Half of senior technology marketers believe their reputation amongst customers has been harmed as a result of external comms and marketing tacking a back seat during the covid-10 crisis and are now taking a fresh look at their approach to comms for 2021, a research reveals.

The survey of 250 UK enterprise technology firms conducted by Censuswide, finds CEOs saying customer acquisition and post-Covid recovery were the most important business goals for marketing communications to support next year. Sales enablement (33%), brand positioning and messaging (29%) and social media (28%) were highlighted as priorities for additional investment, suggesting technology leaders are looking to take an increasingly cross-channel approach to their communications, and are investing accordingly.

“The enterprise technology space in 2020 has needed to adapt to seismic shifts and opportunities. Diffusion’s research backs up what I have been hearing directly from technology leaders this year – a yearning for a more ambitious and disruptive approach to PR and communication to help them make up lost ground,” says Lucie Bickerdike, director and head of enterprise technology at Diffusion, an integrated communication agency that led the research.

The report also reveals that Marketing and PR heads consistently rate the effectiveness of marcomms more positively than the rest of the leadership team. While 92% say their brand positioning has been successful this year, only 78% of CEOs agree, showing that internal perception management and effective measurement will be key in 2021.

PR and Sales leaders agree that their organisations perform weakest when it comes to driving sales leads, suggesting lead generation is becoming a higher priority for marketing comms. When it comes to further investment in 2021, media coverage sits lowest on the list of priorities for CEOs and CMOs, revealing that priorities are changing in B2B technology communications.