#PandaPounds: Digital Marketing Highlights

Jul 19, 2016 1:23:37 PM

2016 has been a busy year…can you believe we’re already past the half way mark? We’re confused too. It really does fly when you’re part of the wonderful world of ecommerce, especially if you’re in digital marketing...

There are plenty of insights from our 2016 ecommerce salary survey but, for today, the spotlight is firmly on our marketing superstars. Here’s what we can take from our marketing respondents…

(Note: Those who work in a more specialised Digital Marketing role, be it Email Marketing or PPC, will not be forgotten! These highlights will focus on those within a general Digital Marketing role. When we refer to Marketing respondents/Marketing field in this post, we acknowledge that PPC Executives, SEO Specialists or Email Marketing Manager’s do fall under this category. However for the purpose of this post, it refers to our respondents in a general Digital Marketing role.)

Digital Marketing Salary Insights

Based on the information from over 550 salary survey respondents, the average ecommerce salary increased…yippee! Looking solely at our respondents from the marketing field, did they see their fortunes rise?

  • 60% of our respondents in the Marketing field saw their salaries increase in the last year, which is great news!
  • 35% of our respondents saw no change in their salary this year. However, the majority of these respondents say it is due at a later date which is promising. Another reason for seeing no change is that there is currently no budget for it, which suggests it’s not necessarily because of the employee performance but that other priorities take place so that they can reap the rewards later.
  • The remaining 5% of our marketing heroes saw their salaries decrease, yet the reasons for this might not be what you suspect. Budget comes into play once more, with this being cited as a reason for the salary decrease. A change in hours was another reason, where one respondent willingly took a decrease as they requested to work less hours going forward.

So that sums up the current situation of our marketing respondents, but what do they see happening at the end of the year and moving into 2017?

  • 60% believe their salaries will increase within the next year; the same number as those who saw an increase in the past year already!
  • 19% believe their salaries will stay the same.
  • Finally, 21% are not sure of what will happen in terms of salary. This isn’t to say they won’t see more panda pounds coming their way, but perhaps it is something they could bring up for discussion if it’s important to them. 

Vital skills in a Digital Marketing role

Our respondents who work in broad Digital marketing roles within Ecommerce are extremely varied, from Director of Marketing to Marketing Assistants and online to offline functions. Despite the many levels of seniority represented by the Marketing community in our survey, will there be any trends in the top required skills in their roles?

An Analytical Mind – That’s right, 25% of our marketing respondents specify that Analytics in some capacity is vital to their role.

Communication is key…or is it? Only 10% of our respondents say people skills, communication and patience is absolutely necessary to their role. However, this is not to say they are not important skills to have; softer skills such as good communication are necessary to most (if not all) roles, though are obviously not considered technical skills.

Channel specific skills – We are going to focus on channel specific roles, such as PPC and Email Marketing, separately but these skills are still vital for the broad Digital Marketer it seems. 24% deem PPC, SEO, Email, Social Media and even HTML/CSS as one of the top three important skills in their role.

Essential/Important aspects of a role for digital marketing professionals

It’s very important to know what you want to take from a role, be it personally or professionally. What are the most essential aspects in a role for marketing professionals?

Salary – 98% of our marketers within Ecommerce see salary as important or essential, with the remaining 2% staying neutral on the subject of salary. This means nobody saw it an unimportant aspect of looking for a new role.

The Brand – Is having a strong affinity with a brand important when choosing a new role? Surprisingly, 9% of our marketing respondents were either neutral or did not find it important. When the brand plays a big part in marketing campaigns, surely this should be something the marketer is passionate about? 81% agree, as they see the brand as important or essential to choosing a new role.

Feeling valued and respected – When looking at ALL of our respondents, this came top of the essentials in a role. It is not surprising therefore to see all of our Marketing superstars listed it as important or essential.

Career progression – 96% believe progression opportunities to be important or essential to them when considering new opportunities.

So there you have it…

It’s great to delve a little deeper into our respondents’ insights and get a real idea of what people think about salary, skills and work-life essentials. Enjoy more insights - take a look at our other #PandaPounds features

What do you think?

Share your thoughts on this post - whether you agree, disagree or have your own insight to share, we want to hear from you!

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