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With today’s new digital landscape, the marketing industry is in a constant state of change. Every day, there is the possibility of a new app being developed or a new technology being released that could change the way we communicate our message forever. This creates a very exciting challenge for the digital marketers of today. However, due to this constant change, a gap is forming in the industry that needs to be addressed:

“…the study indicates that there is a substantial gap that exists between the need for strong digital marketing talent, and the skills that individuals in the field currently bring to the table.”

That’s a direct quote from a recent study conducted by the Online Marketing Institute—the State of Digital Marketing Talent. With this new digital landscape, the marketing industry is drastically transforming—and in order to get better, we must grow together as an industry.

Here are the top five takeaways that stood out to me from the study:

The need for specialists is growing.

Employers are beginning to lose faith that their digital marketing hires possess the skills required to manage their entire digital marketing strategy. Rather than turning to marketing generalists, employers are beginning to shift towards hiring specialists. Twenty-two percent of companies are making this shift towards hiring specialty consultants. The majority of importance is being placed on analytics, content marketing, social media, e-mail, and mobile.

Outsourcing is an excellent way to find specialists in the industry. Rather than hiring a one-size-fits-all agency, find a company that will truly be invested in your marketing strategy and success—a team that will adjust their strategy based on your unique brand. 

The lack of industry standards is creating a lack of consistency.

It seems pretty clear that many companies are having trouble meeting their hiring needs. Thirty-eight percent  of respondents said they were unable to hire talent to meet their workload. One of the main issues here is the lack of industry standards. Employers aren’t even sure what skills their potential candidates should possess. What makes someone a great digital marketer? What soft skills should they possess? What marketing concepts must they understand?

This lack of consistency also creates a problem with employee assessment. Without industry standards, companies have trouble creating level-setting programs. Employers don’t know how to measure results and growth—making it nearly impossible for digital marketers to grow or prove their spot in the company.

We as an industry need to commit to training our talent and putting programs in place to track their progress. Let’s create some industry standards that can be measured and counted on.  We also must be committed of educating ourselves daily to keep up with the ever-changing industry through online articles, conferences, and live discussions. 

Employers are having trouble finding talented and experienced digital marketers.

Sixty-seven percent of companies believe social media to be a very important skill for their applicants to have, but only 40% believe their social media skills are better than other teams—creating a 27% talent gap. There is also a talent gap of 27% regarding content marketing.

Respondents claiming, “Folks who post to Facebook think they’re digital/social experts,” and “There is a surprising lack of strategic social media knowledge.” Like I mentioned in a previous post, there are many people out there claiming to be gurus who are actually just novices with internet access. Be ware!

Protect your brand and find a person or agency that is a good fit for you. Take a look at my previous post for what skills your should be looking for in your next digital marketing hire. Don’t settle!

I find these findings fascinating and I hope you do too! It’s an exciting time in our industry, and it’s important to stay on top of the changes and remain flexible. Please feel free to comment and give feedback. I’d love to discuss with you.