There is no shortage of opinions about what marketers should be doing right now.

Create more content. Use more AI. Automate more. Attend more events. Generate more leads.

But there's a more important question:

What's actually working?

I recently sat down with Michelle Glennie from The Partner Marketing Group on The Channel Buzz to unpack findings from their technology marketing benchmark and trends research.

The conversation revealed something marketers should consider as they plan for 2027.

For all the new tools and technology available to us, many of the biggest opportunities still come back to marketing fundamentals.

Lead Generation Is Still #1—but That's Only Half the Story

Sixty-nine percent of marketers identified lead generation as a top priority.

No huge surprise there.

But 33% said converting leads into opportunities is their biggest marketing challenge.

That's where things get interesting.

If we're generating leads but struggling to convert them, simply generating more leads isn't necessarily the solution.

Michelle pointed to one of the oldest and still most important issues in B2B marketing: sales and marketing alignment.

Does everyone agree on what constitutes a lead?

What happens after someone becomes a lead?

What information does that person receive?

When does sales engage?

What happens if the buyer isn't ready?

Marketing teams also have to contend with a buyer who is overwhelmed with information. Inboxes are crowded. Social feeds move quickly. Buyers can research independently.

The answer isn't simply more communication.

It's providing useful information when and where buyers need it.

One of Marketing's Biggest Missed Opportunities? Referrals.

Here's one of the statistics that should make technology marketers stop:

Referral marketing ranked as the second-most effective lead-generation tactic, yet only 30% reported having a partner or customer referral program.

We know referrals work.

So why aren't more organizations building a strategy around them?

Yes, creating customer advocacy and referral programs takes work. But customers can become one of your most valuable marketing resources.

They can provide references and success stories. They can speak at events. They can participate in educational content. They can introduce you to other potential customers.

And a referral comes with something that's increasingly difficult for marketers to manufacture: trust.

Instead of treating customer marketing as something that happens after the sale, maybe we should think of it as part of the growth strategy.

That may already be happening.

Customer loyalty and retention rose to the second-highest marketing objective in this year's findings, moving ahead of brand awareness.

That's a shift worth watching.

AI Can Help Us Do More. But Should We?

Of course, we had to talk about AI.

According to the research, 89% of marketers are using AI in their content or marketing strategy efforts.

The important question isn't whether marketers are using AI anymore.

It's how they're using it.

Michelle and I agreed that AI can be incredibly useful for research, planning, outlining, ideation, repurposing, and getting a first draft started.

But a first draft shouldn't automatically become the finished product.

• Subject-matter expertise still matters.

• Your point of view still matters.

• Your customers' actual words matter.

• Your brand voice matters.

• And fact-checking definitely matters.

AI can make marketers more efficient. But efficiency shouldn't come at the expense of authenticity or accuracy.

Why Events Keep Winning

Despite the explosion of digital marketing and AI, events remain the most effective lead-generation tactic in the benchmark data.

Why?

Michelle described events as compressing the buyer's journey into one experience.

Think about it.

Instead of hoping someone sees a LinkedIn post, opens an email, watches a video, downloads a resource, and eventually speaks to sales, an event can put you face-to-face with that person.

• You can ask questions.

• Understand their challenges.

• Teach them something.

• Introduce them to customers.

• Build a relationship.

But there's a major caveat.

Showing up isn't an event strategy.

Eighty percent of respondents allocate between 11% and 75% of their marketing budgets to events. With that level of investment, measuring success by the number of badge scans collected at a booth isn't enough.

Event strategy needs to begin months before the doors open and continue after everyone goes home.

Marketing, sales, leadership, customers, partners, content, social visibility, booth conversations, and follow-up should work together.

The question shouldn't be, “How many people did we scan?”

It should be, “What relationships and opportunities did we create?”

Then There's the Blogging Paradox

One of the most fascinating findings involved blogs.

82% of marketers actively use them.

52% say blogs deliver their best results.

Yet blogging didn't make the top 15 most effective lead-generation tactics and ranked number four among the least effective.

How can both things be true?

One possibility is attribution.

A thought-leadership article might educate someone today who becomes an opportunity months later.

It might help your company appear in search.

It might give sales something useful to share.

It might be repurposed into social content, an ebook, an infographic, a LinkedIn article, or event collateral.

A blog can influence a journey without being the final action that gets credit for the lead.

That's why marketers need to think beyond isolated tactics.

Stop Creating. Start Multiplying.

One theme kept resurfacing throughout our conversation: repurpose what you already know.

You don't need an entirely new idea every time you post.

Take one strong piece of thought leadership and give people multiple ways to consume it.

A podcast becomes clips.

The clips become social posts.

The conversation becomes a blog.

The blog becomes an article.

Several related blogs become an ebook.

The ideas become event talking points.

A customer perspective becomes another piece of content.

And then distribute that expertise through your own channels, partners, communities, groups, industry resources, and other places your buyers already spend time.

People aren't seeing every post you publish.

Repetition isn't automatically annoying.

Sometimes, as Michelle put it, just when you're tired of saying something is when someone else is finally noticing it.

What the Data Is Really Telling Us

The most important takeaway from this conversation wasn't that marketers should suddenly invest everything in events, start blogging every day, launch a referral program tomorrow, or stop using AI.

It was simpler.

Look at the data before following the noise.

Understand what your customers need.

Know which tactics are actually moving buyers.

Measure what you can.

Repurpose the expertise you already have.

Build relationships.

Create consistent visibility.

And use new tools to strengthen a sound strategy—not substitute for one.

Because having more marketing tools has never guaranteed better marketing.

🐝 Buzzworthy Insight: More Tools Don't Fix Weak Strategy.

Check out the full episode.