Blending Marketing and Data.
There are so many avenues to consider when looking to a career in marketing. Through Blair Roebuck’s presentation we had the pleasure of learning about marketing science and the career of a marketing analyst. The main objective as a marketing analyst is to achieve a measurable ROI, this is done by obtaining and optimizing data with a business outlook. The key to data is understanding it and being able to optimize it. A marketing analyst will have the opportunity to take part in every aspect of marketing. Through strategy & consulting they can develop a thorough design and marketing plan. Their role is ultimately to take the data from sectors that are being examined and translate it into understandable results in order to create a sort of plan. Through data analysis, insights and strong reporting, the obtained data can be optimized for company success. Ultimately, this data is used to achieve an ROI.
Expectations of a Marketing Analyst
While a marketing analyst completes a variety of work in their day to day, there are 4 main areas which encompass what is expected of them. They work to collect the data and create systems for effective collection. Following this they are also required to consider hypothesis and questions they wish to answer and use the acquired data to find meaning. The strategy is then developed from the data analysis to work towards the business outcomes. The data analysis, hypotheses and strategies are then presented as insights to executives in a tangible and digestible form in order to be able to move forward with marketing efforts in an effective way.
This line of work requires you to work with every type of individual in the field whether its developers, UX/creative, project managers and account managers; a marketing analyst will have the opportunity to work alongside these individuals to discuss strategy and analysis for optimal results. It’s in this way that the job of a marketing analyst appeals to me. Being able to work with individuals with different specializations keeps the job interesting and allows me to grow as a marketer by understanding different outlooks. It is also fascinating to better understand people as a whole, and as a marketing analyst there are so many points of data to obtain and attempt to make sense of.
Personally, I’ve never considered this side of marketing. Acquiring data and developing insights from it for marketing objectives was not something I thought of as exciting. Blair’s presentation showed me that marketing analysts can work with everyone and that understanding data can actually be interesting. Knowing how intricate the data and learning how to make sense of it considering all the data points that can be collected is an interesting challenge and can really develop your ability to think differently. Ultimately, the creative part of the campaigns/content, which I personally prefer to work on, cannot happen without the insights from a data analyst. Otherwise everything you are putting effort into creating might not even have the desired outcome. Blair’s case studies further exemplified the challenge of obtaining and analyzing data for a business objective, but it was presented in such a way that it seemed as more of an exciting challenge rather than a problem.