A new report form the Digital Marketing Institute has found that three out of four marketers are concerned by the digital skills shortage in the marketing arena.

20/20 Vision: A Marketing Leader’s View of Digital’s Future canvassed the views of 200 executives.

Digital now accounts for more than half of overall marketing budgets.

Major skills gaps are reported by marketing leaders in paid social media advertising (71%), paid search advertising (69%), marketplace selling (71%) and SEO (65%).

Organisations fear losing out on revenue and market share to competitors who are further along in digital transformation. “There is an urgency to cultivate a talent pool,” said DMI chief executive. “A culture that promotes professional development, upskilling, and reskilling is going to be just as important in digitisation as emerging technologies.”

In Association with

Four out out of five marketing professionals  plan to keep increasing mobile marketing budgets. The emerging technologies identified by leading marketers as becoming the most important by 2020 were artificial intelligence, app technology and social customer service.