Digital skills are now central to nearly all UK marketing roles, with 92 per cent of marketers believing digital skills are important, including 99 per cent of the c-level, according to new research by Adobe.
The report shows UK marketers are becoming increasingly digitally focused, with 43 per cent of marketers saying half their activity is now digital – a 60 per cent increase since 2013.
These findings are supported by previous Adobe research where more than two-thirds of European marketers (68 per cent) stated that marketing has changed more in the last two years than in the previous 50, and more than half (54 per cent) of European marketers expect their own roles to change further in the next year.
Marketers are trying to keep up with this demand for digital skills with 84 per cent already having some level of confidence in their digital skills, up from 80 per cent in 2013.
However, analytics is the area where marketers felt they had the least confidence, with 30 per cent admitting they lacked knowledge in mobile analytics, 27 per cent in web analytics, and 25 per cent in social analytics and this is despite over half using analytics tools in their day-to-day work.
John Watton, EMEA marketing director, Adobe, commented on the findings: “Marketing is evolving at a rapid pace and there is no doubt that this is down to digital. With virtually all c-level marketers citing digital skills as important, the marketing organisation has the opportunity to lead the digital transformation within their company.
“Closing the gap between believing digital skills are important and actually having the confidence in digital skills, is what marketers need to address through formal and on-the-job training, as well as not being afraid in taking risks.”
