• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, January 28, 2015

The combination of technical and creative expertise has become necessary to work in digital marketing departments, but how will that change the future of digital marketing? Mondo, a digital marketing and tech talent agency, surveyed about 200 marketing executives to ask that question in its Future of Digital Marketing report.

Laura McGarrity, vice president of digital marketing strategy at Mondo, said 72% of survey respondents believe the traditional marketing model no longer works efficiently. And within the next three to five years, the future of the digital marketing workforce mix will be 1:1 freelance to permanent staffing.

Hiring trends will shift, with a handful of technical skills in demand for marketing department new hires in the next 12 to 18 months. Some 54% of marketers participating in the study believe digital and social expertise will become the most important; followed by 44%, content creation; 33%, big data and analytics; 30%, mobile; 28%, search; 27%, operations; 24%, creative services; 22%, product and branding.

While 59% of respondents said email is the most valuable channel in driving customer engagement today, the number drops to 55% when considering strategies in the next three to five years. Marketers believe mobile and video will replace email. 

In the next three to five years, 28% of marketers participating in the study believe social remains the most important, followed by mobile at 24%, and video at 13%. Those numbers change considerably when looking three to five years down the road, with social at 49%, mobile at 70%, and video at 61%.