Software development skills high in demand, latest report shows

Major brands are increasingly on the lookout for independent talent and agencies with software development skills, our latest briefing report has revealed. This month saw a 2% increase in the proportion of briefs we saw in this category compared to last month.

We’re an agency/client matchmaking platform, monitoring real-time briefs we receive from chief marketing officers (CMOs) and brand owners. This information gives us a unique perspective on what’s hot and what’s not that month - data which is then distilled into our monthly Marketers Most Wanted report.

April has seen an exciting rise up the table from Software Development, currently having secured its spot in second place, after a jump from third place last month.

This is undoubtedly driven by an increase in retained relationships in this category this month, alongside several website development projects.

“Currently at StudioSpace we are seeing more demand for website development than app development and it will be interesting to see if this trend continues,” noted our CEO Pete Sayburn.

“Websites are often the first point of call when it comes to customer interaction with a business, so it’s important to make sure that it’s up-to-date and functioning well.”

Software Development was second place on our list only to Social Media and Content, which this month stood at 19.4% of our briefing total - almost one fifth of the briefs that came into our platform.

This category has topped our chart for the third month running, and has been a consistent feature in our top three categories for the last year.

We are seeing huge demand from different brands as they look for campaign support, social strategy and sustained partnerships to elevate their brand’s presence on social media.

“Social media marketing is popular as ever, and this doesn’t look likely to change in the foreseeable future,” affirmed Sayburn.

“Social media marketing has a 100% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. In addition to that, over 60% of the world’s total population has at least one form of social media, making it easier than ever to reach billions of people at once. It’s no surprise that I think it’s absolutely necessary to invest time and money into this type of marketing.”

Perhaps the most surprising feature of our top ten list this month was a large drop in demand for UX/UI design skills, now representing 7.1% of the total, compared to 12.2% last month. This category has fallen into third place out of our top two positions for the first time since March 2023.

This is likely driven by some large digital transformation projects finishing or changing priorities for brands as they move past the design and build stage and into ‘business as usual’ mode.
In contrast to UX/UI design’s position drop, our SEO and PPC category has firmly retained its number four spot. Its share in our April data stands at 7%, a level similar to February 2024, but 3.1% lower than March.

“This category has fluctuated figure-wise every month since the beginning of the year, so it’s definitely keeping us on our toes,” said Sayburn. “We’re all very interested to see what’s on the horizon!”

Despite a 2.1% drop in proportion – from 8.2% to 6.1% - Creative and Production has held onto its fifth place position.

Many brands are beginning to think about their next campaigns, and so we’re expecting that this category may pick up again once brands are ready to externally brief these bigger projects.

Moving up into sixth place after a 1% increase in share is Proposition Design, which currently represents 6.1% of our total for this month. This category has been neck and neck with Brand Strategy for a number of months now, though the latter has now dropped into eighth place, despite its volume share remaining the same as in March.

Another exciting move this month has come from Copywriting.

We’ve seen this category go from strength to strength over the course of this year after re-entering the top ten in February, achieving eighth position in March and now overtaking Brand Strategy for seventh place, making up 6.1% of our total.

“We’re still seeing a strong demand for copywriting specialists to support campaigns and projects both big and small,” said Pete.

Other features of this month’s list included a re-entry from Research and Insight (4.1%), and a drop-out from PR and Communications.

We predicted this re-entry in last month’s report. With fresh budgets and strategic projects beginning in this new financial year, we expect this category to remain in demand as we move towards the summer season.

Overall, this month’s most popular briefing categories have seen exciting shifts. It’s likely that our top three categories will remain relatively unchanged over the next few months, but as priorities change with the seasons we expect to see further competition amongst our lower-placing categories.

“It’s been great to look at how diversely our brands have been investing over the last month. We’re excited to see how this list changes over the coming months!” concluded Pete.