Digital skills let your team use digital tools, automate tasks and plan the digital change of a workflow. Map the skills that each team needs, check the current level with a short training needs analysis (TNA), then train for the gaps.
Learn this skill in the course Digital Marketing (MC-DM).
Signs of a digital skills gap
- The company pays for tools that few people use well.
- Nobody can say which tasks can be automated.
- Marketing cannot show the result of each ringgit spent.
- Projects run late because changes and approvals are not controlled.
Five core digital skills
- Use digital tools.
- Use automation tools.
- Plan the digital change of a workflow, process or task.
- Decide which digital tools a task needs.
- Decide what can be automated.
To find what can change, break the current process into its inputs, tools, techniques and outputs (ITTO). Then select the parts to digitise (turn into data) and the parts to digitalise (put into an automated workflow).
The skills map for sales and marketing
- Strategy: market research, strategy and digital marketing analytics. This sets the direction for all later spend.
- Brand and funnel: brand drivers, product management and the customer journey. This is where buyers make small decisions.
- Content: content for people, search engines and platforms. This decides if your message is relevant.
- Promotion: search marketing, search ads, omnichannel campaigns, influencers and social media.
- Sales: SEO for prospecting, CRM tools, selling skills and account management.
Inside digital marketing, three areas need separate skills:
- Omnichannel marketing: place messages online and offline, and measure both. It includes digital retail and online to offline (O2O), promotions, online marketplaces, email, chatbots, analytics and conversion rate optimisation.
- Search engine marketing: how search engines match buyers to sellers. It includes keywords and intent, backlinks and citations, content, and the auctions behind search and display ads. Use only methods that search engines accept (“white hat”).
- Network marketing: word of mouth, reviews, influencers, communities and look-alike audiences on social media platforms.
Include project skills
A business collects payment when it delivers. In project work, scope creep, weak change control and slow customer approvals delay payment and increase cost. Teams need digital tools to control scope, changes and approvals. Faster acceptance improves cash flow.
Check the current level with a TNA
A training needs analysis asks each person how well they do each skill today. Use a short questionnaire, with a scale from 1 to 4 for each skill on the map. Compare the answers with the level that each role needs. Train for the largest gaps first.
What to do this week
- Copy the skills map into a spreadsheet, one row for each skill.
- Ask each team member to score each skill from 1 to 4.
- Mark the three largest gaps, and plan training for them.
