digital marketing skills benchmark - targetinternet.com · about the benchmark. the digital...

2018DIGITAL MARKETING SKILLS BENCHMARK

in association with

May 2018

THERE IS A NEED FOR ORGANISATIONS TO STEP BACK AND LOOK AT THEIR STRUCTURE, OBJECTIVES AND THE ROLES WITHIN THEM.The world is moving at pace, and in keeping pace with new technologies, changing

consumer behaviours, and increased competition and choice, the marketing

profession has also changed and that change is constantly evolving. There is a

need for organisations to step back and look at their structure, objectives and

the roles within them. Digital provides a vast range of options through multiple

channels and technologies, it has blurred lines between departments, provided

us with more data than we know what to do with and fundamentally changed

more traditional ways of working. CIM, as a leading voice of the marketing

profession, understands the critical role marketing plays in delivering business

advantage. The Digital Marketing Skills Benchmark highlights the critical need

for organisations to understand now, more than ever before, what skills and

technologies are required to reach, engage and add value to your customer, with

the ultimate goal to deliver growth and stay relevant.

Gemma Butler, Associate Director of Marketing, The Chartered Institute of Marketing

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Digital Marketing Skills Benchmark

BACKGROUND

Digital has fundamentally changed the way we buy,

make decisions and interact with one another. As such,

it has become an essential element of not only any

marketing strategy, but of any organisational strategy. The

environment of constant change has led to a huge skills

challenge for individuals and organisations.

The pace of change means a simple process of ‘one-off’

training is no longer fit for purpose. You can no longer

expect to sit on your current skill set and progress, skills

need to be updated on an on-going basis, and a culture

of learning needs to be developed by organisations and

adopted by individuals. Culture is an essential element of

the solution to any skills gap, as simply providing learning

opportunities and training does not necessarily lead to

its adoption and usage. Furthermore, we need to assess

the impact of any learning approach, not only in terms of

improved skills, but also in terms of improved business

outcomes.

A starting point to addressing this skills challenge is to

understand where our skills gaps lie and how this differs

between industries, roles and seniorities. The Digital Skills

Benchmark aims to be that starting point, to inform the

conversation and drive an ongoing skills improvement

agenda.

THE PACE OF CHANGE MEANS A SIMPLE PROCESS OF ‘ONE-OFF’ TRAINING IS NO LONGER FIT FOR PURPOSE - A CULTURE OF ONGOING LEARNING NEEDS TO BE DEVELOPED BY ORGANISATIONS AND ADOPTED BY INDIVIDUALS.

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Target Internet

ABOUT THE BENCHMARK

The Digital Marketing Skills Benchmark is the first study of its type and

scale that looks at skills across such a wide range of industries and levels of

seniority. Rather than being opinion based like many other studies, the core

of the benchmark actually assessed the skills of nearly 5000 individuals (you

can read more on the methodology below). This approach allows for a frank

look at digital marketing skills in the UK market and identifies a range of

skills gaps and challenges that need to be overcome in order for businesses

to thrive. The benchmark combines raw data on where skill levels currently lie,

whilst also providing insights and opinions on what this means in practice. The

aim of the benchmark is to help UK industry make informed decisions about

improving skills, and to reinforce the need for a culture of on-going learning in

all organisations. We will be updating the benchmark annually, with interim 6

monthly updates to help identify new challenges and opportunities.

METHODOLOGY

Nearly 5000 individuals (4872) were

asked a series of questions on 12

core digital marketing related topics.

The questions were taken from a

bank of questions on each topic that

tested both tactical and strategic

knowledge. These questions were

weighted according to difficulty/

level of specialism, and a percentage

score was calculated out of a possible

100%. The benchmark was tested in

a range of commercial organisations

before being made more broadly

available. This was to make sure

the results aligned with the reality

of an individual’s skills. Questions

are regularly updated to reflect the

latest industry best practice and are

aligned with the Chartered Institute

of Marketing professional standards

and qualifications.

INDIVIDUALS WERE ASKED QUESTIONS THAT ACCESS TACTICAL AND STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE IN ACCORDANCE WITH BEST PRACTICE AND ALIGNED WITH THE CIM PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND QUALIFICATIONS.

THE AIM OF THE BENCHMARK IS TO HELP UK INDUSTRY MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS ABOUT IMPROVING SKILLS, AND TO REINFORCE THE NEED FOR A CULTURE OF ON-GOING LEARNING IN ALL ORGANISATIONS.

