The marketing industry is constantly evolving, and marketers must be prepared to evolve with it. Today that means embracing the science as much as the art of marketing. Technology and digital marketing resourcing provider Mondo expects 50% of all marketing hires to have a technical background by next year. In fact, 72% of the marketers Mondo surveyed say that traditional marketing is no longer sufficient in the ever-changing world of digital marketing.
So, what kind of talent do today’s marketers need? Fifty-four percent of marketers surveyed say that digital/social will be in high demand for marketing hires within the next 12 to 18 months. Content creation (44%) was the next most desired area of expertise, followed by Big Data/analytics (33%), mobile strategy (30%), and SEO (28%). This increased reliance on digital dexterity makes sense, especially considering that 80% of marketing departments intend to increase their digital marketing budgets in the next 12 to 18 months.
Even if marketers update their résumés this year, they’ll still have to broaden their skill sets for years to come. Consider the following: Although only 13% of marketers say that video is the most valuable channel in driving customer engagement today, 61% say it will be in the next three to five years. Likewise, only about one quarter of respondents cite mobile as a leader in customer engagement, but 70% expect it to become one by 2020. Social is also expected to see a rise: 38% deem the channel a main driver of customer engagement today, but 49% predict that it will be in the next half decade. However, email is one channel that is expected to experience a slight decline. According to Mondo, 59% of respondents currently consider email the most valuable customer engagement channel, but this figure is expected to drop four percentage points over the next three to five years.
Skill sets aren’t the only area of change Mondo foresees among marketers. The company also predicts a shift to a 50-50 mix of freelance and full-time workers in the next three to five years.
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