Japan faces shortfall of digital marketing professionals

The rapid evolution of digital marketing has created a “digital disconnect” in which the jobs market in technology, and more specifically digital marketing technology, is hungry for skilled workers in Japan.

According to recruiting company Hays in Japan, the evolution of digital marketing is set to continue over the next decade and this will have a huge impact on the skills employers need.

“As the business landscape shifts, marketers must evolve with the times in order to fully connect with their customers and drive business growth,” says Jonathan Sampson, Regional Director of Hays in Japan.

“As marketing becomes more technology-based, harnessing and mastering ‘big data’ will be key to achieving competitive advantage. If companies are to remain market front-runners, they need to integrate their digital and social marketing channels into one customer journey," Sampson says. “To do this, they require candidates with integrated offline and online channel experience.”

This is supported by statements made in Sydney last month by Brad Rencher, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Marketing at Adobe Systems. “Your social media programs and campaigns, and how you think about them, should be put in the context of your overall business and marketing objectives," he said. "Today, marketing is all about the numbers and understanding how to segment data, utilise big data, back-end technology and databases.”

According to Hays, these changes have created a “digital disconnect”, or in other words a shortage of skilled professionals for digital marketing technology jobs.

The power of data

“Today digital marketing managers need to be able to determine if a visitor to their company’s website, iPhone app or Facebook page is a return visitor, a loyalty member, and what offers they may respond to,” says Sampson.

“In the current jobs market small businesses and agencies are fighting for personnel who can do this, as well as manage accounts, run great campaigns and build content and social media marketing strategies that make an impact. But there is a shortage of the right talent,” he says.

According to an Economist Intelligence Unit survey on digital marketing published in July, most marketers lack the skill sets needed to understand and glean insights from this kind of data. Some 82% of marketers state that career skills have changed, with 37% indicating they don’t have the skills required to analyze and understand the vast amount of data available to them.

The survey concluded that the inability to apply data insights is holding back nearly half of marketers from identifying strategies that can impact the bottom line.

How do we resolve the digital disconnect?

“In order to be successful in the jobs market, candidates must up-skill,” says Sampson. “Organizational leaders can also play a part by investing in training and resources that will enable marketers to be savvier when it comes to extracting actionable insights from data. Marketing is now a fundamental driver of IT purchasing, and that trend shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.”

Information technology research and advisory company Gartner have predicted that by 2017 CMOs will spend more on IT than their CIO counterparts. CMOs will need to be accountable and justify how their tech spending impacts revenue.

“This means that marketing professionals need to be able to better analyse customer data sets, not only to advance understanding of the customer but to calculate true ROI of marketing activities,” says Sampson.

“CMOs and CIOs must adapt to this new environment and start forging true, strategic partnerships, so both marketing and IT can begin sharing ownership of both goals and outcomes. And management must recognize that technology and marketing are now inextricably tied, and that future success depends on the creation of a totally new kind of cross-functional organization.”

© Japan Today