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INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN

HERE WE CAN SEE THE LEVEL OF KNOWLEDGE BY TOPIC AREA BY INDUSTRY. EACH INDUSTRY HAS COMMENTARY ON KEY STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES AND WHAT THIS POTENTIALLY MEANS IN CONTEXT.

INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN

Here we can see the level of knowledge by topic area by industry. Each industry has commentary on key strengths and weaknesses and what this potentially means in context.

HIGHLIGHTS AND KEY FINDINGS

A full breakdown of the benchmark results

can be found later in this report, broken

down by topic area, industry and seniority.

However, beyond the core measures, when

we look at particular questions and read the

data in context of general industry trends,

some clear challenges emerge:

THE DIGITAL SKILLS BENCHMARK HIGHLIGHTS SOME VERY CLEAR AND ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS THAT ORGANISATIONS CAN ACT ON TO IMMEDIATELY ADDRESS THE CURRENT DIGITAL SKILLS GAP. IN A POST GDPR WORLD, OVER RELIANCE ON EMAIL MARKETING AND A LACK OF ANALYTICS INSIGHTS SHOULD BE A CLEAR WARNING TO ALL OF US.

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Over reliance on email marketingIn every industry and level of individual seniority, email

marketing skills were universally the highest of all digital

marketing topic areas. When we overlay this data on the

ever-growing levels of email marketing and the diminishing

response rates of email campaigns* we begin to see there

is perhaps an over reliance on email campaigns. When you

combine this with a generally low level of knowledge in

digital strategy and content marketing, we can see email

campaigns are potentially not only overly used, but also

not always carried out in the most effective way.*https://www.targetinternet.com/digital-marketing-podcast-episode-174-

effective-email-marketing-in-2018/

Analytics skills gapAnalytics analysis skills were low across all industries

and seniority levels, however working knowledge and

understanding of the key principles became worse the

more senior the role. This can lead to challenges in both

senior employees asking for the right information and

interpreting reports they are given, as well as leading to

more tactically focussed teams struggling to communicate

with their more senior stakeholders.

Content Marketing Skills GapAlthough content marketing was generally well understood

in principle, working knowledge of how to apply it was

missing. This applied across all industries and seniority

levels.

Junior seniority levels missing core marketing knowledgeThose in more junior roles did not have knowledge of core

marketing principles. Although their more technical digital

knowledge was generally better than those in more senior

roles, they did not have the underpinning core marketing

knowledge.

Senior roles lacked technical knowledgeThose in more senior roles lacked practical working

knowledge of subjects like SEO, content marketing, social

media and display advertising. Although they wouldn’t be

expected to apply these in practice, a working knowledge

would allow for better strategic planning and internal

communication.

SEO is still a mystery to most peopleAcross all seniority levels and most industries, SEO

knowledge was at a low level except in occasional

individuals.

Programmatic and display black holeAcross all roles, seniority levels and industries,

programmatic advertising was almost universally not

understood. Interestingly, rather than skipping questions

on programmatic due to a lack of knowledge, many

individuals simply replied to questions incorrectly and

were clearly confused about the topic.

Strategic planning techniques missingEven at senior levels, there was little evidence that

techniques such as personas and user journey planning

were known, meaning that much strategic planning could

be flawed or at least not customer centric.

DIGITAL DISCIPLINES BREAKDOWNAs we can see, only email marketing

and general marketing knowledge

scored above 40%. All other skills

ranged between the 20%-40%. This

indicates a generally low level of

knowledge in digital marketing and

a workforce more comfortable with

traditional marketing techniques.

Such low scores in content marketing

however are perhaps surprising

considering its wide use in the market.

Anecdotally, when we combine this

with the low scores in digital strategy,

it would seem that much digital

activity is still very ad-hoc rather than

strategically planned.

Digital channels like SEO, pay per click

(PPC), online advertising and social

media are all scoring around 30%-35%.

As these are all established channels

and the consumer is increasingly more

and more bombarded with messages

via them, the need for more advanced

and effective approaches has already

become increasingly important. This

lends itself to back up the fact that

many marketers are struggling to

prove the ROI of their efforts* and

the need for a more robust approach

is needed. This requires better

knowledge and skills

*https://unbounce.com/product-marketing/

product-awareness-data-and-lessons-learned/

Topic Percentage

Analytics and Data 33%

Content Marketing 24%

Digital Strategy 34%

Ecommerce 37%

Email Marketing 52%

General Marketing 45%

Mobile Marketing 29%

Online Advertising 31%

PPC 31%

SEO 35%

Social Media 36%

Usability 29%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC

Online AdvertisingMobile Marketing

General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy

Content MarketingAnalytics and Data

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Target Internet

INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN


INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN

Here we can see the level of knowledge by topic area by industry. Each industry has commentary on key strengths and weaknesses and what this potentially means in context.

