Organizations that aren’t continuously innovating ways to properly leverage developments in the digital space are falling behind, quickly. As digital marketing headhunters, we see 80% of companies today have not updated their marketing org chart to take advantage of the latest opportunities in digital.
Marketing is responsible for driving long-term business growth, which is complicated by the pace of change. Now more than ever is it critical to have top talent in the right roles, which leads to two challenges, how do we measure top digital talent and do we have a modern marketing org chart?
Ultimately, marketing leadership now more than ever requires you to be a lifelong learner and adept at change management. Is your marketing team equipped with the right people in the right roles to propel your business forward in today’s digital world?
Digital Marketing Headhunters Uncover the Core of the Issue
In today’s rapidly evolving marketing environment, it’s critical to stay modern with your resources, strategies, and organizational structure. However, many organizations still fail to realize that what made a good marketing executive three years or even one year ago doesn’t necessarily guarantee a comparably effective leader and marketer today.
Digital marketing today demands a lot, meaning there’s a significant gap in the supply and demand for innovative marketing talent.
Far too often, organizations recognize the need to invest in digital but don’t have the talent in-house necessary to get them there, and might not even have the right positions identified. On the other hand, many know exactly who they need to lead their organization toward digital innovation, but are only willing to pay them just as much as their more traditional marketing counterparts to maintain internal equity. Supply versus demand, plus the value top digital talent offers dictates they will receive more.
When it comes to truly staying ahead of your competition, is it more important to have internal equity or serve your customers and grow your business?
Ten years ago, the iPhone changed the world. Seven years ago, Starbucks rolled out an app that changed customer loyalty. Why is it today so few companies have had success engaging their consumers in this way? Consumer expectations are evolving and becoming increasingly demanding as digital continues to take over. Yet the number of brands succeeding is dwindling. As executive marketing recruiters, we know the challenge is talent. How do we get top people in the right roles? If your business hasn’t integrated innovative technologies to exceed consumer expectations, you’re certainly getting left behind.
As digital marketing headhunters, we get the call when the search is difficult. We have extensive experience in accessing the best marketers and engaging them in meaningful career discussions. Which gives us a great understanding of the talent market.
So if you want top talent in digital, e-commerce, innovation, and marketing technology, you are going to pay a premium over traditional marketing, advertising and communications talent. For instance, a VP of Marketing Technology is going to cost more than your VP of Advertising or VP of Public Relations. Simply put, top digital talent is in high demand, and consequently costs more.
Whatever the title is – whether it be VP of Marketing Technology, VP of Digital Innovation, etc. – your organization must identify a digital marketer who completely owns martech and the customer journey to stay ahead.
Propel Your Marketing Forward the Right Way
Are you willing to settle for less than what you truly need to fit your budget or are you willing to extend your budget to hire top talent? If you want cutting-edge, leading talent within the world of digital marketing, you must be willing to pay for it. Good news is in digital, you can measure your ROI and will know if this person is adding to the bottom line or not.
Organizations must bring on executives who can drive change, communicate with C-level executives, and recruit digital marketing talent to fit within the scope of long-term objectives. When bringing an executive onboard, you must evaluate how they fit in with your company and objectives long-term; one, five and even ten years down the road.
Selecting a new marketing executive sets the stage for success for your entire company but it’s a difficult and resource-intensive yet mission critical process. And no one understands this better than a marketing executive search firm.
Everyone understands digital marketing has changed the way we market and that it’s providing ROI in ways other forms of marketing hasn’t. Understanding and changing are two different things. Many organizations are still doing what’s comfortable while their competition innovates.
In such an environment, the risk of bringing in the wrong marketing executive or leader is high, especially if you don’t have regular experience finding and communicating with top marketing talent.
Conclusion
Recruiting and retaining top marketing and digital talent, especially for executive-level roles, is imperative to your bottom line and long-term competitive advantage. Without modern marketing leadership, your marketing will hinder the growth of your organization.
When choosing people to lead your marketing toward innovation and growth, the outcome of a wrong choice is costly: mediocre output on your critical marketing efforts plus the cost of finding another properly qualified fit. C-level leaders should take initiative in leveraging proper guidance from a top digital marketing executive search firm to find A-level talent to lead in innovation and sustainable growth.
The pace of change in marketing is only going to accelerate. Differences between a great marketing executive and a lower tier leader will manifest exponentially over time. The longer your marketing program runs under the direction of the wrong person, the farther behind it will fall (and the harder it will be to catch up).