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The Marketing Skills Gap

Author's avatar By Dave Chaffey 06 Aug, 2018
Essential Essential topic

Chart of the Day: Which are the most important skills for you to develop for your future career

In a previous article, I reviewed the most important marketing skills based on the recently published research from The IDM and Smart Insights. In this follow-up I'll drill down to look at specific skills gaps.

This first chart is helpful since it highlights the main categories of transferable generic skills which are most important to career progression. This is based on marketers who rated these as very or extremely important. You can see that these include many of the skills topics that we focus on at Smart Insights include strategy and planning, data and insight and, of course, digital marketing. As we say, we look to help our members 'Plan, Manage and Optimize' their digital marketing.

The second chart drills down to show more specific skills. You can see that the main skills that are most in demand are in the top right. These include:

  • Communications strategy and planning
  • Marketing finance
  • Analysing customer data and insight
  • Client/stakeholder management and presentation
  • Data analysis and reporting
  • Marketing automation
  • Search marketing
  • Mobile marketing

To review your skills gaps and get recommendations on how to plug those gaps, see the free Smart Insights Marketing Skills Assessment which creates a personalized learning plan if you take it. It's structured by the areas of the Smart Insights RACE planning framework.

Research source

Author's avatar

By Dave Chaffey

Digital strategist Dr Dave Chaffey is co-founder and Content Director of online marketing training platform and publisher Smart Insights. 'Dr Dave' is known for his strategic, but practical, data-driven advice. He has trained and consulted with many business of all sizes in most sectors. These include large international B2B and B2C brands including 3M, BP, Barclaycard, Dell, Confused.com, HSBC, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, M&G Investment, Rentokil Initial, O2, Royal Canin (Mars Group) plus many smaller businesses. Dave is editor of the templates, guides and courses in our digital marketing resource library used by our Business members to plan, manage and optimize their marketing. Free members can access our free sample templates here. Dave is also keynote speaker, trainer and consultant who is author of 5 bestselling books on digital marketing including Digital Marketing Excellence and Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practice. In 2004 he was recognised by the Chartered Institute of Marketing as one of 50 marketing ‘gurus’ worldwide who have helped shape the future of marketing. My personal site, DaveChaffey.com, lists my latest Digital marketing and E-commerce books and support materials including a digital marketing glossary. Please connect on LinkedIn to receive updates or ask me a question.

This blog post has been tagged with:

Digital Marketing SkillsMarketing careers

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