Although skills gaps vary from industry to industry, some key insights are common. In a post GDPR

world, over reliance on email marketing and a lack of analytics insights should be a clear warning

to all of us. Some industries over reliance on more traditional approaches to digital marketing are

clearly highlighted by their skills profiles, and as industries change and are further disrupted, failing

to address these issues could be catastrophic.

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AGENCYAs you would hope, agencies’ general

level of knowledge of digital was

better than most other industry

sectors. However, we would still

expect to see much higher scores in

Digital Strategy and Analytics and

Data. It is worth considering that

responses were from a wide range of

different agency types, and therefore

in future we aim to break this down by

these different agency types.

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 46%

Email Marketing 61%




PPC 38%

SEO 49%

Social Media 39%

Usability 40%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

The automotive industry shows higher

skills in online advertising, email

marketing and pay per click. This

reflects the anecdotal reliance on

these channels in the industry, with

lots of potential within social media

and content marketing. Also, a lack of

analytics and data skills is apparent.

AUTOMOTIVE

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 34%

Email Marketing 42%




PPC 40%

SEO 45%

Social Media 36%

Usability 25%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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B2B services skills are still focussed

on email marketing, with very low

levels of knowledge around social

media and content marketing.

B2B SERVICES

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 39%

Email Marketing 61%




PPC 38%

SEO 29%

Social Media 41%

Usability 30%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

Charities seem to be very focussed on

email marketing skills but thankfully

are one of the industries with higher

levels of knowledge around analytics

and data.

CHARITY

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 28%

Email Marketing 55%




PPC 29%

SEO 24%

Social Media 25%

Usability 17%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Generally, the Consultancy sector

scored quite poorly and very much

in-line with other industry averages.

This is heavily impacted by what type

of consultancy these organisations

offer, but since digital impacts so

many areas of business, it should be a

key area of focus for the Consultancy

industry to improve their digital skills.

CONSULTANCY

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 28%

Email Marketing 43%




PPC 25%

SEO 24%

Social Media 32%

Usability 23%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


13

Target Internet

Consumer Goods organisations scored

well across email, SEO, display and

ecommerce but scored well below

average in content marketing and

strategy. This reflects a ‘trade’ focussed

approach to digital, and flags that

building brands online is potentially

over reliant on the use of banner ads.

CONSUMER GOODS

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 43%

Email Marketing 46%




PPC 29%

SEO 35%

Social Media 31%

Usability 31%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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As expected, the ecommerce/online

business sector scored better than

average across most areas with some

of the highest scores in analytics and

usability of any sector. More advanced

content marketing and social media

skills were absent however, giving

room for growth in this area.

ECOMMERCE/ONLINE

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 45%

Email Marketing 53%




PPC 38%

SEO 46%

Social Media 32%

Usability 38%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


15

Target Internet

Education was one of several sectors

that scored well in traditional

marketing techniques and email

marketing, but struggled in all other

aspects of digital. This is in line

with the industry as a whole and

interestingly, new entrants to the

sector were more likely to classify

themselves as ‘online services’ than

education businesses (mainly apps

offering educational services). This

is indicative of an industry changing

radically and potentially being

disrupted by new market entrants.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 36%

Email Marketing 54%




PPC 30%

SEO 29%

Social Media 34%

Usability 21%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Financial services’ reliance on email

marketing, due to the traditional

nature of the industry and

risk-aversity (with email allowing for

long compliance statements), is

reflected in the skillset of the

industry. Very low content marketing

and social media skills are

perhaps unsurprising, but this is

certainly an industry with lots of

opportunity to improve skills and

digital campaigns.

FINANCIAL SERVICES

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 32%

Email Marketing 57%




PPC 28%

SEO 21%

Social Media 27%

Usability 32%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

IT is another industry that is

traditionally slow to change, with the

normal balance of skills we have seen

elsewhere. However, within the data

there was a huge gap between large

organisations and smaller more agile

organisations, with the smaller ones

being way ahead in terms of digital

skills and scoring much higher around

content marketing, social media and

digital strategy. Perhaps a sign that

the larger, more well-established

organisations need to focus on digital

skills as a matter of urgency.

