According to a survey by Capgemini Consulting, there is a major gap between the Digital marketing skills needed by the organizations and the talent available at each level. One statistic states- 90% of organizations lack digital expertise. This statistic is enough to bring organizations into action. However, they are not paying attention to these warning signs. Only 46% of organizations want to invest in digital skills and only 4% have aligned their digital strategy with training. This is very surprising, as you need skills and expertise to succeed in the digital marketing field. Organizations should reassess their priorities to address their digital skills gap.

Here are some ways through which organizations can close the digital marketing skills gap:

Understand the Real Skill Gap

It’s important to understand what and where the real gaps are. Organizations need to check the gap between the current performance and best practice. They need to understand how these gaps compare with current learning and development programs. They need to assess what they are doing well and where they need to improve.

Also Read: Your Ultimate Cheat Sheet To Land A Digital Marketing Job

Recruit the Right Talent

The real challenge organizations face is finding the right digital talent at all levels that can drive the digital transformation. Recruiting the digital talent is not easy unless you attract them with your digital transformation journey or vision. Start hiring digital talents in both executive and strategic roles. You can measure digital skills in the job interview to find the best talent. You should be looking for hybrid professionals who have a complete understanding of business as well as IT.

Make Changes in L&D

Organizations should rebuild their learning and development programs. They should bring all levels of professionals for digital training. Everyone needs to be engaged in the training sessions. The importance of developing digital skills should be reflected across the company. They should promote ongoing learning of their staff at all levels.

Innovative Approach

Companies are still dependent on the traditional methods of developing skills. There should be innovative approaches like bringing a digital transformation, rethinking the marketing organization and centralizing marketing functions, creating digital centers of excellence to promote sharing of best practices and digital education integrating marketing with other corporate functions.

Organizations should focus on strengthening their digital capabilities so they are prepared for the future. If they are not well prepared, they will be less capable in fields where you need up-to-date skills. Companies that cannot attract and retain the right people with advanced digital skills will fall behind. Even many marketers do not realize the importance of new digital channels and they do not try to develop or improve their skills. As a result, they are left behind in the war of digital talent.

Certain agencies like Digital Marketing Institute of America specialize in training and building teams. They work on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis, i.e. they build your team by hiring and training the right talent, they work on your campaigns till your business is confident enough to run it on its own and then they complete the work by transferring all the knowledge and process to the current team.

Also Read: Digital Marketing: A Lucrative Career With the Best Work-Life Balance

Quite a few small businesses and even medium businesses have taken advantage of our programs. These businesses either wanted a very small in-house team or wanted the digital section to work alongside the marketing team.

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