Do technology marketers earn more?
Technology Marketing Recruitment & Salary Survey
To further deepen our knowledge and understanding of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector in which we specialise, Wilson Miller Resourcing conducts a quarterly Technology Marketing Recruitment & Salary Survey.
We gather information from our corporate clients who rely on us to satisfy their marketing recruitment needs, as well as the professional marketing staff whom we supply to them.
Here are the five key findings from our latest survey, backed up by our own experience and views on each:
FINDING
An increasing trend for organisations requiring dedicated Partner / Channel marketers
OUR VIEW
Wilson Miller Resourcing has noticed a 200% increase in the volume of dedicated partner or channel vacancies over the past year, so it’s clear that partnership marketing is now integral to the industry’s communications approach.
But why is this happening? One possibility is that it’s due to the increasing maturity and complexity of the ICT market. This has encouraged firms to employ a greater number of channel specialists, rather than stretch the resources of Marketing Managers with more generalist skills - the people who previously tended to handle channel issues.
Now, with the channel taking more time and effort to penetrate than previously, companies know that they must employ someone with the relevant experience and contacts if they’re to achieve competitive advantage and greater market share.
However, despite this growing awareness and the increased investment in specialised personnel, Wilson Miller Resourcing has also noticed less favourable aspects to this trend - which could lead to policy reverses.
Firstly, informal conversations with marketers (including channel specialists) across the industry reveal that many firms aren’t backing up their investment in staffing levels with a correspondingly significant increase in dedicated channel marketing budget.
Secondly, even when reasonable budgets are dedicated to the task, some companies clearly aren’t using experienced professionals to help them market to the channel - and their communications are suffering as a result.
FINDING
A slow down in recruitment for roles marketing to SME segment
OUR VIEW
In 2004-05, ICT businesses of all kinds rushed in to serve the Small/Medium Enterprise (SME) sector. Even vendors more usually associated with the global corporate market tried to exploit the commercial opportunities associated with SMEs across Europe.
Naturally, this shift initially led to an increase in the volume of SME marketing roles. For example, Wilson Miller Resourcing saw a burst of activity in the first half of 2006, but then only 75% of this figure in the second half.
We believe this significant slow down could be attributed to a number of factors:
· Companies are still keen to address the SME opportunity, but they are happy with the work being done by the incumbent job-holders
· ICT firms see SME as ‘just another market segment’ - one that doesn’t need specialist skills, so they are re-purposing existing roles
· Organisations have exhausted the opportunity and don’t now need to recruit
It will be interesting to see whether the SME marketing roles arising this year are for replacements rather than for new roles, or whether the third scenario we suggest actually leads to job losses.
FINDING
Candidates have secured Marketing Manager roles at ‘higher than average’ industry rates.
OUR VIEW
In the second half of 2006, we found that the average salary for ICT Marketing Managers was £6k greater than the ‘all sectors’ average quoted in "Marketing Week".
Clearly, companies are finding it harder to secure good ICT marketers – and we’ve also noticed there are now noticeably closer timescales between the interview and offer stages.
The scarcity of employable candidates has certainly turned this job market into one that’s driven by employees rather than employers. In fact, we’re noticing that the best candidates are getting three or four job offers before they commit to one - all of which explain why salaries are rising.
In addition, more and more candidates are in permanent positions when they apply for jobs, so the need for hiring companies to ‘better the offer’ is greater.
FINDING
A continued appetite for contract positions, despite market upturn.
OUR VIEW
We witnessed similar volumes of contractor positions and placements between the first and second halves of 2006, with a slight increase in average contract lengths. Given that the salaries for permanent roles are rising, it’s maybe a little surprising that the number of contract positions has remained stable.
However, many individuals still prefer the relative flexibility of working on time-limited contract positions - especially now that the ‘safety net’ is stronger thanks to the general trend for contracts to last longer.
But of course, organisations - as much as individuals - benefit from these employment arrangements too. Companies can also enjoy the flexibility of contracting because it allows them to react to market conditions (either cutting back or increasing resources) relatively quickly and easily.
This aspect of the trend reinforces another noticeable shift that we witnessed among companies in the second half of 2006, as they moved towards this attitude: "It’s a contract position at the moment, but we may decide to recruit permanently if the right person comes along."
This shows that companies don’t want to lose the quality they enjoy through employing good contractors, and also see that this creates an opportunity for persuading people to go permanent.
FINDING
An upturn in intelligence and research roles.
OUR VIEW
Wilson Miller Resourcing saw a 20% increase in permanent and contract positions in these roles during the last quarter of 2006. For the moment then, we can only classify this as an emerging trend (or possibly even a 'seasonal blip’) although it’s clearly a situation we’ll be keeping a close eye on in 2007.
However it’s categorised, we do think that it may be driven by the need for ICT organisations to exploit business opportunities indirectly as well as directly and from existing customers. It may also be indicative of a renewed belief in the principles of CRM, if not totally in the technology. In other words, companies recognise that understanding more about their customers’ purchasing habits can help them maximise the value of their marketing efforts. This has led them to invest in market intelligence research, rather than software, because the CRM tools they invested in before didn’t provide the added value they’d promised.
Lastly, it may also reflect the industry trend towards technology and industry convergence - and the need for those fewer (and bigger) players to differentiate themselves from the competition through market intelligence and any subsequent customer-focussed activities.
