Dive Brief:

• McKinley Marketing Partners released its annual Marketing Hiring Trends report for 2017, which found that digital marketers will make up more than half of hires this year and that the demand for marketing talent exceeds supply in key areas, per a company press release.
• Other results include that digital advertising and content rank as the highest digital marketing needs, and mid-level marketers will be the most coveted talent in 2017.
• "While the advent of new tools makes it easier to quantify results the basic tenets of marketing still stand: prove value to stakeholders and differentiate from the competition," said Michelle J. Boggs, president and CEO of McKinley Marketing Partners, in the press release.

Dive Insight:

Marketing hiring continues to grow, but hiring is inconsistent across marketing functions, with a growing talent gap that will leave marketers hunting for top-level capabilities. A thorough understanding of hiring needs as well as the factors that motivate candidates will shape hiring in 2017. To that end, for the first time, the study included marketers without direct influence on hiring in order to understand issues and trends important to marketers’ careers.

The report underscores the ongoing challenge companies face as the need for digital proficiency in marketing, as well as across the organization, grows yet finding qualified individuals is a struggle. Digital marketing requires at least some experience across a unique set of skills that encompass data and technology as well as creative and strategy.

Perhaps one of the best indications of the difficulties in marketing hiring right now is the plight of the chief marketing officer. A recent Forrester report suggested that 30% of CMOs would be fired this year while other research has suggested CMOs are increasingly the primary point person accountable for revenue growth and that the average tenure of a CMO continues to decline.