IT/TECHNOLOGY/TELECOMS

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 46%

Email Marketing 57%




PPC 26%

SEO 34%

Social Media 34%

Usability 28%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC

Online AdvertisingMobile Marketing `

General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


18


Leisure/Entertainment/Sport scored

better generally than most industries

in many areas, but particularly in their

use of data and analytics. Many of

the respondents were organisations

that have worked with sports data

for many years, as well as gaming and

gambling organisations who have

traditionally been more focussed on

using data effectively.

LEISURE/ENTERTAINMENT/SPORT

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 28%

Email Marketing 59%




PPC 34%

SEO 36%

Social Media 47%

Usability 34%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


19

Target Internet

Media and publishing scored well in

social skills, email and traditional

marketing, but had worryingly low

levels of knowledge around digital

strategy and analytics and data. This

reflects general feedback in the

industry about high levels of social

activity without clear strategies and

the ability to measure ROI.

MEDIA AND PUBLISHING

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 27%

Email Marketing 40%




PPC 24%

SEO 21%

Social Media 39%

Usability 20%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Retail unsurprisingly scored highest

in email and ecommerce, but this is

against a backdrop of overall very

low digital knowledge. The inferred

reliance on email was again very high

and knowledge of content marketing

was particularly low.

RETAIL

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 35%

Email Marketing 42%




PPC 28%

SEO 31%

Social Media 33%

Usability 29%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

INDUSTRY BREAKDOWN


SENIORITY BREAKDOWN

Here we can see the level of knowledge broken down by topic area based on role seniority.

At a high level we can see that more junior roles lack knowledge around core

marketing principles but are stronger in topics like ecommerce and social

media. This is perhaps unsurprising due to age and general levels of social

media adoption and ecommerce usage*.

At a more senior level we see a greater level of knowledge in core marketing

principles and an awareness of the more traditional digital channels like

email marketing. However, at the most senior levels we see a very low level of

knowledge of analytics and perhaps surprisingly low levels of digital strategy

knowledge.

*https://www.targetinternet.com/how-different-age-groups-are-using-social-media/

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INTERN

Topic Percentage



Digital Strategy 6%

Ecommerce 16%

Email Marketing 18%




PPC 11%

SEO 23%

Social Media 25%

Usability 18%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


ASSISTANT/GRADUATE

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 32%

Email Marketing 22%




PPC 25%

SEO 29%

Social Media 30%

Usability 22%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

EXECUTIVE

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 37%

Email Marketing 51%




PPC 34%

SEO 35%

Social Media 38%

Usability 29%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


MANAGER

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 41%

Email Marketing 52%




PPC 31%

SEO 34%

Social Media 36%

Usability 28%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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HEAD OF DEPARTMENT

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 42%

Email Marketing 57%




PPC 39%

SEO 50%

Social Media 38%

Usability 35%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


DIRECTOR

Topic Percentage




Ecommerce 26%

Email Marketing 54%




PPC 29%

SEO 32%

Social Media 36%

Usability 29%

Usability

Social Media

SEO

PPC


General Marketing

Email Marketing

Ecommerce

Digital Strategy


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Target Internet

CONCLUSIONS

Discussing the research results, Chris Daly, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Marketing said: “At CIM we believe in the business advantage that professional marketing can provide. If British business is to sell products and services in new countries following our exit from the EU, there

is no doubt it will lean heavily on the marketing profession.

UK skill levels in Digital Marketing are generally worrying low, and this

research clearly shows that there is a shortage of marketing

skills, creating a tangible barrier to Britain’s ability to

export. This is leaving organisations ill prepared to deal

with an increasingly digital consumer, in both the business

to consumer and business to business world.

While these skills gaps are not surprising, it is potentially

an area for concern that they continue at this level in 2018,

when we have been discussing the challenges of digital

for many years now. The importance of organisations

developing a culture of ongoing learning for all staff is

core to addressing the issue, in an environment that will

continue to change at an increasing rate.”

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DIGITAL HAS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED THE WAY WE BUY, MAKE DECISIONS AND INTERACT WITH ONE ANOTHER. THIS ENVIRONMENT OF CONSTANT CHANGE HAS LED TO A HUGE SKILLS CHALLENGE FOR INDIVIDUALS AND ORGANISATIONS. THE ONLY GUARANTEE IS THAT THE PACE OF CHANGE, AND THE RATE AT WHICH THIS IMPACTS SKILLS REQUIREMENTS, WILL GET FASTER AND FASTER. ORGANISATIONS (AND INDIVIDUALS) THAT ARE ABLE TO ADOPT A CULTURE OF ON-GOING LEARNING WILL BE BEST PLACED TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE IN THIS ENVIRONMENT.

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