The (further) development of skills is essential within the marketing profession
The DDMO 2024 shows that paying sufficient attention to employees remains one of the most important topics for the future of the marketing profession. This involves both keeping up with knowledge and skills (cited as the most important topic for 72%), and paying attention to the skills and individual characteristics of employees (the next most important topic at 67%). This turns out to be even more important than matters such as applying AI (53%), sustainability (62%), complying with laws and regulations (60%) and diversity and inclusivity (54%).
The challenge lies not only in the (further) development of knowledge and skills, but also in terms of finding and retaining employees with the right knowledge and skills. Finding suitable employees has been cited as being in the top 3 biggest challenges by 26% of industry representatives when it comes to data-driven marketing, second only to budget, and employee retention, by 19% of those asked.
No discernible development has been observed in this trend compared to previous editions of the DDMO; these challenges are still clearly reflected in the market. Marketing professionals with sufficient knowledge and experience are becoming increasingly difficult to find, and the acceptance of a post-employment learning path is becoming more common due to necessity. More attention is paid to relevant soft skills such as analytical skills and eagerness to learn. Moreover, within the market we also see that employees expect to be able to continue to develop personally, and if those opportunities are not available, it is more difficult to retain them.
Joost Gipman, Director of Marketing & Communications at Randstad Professional: “Finding talented workers is the first step, but retention is the key to the marketing team of the future. Scarcity certainly plays a role in this regard, but we need to consider the role of various generations in the workplace, and the individual needs of talented employees.”
Soft skills more important than hard skills
The business side of marketing sector representatives (fulfilling positions such as marketer, product owner, marketing manager or coordinator) state that they find communication skills (50%), strategic thinking (47%) and teamwork (33%) to be the most relevant within their role. DDMA participants predominantly share the same view, although they designate data interpretation and utilization (50%) as the most relevant skill; incidentally, this is similar to the answer ChatGPT provided concerning this question (see the box later in this article) in which data analysis is identified as an important skill for marketers.
ChatGPT:
What skills does ChatGPT consider to be most important for marketers?
It’s hard to pinpoint a single skill as the “most valuable” to a marketer because the field is so broad, and different situations require different skills. However, if I had to highlight one skill that is often considered fundamental and extremely valuable, it would be data analysis. While data analytics is hugely valuable, it should be seen as part of a broader spectrum of skills. A successful marketer will combine data analytics with creativity, communication skills, customer focus, and the technical knowledge to develop and execute a holistic and effective marketing strategy.
On the byte side of organizations (positions such as analysts, developers, programmers, data scientists or engineers), skills such as communication (28%) and strategic thinking (20%) are seen as less important, with more importance attached to analytical thinking (46%), data interpretation and utilization (41%). This is confirmed by the fact that it is a major challenge for 1 in 5 organizations (19%) to achieve satisfactory collaboration between departments and to realize a data-driven culture in addition (also 19%). Teamwork is logically considered more important within corporations (46% in organizations with > 1000 employees) because they have more depth and volume in specialties.
It is quite noteworthy that knowledge of AI is not considered very relevant, and no significant difference can be observed between the business and byte sides of organizations. One explanation for this is that organizations are currently mainly concerned with user-friendly, stand-alone AI applications such as Copilot and ChatGPT, instead of more complex and fully integrated AI applications that require a great deal more knowledge and skills (see also the DDMO 2024 deep dive on the current application and challenges of AI).
Labor shortages and rapid technological developments explain focus on soft skills
In the Vision Report – The Marketing Team of the Future 2023 published earlier by DDMA , it was already explained that the current shortages within the labor market are a major cause of the marketing sector’s focus on soft skills. On the other hand, it appears that the field and role of marketing are changing so rapidly that soft skills and personal characteristics will become crucial to generating solid collaboration between teams and a future-proof marketing department. Stringent position demands for vacancies will disappear in favor of more competency-based requirements, which will widen the scope in the search for the right employees, such people from outside the sector.
About the Data-Driven Marketing Study (DDMO) 2024
The DDMO is an independent initiative of the DDMA trade association and the DDMA Committee on Data, Decision & Engagement. The annual survey maps out how the marketing sector in the Netherlands processes data and uses (customer) data, with the aim of providing insight and advice into how data-driven the marketing sector is, and where opportunities and challenges lie.
Through three deep dives, the most important insights of the DDMO 2024 were set out in more detail. The summary article, including full research justification, can be read here. The other 2 deep dive articles elaborate further on the availability, quality and application of data by organizations in the marketing sector, and the current application and challenges of AI.
The target group and sample of the DDMO 2024 consists of 520 Dutch people working within the marketing sector, recruited through the GfK panel, who answered positively to the question of whether they mainly perform marketing-related activities.
Do you have any questions or comments about this study? If so, please send an e-mail to info@ddma.nl.
Ronnie van Nieuwenhoven
Lydia de Haan
Mark van der Vlies
Monique Hartveld-Zwanenburg
Nanda Appelman
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