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Top 10 reasons there is a skills gap in digital marketing and advertising

1. Rapidly evolving technology: The digital marketing and advertising landscape is constantly evolving, with new platforms, tools, and techniques emerging all the time. This means that digital marketers and advertisers need to constantly update their skills to keep up.

 

2. Lack of formal education: While there are digital marketing degree programs and certifications available, many professionals in the field of digital marketing have learned on the job or through self-study, leading to gaps in their skills and knowledge.

 

3. Difficulty in measuring ROI: Measuring the return on investment (ROI) for digital marketing and advertising can be challenging, and many professionals lack the skills to effectively analyze and report on their digital marketing campaigns' success.

 

4. Fragmented skills: Digital marketing and advertising require a wide range of skills, from digital advertising campaigns, data analysis, web development, search engine optimization, copywriting and graphic design. It can be difficult to find individual experts who excel in all these areas.

 

5. Lack of industry standards: Digital marketing and advertising is a relatively new industry, and there are no set standards for skills and knowledge. This makes it difficult for employers to know what to look for in job candidates and for professionals to know what skills they need to develop.

 

6. Speed of innovation: As technology continues to advance, new skills and techniques are constantly emerging. This means that digital marketing and advertising professionals need to be constantly learning and adapting to stay ahead of the digital marketing curve.

 

7. Siloed teams: In many organizations, digital marketing and advertising teams operate in isolation from other departments, or remotely leading to a lack of collaboration and cross-functional learning opportunities from experienced team members.

 

8. Limited budgets for training: CMO’s and small business may not have the budget to invest in ongoing digital marketing and advertising training programs or send team members to digital marketing and advertising conferences and workshops to develop new skills.

 

9. Global competition: The digital marketing and advertising industry is global, and professionals are competing with counterparts around the world. This means that they need to be able to stay up-to-date with digital marketing global trends, strategies, solutions and developments.

 

10. Digital Marketing Burnout: CMO’s and digital marketing teams were never prepared for an accelerated digital economy. The pandemic forced many experienced digital marketing experts into burnout mode. Now that the pandemic has abated, experienced digital marketing experts have left to join the great digital resignation. Many CMO’s, marketing teams and small businesses are left with inexperienced, ill-equipped talent with giant skills gaps. These inexperienced digital marketers are now experiencing the same digital burnout as their predecessors with limited opportunities to advance.

 

With the depreciation of third-party cookies, the end of surveillance advertising and the loss of measurable tracking tools, the pressure to produce with meager pay packages will only exacerbate the skills gap and push the remaining digital marketing experts out of the industry.

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