ROCKVILLE, Md. – October 6, 2020 – Seventy percent of digital marketing teams report that their work volumes have risen due to shifts in marketing priorities since the onset of COVID-19, according to a new survey from Cella, a nationwide staffing, consulting and managed solutions firm. The survey, 2020 Digital Marketing Operations Benchmarking Insights, found that more than half of creative teams are refocusing their efforts on social media and content marketing, and that staffing still remains a challenge. Forty seven percent stated that they lack enough staff to keep up with increasing work demands.
Cella surveyed more than 100 leaders of digital marketing teams and in-house agencies from July 28 – August 7, 2020. These leaders represent Fortune 500 companies, as well as middle-market and not-for- profit organizations spanning multiple industries. A majority (60%) of respondents planned to keep their teams the same size or larger for the remainder of 2020, and nearly half (45%) plan to maintain or increase their contingent staffing and consulting spend in 2021.
“Digital marketing’s share of total marketing budgets has been skyrocketing over the past few years, but the pandemic has had a major impact on both its trajectory and workload. During this time of mass layoffs and economic uncertainty, digital teams are demonstrating their importance to the organizations they represent,” said Jackie Schaffer, Executive Vice President, Consulting and Managed Services, Cella. “However, great digital resources are at a premium, and strategies must constantly be revised to drive engagement and conversions. Teams need to be flexible and agile, as well and creative, and continue to strengthen their processes during this unprecedented time.”
Additional findings from the survey include:
- The top challenges facing digital marketing leaders of in-house agencies are adequate funding for staff and technology, and career pathing and development
- Half of teams lack a dedicated project manager for digital and interactive work
- The vast majority (90%) of teams say that working remotely has led to equal or greater productivity, and 93% said the quality of their work has remained on par or improved
“Creative and Marketing teams have shown that quality and productivity are a non-issue when working from home,” added Schaffer. “When we come out of this crisis, companies will continue to look at nontraditional talent solutions such as remote workers which opens the door to a much broader, national pool of quality digital talent.”
The Digital Marketing Insights infographic is available for download here, along with additional resources like Cella’s 2020 COVID-19 Impact Report.
About Cella
Cella is an award-winning leader in consulting, staffing and managed solutions for creative, marketing, digital and proposal development teams. We help people build meaningful careers and partner with companies to help them win. Our secret sauce? The Cella Trifecta: we have the right people, we understand our clients and we deliver results. Success requires a partner who offers all three. Together, we put passion to work. Cella is the only creative staffing firm to win the Best of Staffing® Client and Talent Awards 10 years running and is a Certified Women’s Business Enterprise. For more information, please visit cellainc.com or contact [email protected].
