The Marketing Meetup just published their State of Marketers 2026 report — 1,248 marketers surveyed on how they’re feeling about work, AI, and everything in between. It’s mostly written for people in jobs. But buried in there is a section that’s basically a case study for why we started NEFN in the first place.
Here’s what’s worth your time.
Freelancers rated their workload 5.6 out of 10. The overall average across all marketers was 6.6, and if you’re managing a team or directing a business, it’s 6.9. A third of freelancers put their workload at 4 or below. Fewer than 1 in 10 employed marketers can say the same.
Nobody’s pretending freelance life is a permanent holiday. But if you’ve ever felt guilty for not being “as busy” as your mates in agencies or in-house, this is your permission slip. Lighter workload isn’t the same as being less serious about your work — it’s what happens when you actually control what lands on your desk.
You’re also the most connected group in the whole survey.
This is the one that made us sit up. The report asked marketers how connected they feel to their wider professional community, on a scale of 0 to 10. The average was 4.7. On-site employees, the people surrounded by colleagues every day, scored 4.1. Remote workers, 4.9.
Freelancers scored 5.5. Highest of any group, by a distance.
The report’s own line on this: “not because it found them, but because they had to go build it.” When nobody hands you a team, a Slack channel, or a coffee break with colleagues, you go and make one yourself. That’s not a coincidence. That’s every freelancer who’s ever shown up to a coworking day, joined a group, or messaged someone after a webinar just to say “how are you finding this?”
And connection isn’t just a nice feeling. In the data, the more connected people feel, the better nearly everything else looks: role optimism climbs from 5.0 to 6.3, loneliness nearly halves (31% down to 17%), and feeling properly supported goes from 27% to 41%. Worth being honest about one thing though: connection doesn’t fix a thin client budget or make a bad month feel any less real. What it does is change how the work feels while you’re in it.
If you run your own thing, this one might sting a bit. Owner/founders scored 51% on imposter syndrome — higher than managers and directors, the highest of any seniority group in the survey. And on pay satisfaction, owners came in at 2.8 out of 5, only just above juniors, because — the report’s words, not ours — they “pay themselves last.”
If you haven’t given your own rates a proper review in a while, you’re not alone. But you’re also not doing yourself any favours by skipping it. Treat “review my own pricing” as seriously as you’d treat a client’s invoice.
Honestly, you’re already doing it. You joined a network built specifically so you’re not figuring this out solo. The data says that’s exactly the right move — freelancers who build their own connection are less lonely, less isolated, and more optimistic about where their career is going than people sitting in an office every day.
If you’re reading this and you’re not a member yet, this is the pitch: the freelancers doing best in this report aren’t the ones with the lightest to-do list. They’re the ones who went and found their people. Come find yours.
