Many marketers feel they lack certain skills and knowledge, with Marketing Week’s exclusive 2025 Career & Salary Survey consistently highlighting concerns about widening knowledge gaps across marketing teams.

According to the survey of more than 3,500 marketers, when it comes to tactical skills 56.9% identify a gap in performance marketing skills, with gaps also reported around social media skills (46.1%), ecommerce expertise (41.3%) and content and copywriting skills (40.6%).

Brands are attempting to plug skills gaps in many different ways. How should they assess what’s required and begin to get teams feeling more capable and confident?

In the latest edition of Marketing Week’s subscriber-only webinar series The Lowdown, editor-in-chief Russell Parsons was joined by BBC director of marketing Paul Davies  and Leor Franks, chief business development and marketing officer at law firm Kingsley Napley, to discuss how teams, individuals and leaders can bridge the skills gap.

Here are some of the key takeaways.

1. Determining priorities and the ‘Four Cs’

First and foremost, understanding what skills employees want to learn and improve on is essential.

“What surprised me is [the team] want to learn as much, or if not more, about behavioural skills as technical marketing skills and capabilities,” explained Davies.

This insight led the BBC to combine technical-based training, such as the Mini MBA, digital upskilling programmes or learning AI, with the opportunity to learn behavioural skills such as managing stakeholder relations, effective communication and presentation skills.

At Kingsley Napley, biannual appraisals help identify individual development needs. Employees receive feedback on performance, behaviour and stakeholder engagement, while senior leaders assess what’s working and what’s not.

From this, Franks takes a structured approach to training and development, which he calls the ‘Four Cs’ – content, courses, colleagues and comparators.

Employees stay informed through content such as webinars and industry journals, while the company invests in professional bodies to allow access to “relevant and timely courses”. Meanwhile, regular peer-learning sessions encourage knowledge-sharing and employees are encouraged to benchmark their skills by networking with industry peers.

2. Breaking down silos and encouraging connection

In today’s hybrid workplace, networking and collaboration often take a backseat, which is why both Davies and Franks encourage breaking down silos within the organisation to foster stronger connections.

“It struck me a few years ago that everyone sat in their own division, doing their own thing and you really didn’t talk that much to one another,” explained Davies.

To change this, the BBC created an internal marketing community where employees can share job opportunities, showcase campaigns and connect. The organisation introduced cross-division mentoring and job rotation programmes, encouraging employees to explore different departments.

The BBC also brings teams together in person each quarter for case studies, guest speaker sessions and networking events.

“The biggest benefit that I see people getting from those sessions is just networking. It’s just spending time with colleagues and you realise that you’ve got the same problem, but it’s just a different colour,” he said.

Franks takes a structured approach to learning, ensuring managers create clear development plans, individuals take ownership of their growth and external coaches provide additional support.

“The people who succeed are the people who invest their own time above and beyond what they’re instructed to do, what they’re directed to do by their boss,” he added.

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Davies agreed, noting there’s “responsibility on both sides”.

“It’s a leader’s responsibility to set the right culture, but also to create the right programme of training for their team and then for team members, it is their individual responsibility to lean in and get involved with it,” he said.

However, the lingering effects of Covid lockdowns have made networking harder, especially for younger professionals who have become overly reliant on technology.

Franks believes informal conversations – like “water cooler banter” – play a crucial role in staying updated on trends, developments and workplace dynamics.

“That’s a skill that’s been lost over the last few years, when we all went into lockdown,” he said. “So we do encourage people to just hang out with others.”

3. Fostering new skills

Both Davies and Franks recognised the benefits of AI and how it can accelerate skills, create efficiencies and find answers to questions. However, Franks warned that over reliance could come at a cost, particularly for early-career professionals.

“My fear is if the hard graft is being done instantaneously by some clever AI bot somewhere. How are people earlier in their career going to learn the skills and the knowledge to succeed later?” he asked.

Beyond AI, knowledge gaps persist in key areas. Franks points to hybrid working as a factor that has widened the divide between marketers and technical teams, making it harder to understand industry tools and technical language. Davies, meanwhile, highlighted social media and digital skills as a “perennial challenge” at the BBC.

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“There’s a huge amount to it and those platforms are changing daily, not just the algorithm, but the rise of TikTok, change from Twitter to X. All these things in the social sphere. It’s hard to keep up with,” he added.

To support career growth, the BBC also offers development programmes, such as CV reviews and mock interviews, which has “counterintuitively” reduced churn rate as employees feel valued.

“What’s behind it is a desire to create an environment where individuals feel their career is being nurtured and that not only they’ve been developed, but we’re helping them to progress,” Davies said.

The next episode of The Lowdown will take place on Wednesday 23 April at 11am and will focus on making the case for brand investment. Marketing Week will continue reporting on exclusive data from the 2025 Career & Salary Survey over the coming weeks, including reporting further on in-demand skills and the changing face of recruitment.