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Digital skills are in demand in marketing and PR. Professionals who acquire the most highly desirable technical skills will gain a career advantage. Companies and brands that best employ digital marketing will accelerate sales growth.
What are the most sought-after digital marketing skills and most common jobs? To find out’ Moz and Fractl analyzed 75,315 job listings posted on Indeed.com containing 10 digital marketing keywords. They also analyzed keyword trends and average salaries.
The term social media was associated with the most job listings, followed by digital marketing, SEO, and Google Analytics.
Digital marketing manager was the most common job title, followed by marketing manager. Those jobs typically require a wide range of skills, such as social media marketing, SEO, online advertising and other aspects of digital marketing.
Other job titles with a large numbers of ad postings included digital marketing specialist, marketing coordinator, SEO specialist, Web developer, account executive, and social media manager.
The Highest Salaries
Job titles containing the term “SEO” had the highest average listed salary of the group – $102,000. “Google analytics” and “content marketing” also saw higher than average salaries. However, job titles containing “social media marketing” had a much lower average salary of $51,000. Because of the larger pool of those jobs, a proliferation of entry-level positions and internships may be bringing down the average salary.
The research shows that the 20 most common marketing-related job titles call for a broad mix of digital skills. “This tells us hiring managers are on the hunt for well-rounded candidates with a diverse range of marketing skills, as opposed to candidates with expertise in one area,” wrote Kelsy Libert, Fractl vice president of marketing. “Marketers who cultivate diverse skill sets are better poised to gain an advantage over other job seekers, excel in their job role, and accelerate career growth.”
A Growing Skills Gap
Because digital marketing requires a huge breadth of skills, some marketers specialize in key areas such as SEO, content marketing or paid search (PPC), says Dave Chaffey, a digital consultant and CEO of SmartInsights. Many are generalists with a wide set of skills. While this can be extremely useful, keeping all these skills up to date can be challenging.
About five million people globally now work in digital marketing. As the industry rapidly grows, a skills gap is developing, he says.
Both Sides of the Brain
Amanda Rendle, global head of marketing, commercial banking, HSBC, agrees that digital marketing skills, especially technical expertise, are now vital. Marketing departments risk being viewed as just the “coloring in department” and being pushed aside into corporate obscurity if they don’t address current technology challenges, she warns in a Technology for Marketing Insights interview.
The same warning can certainly apply to PR.
Marketing (and PR) require two different areas of expertise — the ‘left brain’ of data, insights, marketing operations and automation and the “right brain” of content creation and creativity. Marketing lacks people who can straddle both areas and understand the overall strategy. That means organizations need to train their personnel to combine both sides of the brain.
“We have to learn new technical skills and hire a different mix of people,” Rendle said. “I am convinced that getting the right balance of talent can turn a fantastic creative idea into the cornerstone of everything we would do for the next six months. This needs technology-savvy as well as a creative team to come up with a different solution.”
Bottom Line: With the growing importance of digital media and data mining, marketing and PR executives who have command of both creative concepts and technical skills will achieve greater success for their employers and themselves.
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.
