Demand For Digital Skills Still Increasing

Apr 12

If you thought we’d reached a point where all businesses were up to speed digitally, think again. According to a CMO survey, digital marketing spending reached 58 percent of marketing budgets, reflecting 15.8 percent growth over the last year. While most have made a good start, and more than half now report that they are in making good progress, only 11 percent of companies have fully institutionalized the digital transformation process.

According to the report, investment in all digital marketing activities has increased since February 2021. The majority of firms (77.4 percent) invest in website optimization, digital media, and search (69 percent).

What does this mean for your career?

A quick scan of the PR and marketing jobs listed on LinkedIn shows that they all require digital skills. The problem is that what you learned 10 years ago might no longer be considered necessary or valuable. According to the Gartner Talent Neuron report, new skills have made one-third of the skills required for a job in 2022 obsolete. That’s a scary thought.

The digital landscape moves at such a rapid pace, people are struggling to keep pace. The Digital Skills Benchmark report from the Chartered Institute of Marketing in the UK shows that the skill level of the workforce is falling behind. Upskilling is a major concern for both workers and employers.

Traditional marketing and PR skills are still vital, but clients and employers want more. It’s time to supplement your skills with adapting your writing for the web, learning how to create high quality content, understanding search engine optimization and why it’s important for PR as well as marketing. Social media platforms add features and change algorithms so frequently adapting a social media strategy must be constantly adjusted. Social advertising is a skill PR and marketing pros need to master. Graphic design has become an integral part of PR and marketing skills and last, but certainly not least, there is a huge demand for metrics and analytics.

Business leaders are concerned that they won’t be able to deliver on planned digital projects – not because of lack of funding, but a lack of people with the digital skills to do the work. Learning new skills or improving the ones you already have, could mean opening doors to a more lucrative and future-proof career.