Is the role of a digital marketing manager becoming too complex?

The digital marketing manager role has become more complicated than ever recently, particularly in light of operating in often under-resourced departments that too often work in silos, according to a new industry census.

A nationwide study of more than 200 UK digital marketing managers released today by Marin Software revealed that nearly three quarters (72%) believe their job has become more complicated in the last year as they grapple with fragmenting media channels and an avalanche of new data.

Over two-thirds of managers quizzed (67%) say online needs to be better integrated with offline marketing, 66% say more needs to be done to integrate different digital marketing disciplines – such as paid search, social, SEO and display offline marketing – with each other.

The study suggests that whilst silos clearly exist within Marketing, strong relationships are beginning to be built across other departments. Over half (54%) say they are already working closely with their IT department, and one in five (19%) are planning to do so in future. Yet 26% also said they planned to hire more people with data analysis skills.

Jon Myers, VP & MD EMEA of Marin Software said: “As media has fragmented, so have marketing teams. Too often, we’re seeing collections of specialists working independently. This has to change.

“We know that marketers get the best results from their campaigns when they work in a joined up way and focus on the customer rather than just the click.

“That means following customer behaviour across multiple channels and joining these up to form a complete picture on which to build integrated campaigns.”