A new report from the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) has shown that those in the retail and food and beverage industries have the lowest levels of competency when it comes to digital skills.
The DMI assessed 380 people in Ireland with its free online diagnostic tool www.TestYourDigital.com to show how Irish professionals measure up when it comes to their digital skills for business.
The report asked 54 questions across the core digital marketing disciplines of strategy and planning, mobile, search, display, email and social media marketing. Overall, 83% of the participants with a marketing remit failed to achieve entry-level competency, as well as scoring 34% lower than international colleagues.
In the retail sector alone, online revenues are growing at over 20 times the rate of traditional high street retail business; but the study found that digital skills are not keeping pace. The DMI study reveals that marketing professionals in the retail sector scored only 36% in the digital skills assessment, lower than agriculture (38%) and public sector (37%).
Co-founder and director of the DMI, Ian Dodson said that with a predicted 150,000 digital jobs and an internet economy worth €21.1 billion by 2020, the implications for the Irish economy are significant.
He said, “The digital economy has taken centre stage in Ireland’s economic recovery with the industry creating hundreds of jobs every month. If we can’t provide suitably skilled professionals to fill these positions, Ireland could stand to lose its advantage as a European digital hub and as European headquarters for many of the major digital companies. The threat is even more acute as the talent pool grows in emerging economies.”
Don O’Leary, Twitter’s Director of Sales for the UK and Ireland said: "Digital marketing has revolutionised the way business connects with their target market. If Irish business leaders don't embrace and invest in this change, they will lose out to International competitors who are turning this opportunity into a distinct competitive advantage."
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
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