Addressing the digital skills deficit Part 3: Training & Retention Planning

Capability Chasm is a term which defines the gap between the ambition and ability of marketing departments with their skills, strategy, and organisational design approach to marketing technology.

Check out our infographic on the 5 steps to address the skills deficit in marketing technology here for more information.

With the world of martech continually developing, Marketers must look at identifying and developing their teams’ capabilities. 70% of marketers are identifying that technical knowledge and skills is their biggest challenge in executing multi-channel campaigns, meaning there is a clear and immediate need for organisations to focus on upskilling/training to provide teams with the knowledge to address this gap in martech talent.

Hiring externally can often be extremely difficult, and it also brings the added economic challenge of increased costs. Investment into skill development is a far more future proof and economical way of bridging the gap for martech talent. By training individuals to become specialists and certified within their chosen Martech platform, individuals can be equipped with the skills required to drive efficiencies within their organisation, but it is also a contributing factor to increased job satisfaction and development opportunities.

Training within an organisation can take multiple forms, each with their own pros and cons, but all contributing to increasing knowledge and slowly reducing that gap in martech talent within an organisation.

Internal Training

Specialist led training: Individuals within the business sharing knowledge and delivering training to other marketers in their team.
Cross Team Learning: This involves marketing specialists and teams learning from other regions within their business.

External Training

Online Resources: For example, the martech vendor’s online learning portal.
External 3rd Party: Martech agencies or consultancies provide bespoke training solutions based on your individual requirements, in your martech platform.

The benefits of external Martech Training

The benefit of external training is that knowledge is extended beyond what is currently known in the organisation and brings inspiration and best practice examples from your wider industry. Online resources are also good at providing a broad overview of your platform and use cases but can take time to digest and translate that learning into something bespoke to your business needs. External 3rd party training is often bespoke to your organisation and requirements, and rapidly increases your time to value beyond any other form of training.

Consultancies offer training, both in person and online, with the aim of building out your organisation’s martech capability. The skill deficit and an increased focus on Marketing Automation is creating a demand for certified practitioners, and organisations are looking for scalable training options such as training videos to ensure they are future proofing their capabilities. This enables them to train people faster and at scale.

Clevertouch Training

Clevertouch has developed a comprehensive training initiative, Level Up, to ensure that marketers have sufficient marketing technology knowledge relevant to them and their role. Training is important to not only provide the theoretical platform knowledge, but also to provide real practical experience as to how this can be used in someone’s role to drive optimisation and improvements with how things are currently managed today.

Training sessions focus on topics relevant to the modern marketer and upon completion, the goal is for each participant to increase their skillset, comfort level and ability to execute great marketing. Clevertouch also provide bespoke training programs to support marketers in becoming certified platform specialists.

Addressing the ‘Capability Chasm’ for martech talent is difficult, but by utilising the teams you have in place and developing on their skills, this can prove to be hugely beneficial from both an individual’s perspective, but also in enabling you with the best chance to achieve your business objectives.

If you would like to find out more about Clevertouch’s training programs, you can take a look here.

Check out our infographic on the 5 steps to address the skills deficit in marketing technology here for more information.