The ten must-have skills of a digital marketing analyst

Students often ask us what skills they need to become a marketing professional. Many skills and attributes make a good marketer, which varies depending on the area of marketing, which is why marketing is such a great career. It offers job prospects for everyone and opportunities to be a generalist or specialise in a particular field. A digital marketing analyst is one of those specialist areas that is gaining a lot of attention today. You may have heard and read lots about how data and analytics play a huge role in the marketing industry, and if you’re sitting there wondering whether this career path is for you, then read this blog. 

The ten must-have skills of a digital marketing analyst

To become a digital marketing analyst, there is a myriad of skills that will help you to be successful in the role that is split into softer skills that, to be honest, all marketers should possess and more technical skills that will allow you to understand and perform in the role – which can be taught! So I’ve broken them up in this order. 

Soft skills

1. Communication – Communicating with different stakeholders in a business of varying senioritis is vital. Presenting reports and findings and distilling this into a meaningful narrative will be a requirement of any data role, so finding confidence in this skill will give you a great foundation. 

 

2. Organisational skills – Marketing is known to be chaotic and challenging at times, and individuals and teams run multiple campaigns simultaneously. So organising your time and switching between tasks is essential – plenty of time management and planning tools are available to help. 

 

3. Detail-oriented – Data and facts form critical business decisions, so you must pull and share accurate information – teams will be relying on this. Double checking and ensuring the maths is correct should help with this. 

 

4. Strategic – Being strategic means being able to think big picture and being in detail, which helps you understand the broader business goals and how your work contributes to those goals. Assessing where optimisations can be made in the marketing delivery and surfacing these recommendations will be core to any analyst role.  

 

5. Eager to learn – Marketing is evolving every day, not to mention technology, so having an eagerness to learn is going to help keep you motivated and your skills up to date – there is no standing still here, which makes data such an exciting career option, you’ll always be learning! 

 

6. Curious – I always talk about curiosity as being one of the critical traits of a successful marketer. It is an industry born on asking questions and being inquisitive about why we do what we do and what is working. This trait, therefore, applies to any data analyst role – having the mind to question data sets as they come in and explore why something may have happened will add additional value to the teams you are working with. 

Technical skills

1. Good base knowledge of marketing – This one might be a bit more unexpected; however, if you are going to become a data analyst in marketing, you must have some background knowledge of how marketing works and where data fits in. It’s not all about the numbers but how data and insights facilitate the marketing process and where your work will be helping teams to make critical decisions. Understanding this will better allow you to understand your role and the impact you can make. 

 

2. Good with numbers – Being data-driven and good with numbers is a must for this role – you’ll likely spend a lot of time looking at numbers in spreadsheets or programs designed to analyse and extract results. Getting comfortable with numbers but also being able to tell stories through data will set you apart from your peers. 

 

3. Analytical thinking – This skill is one that, in reality, spans all marketing roles; however it is significant for data analysts – you will likely spend a lot of your time evaluating marketing campaign performance and drawing conclusions. Spotting trends and seeking out nuances in the data will lead to more significant results. This should help you to bring to life your findings and explain how you got to your results. 

 

4. MarTech knowledge – Ok, so you have the soft skills in the bank, and you understand data and performance metrics; however, now you need to apply this. A solid understanding of marketing technology and how this works – given there are thousands of different platforms – is the final piece to the puzzle. Often brands will ask you which platforms you are familiar with working with as each one is different, so having at least some knowledge of what’s out there will be critical. 

 

There you have our ten must-have skills to become a digital marketing analyst. This growing industry requires specialist, sought-after skills, putting you at a competitive advantage in the job market. Sound like you? Then check out our Data Analyst Apprenticeship Course. 

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