CIM warns of the danger of a digital skills gap

The digital skills of marketers are not keeping pace with developments in the industry, according to the latest Digital Marketing Skills Benchmark study from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). 

Why it matters

The 2021 study shows stagnation or decline across almost all digital marketing disciplines over the past year, ‘general marketing’ being the sole exception. While the pandemic may have hampered training efforts – for many businesses it was ‘all hands to the pump’ – it has also reinforced the need to keep up to date with marketing technology as consumers shifted more interactions online.

Key findings

• The majority of people fall into the lowest two quintiles in all but two disciplines.
• Analytics and Data has seen the largest decline in skills, partly explained by the growing complexity of digital marketing, new analytics options and changes in cookie rules. 
• Content marketing also saw a large dip in skills and was one of the largest groups of people in the lowest two quintiles. 
• Agencies have a higher percentage of respondents in the two highest quintiles of results than any other group.

Key quote

“The need to continue upskilling in order to just stand still was apparent before the pandemic; the risk now is that it will only continue to grow and the skills gap could become unmanageable” – Gemma Butler, director of marketing at CIM, speaking to Marketing Week.

Sourced from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Marketing Week