UK freelancers should refocus on digital marketing skills to maximise earning potential

New data shows surge in demand for digital marketing freelancers

London – 4 November 2013 – UK freelancers have established their position at the centre of global creative content production, but risk falling behind the rest of world as demand for digital marketing skills skyrockets, according to new data from Elance, the leading online work platform.  For more information, visit www.elance.com.

The new research shows that UK employers seeking digital marketing freelancers grew by an impressive 79% between 2012 and 2013. Yet, digital marketing which includes things like search engine marketing, email marketing and viral marketing does not even feature in the top 20 list of job categories being fulfilled by UK freelancers, with the majority of these opportunities being completed by overseas freelancers.

It’s time for the sharing economy to become the sharing society. @SaraHorowitz @FastCompany http://t.co/Wh66zd2v1q pic.twitter.com/01AW6Z66uy

— Elance (@Elance) November 7, 2013

Instead, UK freelancers remain focused on jobs that typically fall within the creative content industry. In both 2012 and 2013, content writing was the top job awarded to UK freelancers followed by article writing and graphic design.

The UK digital economy is booming, with a recent report¹ suggesting there are more than 270,000 digital companies in Britain. With digital companies on average growing faster than other companies, demand for digital marketing skills looks set to continue to gather pace.

The implication, according to Kjetil Olsen, Elance’s Vice President of Europe, is that UK freelancers risk losing out on a rapidly growing market if they don’t refocus their skill sets;  “UK freelancers have built a very strong reputation when it comes to content production, but there’s also a huge opportunity in digital marketing that we’d encourage them to explore”.

Olsen continues; “Our data shows that when the talent isn’t available locally, UK companies are tapping into a global pool of online freelancers to source the required skills. Prior to online work, this was not an option for businesses that were faced with the option of relocating, hiring staff without the right skills or even worse, fail to get the work done. We see this trend continuing as businesses seek talent from across borders to gain a competitive edge.”

About Elance

Elance is where people work differently. A pioneer in today’s freelance revolution, Elance is the world’s leading and most trusted marketplace for online work.

Today over 800,000 businesses and nearly three million freelancers use Elance in 170+ countries. Innovative global enterprises, small businesses and startups tap into the Elance talent pool, building teams from software engineers, application developers and web and graphic designers to copywriters, market researchers, data scientists, social media marketers, customer service agents and other business professionals. More than one million freelance jobs are posted on Elance annually.

Headquartered in Mountain View, California, Elance is a privately-held company.

For more information, visit www.elance.com.