Photo credit: James Royal-Lawson
Data analytics and other technology skills have become mandatory for digital marketing professionals, reveals a new survey by the recruiting firm Mondo.
“Big data will continue to influence how marketers reach customers,” writes Laura McGarrity, vice president, digital marketing strategy at Mondo, in The Future of Digital Marketing. “The ability to analyze and interpret that data will be the core driver in optimizing customer engagement across all channels.”
Technical skills, including analytics, digital operations and web development, will become even important for digital marketing teams, indicates the study, based on an online survey of 262 digital marketing executives.
By 2016, more than half of all digital marketing hires will have a technical background, predict the executives surveyed. Digital marketing will require a marriage of technical skills and creative skills, including content creation, graphic design and social media.
Bridge the Technology-Marketing Gap
“It’s critical to bridge the gap between technology and marketing, McGarrity states. “The time is now for CMOs and CIOs to join forces to work hand-in-hand, embracing development, design and creative services.”
Marketing technology budgets will surpass IT technology budgets in 2017. Most companies, or 80 percent, plan to increase their digital marketing budgets over the next 12 to 18 months. Of those planning to increase their budgets, 40 percent expected to increase them between 5 percent and 10 percent, 32 percent between 10 percent and 15 percent, and 9 percent between 0 percent and 5 percent.
Marketing executives say hiring barriers include finding skilled talent, the cost of a quality staff, finding a culture fit, and attracting and retaining top talent. Executives say the top skills they plan to hire for over the next 12 to 18 months are digital/social (54 percent), content creation (44 percent), big data/analytics (33 percent) and mobile strategy (30 percent), and SEO (28 percent.
Only 24 percent of companies plan to hire marketers for creative services, and 22 percent for product/brand expertise.
The Turnover Issue
“Turnover has been a really big issue,” McGarrity told Advertising Age. “There is such high demand and it’s such a new space — people are hopping around to find the best jobs,” she added. “It is a candidate’s market, particularly in digital marketing.”
Marketing executives are finally obtaining the budgets to hire top talent, she said.
The survey also reveals a trend to greater use of freelance workers. In the next there to five years, the digital marketing workforce will be a one-to-one mix of freelance to permanent workers. A more “elastic workforce,” according to Mondo, provides companies the ability to access hard-to-find talent, adapt to seasonal or unforeseen needs, and stop and start projects as needed.
Companies comprised entirely of permanent workers will drop from 42 percent to 23 percent in the next 12 to 18 months. Only one percent of companies are now made up of a 50/50 mix of permanent and contract workers. Within 12 to 18 months, 30 percent will have a 50/50 mix.
Corollary: While data mining is moving to the forefront of marketing, analytics are also becoming increasingly important in public relations as explained in the recent CyberAlert blog post titled PR Must Become More Analytical, Says PR Measurement Expert.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
