Marketers warned of a yawning skills gap despite costly training programmes
Marketers are being warned that current efforts to close a yawning skills gap are failing after a new study showed a widening disparity between available positions and the talent pool – despite billions being poured into training.
Marketers warned of a yawning skills gap despite costly training programmes
Research by the CXL Institute found a growing chasm despite businesses throwing an average of $994 per employee on training and billions annually at the problem.
The survey of 462 marketing leaders found the problem is particularly acute for firms which don’t yet have an online presence, with offline business leaders rating their marketing prowess at just 6.6 out of 10, well below the 7.4 figure reported by their digital cousins.
This pattern was repeated between large and small companies with firms of between 1,000 and 5,000 staff occupying the sweet spot with a perception of average skill rated at 7.93. This was significantly higher than companies with up to 10 individuals where the comparable figure was just 6.43. Interestingly progress appears to slip into reverse for businesses with more than 5,000 employees, with the skill rating dropping to 7.56.
Hana Abaza, head of marketing at ecommerce platform Shopify Plus, said: "It's easy and common for even the most experienced marketers to gloss over the basics and lose touch with the fundamentals of good marketing. A good training course is rooted in these principles, even if the topic is more tactical in nature."
A separate study last month found that a third of brands have a marketing skills gap with most struggling to find 'quality talent'.