Marketing leaders facing scrutinized budgets in 2023 must continue to meet their goals amid constrained resources, while unlocking opportunities to simplify workflows and maximize ROI. The biggest opportunity is easily overlooked: poor written workplace communication.

Why the macroeconomic outlook matters

Today’s macroeconomic climate has shifted marketing strategies. In Deloitte's recent survey, nearly half of CFOs reported taking defensive measures, including cost reductions and cash control. Recent World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and Ebiquity research shows nearly one-third of respondents plan to significantly reduce 2023 media spend. 

Marketers need to do more with less. Team productivity ensures goals for marketing-qualified leads, buyer conversion, and movement down funnel don’t fall off track. A study by The Harris Poll and Grammarly identified miscommunication as a major productivity drain. Knowledge workers spend nearly half their time on written communication—and missteps increase costs.

The Harris Poll and Grammarly study found that poor communication costs organizations approximately $12,500 per employee yearly. If you employ 500 people, that’s a $6.25 million annual loss. Fortunately, reallocating that time to revenue-generating work adds value. 

Cut out inefficiencies; pivot toward value  

Continuing business as usual can limit marketers’ success. Hiring more copy editors or tasking strategists with adding quality controls won’t work in a world of scrutinized budgets. Going to the root cause—miscommunication—can unlock efficiencies. Success depends on marketing leads, product managers, external agencies, and content creators staying on message amid fast-paced schedules.

The Harris Poll and Grammarly found that teams spend nearly half of the workweek (19.93 hours) on digital, written communication alone. Moreover, they spend roughly an entire workday each week resolving unclear communication. That's a preventable opportunity cost that marketers can cut in 2023, increasing the value of existing teams and processes. 

Miscommunication causes negative ripple effects beyond productivity. It hurts morale and growth, according to nearly nine in ten business leaders in Grammarly’s study. It also increases costs, triggers missed deadlines, erodes brand reputation, and increases risk. In fact, one in five business leaders reported losing business due to communication issues.

Ultimately, the Harris Poll estimated the cost of poor communication for US companies at $1.2 trillion each year. 

The challenge: Navigating an overabundance of “solutions” 

Unfortunately, the solutions marketing teams often turn to are equivalent to putting twelve feet of safety valves on one foot of pipe. Adding additional rounds of review or taking content creation in-house to increase brand control may address miscommunication’s symptoms but don’t get to the root cause, leading to a slower, less scalable, and costlier process.

Tech can make growing asynchronous team collaboration more efficient, but investing in too many tools can needlessly increase complexity. Grammarly’s study found that about one in four knowledge workers struggle with selecting the right tool or platform for the situation. 

Adopting more net-new channels and systems isn’t the solution—rather, the solution is adopting tools that seamlessly integrate with and enhance existing systems like marketing automation and CRM platforms. To support team communication across the marketing organization, marketers need tools to help teams interact more effectively and productively.

The solution: AI-powered communication support wherever teams work

Platform-agnostic tools, like AI-powered communication assistance from Grammarly Business, integrate into existing systems with real-time writing suggestions that make communication clear and consistent. Unique team features like custom style guides and brand tones help accelerate work by integrating brand-aligned language, rules, and tone preferences into in-line suggestions. 

Take Zoom. They faced a boom in adoption and implemented Grammarly Business to increase their content team’s confidence and productivity. In-line, brand-specific style suggestions helped accelerate workflows, onboard new hires, and maintain consistent quality standards.

In nine months, Zoom recaptured 7,000 estimated hours. As Zoom’s content marketing manager, Matt Torman, said, Grammarly Business “vastly reduces the writing minutiae so we can focus on helping our global audiences in meaningful ways.” 

Marketing leaders can’t wait

As 2023 nears, CFOs are tightening budgets across the board. To meet goals and support marketing operations and content development teams, marketing leaders must address the cost of miscommunication. Investing in tools that empower teams to communicate consistently and confidently will unlock incredible potential. 

The “State of Business Communication” report is based on an online survey of 1,001 knowledge workers and 251 business leaders in the US, conducted October 2021 by The Harris Poll.

For complete methodology and more findings, download the report, “The State of Business Communication: The Backbone of Business Is Broken,” and visit www.grammarly.com/business. 

This article was written by Dorian Stone, Head of Organizations Revenue, Grammarly.
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