Marketers are experiencing a burnout crisis.
Marketing Week's 2025 Career & Salary Survey found that in the past year, 58% of marketers surveyed have felt overwhelmed, 56.1% have felt undervalued, and 50.8% are emotionally exhausted.
Perhaps you're one of them.
You likely went into marketing because you loved communication, creativity, and always-present challenges. On your best days, you were excited to make a difference.
Yet, for many of us, the magic quickly descends into spreadsheet formulas, overly ambitious targets, and never-ending gripes from the sales team. What was once a noble, creative pursuit becomes a grouchy transaction.
How did we get here? And how can we fix it?
Today, marketers face three challenges to career fulfillment: a purpose gap, increasingly granular metrics, and rigorous guardrails. The sum of them often leads to burnout.
But all is not lost. These challenges are manageable, especially when mitigated early on.
Through self-leadership and intentionality, you can redefine your experience of working in marketing.
Challenge: A Purpose Gap
Job satisfaction and long-term motivation depend on our knowing that our work counts for something beyond a monetary transaction.
Without purpose, feeling engaged is an impossibility. Yet, in a digital world, the larger impact of our work is often buried in an overflowing inbox. Or it's passed from department to department, eventually escaping our field of vision.
The "customer" quickly becomes an abstraction of demands.
Solution: Customer Face Time
In my first job out of college, I worked as an "account executive" (and I use that term loosely) at an ad agency. My job was to sell and manage Google AdWords to local car dealerships.
I sold to the dealership's general manager, the GM gave the leads to the sales manager, the manager distributed them among the salespeople, and a salesperson would call the customer. My role was three removed from the person buying the car; the end buyer was completely anonymous—a click worth $2.
Unsurprisingly, my mindset shifted from purpose-driven to transactional very quickly.
Until I met someone who was able to upgrade their car ahead of a new baby, because of a lease special they learned about through AdWords. Suddenly, those clicks became human beings whose lives were being improved.
If you feel disconnected from the impact your role has, spend time with customers. Talk to individual people who benefit from doing business with your organization. If you can't talk to them directly, read through positive customer feedback and case studies.
Show your brain that your work matters, because it does.
Problem: Granularity of Metrics
The old saying about 50% of your advertising is working but you'll never know which half would never be accepted now. Everything is measured to the second, to the click, to the keystroke.
And making that mega-scorecard even more anxiety-inducing... many of the metrics are not within full control of marketers. Success depends on the aligning of the stars—what competitors are doing, what's going on in the news, publications having the reach they claim, and a myriad of other outside influences.
The constant breath-holding and finger-crossing, unsurprisingly, results in burnout.
Solution: Input-Based Goals
You control only yourself. Shifting from output-based goals (end metric) to input-based goals (focused on your own behavior) puts you back in the power seat.
For example, if your output-based goal is a certain volume of leads, a lot of things outside of your control need to go "right" for that to happen. But what's in your control? Producing copy, culling through the email list, vetting vendor partner's historic success...
Pointing your mind to what you can do instead of what needs to be achieved is an empowering mental shift that leads to more energy and stronger problem solving.
Your output goals likely still stand, but your entire emotional state isn't resting on their achievement. It's also helpful to share your input-based goals with your manager. Aligning on input-behavior safeguards you (to some degree) against external variables if the ultimate output is not achieved.
Problem: Rigorous Guardrails
This color, this font, this size, and also, 45 other people will have to sign off. Now go be creative!
Intellectually, we know guardrails are important. Parameters on scope, branding, and approvals matter. Emotionally, however, they can be draining; and, over time, they can erode your ability to think creatively.
Marketing professionals are attracted to the industry because of the creativity, only to discover that out-of-the-box thinking has become a freedom often available only to those at the top (if they're lucky).
Solution: Creativity Outside of Work
If you are creative, an outlet is imperative. Without it, your brain will become angsty and, eventually, shut down.
If the guardrails at work feel suffocating, look for the creative release elsewhere. Learn typography, painting, or interior design. Volunteer to write the newsletter for a local nonprofit, that doesn't have a newsletter at all.
Reconnect with limitless ideation, even if you're not getting paid for it right now.
* * *
Emotional disconnection and, eventually, the resulting burnout, is an unsurprising development when you consider the unique marketing challenges of today. It's a sad problem, but it's solvable.
Tap into why your work matters, point your headspace to what you can control, and safeguard your creative spirit.
Rekindling your love of marketing is a gift you can give to yourself. The power is in your hands.
More Resources on Career Burnout and Mental Health
Market Like an Athlete, Not a Weekend Warrior: How to Avoid Ineffective Campaigns and Burnout
Addressing Mental Health in the Workplace: Three Ways to Give Support
Four Ways Marketers Can Look After Their Mental Health [Infographic]
