Insights from the Salary Survey 2024: Exploring Skills Gaps, Restructures, and Outsourcing Trends

Data remains marketing’s biggest skills gap

For the third consecutive year, the top skill gap within marketing departments has been identified as a lack of data and analytics skills.

According to exclusive data from the 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey, over a third (36.9%) of the more than 3,000 marketers surveyed stated that data and analytics is the most significant skills gap within their team. This percentage has increased from 34.4% in 2023.

In addition, 19.6% of respondents have identified performance marketing as a significant skills gap in their team, which has increased from 18.7% from the previous year.

Furthermore, 18.1% of participants have mentioned a gap in content and copywriting skills within the marketing sector. This shows a slight improvement compared to the 21.4% of marketers who reported the same skills gap in 2023.

According to the 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey, 14.8% of respondents feel that a lack of social media skills is a problem within their team. This percentage has decreased from 20% compared to last year. On the other hand, only 12.1% of the marketers surveyed consider a shortage of ecommerce skills in their department as a major concern. This shows an improvement from the 15.9% who noted this skills gap last year.

Restructures ramp up

Nearly half of marketers (46.5%) have been part of a team that underwent restructuring in the past year due to ongoing disruptions in the business landscape.

Compared to the previous year, this marks a five percentage point increase from 41.1% of marketers who experienced restructures in 2023. However, the current figure is lower than the 56.5% of teams that underwent restructuring in 2022 following the impact of the pandemic.

In 2024, fewer marketers (28.5%) experienced team mergers compared to the previous year (34.5%). Team mergers were more common in larger companies (35.4% of those with 250+ employees) than in SMEs (21%).

This year, 12.1% of teams had specialisms removed, up from 8.9% in 2023. Additionally, fewer teams had new specialisms added - 15.5% compared to last year's 19.8%.

Source: 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey

Happiness dips among marketers

Budget pressures, restructures and skills gaps are just a few of the factors contributing to falling levels of happiness among marketers.

Just over half of the 2024 marketers surveyed, which is 55.6%, express that they are either quite happy or very happy in their role. In comparison, 61.5% of the 2023 sample reported being happy in their role.

On the other hand, more than a fifth (22.2%) of the 2024 respondents are either not very happy or quite unhappy, while another 22.2% report feeling indifferent to their job.

Senior marketers, particularly CMOs and marketing directors, seem to be the happiest in their roles, even with the stress of leadership. According to the data, 58.9% of them report feeling happy. This is followed by executives and those below (55.7%) and managers (54%).

When looking at different age groups, Gen Z marketers appear to be the happiest, with 62.7% reporting happiness. Gen X follows at 55.5%, with Gen Y slightly behind at 54.4%.

Source: 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey

Brands opt for outsourcing

Amid growing workloads, stagnant recruitment and an expanding list of responsibilities, marketers are looking outside for inspiration.

Almost half (46.2%) of Career & Salary Survey respondents have opted to outsource a part of their marketing to an agency, specialist, or consultancy in the last year.

For over a quarter of marketers (28.7%), outsourcing has become essential because of smaller team sizes. Other reasons include a lack of in-house skills (48.7%), the belief that a full-time employee is unnecessary (28.9%), and cost-saving efforts (14.4%).

In 2024, 24.5% of marketers have turned to consultancies or freelancers to fill gaps in their team. B2B brands are more likely to seek external expertise, with 53% outsourcing some marketing tasks, compared to 40.6% of B2C organizations.

The top skill being outsourced by businesses is digital marketing, with 28.2% of marketers seeking help in this area. Following closely behind are content (16.6%), public relations (13.5%), and market research (10.3%). Only 9.5% of marketing teams have outsourced social media responsibilities.

Source: 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey

More responsibility as pay squeezed

Amid a persistent cost of living crisis, with teams being stretched and restructured, marketers are also dealing with the reality of doing more for less.

According to the Career & Salary Survey data, 40.1% of respondents have been asked to take on more responsibility without a corresponding increase in pay.

More than two-fifths (42.6%) of senior marketing leaders have experienced a higher workload without a proper salary increase. Additionally, 40.7% of marketers in management positions feel that their pay is not keeping up with their growing responsibilities, a sentiment echoed by 38.4% of junior marketers.

In larger organisations, 41.5% of marketers have seen their responsibilities increase without a corresponding increase in salary. This trend is also observed among 38.7% of marketers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

(Source: 2024 Our Website Career & Salary Survey)

Editor's P/S:

The article highlights the ongoing challenges faced by marketing departments, with data and analytics skills remaining the most significant gap for the third consecutive year. This shortage, coupled with the increasing workload and stagnant recruitment, is leading marketers to seek external expertise through outsourcing.

Moreover, the article reveals that marketers are dealing with the reality of doing more for less, with 40.1% reporting increased responsibilities without corresponding salary increases. This, combined with budget pressures and restructures, is contributing to declining levels of happiness among marketers..