey of over 30 marketing Managers, Directors, and VPs—we set out to understand how solution providers (SIs, VARs, ISVs) in our industry approach marketing. What are their priorities? Which problem they would solve if they could snap their fingers and make it so?

Let's get into it.

What We Did (The Methodology)

We reached out to people with Marketing in their job titles at BlueStar customer companies and asked for their input in exchange for a $20 gift card. Boom.

QUESTION 1

What are your top two priorities for 2025?

The results here were directional—nearly half (45.2%) of all respondents chose Increasing Brand Awareness as a top priority. We didn't include Lead Generation as an option—we know that everyone wants Marketing to drive more leads. 

What we wanted to glean here was which activities would help drive demand for your products or services?

Tied for second place was was New Product or Service Launches and Targeting Specific Markets.

💡Observation:
Although in-person events are listed as the top perceived contributor to new business (Question 5), only a single respondent indicated increasing presence at industry events as a top priority in 2025. Does this indicate a desire to lean less heavily on events? Or, do solution providers feel like they have their event marketing approach dialed in, freeing them up to focus on other areas?

THE DATA

Option	Percent of Responses		#of Responses
Increasing Brand Awareness	45.2%		14
New product or service launches	29.0%		9
Improving social media presence	6.5%		2
Incorporating AI into your processes	9.7%		3
Customer retention	6.5%		2
Refreshing / updating web site	16.1%		5
Adding new digital tools (web, CRM, etc)	9.7%		3
Targeting specific markets	29.0%		9
Increasing presence at industry events	3.2%		1
Improving organic SEO ranking	16.1%		5
Creating promotional video content	16.1%		5

QUESTION 2

What portion of your marketing is handled in-house vs with external agencies or marketing firms?

87.1% of respondents handle at least half of all marketing activities in-house. The top response—selected by 45.2% or 14 respondents—is that companies manage about 75% of their marketing in-house.

Of the 9 respondents who indicated that 50% or less of their marketing is handled in-house, satisfaction with their external partners was very high—rating 4 out of 5 stars for quality of work, understanding of our industry, effectiveness, and communication. Keep up the great work, agencies!

QUESTION 3

Which of the following social networks do you believe are the top two for reaching your ideal customer?

The results here were once again directional. LinkedIn was chosen as the top online channel by 87.1% or 27 respondents followed by YouTube, which was chosen by 54.8%, or 17 respondents.

Facebook was ranked as important by 12.9%, with Reddit (6.5%), Instagram (3.2%), and TikTok (3.2%) trailing significantly.

THE DATA

QUESTION 4

Do you run ads / invest in paid advertising

Yes—overwhelming our industry does invest in paid advertising to the tune of 83.9% of respondents.

Value	Percent		#of Responses
Yes	83.9%		26
No	16.1%		5

QUESTION 5

Which marketing channels have been most effective for generating leads?

Finally, a question where answers diverge.

We asked survey respondents to select the top two channels for generating leads for their business.

The top response?  In-person events (58.1%). This was followed by Email Marketing (32.3%) and Organic SEO (29%).

Also notable were Paid Search (25.8%) and Word of Mouth (25.8%)

THE DATA

Option	Percent of Responses		#of Responses
Email Marketing	32.3%		10
Organic SEO	29.0%		9
Paid Search (Google)	25.8%		8
Word of Mouth / Referrals	25.8%		8
Paid Social (Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok)	9.7%		3
Webinars / Online events	6.5%		2
In-person events	58.1%		18
Telemarketing	9.7%		3

QUESTION 6

What are your top two biggest marketing challenges today?

Unsurprisingly, the top priority revealed in question one aligned with the biggest challenge here, which is Brand Awareness (58.1%).

Brand awareness is a sometimes vilified term in sales circles because it is not lead generation. The reality, though, is that it's difficult to generate sales inquiries for a company who isn't known or trusted by prospective buyers in a given market.

Other top answers were Standing Out in a Crowded Market (48.4%) and Creating Content (35.5%).

THE DATA

QUESTION 7

How many people are dedicated or partially dedicated to marketing activities?

Are you a solo marketer or part of a duo? In this industry, you're in good company with over 64% of respondents indicating they're part of a one or two person team. 

THE DATA

Value	Percent		#of Responses
1	29%		9
2	35.5%		11
3-5	25.8%		8
6-10	3.2%		1
10-20	3.2%		1
20+	3.2%		1

QUESTION 8

Are you leveraging AI platforms in your marketing?

Over half of respondents (58%) indicated they are not leveraging AI, or that they're in the pre-operational experimentation stage.

💡Observation:
Although marketing teams in our industry are typically only 1-2 people and Creating Content is a top 3 marketing challenge, the majority of marketers and organizations aren't leaning in to the power of AI for content creation. This appears to be a good area for continued education and training for marketing personnel.

THE DATA

QUESTION 9

What are your use cases for AI Tools?

The data was very clear here—91% of responding marketers are leaning on AI for assistance with Copywriting / Content Creation.

Data analysis (34.8%), Image generation (34.8%) and Chatbots (30.4%) were also notable, with Video generation (17.4%) trailing significantly.

QUEStION 10

If you could solve one marketing program with a snap of your fingers—what would it be?

"Organic SEO—first page Google results."

"Creating educational content much easier."

"Create clearer and more relatable messaging segments for our positioning in the different areas we compete."

"Reaching clients in a 1:1 approach, decision makers."

"I'd create and distribute more content."

"Finding ways to leverage MDF from multiple vendors for the same campaign versus having to pick one, and having the freedom to present ourselves to the end user as hardware agnostic / in it to find the best solution for their situation."

DEMOGRAPHICS

Which type of companies responded to the survey?

Nearly half (48%) of respondents describe their organization as value-added resellers, 23% are software companies, and 23% are Solution Integrators with one Technology Consultancy and one Robotics Provider sprinkled in.

Option	Percent		#of Responses
Value-Added Reseller	48.4%		15
Software Company	22.6%		7
Solution Integrator	22.6%		7
Technology Consultant	3.2%		1
Robotics Provider	3.2%		1

Main Takeaways

• Teams are small but haven't fully embraced AI tools that may help them in achieving greater productivity, personalization, and more targeted messaging for their buyer personas
• There is a gap between the potential of social media for business development and company's ability to leverage the platforms/create the volume and quality of content to engage audiences at scale
• VARs, SIs, and ISVs alike share the desire to stand out and make a name for their brands, but struggle due to some combination of: resources, budgets, and effective/differentiated messaging
• Many companies are keen on the idea of targeting specific markets with tailored messaging and we agree that this is the way!