Digital skills are among the qualities most valued marketing professionals. Companies especially value this potential, and consider it a well rising to be cultivated within the organization.

71% of executives of large companies and agencies consider their digital marketing departments are very good in some areas, but could also improve in others. This is reflected in the study published by OMI, ClickZ and Kelly Personal.

On the other hand, 21% of the executives who participated in the survey highlights the shortcomings of its employees in the digital area, 15% think that fails on all digital aspects, while only 8% is fully convinced that its staff dominates all facets of digital marketing.

To reach these conclusions, the study involved the collaboration of 747 executives of large agencies and companies belonging to the Fortune 500.

An important contribution is the awareness of these organizations on the importance of digital marketing specialists. 22% say that the demand for these professionals is increasing, especially as regards analytical, where there is a gap of 37% being the current situation in companies and market demand; content marketing (27%), Social Media (27%), e-mailing (27%) and mobile marketing (29%). These are sectors where there is still a large gap with market needs, so the digital talent is on the rise:

• 76% of respondents believe that analytic is critical in any online marketing strategy.
• 73% say that marketing content remains relevant, accurate and professionals in this area.
• 68% highlights the importance of content marketing and the need to efficiently cover this aspect.
• 67% believe it is still necessary to provide the Social Media department with qualified professionals.
• 58% expressed the need for professionals who dominate the mobile sector.
• The area of search engine optimization also requires more active (56%), along with digital advertising (50%) and marketing automation (53%).

When to seek professional departments to strengthen digital marketing, 40% of businesses encounter serious difficulties. 75% of them agree say that the most useful way to recruit a candidate is through referrals from other professionals.

Recent graduates are not always the best option, since, believes 36% of respondents do not have the necessary experience to perform the duties commensurate with the post. That is, companies are launched to search marketing professional level of experts and highly qualified. In addition, 70% of companies and 72% of agencies indicated that these new professionals need to be aware of their limitations and work hard to improve.

Companies also invest in the area of improving its staff. 28% of companies and 39% of agencies plan to incorporate a skills training program for the area of digital marketing.

When it comes to recruiting new professionals, only 32% of respondents are satisfied with the assessment process digital talent of the candidates. 30% of companies, with 24% of agencies is considered unable to effectively identify the qualities of these professionals. Only 32% of them performs tests to measure the skills of these digital profiles.