The Digital Skills Gap

You’ve probably heard about the digital skills shortage in the UK. It’s causing big problems for businesses, from slow growth to higher costs.

Because it’s hard to find the right people, many businesses hire digital marketing agencies to help with their digital marketing. 45% of digital marketing activities are performed by external agencies for B2C companies (HBR, 2022). While this can be a good option, it can also be difficult to manage if you don’t have digital marketing skills.

With digital a crucial element in all business decisions now, it’s time for businesses to take control of their future & invest in their own team’s digital skills.

Let’s talk about why training your team in digital marketing is a great investment. It’s not just about closing the skills gap. It can boost your business, strengthen your agency partnership & empower your team for the long run.

“The digital skills gap has a huge impact on our economy & in people’s lives.”

Scott McBay, Balanced Impact

Skills Shortage: The Challenges

So, how has a skills shortage come about in the UK & what impact does it have on your business?

There’s a growing gap in digital skills in the UK because: 

Technology changes quickly, but training doesn’t keep up.
Schools aren’t fast enough to adapt to digital changes.
There aren’t enough people with digital skills, but more & more businesses need them.
Hiring people with digital skills is too expensive for many businesses (because demand is so high).

Not having digital marketing skills in your team creates unnecessary challenges for your business:

You’ll miss out on opportunities to get new customers
Struggle to quickly change tactics & keep up with competitors
Your team will have more work to do
Can lead to increased costs due to inefficient processes, potential errors & heavily relying on agencies.

Digital Skills to Improve Performance

Learning digital skills can have a big impact on your business. It can improve productivity, help you make better decisions & allow you to work better with your team & agencies. All of this can lead to more sales & revenue. 

Let’s take a closer look at each of these benefits:

Productivity

Without the right digital skills, you might be taking the long way around. There are lots of tools that can help you work faster & smarter.

Digital tools can automate repetitive tasks, streamline workflows & make teamwork easier, all of which contribute to freeing up time to work on other projects or your marketing strategy.

We’re currently entering into the era of AI, which is the term on everyone’s lips. AI can sound too overwhelming for some to take on but we would advise to approach with caution. Some AI tools can be easy to use & beneficial for productivity in small doses. Others can over complicate or not be the right fit for your business.

Faster decision making

In today’s fast-paced digital world, speed is essential. With knowledge & skills in you own team you can quickly turn data into strategic decisions that drive better business results & give you a competitive edge.

Team & agency performance

A team that knows digital marketing can do marketing strategy better. Your skills help you understand the whole picture & how everything works together. With these skills, you can do more marketing yourself or have the ability to choose the right agency & get the best results.

It’s tough to manage your agency if you don’t know much about digital marketing. Your agency might be setting goals, but are they the right ones for your business? Can you tell if they’re doing a good job & delivering value for money? 
With digital marketing skills, you’ll know what your agency is planning & how it fits into your business goals. This will help you work better together & avoid misunderstandings.

So what can you do to boost your skills & business performance?

“79% of marketers believe the skillset required for their job has completely changed over the past 10 years but only half have received external training in the last year”

CIM, 2022

Upskilling

It’s time for businesses & marketing managers to wake up & smell the coffee. The way customers use digital is changing fast & it’s a sign that we need to invest in our skills & knowledge. This will help to keep up with the latest trends, deal with unpredictable customer behaviour as well as navigate the  ever-changing economic landscape.

Investing in your team’s skills is a win-win. When your team feels valued & supported, they’re more likely to stick around & stay loyal to the company. And the costs of not having digital skills on your team is often higher than training or hiring. 

But here’s the thing: One-time training just isn’t enough anymore. In today’s fast-paced digital world, you need to keep learning & growing to stay ahead of the competition.

Digital Marketing Training

At Balanced Impact, we’re all about helping brands & their teams to develop their skills & thrive online. We’ve worked with hundreds of brands to develop winning strategies, processes & technology. As well as providing training to make sure they can do it for themselves.

Our digital marketing training has been proven over & over again. We’ve helped countless teams learn new skills & apply them to real-world problems. With our training, your team will feel confident & empowered to drive your business forward.

We’ve worked with We Are Digital to help upskill excluded communities & under represented groups across the UK. The Digital Boost programme was created to solve in-work poverty & address the national digital skills shortages which costs the UK around £141 billion in GDP.

We’ve also teamed up with Apps for Good, a charity that helps young people learn digital skills to help them build a better future. They provide free tech courses for schools, supporting teachers & giving students from all backgrounds the chance to develop their computing skills.

So the best way to over-come slow decision-making, boost your productivity & transform your team & agency performance is with digital marketing training. It’s an investment that will benefit your business for years to come.

With our experience & passion for digital, you can trust us to teach your team the right skills & lead your business to peak performance.

It’s not just about filling a skills gap it’s about empowering your team & driving better business results.

The support, training & consultancy has given us access to expertise, that isn’t always readily accessible to a charity like us.

Jess
Marketing Director