How Are Companies Competing For Talent In The Digital Marketing World?

There is a massive problem brewing under the surface of the digital world – a lack of skills. The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the digital world is becoming more and more apparent within the digital marketing industry. As businesses closed their doors in the real world, they looked instead to opening new doors online.

If the online space wasn’t competitive enough already, 93 million more mobile phone users entered the market in 2020. The need for businesses to stand out got that bit more difficult, and to get ahead of their competitors, many businesses sought to boost their digital marketing strategy. More businesses needing marketing means more agencies needed people. It soon became apparent that the talent pool wasn’t big enough to sustain this explosion of growth.

What Digital Marketing Skills Are Most In-Demand?

While the requirement for digital skills spans just about every marketing principle, there are a number which stand out. If you are working in the digital marketing world, you won’t be surprised to know that paid social – the internet marketing strategy which places ads on social media platforms – is currently the biggest skill, with demand having increased by a staggering 116.4%. That’s huge pressure on agencies who now need to more than double their paid social to cope with workloads.

Unsurprisingly, paid social was the big winner of 2020 that continued to grow in 2021. As lockdown hit, most of us moved online to cure the boredom. There was a whole new market for social media advertising, explaining the spike in need for experienced professionals in the field.

Similarly, content marketing has seen a surge in interest from companies with a 31.9% increase in demand, no doubt related to surging levels of online engagement, and web content writing also rose by 30.3%.

Understand And Challenge Brand Misperception

At most organisations, employment brands usually comprise a handful of blandly aspirational messages on career development as well as social responsibility. Candidates simply tune out this type of “white noise” and rather than turn to other sources for an honest look at what the company offers.

The task of fully controlling your brand story places greater pressure on brand weaknesses which frequently cannot easily be changed, such as location or industry. In a market where talent has much choice and very easy access to information, trying to paper over those qualities by increasing more positive ones will eventually be unsuccessful.

Cultivate Critical Talent Supply

The scarcity of critical digital marketing talent and changing employee expectations mean that candidates are recognised as a very important stakeholder in the hiring process today. As a consequence, companies want a transparent and open two-way hiring process which encourages feedback and dialogue.

However when digital marketing talent is in short supply, firms need to find ways to access broader and more distinct talent pools.

One way to do this is dividing the skills, intelligence and temperament needed to do a job from its description. For instance, a financial tech firm hiring for positions with a mixture of technical and financial skills may look for two members of a team, one to provide the technical skill and then the other to provide financial industry experience.

Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing

Are you keen on becoming a digital marketer? If you do then you need to do our Advanced Digital Marketing Course. Follow this link for more information.