Thursday, February 17, 2022

5 Vital Reasons to Upskill your Marketing Team

The most effective way of getting the most from your marketing team is to upskill. After all, an effective marketing team makes a business, and improving in-house skills empowers staff to grow whilst also growing the business. In-house marketing teams should not be limited to traditional activities. In the age of digital transformation, upskilling your marketing team will help push your organisation forward in line with consumer expectations.

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Find out more about which skills to provide your in-house marketing team with by reading our latest 2022 in-house marketing report:

 

Moving on, evidence suggests companies are not committing to upskilling their in-house teams! In fact, CXL found over 60% of marketing teams only invest around $500 on upskilling, with 20% not investing in this area at all! They are missing a trick as getting the most from your existing team is central to moving forward and keeping up with demand.

In this article we’ll look at the following key points:

  • Core skill areas for marketing teams
  • Five top reasons to upskill your marketing team
  1. Increased employee retention and satisfaction
  2. Attract better talent
  3. Higher skilled workforce
  4. Better prepared for change
  5. Return on investment (ROI)
  • How technology is enabling teams to Upskilling
  • Conclusions

Core Skill Areas for Marketing Teams

There are many different areas you can focus on when upskilling your marketing team. Some are more pressing than others. For example, a digital and tech-literate marketing team is particularly valuable to plug the recognised global skills gap. Our recent State of In-Housing Report 2022 shows where companies are already making changes to improve skill sets and where they plan to develop their digital skills in the future.

Our respondents have already invested in a range of digital marketing skill sets in the past year. Digital design and social media strategy skills topped the list, with 30% and 28% of respondents claiming they have brought in additional skill sets in these areas. Online video, media buying, and marketing automation skill sets are also high priorities, with marketing teams across different organisations already growing their skill sets in these areas.

Additional digital marketing skill sets organisations confirm they have already brought in-house:

  • Mobile design (22%)
  • Banner production (21%)
  • Copy (21%)
  • UX/UI (21%)
  • SEO (20%)
  • Content creation (19%)
  • Paid search (19%)

We also asked those surveyed to tell us about skill sets they’re hoping to bring in-house in 2022, and this delivered significantly different results. While lower priority in the last twelve months, content creation is the top priority for organisations planning to enhance their skill sets. 26% of respondents confirmed they plan to bring content creation in-house, and this is closely followed by paid search and SEO, each at 22%, which were also lower down the list of priorities in the past twelve months.

Other core skills organisations plan to bring in-house in the coming months:

  • Social media strategy (22%)
  • Banner production (22%)
  • Copy (21%)
  • Mobile design (20%)
  • Online video (19%)
  • UX/UI (19%)
  • Digital/visual design (17%)
  • Marketing automation (16%)

Many organisations have made the step to improve their in-house skill sets and upskill their marketing teams. This shows there must be benefits to this approach.

Five Reasons for Upskilling your Marketing Team

Now is the time to upskill and improve your marketing team’s credentials. The more you can manage in-house, the better value you get from your team and it also makes it easier to accelerate growth and digital change. Upskilling your marketing team comes with the following benefits.

1. Increased Employee Retention and Satisfaction

McKinsey’s research shows almost all (93%) of millennials and Generation Z employees expect learning opportunities within their job roles. Upskilling isn’t a nice extra incentive, it’s a must-have your employees expect from their employer. Upskilling helps to increase satisfaction amongst employees as they feel valued and this has a positive knock-on effect on retention, as employees are much more likely to remain with your organisations with this added benefit.

2. Attract Better Talent

Job seekers are known to apply to businesses recommended by others and a business is only likely to be recommended if they provide their teams with a great place to work and high satisfaction levels. Satisfied employees become ambassadors for your business and their networks become a talent pool for future recruitment drives. Just like your existing employees benefit from the training that comes with upskilling, new employees will be attracted by the chance to improve their skill sets when joining your organisation.

3. Higher Skilled Workforce

Identifying and filling skills gaps in your organisation is essential for future success. Upskilling programs are invaluable for adding additional skills to your workplace and giving your employees the chance to keep up with the fast pace of the digitally transforming world. Upskilling programs can be focused in the most valuable areas for your business and with your teams adequately proficient in new areas, you can be proactive in trialling new digital initiatives and techniques.

4. Better Prepared for Change

The speed at which digitisation is changing the world is forcing businesses to adapt whether they want to or not. Having the right skills within your marketing team positions you competitively and means you are ahead of the curve and ready to react to the next digital leap. By upskilling your existing team, you can benefit from their already well-known talents and push them to the levels necessary to succeed in our digital age. Your upskilling program can focus on the digital skills your organisation needs and give your team confidence in the latest technologies.

5. Return on Investment (ROI)

Yes, if you upskill your existing team it comes at a cost, but this is significantly lower than the investment necessary to hire new, skilled professionals, or utilise an outsourced service provider. The benefits of upskilling your existing marketing team delivers a return on investment in more than just financial terms. As already mentioned, you get an increased loyalty to your business and better employee retention too. It is an effective way of both ensuring your company benefits from the latest, vital skill sets and giving employees an additional incentive to remain with your organisation.

Upskilling your marketing team is something all organisations should view as imperative to keep up with rapidly changing consumer expectations and digitisation becoming the norm. Traditionally trained and experienced marketers are already primed to absorb and then practically put their new skills into action for the benefit of the wider organisation.

How technology is enabling teams to upskill

Technology is pivotal in successful upskilling. This is especially true as the new skills in demand tend to be digital and tech based. The right tools are giving brands even more freedom to grow and trial new initiatives and methods for expansion and development. The right technology can be the difference between financial success and a failed project. For example, a creative management platform (CMP), helps businesses to save money and reduce time spent on producing highly effective digital advertising assets. Other technologies such as learning management systems, or dynamic project management tools can help prioritise training. They can also help your in-house team effectively develop the new digital skills they need to succeed.

Conclusion

In our State of In-Housing Report 2022 many respondents discuss the challenges that come with developing new skills at the rates required to remain competitive. However, upskilling your in-house marketing team means having a better understanding and knowledge of your company’s core values and audience. One expert from a video games brand notes that “after working on projects for all franchises, our designers can easily begin working on a project without a lengthy onboarding process…the knowledge sharing, internally, is very easy and efficient.”

Investing in your team helps both the business and their individual development. Providing them with adequate training to upskill is one essential part of the process. You also need the right tools for success. Contact us today to see how our platform can be a valuable component of your in-house marketing upskilling strategy.

The post 5 Vital Reasons to Upskill your Marketing Team appeared first on Bannerflow.


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