SARATOGA COUNTY — The Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership (SCPP) is currently surveying business owners in the community to gauge the need of digital marketing skills in the capital region. With the growing number of Saratoga County-based businesses that rely on e-commerce, commercial transactions conducted electronically on the internet, there is also a growing need for unconventional marketing strategies and the skills to implement them.
“There’s not enough talent in our region in the digital marketing space, especially companies... that do so much of their business on the web. You can outsource some of it but you can only to a point and you really do need people in house to be able to tackle some of
this,” said Shelby Schneider, Vice President of the SCPP.
The survey asks questions like “How important is digital marketing to the success of your business?” and “Other thoughts on "Social Media Management you need help with in your business?”
“We want a real true sense of what the employer needs for a digital marketing strategist, if they need people full-time, part-time, in-house and just get a really true sense in how many jobs,” Schneider said.
Schneider said the partnership noticed a skills gap in the capital region; skills that are needed include content creation, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the ability to understand algorithm changes on Google, Facebook and other social media platforms, purchasing advertisements on the internet, identifying trends, and measuring conversion.
“If you probably search Glassdoor, Indeed or other sites you'll probably see opening for digital marketing strategists and look at how long those jobs have been out there," Schneider said.
After establishing what the specific needs are through the survey, the SCPP plans to develop and launch a workforce-training program. However, this is not the first time the SCPP has created a solution to an issue that is affecting the entire capital region.
The partnership helped launch AlbanyCanCode in 2016. AlbanyCanCode is an educational program that was designed to fill the skills gap between local employers
of software and IT professionals, and local individuals who have the aptitude to work in software but lack local options for training. The program was launched based on research and the feedback they received from local employers.
“How great would it be... to have that level of leadership, industry-driven workforce development, and having the industry at the table to say this is what we need right now and having the industry collaborate with our training partners or community colleges to support that vessel,” Schneider said.
To take the survey visit saratogapartnership.org.
