I\u2019m biased but the teams I recruited and developed (both as employed \u2018Head Of\u2019 and for agency clients in my consultancy role) have been excellent people, across all disciplines. But oh-my-goodness .. they took some recruiting on occasion!<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t think of a time where they were enough digitally skilled people in the market. And that dearth of skilled practitioners is only increasing, as we look to bring in those conversant in machine learning, AI, analytics and ever-evolving media channels and tech tools into agencies. And recruiting digitally-savvy client-facing or planning \/ strategic team members can also be a challenge.<\/p>\n
\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n Digital Marketing Centre of Excellence best practices<\/strong><\/p>\n A DCoE or Marketing Centre of Excellence is often a key part of digital transformation projects since it encourages adoption of best practice in deploying relevant digital media, experiences, insight and technology across an organization. This guide will inform how to launch, manage and improve a digital CoE and you to make the most of it across your business.<\/p>\n Access the Digital Marketing Centre of Excellence best practices<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n I\u2019m talking from a UK perspective here but we do have a digital gap. If you look at a range of news stories over the past few years, the words \u2018digital skills\u2019 and \u2018shortage\u2019 often sit together. Some of that is within the wider context of digital literacy in society<\/a> of course and it isn\u2019t just the UK, it is across many global markets<\/a>.<\/p>\n How we nurture digital skills (from an early age and with true inclusiveness) was the subject of the recent Manchester Digital skills conference that I attended. It focused on the North West England digital sector but the themes are relevant and applicable to all; so here is a link to the report summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many sobering stats were coming from the guide but in the context of agency services (and the clients they serve) it was alarming to hear that 27% of those surveyed had had to turn away work as a result of not being able to find the right talent.<\/p>\n Back to the guide, and with an optimists\u2019 hat on, the digital skills gap is a threat but also an opportunity for your agency. A threat if you don\u2019t address it of course - but an opportunity if you put together a skills development plan for the agency and get ahead of your competition.<\/p>\n That\u2019s where the guide will hopefully support you.<\/p>\n Section one<\/strong> gets you to think about this subject and on assessing your agency in terms of its digital skills abilities. it addresses the digital skills gap in marketing agencies, the types of digital skills required, and finally how you can assess your agency\u2019s overall \u2018digital readiness\u2019 and the skills needed to grow it.<\/p>\n Section two<\/strong> addresses building the right type of skills for your<\/em> agency using a range of \u2018tools\u2019 that include: job descriptions, planned talent, team development plans, developing a culture of curiosity, sources of training and (back to an earlier point) your role in developing the talent of tomorrow.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll look here at one specific area in the guide related to team development \u2013 engendering a \u2018culture of curiosity\u2019 in the agency. I\u2019m focusing in on that because it\u2019s a topic that comes up a fair bit when I\u2019m in with agencies; \u2018how do we keep the team up with what\u2019s new in digital? And in any engaging way?\u2019.<\/p>\n There is more detail on what a culture of curiosity can mean covered in another of our guides - keeping your team up to date with digital marketing<\/a>. \u2013 you\u2019ll see that there is much you can do to keep yourself and your colleagues up \u2018on all things digital\u2019.<\/p>\n The aim is to build learning (about all areas of digital) into the fabric of the agency. You will achieve that by having a systematic approach to gathering information about digital developments, regularly. Everyone in the business should be involved.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair to say that being curious is partly innate in all digital marketers (and in agency folk in general)) but you can encourage that further by consistently following a learning framework.<\/p>\n The framework is one I talk to clients about and it alliterates nicely. That\u2019s deliberate \u2013 lots of agencies have learning sessions that alliterate (for example \u2018Brown Bag\u2019, \u2018Learning Lunch\u2019, \u2018Wednesday Wisdom\u2019) which are meant to be memorable and encoded into agency life.<\/p>\n In this case, there are three parts to the framework:<\/p>\n This is where everyone gathers digital innovation (or best practice) news from a variety of sources. Exactly which sources (\u2018knowledge channels\u2019) you curate will depend on the focus of your agency. The thirteen we discuss in detail in our Keeping Digital Teams Up-To-Date guide<\/a> are Feedly, Zest, Podcasts, YouTube channels, Twitter Lists, Twitter searches,\u00a0certified Training, Events and Seminars \/ Conferences, Specialist Partner workshops and presentations, having an innovation space in the agency, blogging within the agency, books, and awards sites for innovative digital work.<\/p>\n Having an inquisitive and challenging mindset is a great soft skill (these are also disused in the digital skills guide). By encouraging debate within the agency and not taking every digital update from vendors or start-ups at face value, you start to build confidence in the team. Those with more digital experience will know that not every new technique or technology you see will be right for you or your clients.<\/p>\n The idea of debating news stories and innovations in an open forum is that the team \u2018test drive\u2019 the potential value of new techniques or technologies. You can then move the most promising into your digital lab\/innovation space if you have that. And look to allocate \u2018the new\u2019 into (say) 10% of your work for clients. Read more about the\u00a070\/20\/10 rule in digital marketing<\/a>\u00a0in this article by Dave Chaffey.<\/p>\n The information gathering and then the debate that follows builds agency insight that helps you help your clients. For example, some agencies have ideas walls where they keep a note of emerging digital tech that could help them with their proactive\u00a0client account growth plans<\/a>. Or they pull in some new ideas outside of the stated scope of work in a new business\/request for proposal \u2013 adding value to the client right from the start.<\/p>\n The objective of this approach is not just to generate new business\/client growth ideas but to widen the \u2018digital mindset\u2019 of the agency. It doesn\u2019t mean that account handlers become coders \u2013 although that could be a learning strand<\/a>.<\/p>\nIt covers two areas:<\/h4>\n
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<\/a><\/p><\/span><\/p>\n1. Curate<\/h4>\n
2. Debate<\/h4>\n
3. Extrapolate<\/h4>\n