Marketing professionals lack digital skills

Many marketing professionals feel they lack the skill to begin offering digital marketing as a service, new research has revealed.

According to a survey by consultancy Citigate Dewe Rogerson, 40.4 per cent believe they lack the in-house skills to introduce digital marketing strategies.

Money is a significant barrier too, with nearly half (48.6 per cent) claiming they lack the available budget.

Yet while around four in ten (42.2 per cent) want to increase their digital marketing spending in 2009, nearly one third (31.2 per cent) still claim not to understand the benefits.

Phil Szomszor, head of digital marketing at Citigate Dewe Rogerson, urges companies to look beyond just search engine optimisation and newsletters.

He explained that companies should also consider “buzz monitoring, blogger relations and, where appropriate, social network engagement and producing company blogs”.

Mr Szomszor also added that “companies can learn a great deal from those brands that are already blazing a trail with online PR”.