nalystsA Marketing Analyst sifts through all the data for actionable insight. They help define the trends that shape how we build products and present them to consumers. In fact, a marketing analyst is a quiet presence behind many of the products you see on the web every day.
What Does a Marketing Analyst Do?
Marketing Analysts are one part data geek and one part Strategist. They also instinctively know how to make data more palatable to non-data geeks to help facilitate decision-making. Analysts often create the strategies that define what is sold and how it’s sold. They help companies understand consumer buying patterns. Marketing Analysts work hand-in-hand with Researchers, Designers, Product and Marketing Managers, and others within the promotional functions to help increase awareness of specific products and services.
A marketing analyst helps companies:
- Make data-informed decisions
- Determine where data should be captured and analyzed
- Make changes to price points and marketing that increase sales
- Develop product optimization strategies
A Marketing Analyst may be responsible for designing consumer surveys or collating research data, or, perhaps, number crunching to determine consumer behavior. Many times, they are responsible for culling data and organizing it into reports. They do this by using various business analytics and visual design tools to present the information in engaging ways for corporate stakeholders.
With the growth and expansion of the internet, marketers have been collecting a variety of data on consumer trends for the past decade. Marketing Analysts are the professionals that know how to slice and dice this data into recommendations that will guide a wide variety of decision-making. They are responsible for forecasting trends, setting prices, and figuring out ways to collect even more data.
Marketing analysts instinctively know how to ask the right questions, creating queries that cull the right data into reporting structures that guide corporate strategy. These reports could be tables, charts, graphs, or written documents.
Marketing Analyst Skills Needed
The Marketing Analyst must be able to make sense of a large series of numbers. They should be comfortable with statistical analysis and numbers or large swathes of data, and be proficient in a variety of software analytics platforms and data visualization tools. They must be a great number cruncher with strong attention to detail and have the ability to analyze and suggest behavioral responses to consumer or other market trends.
Some of the other skills necessary for a marketing analyst include:
- A love of math
- Articulate and intelligent
- Instinctual and curious
- Able to interpret information
- Analytical and meticulous with good follow-through
- Strong communications skills
- A great and dogged researcher
- Terrific critical thinker
- Scientific and data-driven
- Not a risk taker, unless the data supports it
- Logical, rational, and methodical
- Big data and general computer nerd
- Moderately conversant in computer languages such as JavaScript or HTML 5
- Presentation skills
- An eye for graphic design and visual display of datasets
The Marketing Analyst will spend a great deal of their day in front of the computer looking at charts and graphs. They serve as the strong backbone of any marketing campaign, providing executives with the insight they need to make decisions. Their work may encompass competitor research, the factors influencing market trends, or analysis of what makes consumers tick.
The marketing analyst usually has a bachelor’s degree in marketing analysis, math, or statistics. They are skilled not only at understanding facts and figures but at helping companies determine the most profitable set of next steps for any product.
Suggested Software Proficiency
A Marketing Analyst must know data-related programs – at a minimum, Microsoft Excel, or SPSS, Visio, PowerPoint, Visual Studio, FreeMind, OneNote, Adobe Creative Cloud – and more.
Not only should they be expert in tools that take data and define it, they need to understand data visualization tools in order to present information to various stakeholders in ways they understand.
There are all kinds of visual tools on the market today – the field is rapidly expanding. Some of the young upstarts include:
- Plotly for making charts and presentations
- Tableau is great for maps and graphs
- DataHero for pulling cloud data and making dashboards or charts
- js – although this open source tool does require the data analyst to know HTML 5 computer language
- Raw is a free tool for vector-based data visualization
- InstantAtlas is another great tool for mapping and data crunching
- ly is good for infographics
While these are some of the newest tools on the market, many Analysts simply stick with the old fallbacks – Excel and PowerPoint.
Find Your Marketing Analyst Future Here
We have talented Marketing Analysts waiting for your call. Contact Artisan Talent to discuss how our creative employment team can help you find the perfect match! If you are a Marketing Analyst looking for full, part-time, or freelance work, you can view our creative employment agency’s list of available opportunities or submit your resume!
