Marketers hit by self-doubt despite bullet-proof image

Marketers might talk a good game, and be brimming with confidence on the outside, but scratch beneath the surface and it seems that imposter syndrome is still alive and kicking throughout the profession.

That is according to a new survey of 1,248 marketers by The Marketing Meetup, which reveals that self doubt is the most common feeling at work in marketing (cited by 46%), followed by frustration at not being able to do their best work (40%) and the pressure of keeping up with how fast everything moves (39%). Burnout, which regularly comes out on top sits at 26%.

The wider picture is balance rather than gloom. The phrase marketers chose most often to describe their working life was “challenged in a positive way” (45%), a similar sentiment to last year, and 80% of those same people also ticked a hard feeling such as stressed or overwhelmed.

What has changed is the conditions around it: optimism about their own role fell from 6.3 to 5.6 out of 10, optimism about marketing’s future from 6.9 to 6.1, and support held flat rather than rising to meet it, with 34% giving a clear yes to feeling supported, unchanged on 2025.

A third of marketers (34%) ticked none of the positive feelings on offer, and only 37% describe themselves as settled in their role.

The survey also asked, for the first time, how connected marketers feel to the wider profession. The average is 4.7 out of 10, and a third score it 3 or below.

However, the more connected marketers feel, the better nearly everything else looks: role optimism climbs from 5.0 among the least connected to 6.3 among the most, loneliness drops from 31% to 17%, and the share who feel properly supported rises from 27% to 41%.

The report stresses that this is a correlation, not proof. The most connected group of all is freelancers, at 5.5 out of 10, the people with no team or office around them, who built their connection themselves.

Marketing Meetup co-founder Joe Glover said: “What surprised me most is who feels the self-doubt. Owners and founders sit at 51%, higher than the managers below them. Nobody grows out of it, people just get better at working anyway.

“The hopeful bit for me is the freelancers. The people you’d expect to be most cut off are the most connected of all, because they went and built it. Connection doesn’t fix a hard year, but it’s the thing most within reach. Look after the scaffolding. For yourself, yes – but also for the people around you.”