62% of CMOs View Digital Marketing Skills as Critical to the Success of Their Team

As digital marketing continues to grow in prominence, a new survey reveals that CMOs are seeing the value of this tactic and how it impacts their marketing team’s success.

In fact, the “2016 CMO Summit Survey” conducted by Spencer Stuart recently discovered that 62 percent of CMOs believe digital marketing skills, including social media, are most critical to their team’s accomplishments.

Digital marketing surpassed other key skills like data analytics (49 percent), strategic thinking (48 percent) and brand marketing (28 percent) on the list.

Developing these skills is important to CMOs, as the majority (59 percent) said that their team members do not currently have the abilities to manage the increasing demands placed on them. Additionally, about 33 percent of CMOs claim that budget constraints are preventing them from building a stronger marketing team.

“Although the core responsibilities of managing the entire customer journey remain center stage, today’s CMOs must also build and motivate strong teams to help deliver truly differentiated customer experiences, while keeping pace with emerging consumer and digital trends,” wrote the survey researchers.

Looking toward the future, 71 percent of CMOs plan on moving from marketing to a broader general management role.

The Effectiveness of Digital Marketing

As companies continue to value and utilize digital marketing tactics, marketers expect to receive a return on their investment. A survey conducted by Ascend2 discovered that 89 percent of marketers anticipate a significant increase in the effectiveness of digital marketing tactics to achieve their goals.

At the moment, email (61 percent) is considered to be the most effective digital marketing method. Website (59 percent), SEO (50 percent) and social media (41 percent) are also proving useful for marketers.