Less than 10 percent of senior UK marketers have full confidence in their own digital marketing skills [8%] or those of their teams [9%] Adobe research has found. In addition, over 50 percent of marketers in the UK are not testing campaigns or content, relying instead on instinct.
These statistics echo research recently carried out in the US where just 9 percent of marketers are fully confident that their digital marketing is working, while 61 percent believe that for most companies, digital marketing approaches are a constant cycle of trial and error.
The problems in the UK are heightened by the fact that two thirds of marketing departments don’t have a developed data analysis and insight strategy and so there is a lack of information as well as confidence.
Bijan Bedroud, Managing Director for Northern Europe at Adobe said: “I believe that at the moment many marketers don’t quite know what is working and they don’t feel they have the necessary skills or experiences to succeed in the digital environment. Our research showed that less than 3 percent of respondents received formal training. This is worrying as despite not having full confidence in their teams, 51 percent of marketers rely on colleagues to keep up with the pace of digital marketing trends.”
Lack of confidence is leading to key channels being overlooked and undervalued. Surprisingly, almost half of marketers don’t have a mobile strategy in place, despite smartphone ownership reaching over two-thirds (68%)** of the UK population in June 2013 and mobile now accounting for14 percent of all digital advertising spend. And only 27** percent of marketers are marketing at all through mobile channels.
Bedroud continues: “Although marketers may not have full confidence in their skills or knowledge, most recognise just how big the digital opportunity is. It is marketers that have knowledge and insight, and who are training their teams to be more ‘digital-ready’, that will be in the strongest position to capitalise on digital’s full promise.”
www.adobe.com/uk